pretty day

[redwingkali]

I swear it has been gloomy grey for nearly 2 weeks here. The crusty brown gross snow has been rather unattractive.

But this morning i wake to find its snowing. Fast furious tiny flakes. Rather loverly!  Pretty much all the gross snow is now covered. The snow is muffling the daily traffic sounds of the garbage man, school bus and the recycling truck

Comments

[selkie_b]

You are very lucky - they say the TCs are probably going to get skunked again. *sigh* only a blowing 1/2 inch if we are lucky

[redwingkali]

Can i come? i promise i wont take up much room in the hot tub.

[selkie_b]

with the size of these cabins... You'd probably fit! ;)

Greetings from Wisconsin

[anonymous]

I saw you had posted something about working with buffalo down. Did you ever have any luck with it? I just got three sacks full of the stuff, and from the sample that I washed, I was unable to spin it, or card it, or anything. Please let me know how it went for you.

Thanks,

A spinner in Wisconsin

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

[redwingkali]

What I spun i carder on both hand carders and a drum carder.. it turned out very well. What i felted i had to mix with wool and i ended up having to needle felt. First time i washed the down it was a mess. Glad i only washed a tiny bit. I have sinced learned it is best washed after it is spun or felted. It is just too downy. I have treated it like dog or cat fuzz.

I am in Red Wing. If your not to far away we can always try a wee little buffalo work shop day.

Spinning bison

[anonymous]

Thank you for your speedy reply! I guess the problem I had was that the "down" is just that: downy. Instead of standard hand cards that are designed for wool, should I try a card designed for a different type of fiber, or perhaps even dog brushes? It seems like the fibers aren't gripping each other enough to hold together. Pieces of the fluff just break off into little puffs instead of holding together like a woolen rolag.

Do you have any leads for a place that would take my bags of raw "sheddings" and process them into roving for me? This is such a time consuming project that it's not as fun as wool.

Thanks again,

Steph

Re: Spinning bison

[redwingkali]

Well im afraid i dont really know anyone who will handle it on a commercial level. It would be rather expensive to have it done i think as well. Can you get your hands a drum carder. That worked the best for me.

Do you have buffalo? It's hard to come by. I got mine from the Zoo where i was doing demos. I spun it up for them. What i could over the weekend. The rest i took home to card up properly and to finish it up for this coming year when i demo for them again.