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Some of the textile arts students (myself included) are going to be participating in the Sheep to Shawl event next week at the Surrey Museum. Basically what happens is you have a team that cards the fleece, then spins it, and then weaves it into a shawl in just four hours. Oh my!

There are some other rules, like you can only have so many people on the floor at one time but you can switch people out, and the fleece can be pre-washed and dyed, but otherwise everything else is done on the spot.

I guess I gave myself a bit of a practice run, then, with a scarf I completed yesterday. (It definitely took more than 4 hours in total…)

Our weaving instructor purchased some Romney fleeces from a breeder in Maple Ridge, and then told us we could have some. I took a bunch of grey fleece, washed it and then dyed it with pure fuchsia acid dye.

Then I spent several hours carding it with a drum carder. I can’t even tell you how sore I was when I went home that day. I think we went to a friend’s place afterwards and I could not move my arms. It was sad.

I spent a few hours spinning it up on an Ashford Kiwi wheel at school. Some I plied together into 2 ply yarn, and the rest I left as is.

I warped up on Wednesday morning and wove for a few hours, and then I finished it up yesterday morning.

Then I washed it with Eucalan, but I wanted it to really soften up so then I put hair conditioner on it and rinsed it. A ton of lanolin came out and it was kinda yucky but it is better now.

It is still a bit scratchy, and I don’t know that I would try to sell it because really so much work was involved that I would cry if I had to sell it for like $65 or something, and I don’t know that I could justify charging more because I don’t consider it next-to-skin soft. I am thinking about lining the middle with some fleece material so that it wouldn’t scratch when wrapped around a neck.

But overall I am pretty pleased with how it looks, and I’m happy to know that I can use handspun in the warp as long as it is spun well. I think it would be delightful if it was made of merino. Yes indeed. Unfortunately for me I have a stash of merino in my shelf but Tremaine accidentally walled it in when he installed the desk part, so I have to pull the whole thing out to get to my roving. Sad day.