Back to Work

We dropped in to see our llama/alpaca customer on our way to Knoville to visit Anne's brother and family.  The demo skein of llama and the short 48-ply 'rope' were both huge hits so not surprisingly we came away with an order to finish the llama into skeins and reserve all the separated guard hair so that I can work out a way to make longer lengths of rope/cable.  Having grown up playing sport at a park next to Dunedin's rope works - the rope walk being a very long low building on one side of the field (although the memory is somewhat hazy!) I understand the theory, and was able to use tools I have to make a short length of laid up cable. The trick will be extending that.  There is about 3 lb of llama to process, so by the time it is sorted and guard hair removed it will be a little over 2 lb of wool to spin and about a month of part time work.

Llama in the front bag - Clun Forest washed locks behind

The other work is to supply a spinner in Townsend, TN with 'as many Clun Forest batts as I have'.  Currently that is zero, as I sold the last 6 I had at the last Knoxville guild meeting I went to.  So last night when we arrived home from Knoxville Anne and I began flicking Clun Forest locks that we have had stored for quite some time.  Flicking the locks open makes the job of drum carding very easy.  Another alternative is to tease them open by hand or put them through the picker.  These locks being quite long they are best flicked.  I do have even longer locks (the best) that were sorted after the original cleaning.  They are reserved for combing into top.

Flicked locks and the tools of the trade

An hour of flicking produced enough for the first batt.  The guild meeting is coming up next weekend so we should be able to produce a good supply for my customer.