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3 (More) Ways to Give Back With Handmade Crafts

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Otto

Although crafters can use their gifts to help those in need year-round, the holiday season is an excellent time to search out more ways to make a positive difference in the world by donating handmade items where they are needed most.

Last year, we blogged about an organization called Growing Peace in Afghanistan, where we sent one of our drum carders to be used by the women who process fiber for finished goods which support their families. In that post, we also shared some suggestions for charitable giving, and would like to share a few more with you in today’s post!

Your Community: While there are many national and international organizations doing good work, there’s plenty that can be done in your immediate community – you just need to know where to look. A good start is to call local hospitals, shelters, nursing homes and even hospices to ask them about their current needs. They may have restrictions on types of fibers or care requirements for donated goods, so you’ll want to make sure that whatever you are donating meets those conditions, otherwise your donation will be in vain!
I’m Not Lost: If you have a lot of hats, scarves and mittens and happen to live in a cold climate, this might be a good option for you. As mentioned here on the Mason-Dixon blog, you simply leave your handmade item in a public place (i.e. parks, outdoor shopping centers, etc.) with a small note that says it’s not lost! Of course, there is no guarantee that a person in need will find it, but it’s better than having it sit in a drawer or storage bin in your house, unworn.
Hat Not Hate: In 2019, the #HatNotHate campaign collected 23,117 blue hats to promote their anti-bullying message in schools throughout the US. While these donations do not necessarily target those in need of warmth, the positive message of spreading kindness is certainly worth supporting, don’t you think? In 2020, their goal is to collect 100,000 hats – click here to find out how you can contribute.

Do you have a charity where you donate your finished handmade projects? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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Posted in Charity | Tagged #hatnothate, charity, crafting, knitting | Leave a comment

Easy DIY Felted Ornaments from Felted Batts

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Otto

Last month, we showed you how to wet felt a batt to make felted coasters. This month, we’ll show you an easy DIY project for making festive holiday ornaments!

Supplies:

1 felted batt (click here for a step-by-step photo tutorial)

Cookie cutters

Heavy card stock

Fine-tip pen

Scissors (we recommend two pairs, 1 for cutting paper and 1 for cutting fiber)

Ribbon, string, twine or yarn in approx 10-12” lengths (for hanging ornaments)

Straight pins

Darning needle

Optional embellishments: embroidery thread, small beads or sequins (will require needle & thread to attach); additional wool (will require a needle felting tool)

To Make Ornaments:

First, take the cookie cutters and trace the outline of each shape on the cardstock. Cut out to create a template that you’ll use on your batts.

Pin the template to your batt and cut around shape as shown below to remove from batt (this will make it easier to cut more precise lines in a moment!).

Cut remaining fiber into the shape of your template like so:

Use the darning needle to attach your ribbon, string twine or yarn at the top of each ornament for hanging anywhere you like.

Your ornaments can be used as-is, or you can embellish them with embroidery thread, small beads, sequins, or needle felted details!

Not only do they look great on a tree…..

….You can also attach them to gifts for added decoration.

For more fun DIY ideas for celebrating the season, check out our Pinterest board here.

Happy holidays from all of us at Strauch!

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Posted in Felting, Tutorial | Tagged batts, How to, inspiration, wet felting | Leave a comment

How to Wet Felt Coasters from Carded Batts

Posted on November 19, 2019 by Otto

Wet felting is a technique that uses friction to blend together wool fibers into a solid sheet. Today, we’ll show you how to felt batts straight from your drum carder into a thick sheet of felt that you can cut into smaller squares to be used as mug rugs or coasters. This is a fun, fast DIY idea for holiday gifts, or any time of year, and it’s oh-so-easy to do.

Supplies:

2-3 finished batts (we used a striped batt and a heathered batt from this previous blog tutorial, the number of batts you use will determine the resulting thickness)

Mesh screen, cut into two equal pieces, approx. 20”x30”

Bubble wrap – two equal pieces to match mesh screens

2-3 plastic shopping bags

Old towel

Container filled with hot soapy water (you can use dish soap or a wool wash like Eucalan)

Large, waterproof work area (kitchen table or counter, or card table works well)

Rubber bands

Rotary cutter

Cutting mat with grid

Acrylic ruler

Instructions:

Start out by preparing the batt for the wet felting process. You’ll do this by creating a series of layers, starting with the first mesh screen. Place 1 layer of bubble wrap on top, then lay the first batt in the middle of the screen & bubble wrap.Rip second batt in half and lay both pieces on top of first batt to cover from top to bottom like so:

Place second mesh screen on top of batts. Your layers should look like this:

Begin dousing everything with hot soapy water and work through with your hands by rubbing in small, circular motions. Once fibers are soaked through, rub more vigorously and add more hot, soapy water if needed.

Tightly roll up your shopping bags and secure with rubber bands like so:

Starting at one end, begin rolling the screens and fiber around the shopping bags and secure with rubber bands.

Place a fresh towel on your work area, and then begin rolling everything back and forth approximately 50 times, working your rolled up fiber across the length of your forearms, from elbow to wrist and applying pressure as you work. Friction aids the felting process, so make sure you are very thorough!

Remove rubber bands and unroll everything. Remove top screen layer and flip everything over and roll up again as before, then roll 50 more times to ensure even felting on both sides. Repeat this process until the batts are felted.

Unroll, remove felted batt from screens and bubble wrap, and rinse under cold water in the sink until the soap is removed (if you used a no-rinse detergent like Eucalan, you can skip this step!). Reshape if necessary and lay flat to dry.

Once your batts are dry, use your rotary cutter, acrylic ruler, and cutting mat to cut into 4-inch square coasters. If you don’t have these supplies handy (or prefer a different shape), you can take a piece of heavy cardstock and draw your desired shape on it, then cut it out with scissors to use as a template when cutting your felted batt into pieces.

Don’t be afraid to get creative! You can embellish your coasters with embroidery or needle felted accents, and you can even stitch two together to create a thicker quilt-style coaster. The possibilities are endless!

We’d love to see what you’re carding, spinning and felting over on Instagram – be sure to share your photos using the #strauchfiber hashtag!
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Posted in Carding, Felting, Tutorial | Tagged diy, holiday gifts, tutorial, wet felting | Leave a comment

Staple Length: A Quick Guide for Fiber Artists

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Otto

The term staple length is frequently used when talking about fleece and fiber, but have you ever wondered why staple length matters and how it affects your choice of tools and techniques in a given project? In this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about staple length, but were afraid to ask!

What is Staple Length?

Staple length refers to the average length of the average length of a single length of fiber in its natural, unprocessed form (as it comes off the animal or plant). Natural fibers have a wide range of possible lengths depending on where they come from, whereas a continuous synthetic fiber or natural silk thread would be referred to as a filament. Fibers are generally classified as:

Short – up to 4 inches* (ex: cashmere, yak down, merino wool and some cottons)

Medium – between 3-5 inches (ex: medium wools such as Dorset, Suffolk or Cheviot)

Long – 5 inches or longer (ex: Blue Faced Leicester, Lincoln, Romney, Teeswater)

You can test the staple length of any fiber by hand by simply removing a portion of it and measuring it with a ruler; this was how staple length was determined before machinery was invented for faster and more precise measurement!

*yes, there is some overlap between short and medium staple length!

Why Staple Length Matters

Knowing the average staple length of your fleece and fiber will help you choose the right tools and techniques to get it to do what you want. Generally speaking, shorter fibers are finer and require more twist to hold together making them more challenging to work with. You can alleviate these challenges by adjusting your fiber preparation (discussed below) or blending your shorter-stapled fibers together with longer stapled components. Longer fibers can be drafted easily and generally hold together with slightly less twist, so a beginner would probably want to get their feet wet with some longwools before diving into shorter-stapled fibers such as cashmere or merino wool.

Staple Length & Processing Fibers

When it comes to processing fibers, your goal is to preserve the natural staple length as much as possible. Never cut into your fiber with scissors or a blade; if you need to separate fibers, pull from either end gently until a piece of the fiber comes away naturally.

The good news is that our drum carders are designed to be universal machines that can process the shortest, finest fibers up to the longest of longwools without damaging fibers (you can learn more about choosing & using the right drum carder for you in our free PDF guide, Drum Carding 101).

Staple Length & Handspinning

You will want to keep your hands positioned approximately a staple-length apart as you draft. For short-stapled fibers, this can be a real challenge, and that’s where fiber preparation can come into play: some folks like to turn their short-stapled fibers into punis or rolags, which allow for easier spinning using a long draw method. We have a quick tutorial on making rolags on a Strauch drum carder, found here.

Another option is to spin from the fold, a technique in which you break off a section of your combed top, fold it over your finger, and then begin drafting out fiber from the center, as shown below.

Handspinning Resources & Tutorials

Once you understand the concept of staple length, you can dig into more specific handspinning techniques. Here are some resources to bookmark:

We’d love to see what you’re carding and spinning over on Instagram – be sure to share your photos using the #strauchfiber hashtag!

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Posted in Carding, Fiber, Handspinning, Resources, Tutorial | Tagged Fiber, fiber processing, handspinning, tutorial | Leave a comment

Drum Carding 101: How To Re-Card a Batt for Better Blending

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Otto

Have you ever carded a batt and wished that the colors were blended just a little bit more to create a more subtle look? Although Strauch carders are designed to perfectly prepare your fibers for handspinning the first time through (no need to card multiple times!), there are times when you’ll want to re-process a batt for purely aesthetic reasons. In this post, we’ll show you how to re-card any batt with ease, and show you how the same batt looks the first, second and third time through a Strauch drum carder.

New to drum carding? Click here to get our free e-book, Drum Carding 101!

How Do You Know When to Re-Card a Batt?

Some batts will blend better than others, and ultimately this comes down to a matter of preference. Make sure that you have chosen colors that will not become muddy the more they blend together – click here for more tips on successfully choosing colors for your batt project.

The style of batt you are making will also affect whether or not it’s a good option for re-carding; a striped batt is more challenging to re-card, while layered and heathered batts are well suited for this technique. We’ll be using two of the batts created in our previous blog post to demonstrate this technique.

How to Prepare Your Batt for Carding

You will need to do some prep work before sending your batt through the carder again. Start by dividing your batt into smaller strips like so:

Draft out each strip so that you won’t be sending too much fiber through the drum carder during your second pass; make sure to spread the width of the strip out to cover the full width of your drum as well.

If you are working with a striped batt, you will first need to carefully divide each color in your batt as shown above, but then you will need to work with shorter stripes of each color and only draft lengthwise (as shown below) so that you can send all of your colors through the carder at the same time.

Time to Card!

Just as when you card your batt the first time, the name of the game is to turn the drum slowly as you feed each section of fiber back through your carder. If you are making a striped batt, make sure to feed your fiber through in the same order as before so that you can preserve the color placement.

Here’s the layered batt prior to re-carding….

After processing through the drum carder a second time….

And a third time!

Wondering what happens when you card a striped batt a second time? This creates a subtle, slightly more blended or “faded” effect, rather than having well-defined stripes in your batt:

We’d love to see what you’re carding and spinning over on Instagram – be sure to share your photos using the #strauchfiber hashtag!

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Posted in Carding | Leave a comment

3 Ways to Card a PSB (Pumpkin Spice Batt)

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Otto

What’s your favorite thing about fall? Whether it’s fiber festivals, trick or treating, or pumpkin spice everything, autumn is upon us! This month, we have the perfect batt project to help you celebrate: introducing the PSB, also known as the Pumpkin Spice Batt!

To card up a cornucopia of PSB’s, you’ll need a Strauch Drum Carder (we used a Strauch Petite), and 1/4 oz each of 4-5 fiber colors multiplied by the number of batts you want to make. In our sample palette shown below, we use natural/white, light tan, brick, burnt orange and cocoa brown fibers:

Begin by prepping your fiber into long strips, drafting it out a bit so that it is easier to pass through the carder. Then, decide what kind of batt you want to make!

From L-R: Striped, Layered and Heathered Pumpkin Spice Batts

Option 1: Layered

Feed your fibers into your carder, one color at a time, starting from light to dark (or vice versa). This creates a layered effect that allows you to spin a yarn that will have a bit of each color in it.

Click here for an in-depth tutorial on making layered batts!

Option 2: Striped

A maximum of 4 colors works best for this option if you are using a Petite; for drum carders that have a wider drum, you can use between 5-6 colors to create your stripes. Starting from left to right, place the fibers on the infeed tray in the order you wish your stripes to appear (as shown above).

Click here for an in-depth tutorial on making striped batts!

Option 3: Blended

Also known as a heathered batt, this option will mix all of your colors together for a more muted effect. You will need to feed your selected colors through your drum carder in equal amounts to achieve a truly homogenous mix – but don’t worry, if your batt isn’t as blended as you like, you can always send it through your carder another time!

Click here and here for in-depth tutorials on making heathered batts!

We’d love to see what you’re carding and spinning over on Instagram – be sure to share your photos using the #strauchfiber hashtag!

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Posted in Carding | Leave a comment

Warm, Warmer, Warmest: 4 Non-Sheep Fibers to Try This Fall

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Otto

Don’t get us wrong – we love wool and learning about the many breeds of sheep that grow beautiful fleece for us to enjoy. But when it comes to staying warm during the chilly months ahead, there are several non-sheep fibers that surpass the warmth and thermal regulating properties of even our most favorite wools.

Some of these fibers are rarer, more costly, or perhaps even challenging to work with than wool fibers you might be accustomed to, but don’t worry – you can always blend them with your favorite wool on a Strauch Drum Carder (we recommend the Finest) to create your own unique combination.

Here are our our top 4 non-sheep fibers to try this fall, in order of warm, warmer and warmest!

Mohair

Forget about those hairy sweaters from the ’80’s – today’s mohair is incredibly soft with a lustrous sheen! There are 8 types of wild goat species, but just one domestic species that produces the fibers we love to work with – the term Mohair is an Arabic word meaning “choice” or “select” and refers to the downy underfiber that all goats produce, rather than a specific breed of goat.

These animals are dual coated, meaning that they produce two types of fibers: the long, coarse guard hairs that protect the downy undercoat that is prized for its softness and insulating qualities. While all mohair fiber is sleek and shiny with excellent drape, there is a wide range in fiber quality that is best grouped into three major categories:

Kid mohair: The finest, softest fibers grown by very young goats and typically only assigned to the first shearing. These fibers are comparable to Merino.
Yearling mohair: The midrange in terms of softness, these fibers are from a goat that is 1 year old, as the name would imply. While these fibers are still quite fine, they are more similar to a mid-range wool.
Adult mohair: These fibers are as the heaviest and most coarse, but are also the most durable of the three fiber types.

Angora

Fibers from angora rabbits are not simply soft and fluffy, they are also lightweight, yet incredibly warm. If you crave the softness of cashmere for a fraction of the price, give angora a try!

There are 3 general classes of rabbits: French, English and German. All rabbits grow three types of fibers: the strong, straight erector hair, the awn, which is a slightly finer protector hair, and the down, which is the soft crimped down found closest to the skin.

While we strongly recommend washing just about any other fiber type before carding or spinning, it is actually better NOT to wash angora fibers before working with them to avoid creating unmanageable clumps of fiber, as angora fibers felt quite easily. We also recommend dyeing angora fiber after you have finished spinning or felting with it, rather that prior to, for the same reasons.

Yak

These hardy animals are native to the Himalayan region, where they withstand harsh weather conditions. As a result, their fiber is extremely warm and insulating – in fact, yak down is warmer than cashmere!

Yaks grow three types of fibers: a long outer coat of guard hair, a midrange coat, and a soft downy undercoat. All of these fibers are very strong – the outermost coat is known for making exceptionally sturdy rope, for example. While the midrange coat has many textile uses, it is the soft downy undercoat that fiber artists are most interested in. These fibers are typically quite short, with a staple length ranging between 1.25-2.25 inches, making it a challenge to work with: you’ll need enough twist to hold the yarn together, but not so much that the yarn becomes stiff or overspun.

Qiviut

This ultra-luxurious fiber is the cadillac of the luxury fiber world. The term qiviut refers to the soft downy undercoat grown by Musk Oxen, animals which are native to arctic regions such as Alaska, Greenland and parts of Canada. These fibers are rare and costly, but the good news is that they blend extremely well with other fibers such as cashmere, merino wool, silk, or angora.

The very best qiviut fiber rivals that of the finest cashmere – it’s extremely soft, fine, and lightweight, with incredible insulating qualities. On top of that, it’s also quite sturdy, not to mention a great option for those with wool sensitivities.

We hope you found this post helpful – make sure to pin it for future reference!

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Mike’s Fiber Journal: Setting Up The New Home of Strauch Fiber

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Otto

We’re getting settled in our new home in beautiful Hickory, NC!

Since our last update, the upper assembly area and lower shop have really started to come together:

We’ve also hired our first employee! This is Taylor,who will manage our office and shipping operations.

Of course, we couldn’t do it without the help of some friends. Otto and Joanne have spent several weekends here in Hickory helping us get up to speed. Joanne’s keen eye and attention to detail is much appreciated.

We’re also grateful for Otto’s guidance and moral support during this process.

Carol (in the purple top, who worked in the Virginia workshop, has been on-site to help with organizing the ground level shop, making sure that each machine is placed properly for efficiency.

As we get closer and closer to being 100% operational, we’ve hit some milestones such as receiving our first supply delivery in Hickory: 1800 lbs of ash lumber for carders!

lumber

And we’ve got plenty of boxes on hand to ship orders:

It’s safe to say that we’re off to a great start in our new home – we’ve even been getting some interest from the community! A few weeks ago while I was in the lower shop, a North Carolinian who lives 30 minutes away (and is an alpaca breeder!) stopped by to take a look at our drum carders. Luckily, Joanne was handy and gave a live demo to our first-ever in-house customer who is now the proud new owner of a Finest!

We’ll share more of our progress on Facebook or Instagram, or click here to sign up for the Strauch monthly newsletter!

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Guide to Fiber Producing Animals

Posted on August 15, 2019 by Otto

As a fiber artist, there is no shortage of exciting fibers to explore! Especially if you are working with a raw fleece, these fibers benefit from proper preparation, and our drum carders can process virtually any fiber into beautiful batts. Even your most prized fibers can be processed without fear of damage: because the drums don’t touch, there is no risk of fibers getting stuck or jammed during the carding process.

We’ll be sharing more tips and resources covering all aspects of fleece and fiber on future blog posts; today, we kick things off with an exploration of the five broad categories of fiber-producing animals.

sheep in a field

SHEEP

Wool fibers are known for their resilience and naturally temperature-regulating properties, plus they are naturally flame retardant. There are thousands of sheep breeds for fiber artists to explore, each with their own unique characteristics. When describing a particular breed of sheep or even a single fleece, there is a special vocabulary to describe every aspect, from fineness to luster to crimp….and beyond!

In a future blog post, we’ll delve deeper into this vocabulary and also talk about some of the many interesting breeds available to today’s fiber artists. In the meantime, there are plenty of great resources where you can learn more! We recommend Deb Robson’s Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook and The Spinner’s Book of Fleece by Beth Smith to start your breed-specific wool journey, visiting a nearby fiber festival to meet the farmers who raise fiber producing animals, or searching out breeders’ associations for more information on specific types of animals and fiber.

alpacas in the mountains

CAMELIDS

The camelid family includes alpaca, llama, guanaco, vicuna, Bactrian camel and dromedary camel. Guanaco, vicuna and Bactrian camels are found in the wild, where they live in groups. Alpacas and llamas have been domesticated and are perhaps the most well-known fiber-producing animals within this group.

The fibers these animals produce is technically classified as hair, but the softer fibers are often referred to as wool – and some of this fiber is quite fine! Some fleece have very coarse, stiff guard hairs that can be used to make rope or rugs, but need to be removed before making into yarn.

goat eating grass

GOAT

There are 8 types of wild goat species, but just one domestic species that produces the fibers we love to work with. Mohair and Cashmere refer to the downy underfiber that all goats produce, rather than a specific breed of goat. These animals are dual coated, meaning that they produce two types of fibers: the long, coarse guard hairs that protect the downy undercoat that is prized for its softness and insulating qualities. New cross-breeds of goats such as cashgora and pygora have been created to produce cashmere-like fibers with longer, more lustrous fibers, but it should be noted that the quality can vary widely.

EXOTICS

Any animal that grows hair or fur can have these fibers harvested for use. Today, we’ll cover some of the most popular exotic fibers among fiber artists:

bison in a field

Bison: Once on the brink of extinction, nearly all bison are raised on ranches, although you can’t exactly call them domesticated (read: they are not fans of being shorn). These animals grow at least five types of fiber which is shed every spring. The two outermost coats consist of coarse hair; the next two coats contain shorter guard hairs, and the final coat consists of a fine, soft down, which of course is of the most interest to fiber artists!
Musk Ox: These animals grow several types of fiber, with the most prized being the soft downy undercoat referred to as qiviut. This fiber is rare (and usually costly), and it is extremely soft, fine, and lightweight, with incredible insulating qualities. On top of that, it’s also quite sturdy, not to mention a great option for those with wool sensitivities. These fibers blend well with other fibers (we recommend very fine fibers such as cashmere, merino wool, silk, or angora).
Angora rabbit: This luxury fiber is cashmere soft, but much more affordable. There are 3 general classes of rabbits: French, English and German. All rabbits grow three types of fibers: the strong, straight erector hair, the awn, which is a slightly finer protector hair, and the down, which is the soft crimped down found closest to the skin.
Yak: These hardy animals are native to the Himalayan region, where they withstand harsh weather conditions. As a result, their fiber is extremely warm and insulating, consisting of a long outer coat, a midrange coat, and a soft downy undercoat. All of these fibers are very strong – the outermost coat is known for making exceptionally sturdy rope, for example. While the midrange coat has many textile uses, it is the soft downy undercoat that fiber artists are most interested in: these fibers are extremely fine and cashmere-soft (some are even as soft as qiviut!).
Other exotics: Any animal that grows hair or fur can be used by fiber artists, including wolf, dog, cat, horse, and other fur/pelt animals such as mink, fox, etc. Obviously, there will be a huge range in quality among these fibers, and most of these fibers have not found their way into commercial yarn production just yet. If this is your first time working with any of these fibers, we recommend blending them into a familiar fiber (such as a sturdy wool) to make the spinning process a bit easier for you.

We hope you found this post helpful – make sure to pin it for future reference!

Infographic about fiber producing animals

Posted in Fiber | Tagged Fiber, fleece, resources | Leave a comment

6 Ways to Prep for the Tour de Fleece

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Otto

Each July, spinners around the globe take part in the Tour de Fleece, a spin-along that challenges participants to spin every day that the athletes in the Tour de France ride. This is a fun way to practice your spinning skills and use up stash. Has your spinning wheel has been gathering dust? This is your chance to get in the habit of spinning a little bit every day to get back in the swing of things! For those who already spin everyday, why not challenge yourself to try new techniques, fibers, and stretch your limits? All spinners are welcome, and you can join a team or spin solo – anything goes as long as you’re having fun with fiber!

This year, the Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday, July 6 and runs until Sunday July 28th, 2019, with scheduled rest days on Tuesday, July 16th and Monday, July 22. Challenge days are on Thursday, July 18 (Stage 12) and Friday, July 26th (Stage 19).

IMG-2464sm

Here are some tips to help you prepare for this year’s event:

Choose your team. There are 7 “official” teams to join here in the Tour de Fleece Ravelry group, and you don’t have to pick just one! There are even more “unofficial” that you can join that are hosted in other Ravelry groups – just search forum threads for “Tour de Fleece” to find them!
Set goals. The purpose of this event is to challenge yourself and set goals. Spinning 10 minutes every day that the tour rides, setting a goal for yardage, or trying a new technique or fiber could all be possibilities; whatever you choose, make sure that your goal is realistic enough that you don’t get discouraged, but still pushes you to step out of your comfort zone.
Embrace the challenge within the challenge. On “challenge” days during the actual event (usually the toughest high mountain stage), spinners are encouraged to do something that is also difficult for them. Trying a new-to-you spinning technique or fiber are great choices for these days!
Prep fiber ahead of time. With your goals in mind, decide what you want to spin ahead of time so that you can prep fibers beforehand and focus on the task of spinning once the Tour de Fleece begins. Particularly if your goal is to spin through your stash or reach a specific yardage goal, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve chosen fiber types and a preparation that is easy to spin – for example, batts! Now is the perfect time to break out your Strauch drum carder and get creative. If you need a little inspiration, check out our free Color Inspiration guide which features 10 colorful projects you can make on your Strauch drum carder. If you’re new to drum carding, don’t miss Drum Carding 101, our everything-you-need guide to carding beautiful batts like a pro!
Check & tune up spinning equipment. Just as the riders will be tuning up their bikes for the big task ahead, you’ll want to ensure that your own spinning equipment is ready to go! If you’ll be using a wheel, make sure that your bobbins are clear and your wheel is cleaned and oiled (refer to your manufacturer’s instructions for other suggested maintenance tasks).
Keep track of what you spin. During events like the Tour de Fleece, it’s easy to think you’ll remember the exact fiber content or other details of your project later on. But we’re willing to bet that the details will be fuzzy later on (pun intended), which is why we created two free printables to help you keep track of your projects from start to finish! Learn more about our Batt Planning Worksheet and Spinning Project tracker here.

IMG_2174SM

We’d love to see photos of your Tour de Fleece preparation and spinning, especially if you’re using Strauch products along the way! Share them with us on social media using the #strauchfiber and #tourdefleece2019 hashtags. Happy Spinning!

Keep this cheat sheet handy – pin it on Pinterest!

TourDeFleece2019pinterest

Posted in Fiber, Handspinning | Tagged batts, events, fiber prep, Spinning, tour de fleece | Leave a comment

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