Twin Willows Farm
- Blending Odds and Ends on a Drum Carder
We all
tend to have little baggies of this and that collected along
life’s way in amounts too small to do much good. You may have
a baggie each of reddish brown buffalo, pure black alpaca, fawn angora,
raspberry dyed silk, etc. Blending gives new life to these
odds and ends. Some quite extraordinary yarns can result!
First look at your colors. Pick and choose colors that will
go well together. If you aren’t particularly gifted in
putting colors together, Deb Menz wrote a great book titled Color in
Spinning that can help you out. You may use up your
whole stash or just a few choice bits with your blend.
Now pick a nice base fiber, the ‘glue’ so to speak, that will hold your
odds and ends together. Wool is a good choice, being crimpy
and willing to hold onto the softer and slipperier fibers, but other
fibers can work as well. Decide if you want a white, natural
color or dyed base to go
with the odds and ends you’ve already chosen. (And
it’s perfectly okay to change your mind and discard or add new odds and
ends!)
The next decision is how many 1 ounce (30 gram)
batts you want
to create. Let’s say your intended project needs 12 ounces (340
grams) of finished yarn. Weigh your odds and ends
and see what
they total. For instance, if your odds and ends total 6
ounces (170
grams) and you want to create a total of 12 ounces (340
grams)
of batts, you need to have 6 ounces (170 grams) of
base fiber to go
with it.
It is important that you card your base fiber fully before beginning to
blend. Weigh out 1 ounce (30 gram) at a
time and card them
up into batts. Also card separately any of the odds and ends
that
require carding. Very small amounts may need to be done on a
pair
of hand cards. Some luxury fibers, such as angora and dog
hair, do
not need pre-carding.
Now you will divide up the base fiber into the proper amounts for each
batt. Using our example for 12 batts, you need to divide the
base fiber
up evenly into 12 strips. You can carefully weigh each one,
or simply
‘eyeball’ it if you’re comfortable with that. Now divide up
all the
odds and ends into 12 equal parts. Lay each on top of the
base fiber
to create piles for each final batt.
For best results in holding many types of fibers together, tear the
base fiber for each batt into 3 strips. Begin your first batt
by feeding in one of the base strips. Now feed on half of
your odds and ends. (If you want all your batts to
match, write down what order you’re adding the odds and ends in, so you
can duplicate it with the remaining batts.) Next
feed on another strip of base fiber. Now add the remaining
odds and ends, and finish with the last strip of base.
Remove your batt and take a look at what you’ve done. You can
leave the batt ‘as is’ and spin it with the layers as you see them, or
you can tear your batt into 3 or 4 strips and carefully feed them back
through the drum carder to blend them more. For a very
thorough blend, you’ll need to make 4 or 5 passes through the drum
carder. However, this type of thorough blending will bury the
small amounts of odds and ends and not showcase them. When
you have the first batt as you like it, card up the remaining batts to
match.
There are several different methods of pulling a batt out into roving
for spinning. Some people enjoy spinning directly from the
batt, rolled up like a giant rolag. Some people just tear the
batts into strips. Whatever method you choose, make sure and
do the same for each batt so that the resulting yarn will be
consistent. Spin up your batts and enjoy the one-of-a-kind
yarn you’ve created!
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articles are copyright protected and may not be copied for any use
without the author's written permission.
Contact Pegg
Thomas at twinwillowsfarm@gmail.com.
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Twin
Willows Farm
