Firstly I think I need to make clear that what follows was a very very very bad idea! Combining learning how to use a new fiber prep with a new way of drafting, and then do that with something designed to create art yarn was at no point a good idea. That said.....
A couple of weeks ago I wandered down to Exeter to the Devon Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers' fleece fair. One of the lovely stalls selling fiber was Sara's Texture Crafts, from whom I bought the following with the intention of spinning them up for my sister-in-law. She's got a degree in fine art and knits stunning things with yarns that I would never touch, always seeming to get the best out of the colours.
Now the first problem is that I've never spun from batts before so this was going to be experimental to say the least. I found Abby Franqemont's and the Bellweather's flicker shows of how its done and went from there. So here's how my first one went in photos:
1) The front and back of the batt once its been opened up. I've used the second from left in the photo above, and as you can see the bright colours are far fewer than they looked when it was rolled up.
2) I've then split it into four strips, and subdivided each of these into two chunks each. One slight problem I did have when splitting them was that the "arty" bits tended to detach themselves or form long bits on their own. One strip of sari silk was particularly irritating and the lurex is now all over my living room floor!
3) Having suitably muddled the chunks up I then started the spinning... long draw... for the first time ever... really what did possess me to think that was a clever idea! The first chunk I tried spinning from the fold. BAD idea, really really bad idea with this stuff. It just felt very stilted. I think the utter mix of fibre staples, combined with me not really knowing what I was doing just made it much more difficult than it needed to be. That combined with spinning on my 45g Ashford meant the yarn filled with twist very quickly, meaning I got a lot of backspin. The next few I spun from the end, still long draw, and it seemed to start to work better. At least I started to get the idea of how it should work. The backspin was still happening, but not quite so quickly which meant I could at least spin some yarn before I was attempting to control the spindle again.
4) Having spun the whole lot as singles, I decided to leave them as that. It ranges from something I'd be happy to use as a lace single, to something almost Como width! I wound the skein round my feet as usual before tying it, dunking it in Soak and giving it a brief thwak. It seems to have fluffed up nicely as it dried overnight and I now have approx 70m of my first art yarn. Whilst its not something I would like to knit with, or indeed would ever buy myself, I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully sister-in-law will be too!
A couple of weeks ago I wandered down to Exeter to the Devon Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers' fleece fair. One of the lovely stalls selling fiber was Sara's Texture Crafts, from whom I bought the following with the intention of spinning them up for my sister-in-law. She's got a degree in fine art and knits stunning things with yarns that I would never touch, always seeming to get the best out of the colours.
Now the first problem is that I've never spun from batts before so this was going to be experimental to say the least. I found Abby Franqemont's and the Bellweather's flicker shows of how its done and went from there. So here's how my first one went in photos:
1) The front and back of the batt once its been opened up. I've used the second from left in the photo above, and as you can see the bright colours are far fewer than they looked when it was rolled up.
2) I've then split it into four strips, and subdivided each of these into two chunks each. One slight problem I did have when splitting them was that the "arty" bits tended to detach themselves or form long bits on their own. One strip of sari silk was particularly irritating and the lurex is now all over my living room floor!
3) Having suitably muddled the chunks up I then started the spinning... long draw... for the first time ever... really what did possess me to think that was a clever idea! The first chunk I tried spinning from the fold. BAD idea, really really bad idea with this stuff. It just felt very stilted. I think the utter mix of fibre staples, combined with me not really knowing what I was doing just made it much more difficult than it needed to be. That combined with spinning on my 45g Ashford meant the yarn filled with twist very quickly, meaning I got a lot of backspin. The next few I spun from the end, still long draw, and it seemed to start to work better. At least I started to get the idea of how it should work. The backspin was still happening, but not quite so quickly which meant I could at least spin some yarn before I was attempting to control the spindle again.
4) Having spun the whole lot as singles, I decided to leave them as that. It ranges from something I'd be happy to use as a lace single, to something almost Como width! I wound the skein round my feet as usual before tying it, dunking it in Soak and giving it a brief thwak. It seems to have fluffed up nicely as it dried overnight and I now have approx 70m of my first art yarn. Whilst its not something I would like to knit with, or indeed would ever buy myself, I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully sister-in-law will be too!
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