Polar Opposite Socks Project – Step 2 by
Pegg Thomas
After choosing and measuring my fibers, next comes carding the individual
colors into batts. I now have 1 batt of scarlet, 2 batts of
russet, 2 batts of emerald and 1 batt of spruce.
All these batts will be carded again several times as they get blended,
so I just do 2 passes through the drum carder for each batt. If I
had better quality wool with less vegetable matter in it, 1 pass would have
been enough.
The next object is to get all 3 red batts blended to match and all 3 green
batts blended to match. To do this, I have torn each batt into 3 equal
strips. This isn’t difficult to ‘eyeball’, but I did double check my
weights as I went along. I weighed 3 strips (1 scarlett and
2 russet) and they needed to total 1 oz (28.35 g). The
same with the greens, using 1 strip of spruce and 2 strips of emerald.
I fed the red strips in like this; 1 strip of russet, 1 strip of scarlet,
1 strip of russet. I like to loose up each strip, making it as wide
and the feed tray and very thin. This stops the fibers from lumping
up on the large drum. When you take these batts off and look at the
sides, you’ll see layers of color.
I then removed the batt and tore it into 4 equal strips. I didn’t
weigh these strips, just divided the batts roughly into fourths. Then
I loosed each strip as before and fed it back on. These batts are
now as blended and I want them. They are not totally mingled, I can
still see both colors, but I like that.
Then I repeated the same procedure with the green batts.
Now I have 3 red batts and 3 green batts ready to be blended some more.
On to Step 3!
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russet, 2 batts of emerald and 1 batt of spruce.
