YARN SPINNING DEMONSTRATION: NANCY CRITTENDEN TO VISIT CURWENSVILLE KORB HOUSE THIS SUNDAY, SEPT 28 BETWEEN 1-4 MORE ABOUT HER CRAFT:... West Decatur woman has a way with weaving Saturday, February 9, 2008 By Wendy B. Lynn Staff Writer WEST DECATUR - All around the cobblers bench/the monkey chased the weasel/the monkey thought it was all in fun/pop! goes the weasel! At some point in your life youve probably sung that rhyme and never gave much thought to it. Did you even wonder, though, what kind of a weasel goes pop and what the rhyme means? Did you know it has to do with weaving? Nancy Crittenden of West Decatur has one of the weasels that pops, a spinning weasel that she uses for her hobby, spinning wool. Mrs. Crittenden became involved in wool spinning when she became interested in learning how to get the wool from sheep into a scarf. She began by taking spinning lessons and also by acquiring sheep. The sheep came about when she and her husband, Larry, were at the Harmony Grange Fair in 2006 and saw some of the sheep and were interested in buying a few. They asked around and were put in touch with a man who sold them four sheep. Currently the Crittendens have seven sheep, both ewes and weathers (castrated males), six of which are black and the seventh is gray. Mrs. Crittenden learned to spin wool at Bonnie Whalings Yarn Shop, located on Flegal Road in Clearfield. She says about eight to 10 women get together once a week to learn and spin together. She also says it takes a while to learn. At class you have about two hours a week, but when you get your own wheel and spend time at it, it gets easier, she said. The group will do demonstrations also. Theyve been to S.B. Elliot State Parks High Country Arts and Crafts Fair and the antique machinery show in Luthersburg. They did a demonstration at the Clearfield County Fair one year as well. Mrs. Crittenden has her own spinning wheel, which she purchased from the Copper Moose company in Vermont. The wheel, which is a double treadle modern design model, was actually made in Holland. Both feet are used to push the treadles to make the wheel spin. To get the wool for spinning, Mrs. Crittenden has someone else shear her sheep. At first she had a man and his daughter from Port Matilda come and shear them, then a man from Clearfield came and sheared two of the sheep for her. This year she will be having a 4-H student come and shear the sheep. After being sheared from the sheep, the wool needs to be cleaned. First, Mrs. Crittenden does what is called skirting which is essentially going over the wool and picking out the worst of the dirt. Then she scours the wool using a product under the brand name Unicorn, though she says there are other products on the market that can be used. Different breeds of sheep have different amounts of lanolin, a greasy substance found in wool, which needs to be cleaned out of the wool for it to be used as yarn. Alpaca wool, which Mrs. Crittenden also uses extensively, does not have much grease in it and must be washed differently. After cleaning, the wool can be dyed. She purchases dye from a place in New York or, more recently, from Steam Valley Fiber Farm near Williamsport. Instructions on how to dye wool come with the dyes. Sometimes she doesnt dye the fleece, using the natural colors instead. Seven sheep do not provide all of the wool she uses. She also purchases fleece from the sheep to shawl contests at the Farm Show in Harrisburg. The Alpaca wool she mostly purchases from farms near Johnstown. After cleaning and dying the wool must be carded, which straightens the fiber so that it can be spun. Mrs. Crittenden uses a drum carder instead of two hand-held cards. A carder has wire bristles that straighten the wool out in more or less the same direction. A bat of wool is a section of carded fiber in a rather rectangular shape, due to the carding, which can be spun into yarn. A roving is another type of carded fiber that is a longer and narrower bundle of wool ready for spinning. Mrs. Crittenden says she normally spins a single ply of wool onto a bobbin in a clockwise direction, then spins two bobbins of wool together in a counterclockwise direction, which makes them stronger. After spinning a skein of yarn the twist must be set by gently washing it in soapy water, then hanging it to dry with a weight to set the ply. Different fibers have different characteristics, she says. Yarn from sheep fleece is more resilient while Alpaca wool is less resilient but is hypoallergenic and warmer. She often blends the wools in order to get the characteristics of both. She says you can blend a variety of materials together for different yarns and different uses. So, where does the weasel come in? The weasel is a spoked, wheeled mechanism upon which yarn is wound to be measured. At intervals the weasel will make a popping noise to indicate when a certain length has been reached. The song? That dates back to at least the 17th century and may have to do with the tedious work of textile mills. Mrs. Crittenden has a weasel she uses occasionally which pops at about 80 yards, but what she uses most often is a kniddy noddy, an object made of PVC pipe (though wooden ones are also common) with cross pieces at 90 degree angles. Right now Mrs. Crittenden is spinning yarn to knit a circular vest. She also has some fiber set aside in order to knit a sweater for her husband. She says it takes a long time to spin enough wool for a project. I dont know exactly how long from carding to spinning, she says, adding that shes usually moving from one part of a project to another, carding at one point or spinning at another, so different projects are in different stages. One thing she hopes to have finished soon is the knitting of barn mittens, which are mostly brown with thick wool on the inside to keep her hands warm when working with the animals in the barn, which also contains two horses. So the next time youre humming that song to yourself, when you get to the pop! you will now have a new perspective on not only a weasel, but also what it takes to get yarn from sheep. And if you are interested in learning more, Mrs. Crittenden says that more people are always welcome at the spinning classes at Bonnie Whalings Yarn Shop. When youre really interested in something, you want everyone else to learn about it, too, she says.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 13:15:09 +0000
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