Carding and Spinning demo

At the weaving guild meeting this month I volunteered to set up a spinning demo and to help with the carding by doing some hand carding (there is already someone doing drum carding).  This will be for a day long event at R&M Yarns (https://www.rmyarns.com/) which is where the guild meet each month. The fiber arts festival (from the web site click on the tab labelled R&M Fiber Art Festival) is a chance to educate the visitors on the process of taking fiber and turning it into products so will follow the sheep to shawl type of order with demonstrations of each step. 

As it has been a while since I used the hand carders I have been busy checking every book I have and video I can find to ensure that what I am demonstrating is reasonable correctly. 

Carded rolag.

The practice is coming along - and it's not as if I don't have enough raw material to use (the Clun Forest mountain never seems to diminish in any way!!).  Once made into rolags I also have to practice my woolen spinning using the long backward draw - something I have also done very little of, but as with the carding seems to be getting better with practice.

Woolen spun Clun Forest on the Ashford.

I have the spinning guild meeting in Knoxville this Saturday so I will take the carders/rolags up with me and ask for tips from some of the experiences spinners. This month is also a 'show and tell' so will take some other Clun Forest products along including some batts to sell.  I also have to finish the cleaning and prep of the wool samples I took away from last meeting.