21. Hobbies

Jaden sat down heavily into a comfortable chair, letting the big canvas bag of wool fall to the wayside for the moment. That encounter with Sunshine had made them very nervous, anxious and worried. Though it really wasn't so bad in the end, they reflected. What had they really been worried about all this time? They would have to make sure to continue to be gentle with the sparkly baa in the future.

Now, in their workroom, with a big glass of iced tea for refreshment, Jaden began to sort through all the wool they had gathered up. Piling it up by color, and then separating it further by quality. There was a lot to be done before they could get to the job of spinning. First sorting, and then bagging up the extra wool that they weren't going to use now, for later projects. Cleaning the wool was necessary, getting out the dirt, the bits of grass, and other yucky stuff. Not the most pleasant part of the process.

Next came carding the wool, a job that took time, but Jaden found really enjoyable. Clumps of wool were placed between two large, stiff bristled brushes, then the brushes or cards were pressed face to face, their handles at opposite ends and the wool was pulled and brushed through the bristles many, many times until it was softer, straighter and fluffier. For much larger projects than this one they could use a drum carding machine, but they really enjoyed mixing the color by hand.

The resulting straightened fibers were then gently rolled into a rolag and removed, set aside for spinning. Jaden worked quickly and diligently, mixing the sparkly yellow with some blue until the perfect green shade they were looking for was made. They then repeated the process over and over and over again, until they had a large pile of rolags to spin from. 

Drafting the rolags, pulling the rolled wool thin, was done at the spinning wheel, sitting on a little stool, Jaden kept the wheel spinning steadily with rhythmic presses on the foot pedal. Bits of the wool fibers were drawn out from the rolag held firmly in one hand, the spinning of the wheel turned the bobbin, putting a twist into the wool fibers, which were drawn in, coiled neatly around the bobbin. Jaden drafted and spun, drafted and spun until the bobbin was filled. It only took a minute to change out the filled bobbin for an empty one, and then they set to more and more spinning.

Once Jaden had two full bobbins of yarn, they switched everything over so that they could ply the two strands together. This process only took a little while to complete, but after all of that work, Jaden was exhausted, and really wanted a snack. They had long since drained their glass of iced tea dry. So with their brand new skein of yarn resting in a nice coiled bundle, Jaden left their little work room and headed to the kitchen, hoping there were still some fresh veggies from the garden.

(WC: 504)