Sunshine -- chance to card some fiber.
Yesterday, we went into Roseburg. Among other stops, we went to the library where I got a stack of books. I found a book on pasture maintenance and started reading. Needless to say, no fencing or spinning got done yesterday. You will notice there is no blog entry, either. I could go into detail here about my pasture plans, but since those plans are predicated on completing the current fence project, plus at least one more after that, I should probably save my newfound pasture wisdom for sometime in the future.
Despite the lack of productivity yesterday, there has been progress because on Sunday, after I wrote the blog entry, I went out and installed some braces on the fence, then I did some spinning. I did some more fence braces today -- only four more to go for the new northeast pasture, and only two more I can do at the moment. Unfortunately, it's too cold to cement posts, so I didn't make any progress on that limiting factor. If I force myself to make a little progress on that fence every day, it will get finished.
The sun came out this afternoon, so I got out the drum carder and went to work on my Puppies in the Wool Room blend. I basically froze my fingers doing the carding. It was just barely above freezing with a breeze -- hardly winter to many of you but after twenty years in the northwest, my fingers don't function that cold anymore.
The blend is beautiful -- I was thinking I would end up with sort of a calico roving with patches of black and red-brown in a light or white background. However, to get the distribution of fiber types even -- the white in the mix is huacaya, the darker colors are mostly suri -- I ended up carding to greater color uniformity so the roving has more of a salt and pepper appearance. The blend looks gray in the pictures, but a close-up would show the salt and pepper -- and the yarn will show the salt and pepper appearance more than the roving does.
Due to the puppy-pre-processing, this roving will make a "high character" yarn (or build character in the spinner). This isn't a roving anybody is going to be able to spin into a perfectly smooth and even yarn. There are a lot of second cuts showing up that I didn't see before due to the way the fiber was stirred -- you can see some of those as the black specks in the roving. Some of the huacaya fleece involved is fairly short -- plenty long enough to hand spin, but the variation in staple length within the roving will add to the spinning challenge and the shorter fibers may tend to fuzz just a little bit.
Somebody is going to spin this roving into a soft and beautiful yarn. A spinner willing to accept the imperfections in the preparation and willing to work with what the fiber gives them, will create a very soft, slightly nubby, yarn with not-quite uniform thickness, possibly fuzzy areas, and wonderful color. The yarn will have some fiber memory because of the huacaya fiber, but not a lot because it has a large portion suri fiber. The color will be of variable salt and pepper tones with patches of warm, red-brown highlights and black flecks where the second cuts are. And, because of all the baby suri in the mix, it will be a soft yarn.
I thought I had the blend finished, until I noticed the difference between the first batt and the last batt -- you can see the color disparity in the picture. By the time I noticed the color disparity, my hands were so cold, I couldn't feel what I was doing. Next time I get the opportunity to card, I'll put the fiber back through the carder to get the color uniform.
Fence progress: 2 braces today for a total of five since the last post
On the Spinning Wheel: Pinero. The second bobbin is 1/3 to 1/2 full.
On the Knitting Needles: A practice piece I'm avoiding.
On the Crochet Hooks: Nothing
On the Drum Carder: Puppies in the Wool Room Blend
On the Skirting Board: nothing at the moment
On Deck: no change -- gray huacaya / black suri blend.
Despite the lack of productivity yesterday, there has been progress because on Sunday, after I wrote the blog entry, I went out and installed some braces on the fence, then I did some spinning. I did some more fence braces today -- only four more to go for the new northeast pasture, and only two more I can do at the moment. Unfortunately, it's too cold to cement posts, so I didn't make any progress on that limiting factor. If I force myself to make a little progress on that fence every day, it will get finished.
The sun came out this afternoon, so I got out the drum carder and went to work on my Puppies in the Wool Room blend. I basically froze my fingers doing the carding. It was just barely above freezing with a breeze -- hardly winter to many of you but after twenty years in the northwest, my fingers don't function that cold anymore.
The blend is beautiful -- I was thinking I would end up with sort of a calico roving with patches of black and red-brown in a light or white background. However, to get the distribution of fiber types even -- the white in the mix is huacaya, the darker colors are mostly suri -- I ended up carding to greater color uniformity so the roving has more of a salt and pepper appearance. The blend looks gray in the pictures, but a close-up would show the salt and pepper -- and the yarn will show the salt and pepper appearance more than the roving does.
Due to the puppy-pre-processing, this roving will make a "high character" yarn (or build character in the spinner). This isn't a roving anybody is going to be able to spin into a perfectly smooth and even yarn. There are a lot of second cuts showing up that I didn't see before due to the way the fiber was stirred -- you can see some of those as the black specks in the roving. Some of the huacaya fleece involved is fairly short -- plenty long enough to hand spin, but the variation in staple length within the roving will add to the spinning challenge and the shorter fibers may tend to fuzz just a little bit.
Somebody is going to spin this roving into a soft and beautiful yarn. A spinner willing to accept the imperfections in the preparation and willing to work with what the fiber gives them, will create a very soft, slightly nubby, yarn with not-quite uniform thickness, possibly fuzzy areas, and wonderful color. The yarn will have some fiber memory because of the huacaya fiber, but not a lot because it has a large portion suri fiber. The color will be of variable salt and pepper tones with patches of warm, red-brown highlights and black flecks where the second cuts are. And, because of all the baby suri in the mix, it will be a soft yarn.
I thought I had the blend finished, until I noticed the difference between the first batt and the last batt -- you can see the color disparity in the picture. By the time I noticed the color disparity, my hands were so cold, I couldn't feel what I was doing. Next time I get the opportunity to card, I'll put the fiber back through the carder to get the color uniform.
Fence progress: 2 braces today for a total of five since the last post
On the Spinning Wheel: Pinero. The second bobbin is 1/3 to 1/2 full.
On the Knitting Needles: A practice piece I'm avoiding.
On the Crochet Hooks: Nothing
On the Drum Carder: Puppies in the Wool Room Blend
On the Skirting Board: nothing at the moment
On Deck: no change -- gray huacaya / black suri blend.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 6:20 PM
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