Spinning Wool

We don't own a television and haven't for several years. One side effect of this is having a lot more time to pursue your hobbies.  One of Ann's is spinning fiber. The top pic shows Ann carding the wool. Carding straightens the fibers in preparation for the actual spinning. It also helps remove some vegetative fiber  that may be in the wool as well as being used to blend different lots of wool uniformly. This is a drum carder which is faster than using hand carders. Hand carders are a sort of brush to do the same thing and are used  as a pair. Next is a pic of Ann spinning some wool. The spinning goes much faster than the carding. This spinning wheel is from a company in New Zealand, the Ashford company. Not sure what the full Company name is but they make a full line of very nice equipment. I'm not sure but I think the drum carder was from them also. Right now we don't have any sheep, three llamas doing fiber production duty for the moment. We had Shetland sheep before and will probably get them again soon. They were very hardy as well as easy to work with and their wool is very soft. Hard to beat wool socks for warmth and comfort.