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What do you mean, it’s Monday?

Posted on | November 17, 2008 | 13 Comments

*sigh*  I was going to accomplish so much this weekend.  I had a to-do list a mile long, good intentions, and the determination to spend the entire weekend pajama-clad if that’s what it took. 

Then I went to the attic.  I saw the bins of fleece sitting there, all squishy and sheepy-smelling.  They cried out “play with us! play with us!”  I had to comply.  I grabbed a handful of fleece and hightailed it down the attic stairs.

I thumbed through an old issue of Spin Off while eating lunch and was surprised to see the name “Mary Spanos” on one of the articles because Mary’s in the fiber guild I belong to!  Back in 1999, Mary and two others split a fleece and committed to make a project with their portion and write about it for Spin Off.  Mary blended her 12 oz. of fleece with 4 oz. of multi-colored dyed mohair and made the most beautiful lace vest.  I liked the idea.  I liked the fact that if I got really confused, I could email Mary and ask for guidance.  I decided to play with the carder.

The fleece was still in lock formation, so I had to run it through the drum carder three times before I could even think of blending other fibers with it.  I pulled out some Wensleydale dyed by Adrian that I’ve had for awhile, and tried to proportion it about 3/4 natural wool, 1/4 dyed Wensleydale.

The batt looked rather boring, so I added a bit of purplish-blue mohair and some bright orange silk, both of which came from Abby’s dyepots. 

Much better.  BUT when I spun it (which I did immediately because the suspence was killing me), the colors all but disappeared.  Back to the carder!

I added MORE blue and MORE orange and went a little bit crazy and threw in some dark brown alpaca, for good measure.  I spun this batt and am pretty happy with the results.

Top skein was spun from the first blended batt, bottom skein is the second batt. 

I carded for at least three hours, maybe four.  Making batts is hard work.  Or, I should say - making well-blended batts that have a good combination of colors and fibers and aren’t OVER blended to the point that the color and texture is lost in the spinning - is hard work!  It’s fun, and I’m happy to have the tools at my disposal, but I don’t see myself blending enough fiber for a vest.  Maybe a hat.  :o)

 

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