Customer Question: How much wool will I need for making Dreads & Hair Falls?

The amount of roving you need to buy will depend of several things. To give you examples of considerations for calculations I have chosen the Merino wool I supply at www.SarasTextureCrafts.com

Length – The length of your dreads. 100g of my coloured Merino is approx. 410cm/4.10m in length and as I hold my stock in mostly uncut lengths if you were to order 2 units of 100g they would come as 1 very long length (approx. 820cm, or 8.2m). So you can cut them to your length as you work. You will find some colours may measure longer and other shorter, it truly depends on thickness and dyed weight of the fibre as they come off of the mill machine.

Width – The width of your dreads. The width of roving varies per colour and is slightly uncontrollable along the length so it is something that we don’t give dimensions on usually as fibre sellers, because if you come back it may vary by a small degree.

Number and head coverage – How many dreads do you need to make.

Whilst I will not be able to calculate your project for you, I can tell you what most of my dread makers buy and how they buy it;

For pencil thin dread fall attachment dreads they buy 200-300 grams per colour and probably get around 4-5 dreads per 1m length. Rough calculation would estimate that this could give you around 12-15 pencil dreads depending on how you work.

For pencil thin dreads that are permanent full head attachments, they usually buy between 500-600g per colour.

As I’m not a dread maker myself, I can’t always accurately advise what is best as design, colour, head cover and length all play apart in working out how much you might need… but I hope the above information has given you some idea?

My solid Merino colours are always restocked, so if you find you should need more, just give me a shout and I can let you know where to find it.

I also have a Merino colour card in my shop which might help you pick your colour options.

You can buy your fibre, felt, spinning, weaving and knitting supplies at www.SarasTextureCrafts.com

Customer Question: I have just been given 5 fleeces for Felt Making… Help!

Feltmaking with fleece can be very rewarding, even if it is hard work to process from the start. Five fleeces will take a considerable amount of prep time and over the course of a month or so of good weather you should have them processed enough for felt making.

Traditionally felt makers use ‘tops’ which are processed and dyed (if nec.) for immediate use. Here’s a tutorial… A guide to basic wet felt making. You can find these in my shop at Felt making and spinning shop. Merino is usually the ‘top’ of choice among felt makers.

However, it is entirely possible to use fleece if prepped correctly… I do recommend wearing a good pair of rubber gloves throughout the process until you have dry and clean fleece, as there are certain health issues with handling raw fleece.

Firstly you will need to lay each fleece out on a long table (protect the table with plastic), or if you have a garden the lawn. You will need to ‘skirt’ the edges of the fleece to remove the matted and overly dirty edges (dung mostly). Then you need to ‘sort’ your fleece. This is the process of going over the remaining fleece very carefully to remove grass and other vegetable matter, plus any matted or dug effected areas. Then you are ready for washing.

Washing the fleece will take time and I do recommend buying a large bucket specifically for this purpose. Here are some instructions… Washing fleece. You may need to repeat this process several times depending on how greasy your fleece is. Felt making will require a grease free fleece; otherwise the grease will stop the soap and rubbing action from working.

Once it is dry you should leave the fleece in a container that will allow good air flow, nothing plastic… Fibre care. You will need to prep all of your fleece to begin with, as fleece is best stored without the Lanolin grease.

After this time you can begin carding. As you have so much to process and carding will take a very long time with this amount of fleece I do suggest a Drum carder… The 36 ppi is the one you will need Ashford drum carder. If all of the fleece is prewashed you can card as you go along, keeping the remainder of the fleeces stored ready for later use. Here is where you can start to follow the YouTube videos you saw by me on YouTube.

Some fleeces/breeds will take more prep work than others and some are finer than others, so require extra care.

Customer Questions: How much wool will I need to felt a simple scarf?

Depending on your technique the quantity will vary. There is
also shrinkage and finished design to think of. So for example, if you were;

 

Nuno felting – possibly just 30g of wool to decorate your
silk scarf

Cobweb felting – Depending on your desired length I’d
estimate at least 50g.

Wet Felting – 100g of wool base layers, plus say 30g to
decorate your surface (maybe more or less depending on your design)

Washing Fleece.

If the fleece doesn’t have a lot of Lanolin, it could be spun nicely from the fleece. However, there are occasions when you may prefer to wash your fleece.

Washing say 2-300g will be easier than a whole fleece and here is how I do it;

• Layout the fleece and make sure there is no debris in it, like straw, etc (I sort it here, so there is no larger, or troublesome debris)
• Take a bucket and add a little detergent. This can be special wool safe detergent, or a gentle washing liquid, or even a washing up liquid.
• Add half a bucket of hot water (not too hot to touch)
• Add the fleece and hold down with your hand, so that it soaks the fleece. Do not move the fleece around as this may cause felting.
• Leave for 30-45 minutes.
• Take out the fleece and empty the dirty water.
• fill the bucket with water to the same temperature and add the fleece.
• Leave for 30-45 minutes
• Take out the fleece and leave to drain and cool for a while
• Squeeze out the excess water and leave to dry flat. If you don’t have the space and you have a nice day. Then use an old pillow case to hold the fleece and put it out on your washing line to dry.

If your fleece is very light in grease, then you may wish to wash in cold water (important to note here that many spinners have varying methods, so see what works best for you).

Once it is dry if you think it needs another wash, then you can do this, or you can spin from the fleece. If you would rather card the fleece to comb the fibres in the right direction, then the fleece should be as free from Lanolin as possible and then hand, or drum carded.

Fleeces can be purchased at www.SarasTextureCrafts.com

 

Written by Sara of www.SarasTextureCrafts.com