Posts tagged ‘shopping’

I bought a bunch more Moda scrap bags, these are leftovers from making the precut jelly rolls and whatnot. I was able to buy particular designs so I got several of each kind including ones to match the previous purchase.

I spent the evening going through them to see what I’ve got, sort into rational groups and generally play with a pile of fabrics. They are selvedge strips of varying widths, more or less all 32 inches long. Each scrap bag contains (mostly) fabrics from the same line, but occasionally others are mixed in. I have a couple ideas for projects but so far the only thing I’ve done was with some odd strips from an earlier bag. I bought more of the same so I combined them together.

bundles of multicolor strips of fabrics

The designs represented are Birdie, Nature’s Notebook, Secret Garden and Eden.

With the machine-wash “Rambouillet” done, I came back home from the annual guild stash sale with yet more fleece. This time about a kilo of Coopworth, which is shiny and dense and looks a lot like mohair. It was one of the fleeces bought for a fiber study, so it was up for grabs in exchange for a donation to the guild. By the end of the meeting it was still sitting there, so I pulled out the $10 I had and tossed it in. I know why nobody wanted it, it is very greasy and caked with clay mud and who knows what else. But it was an interesting breed I haven’t worked with (some people like it for beginners) so I figured it was worth ten bucks.

I knew I wanted to card this, so I didn’t have to go through the long process of dividing the fleece into staples for washing. I just pulled off sections and put them in mesh bags. If only the others were so easy.

I did two scour-wash cycles, with a spin in the washer between. That front-loading washer really does get the water out, although in this case it’s filthy mud and the washer needed a bath when I was done, but hardly worse than the last experiment. I opened up the wet locks to get it to dry and there was still caked mud. In theory, it will flake off during picking and carding and the remainder will wash out later. We’ll see.

I didn’t have enough mesh bags for all of it, so the last bit was put in after and soaked overnight. I scoured it this morning by my usual non-washer method and it looks like the soak didn’t help much.

The other find from the meeting was four cones of 20/2 wool for weaving. It’s in this dreary off-white color called “bone” that makes it look more dirty than anything else. Perfect for dying. Combined with the two huge cones of black I already have, I could get some interesting fabric.

Almost a month ago I bought some fleece on eBay. I wasn’t going to, but it seemed like a good thing to do at the time. It was advertised as Rambouillet, a Merino-type fleece. It looked pretty dirty in the picture but the scoured example was good and white. For $4 a pound plus shipping, it was priced about what I would expect for backyard sheep fleece. I send the check, the seller says he will ship when he gets it. Ok, fine.

Problem Number One: two weeks and no package, so I send an email. It is a holiday weekend, so I’m not concerned that I don’t get an immediate reply. Until five days later when there is still no package and no response. Second email.

The next day I get a reply. Problem Number Two: the seller forgot to send the package. Oopsie! He remembered to cash the check, however — four days after it was sent.

Finally I get the package. Problem Number Three: this is supposed to be Rambouillet, a fine wool closely related to Merino. I expect it to have tons of grease and a tiny crimp. It’s supposed to be a ram fleece, so I’m fully prepared for it to be stinky. What I get has far less grease than I expect. The crimp is vaguely like a fine wool, but not particularly so. And it’s hardly “very white,” as advertised, because most of the tips are stained yellow from dirt. At least it’s not stinky. I hunt around for the very cleanest part to wash, and that does come out white, but most of the rest is caked in dirt and washes to yellow stained tips.

Problem Number Four: this is the springiest, most Down breed feeling Rambouillet I’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s not all that fine, being somewhere near a mediocre Corriedale. (The seller did say 60s count, which is about right even if it’s the very bottom of the range for the breed.) Even in the grease, which there isn’t very much of, it doesn’t have the blocky square-end staples I expect. I could see some of this in the seller’s photo, but it’s more than I expected and the whole fleece is the same way. It’s actually quite tippy. I’m hardly expecting the best quality fiber from a cheap backyard fleece, but I at least expect it to match the description.

I notice that my washed samples have not even made the attempt to felt despite less-than-careful handling. I comb a bit of fiber and lay it out in a small batt for a felting sample. Following my normal felting procedure, it’s quite stubborn in not felting and only eventually starts to hold together. It’s still very springy. I wash another sample in my felting solution, making a point of swishing and squeezing the cut end, where wool fleece starts to felt first. After several rounds of rough handling, there is only the faintest suggestion of felting at the cut end. I pull out a lock of raw Merino from the closet and try the same thing: it starts to felt immediately.

If you handed me a sample of this without comment, my first suggestion would be that it was a Dorset crossed with a fine wool like a Merino or Rambouillet. Not a pure fine wool by any means. I could tell from the photo that it wasn’t the nicest stuff, but it wasn’t expensive either. It’s fine for what I intend to use it for, although I’m not so thrilled about the dirty tips not washing out as promised. If the seller said it was a Rambouillet cross, I would have probably still bought it. But now I’m cranky about it because it clearly isn’t.

I haven’t left feedback for the seller yet but sent another email. I already don’t expect to leave a glowing comment because of the shipping problem, but the question of breed on top of it makes me even less happy. I haven’t bought fiber from eBay in a long time because I’d rather see it in person, but I thought this would be a good inexpensive fiber to experiment with. This is what you get when you deal with people you don’t know.

The weaving continues, I was trying to get all the towels done before the guild meeting on Saturday but it’s not going to happen. So I’m taking a break and doing a few other things. Including updating the website. So far, I’ve had one broken warp and one minor weaving error I didn’t catch in time to fix. Overall, they look pretty good. I want to finish this set and wash them before I decide on the next project in this yarn. Although the fabric looks about right on the loom, you never can be sure until after you wash it.

In other news, the second batch of super-discount yarn from WEBS arrived. three cones of a blue-gray 12/2 cotton and two of black 20/2 wool. For three bucks a cone, it was an amazing deal. I tried to get some black 8/2 rayon to mess around with, but an hour after I ordered it I got an email saying it was sold out. The shipping was nearly twice the cost of the yarn. The 12/2 seems to be stronger than the stuff I’ve currently got on the loom, which is a little odd since it’s all carded cotton. But that means it will make fine warp. And I’ve sure got enough of it. I’ve seen lots of samples woven for books in 20/2 wool, so I figured it would be worth a try. I’ve never used something this fine for warp and actually I’ve not woven a wool warp I didn’t spin. I’m a little concerned about it sticking together, but I guess all I can do is give it a go. I’d have to get more in a different color or think of something that will look good in all black.

Dear eBay Weaving Equipment Seller:

If you do not know enough about your product to identify it correctly, please do not try to impress me with it’s fine condition and original vintage detail. While I agree the wood does appear to be in an excellent state, not only is your industrial fly shuttle not an “Antique Weaving Loom,” it is not even functional, having lost all its metal hardware.

I suggest you study the numerous industrial fly shuttles posted by many of your eBay compatriots and compare them with the item you have on offer. I further encourage to take note of how many modern weavers actually buy ancient mill shuttles with no pirns available and consider re-listing yours in a more appropriate category such as Antiques.

Regards,

A Weaver

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