Village Squire, 1977-09, Page 6fall. Four of the eight who came to the one week course turned
out to be local residents which pleased John who was putting
out feelers to test local interest. Three of the others came
from Seaforth and one from Wingham.
Upstairs in their home are some of the kinds of spinning
wheels they sell, spinning wheels that have come from
Scotland, New Zealand, and one spinning wheel which was
made by a man in Streetsville. This held appeal for them
because it was Canadian made. The Kgrrs have managed to
sell four spinning wheels which were imported from Scotland.
While doing some local craft shows, the Kerrs discovered
that people were indeed interested in spinning. As a result
their business came into being.
"We knew people were interested aid we wanted to know
how to supply that interest. Our own supplies of wool were
from Toronto. It seemed more convenient if we could provide
something a bit closer," John said.
Proving his statement that the age old art of spinning was
coming back into style, John cited the case of a handspinning
seminar in Toronto where 280 applied and 80 others had to be
turned away.
According to John "The spinning wheel business generally
is really booming."
John explained the spinning process and there are many
things to be done before and after the wool is spun. First the
wool is carded. This straiehtens out the fibre. You can either
card or comb wool. You card it for woolen spinning which uses
short fibre and comb it for worsted spinning which uses tong
fibre. The wool that comes off the card is called a rolag.
Wool which has not been set aside specifically for the
purpose of spinners is dirty of course and must be washed so
it is soaked in water and usually by morning it is ready to
rinse. The Kerrs dry their wool on screens outside. The wool
can be washed before of after it has been made into skeins.
When the Kerrs teach, they always teach how to spin on a
drop spindle first which makes learning on the wheel easier.
It is called a drop spindle because it just drops while you whirl
it. A lot of spinners don't even own spinning wheels because a
drop spindle is more convenient, John said.
Knowing how to card, how to spin and how to ply, a person
can spin almost any kind of yarn. If you're spinning in the
grease which means that the wool hasn't been washed yet,
you must wash it in the skein. The skein should be washed in
water as hot as you can stand and should preferably be soft
water. Rainwater is the best.
In order to dye the wool, you use a mordant, a chemical that
is used to fix the color. Then it is mixed with the dye. Some of
the mordants that can be used are alum. and cream of tartar,
iron(ferrous sulphate), tin (stannous chloride), copper
sulphate and chrome all of which do different things.
Tin and chrome brighten the color. Chrome tends to make
the color more fast than the others. Most of these mordants
can be bought at your local drug store.
You can mordant before you dye. Prepare a pot of water.
Measure out your wool. According to the amount of wool,
measure the amount of chemical mordant you're going to use.
Mix mordant in a pot and add the wool. The thing is to treat
the wool as gently as possible. The mordant pot must be
cooled down to the same temperature as the dye pot before
the wool can be put in the dye.
For their dyes, the Kerrs use roots, leaves, berries, flower's
and bark but you can also import dyed plants. When dyeing,
it sometimes helps to cut the plants up or to crush them.
Although soaking overnight is good enough, the Kerrs like to
soak their plants for two or three nights.
After soaking the plant overnight you boil if for about ,an
hour. Usually the stronger the liquid the faster the mordant.
The wool can be put in the dye bath with the plant but it will
then have remnants of the plant in it. You then simmer it until
you get the desired coldr which usually takes about an hour.
Cool it in the dye bath. Then rise it until no color comes out of
your wool. If you're drying a skein that has just been washed
4, VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1977.
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