It’s been mighty hot.
As much as I hate to say it- too hot for wool.
Almost too hot to spin.
But, I’ve managed to get through it by spinning the milk fiber I picked up back in IL. It’s light, and fine, and silky.
It is a little slippery,, but I find that it’s a lot more manageable if I spin it from the side (kind of “from the fold”). Seems to draft more smoothly that way, at least for me.
It’s been fun, and it is really very pretty. Nice for a bit of a diversion. (here it is,loosely plied with some random white wool- Romney, I think)
But it seems a bit weird, spinning something that is artificially fiberized (my word).
I do wonder about how the stuff is generated. And I’ve realized that what I really like best about spinning (and the fiber prep) is that the whole process is low-tech, and feels really close to the source.
I like that you can take a fleece from a sheep, and with some skill, patience, and a little bit of simple mechanical (not chemical) help, turn it into a finished object that is beautiful and useful. It’s really quite amazing.
I think the milk (and soy, and bamboo, for that matter) fiber takes me too far away from that.
Now, the Milk Protein top I haven’t seen advertised as “Eco-Friendly”, but the others are certainly marketed that way, and while Soy and Bamboo might be readily renewable resources, the process that is required to turn them into spinnable fiber really isn’t.
It takes chemical intervention and extruding the fibers with machinery and all kinds of things that are really energy intensive, and certainly not low-impact (environmentally speaking).
Now I’m not a green-freak, but I do wonder why we go to all the trouble of processing the heck out of things to make them serve a purpose they are not intended for when we’ve already got the perfect natural raw materials at hand. Just because we can? Maybe. But that kind of thinking gets us into all kinds of trouble over and over again.
I think that from here on out, I’ll drink my milk, eat my edamame, stake my garden with bamboo- and spin my wool (weather permitting, of course!)
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Ps.
Today’s harvest-
(Isn’t that the most beautiful onion?)
Pps.
The blog now has a spokesmodel-
And what a gorgeous spokesmodel she/he IS!!!
Thanks! I think she’s a beauty too.
Well said! Personallly, I have never found it too hot to spin wool. As I said on my blog, dressed in shorts and sitting basically still at my wheel spinning alpaca was a perfect hot weather activity last week!
Maybe someone needs to invent a hot weather spinning wheel that acts like a fan, sending a breeze back to the spinner as it turns. That would be pretty slick!
Yes very well said. And I love the model!