Rural Gardening: Happy Birthday dear Claire!, 1 by DrDoolotz

DrDoolotz wrote:
You all crack me up - thank goodness I get my daily laughs here!

Fran - that's fab! It is what is called a "picker" like this one:
http://www.fancy-kitty.com/woolpicker.html

Your brother definitely has the talent for making them! Basically, pickers help open up locks of wool that then makes them easier for carding and/or spinning. There are YouTube videos showing how to use one.

Personally I think it's cleaner and easier to shave the cat first and then just put the hair in. :-D

ZZ - the batt would be used for spinning generally. It makes all the fibers line up so that you can spin easily and not get all tangled messes of wool. Some wool is not as nice for spinning - it has short fibers or it's lumpy. Then, you can use it for felting. Felting is generally one of two types - wet felting or needle felting. I do both. Wet felting is like when you put a wool sweater in the washing machine by mistake and it comes out barbie doll sized. Hot water plus agitation makes wool shrink. You can take advantage of this property to make things like table runners and mats, as well as decorative items formed over things, so that you have felted bowls and such.

Needle felting is more intricate and is done using needles with barbs on them that make the wool fibers mesh together. You can either do flat pieces or sculptured pieces.

Here are a needle-felted sheep and rabbit that I made.