Picture heavy :)
So when I first bought Color in Spinning, I read the first third (dealing with color theory and handpainting rovings) and shelved it-- I didn't have a drumcarder or combs so the processes Deb Menz wrote about for color blending using these tools didn't appeal to me. It was quite a nice surprise reopening this book and finding so many different starting points to jump from with my drumcarder... here's just one I tried this weekend.
Goal: Make a handpulled roving from long striped batts, with four evenly divided colors in the width of the fiber.
Ingredients: 4 - 1 oz precarded, solid color batts in brown, gunmetal, warm and cool orange, drumcarder. Fiber: 70/30 superwash merino - seacell.
2 - 1/2 oz 70/30 sw merino - seacell...
...split into halfsies...
...each drafted into thin strips.
Creating stripes, 1/4 of the drumcarder's width + a bit more for overlap
Drum loaded with long-striped batt
2 - 1 oz long striped batts
Another 2 - 1 oz long stripe batts
More striping. This is the order I combined them in. I laid one batt flat, laid one more on top...
...and made fiber jellyrolls.
Then using the instructions in Color in Spinning (they're good and I don't feel comfortable relating all the steps), I pulled the two long striped batts out into roving. (pay no attention to the rack behind the curtain.)
My first pulls (and esp. towards the ends of the batts) didn't result in an even ribboned roving that had each color equally present, but more practice made the results better. I also am not opposed to varying colors in the final yarn, so it will be interesting to see how much I actually "dislike" the uneven color pull sections.
Finally (nighttime = flash!), 2 oz of handpulled roving from my long stripe batts. Color in Spinning recommends pulling to pencil width, but I've not spun from pencil roving before and I don't know if the width is the compressed fiber's width or not... so it is what it is :)
And as if all that fiber prep and carding wasn't enough...
...I updated my etsy shop with some sock spinning batts in superwash merino/seacell as well.
The batts in the shop are not the long stripe ones, but thin layer batts-- four colors each, evenly dispersed across the entire width of the batt. (As always, more and bigger pics accompany each item's listing.) My long stripe batts weren't as stable as I'd have liked for sale, and I don't know if there would be any real interest in them (since for me, I've always torn strips off of batts to spin, and maybe most would just be tearing solid chunks of color and what's the point of that?) They'd also be more expensive since they took me forever to make! :)
The thin layer batts can be pulled as well though as above, or strip torn and spun. Each should be enough for spinning into socks, or whatever :) I want to practice later with pulling thin layer batts myself... both pulling them from a 1 oz/non-stacked batts and a stack of 2 to see how the colors pull out. Should be interesting, but for now I'm going to be spinning the ribboned roving and give the poor carder a rest!
Til then, miss you!
So when I first bought Color in Spinning, I read the first third (dealing with color theory and handpainting rovings) and shelved it-- I didn't have a drumcarder or combs so the processes Deb Menz wrote about for color blending using these tools didn't appeal to me. It was quite a nice surprise reopening this book and finding so many different starting points to jump from with my drumcarder... here's just one I tried this weekend.
Goal: Make a handpulled roving from long striped batts, with four evenly divided colors in the width of the fiber.
Ingredients: 4 - 1 oz precarded, solid color batts in brown, gunmetal, warm and cool orange, drumcarder. Fiber: 70/30 superwash merino - seacell.
2 - 1/2 oz 70/30 sw merino - seacell...
...split into halfsies...
...each drafted into thin strips.
Creating stripes, 1/4 of the drumcarder's width + a bit more for overlap
Drum loaded with long-striped batt
2 - 1 oz long striped batts
Another 2 - 1 oz long stripe batts
More striping. This is the order I combined them in. I laid one batt flat, laid one more on top...
...and made fiber jellyrolls.
Then using the instructions in Color in Spinning (they're good and I don't feel comfortable relating all the steps), I pulled the two long striped batts out into roving. (pay no attention to the rack behind the curtain.)
My first pulls (and esp. towards the ends of the batts) didn't result in an even ribboned roving that had each color equally present, but more practice made the results better. I also am not opposed to varying colors in the final yarn, so it will be interesting to see how much I actually "dislike" the uneven color pull sections.
Finally (nighttime = flash!), 2 oz of handpulled roving from my long stripe batts. Color in Spinning recommends pulling to pencil width, but I've not spun from pencil roving before and I don't know if the width is the compressed fiber's width or not... so it is what it is :)
And as if all that fiber prep and carding wasn't enough...
...I updated my etsy shop with some sock spinning batts in superwash merino/seacell as well.
The batts in the shop are not the long stripe ones, but thin layer batts-- four colors each, evenly dispersed across the entire width of the batt. (As always, more and bigger pics accompany each item's listing.) My long stripe batts weren't as stable as I'd have liked for sale, and I don't know if there would be any real interest in them (since for me, I've always torn strips off of batts to spin, and maybe most would just be tearing solid chunks of color and what's the point of that?) They'd also be more expensive since they took me forever to make! :)
The thin layer batts can be pulled as well though as above, or strip torn and spun. Each should be enough for spinning into socks, or whatever :) I want to practice later with pulling thin layer batts myself... both pulling them from a 1 oz/non-stacked batts and a stack of 2 to see how the colors pull out. Should be interesting, but for now I'm going to be spinning the ribboned roving and give the poor carder a rest!
Til then, miss you!
8 comments:
Looks like this is the start of something that's alot of fun! It all looks so beautiful. Terry
Whoo! Aija's making batts! Though actually, I want more stitchmarkers. They are entirely too gorgeous in my knitting. I have such a thing for pearls.
Oh wow, you've made some gorgeous batts! So pretty :)
very very nice. I love your batt color combination too! Inspires me to go play!
Wow! Looks like you've been having fun. Thanks for sharing these great pics and describing the process. My library has that book and I love checking it out, even though without any carding equipment I can't really play along. Yet. :)
Even though I have absolutely zero desire to spin myself, I love seeing how the batts turn into yarn so I'm finding your latest posts really interesting! I can't wait to see how this spins up!
Wow, you've had a busy weekend! Very pretty indeed. :)
Those batts are lovely! I love the pic of your little guy mesmerized by the carder. :)
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