Kilt start to finish

[Lyrd]

Don't know why i was thinking about this, insomnia is great.
Has Anyone here, or anyone they know, ever made a kilt from start to finish? I mean all the way from the start. Like shearing the sheep, collecting the wool..carding it, spinning it, dyeing it, weaving it. The whole kit and caboodle. You should be able to buy a Kilt vacation package where you get to see your kilt made all the way from sheep to end product. That would just be so cool. Talk about a heirloom!

Be Well
Marc aka Lyrd

[Bugbear]

Never seen a kilt, but I've seen a rug done from sheep to finnish... Probably would be a very long vacation.

[ThreadBbdr]

No kilt (I've woven a great kilt though not from handspun yarn), but I've done a lace shawl (merino fleece) and a sweater (cotsworth fleece) and a pair of woven scarves (crossbred merino) starting from assisting with the shearing, washing the fleece, dyeing with natural dyes (on the shawl and the scarves), carding and spinning, and then finally weaving/knitting. And a linen tunic from growing the flax, retting and breaking/braking and combing, spinning (with a distaff no less), weaving and tailoring (all by hand).

Look for a local "Sheep to Shawl" demonstration to see all the steps. It's remarkable. It takes months to years for one person to do every step. It's remarkable what our ancestors did!

[Ancienne Alliance]

That would be a cool thing to witness !

[idyllicchick]

My business partner has offered to spin the thread for me to weave kilt fabric for my husband. We won't be shearing the sheep ourselves, but we'll buy the raw fiber and process and dye it. We've set aside at least five years to do this! There's a lot of practicing and testing to do.

I love watching Sheep to Shawl demos. Everyone working together, carding, spinning, weaving.

[ThreadBbdr]

It will take tons more time to prepare the fiber than anything. If you need wool combs to prep the fleece for a worsted draw, let me know. I may have a set for sale.

I find I like the Viking mini combs better than my full sized English combs.

[idyllicchick]

If you need wool combs to prep the fleece for a worsted draw, let me know. I may have a set for sale.

Thank you! We have a few sets, though, as we teach spinning classes at our shop. Better than that even, Ginger, my partner, has a small fiber processing plant set up in her garage. She has a picking machine and an electric carder that turns out both batts and rovings. That should make shorter work of the task. She plans to sell custom blends of fiber come her retirement.

[wsk]

Yay! More fiber workers. My side of the fiber addiction is the dirty side.

I shear:

This is a suri alpaca. I also do llamas.

and I clean and card to make roving and batts for those who work on the on the clean side:

This is roving I made from Tunis (a rare breed sheep). That's also my spinning of the Tunis though I don't really do much of that (because my side of the fiber addiction really is the dirty side).

[Brian F]

Hopefully, if the Lord blesses my best laid plans to come true, then I shall someday have the privilidge to go from baby sheep to finished kilt. We'll see as time comes.

~Yeti

[Lyrd]

5 years? It takes years? Why does it take so long? Does the fiber have to " cure" or some such? LOL. I have no idea whats involved with actually MAKING the cloth. Wow. Still, it would be cool to do.