SpinnySpinny

I started a project for the new wheel so I can take it to the guild meeting next weekend. The Maker Faire warp is on the Lendrum and I’m not hauling that anywhere, so I wanted something non-challenging to do with the other wheel. A major purpose of the Little Gem is to take it places.

I pulled out some fiber I got from a swap a while back. I have no idea what it is aside from wool, but I can tell you that it’s ostensibly top (has some big ugly neps) and is bright green, magenta and black. I tried spinning it directly but the wide assortment of fiber lengths and the general untidiness made this less than satisfactory.

So I tried carding it. Not very much, just lay it out on the cards and give it two passes. The rolags still have a lot of randomly distributed colors but it opens up the lumps.

I carded it all so I can just bring fiber and have less to haul on Bart to the meeting. I don’t have a sample of the finished yarn because I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it. There isn’t much, so plying it with itself won’t get me far. I’m thinking about plying it with black and making some Goth knitting yarn.

Oh boy was that fun. Despite having to run back home to get forgotten spinning wheel pieces. A lot of people wandered in and out to see what the folks with the funny non-computer equipment were doing, some showed up with sewing machines, there were wedding invitations assembled and children throwing toys all over the floor. I spent most of the day carding and generally a good time was had by all. I took no pictures.

I finished the blending this morning, just to get it over with. I had a pile of junk fiber, both light and dark. I blended the mostly white stuff together, which included the last of the Grandma Wool, a collection of combing leftovers, a few things that Seemed to Be a Good Idea at the Time and some fleece that didn’t scour nicely. To improve the mix, I added odds and ends of fleece of decent quality but not enough or of a type I’d use alone for another purpose.

Here’s the finished pile:

There are neps and VM a plenty and I’m just not going to worry about it. I wanted to spread around the still somewhat greasy fiber to avoid having to scour batts and then try to re-card a semi-felted mess. Since some was already carded, I was blending mainly by the “One from Column A” method and ended up with a little of the greasy stuff left over. It’s not enough to go through blending the whole lot yet again just to mix it in.