This package has been lost in the mail since December. -and then we unexpectedly picked up and moved from Arkansas to Maryland in the meantime. Lots and lots of drama in between trying to first, find the package, then second, get it to the correct address. But it is here! Finally! Now I can start carding up fun batts again for the shop.

Max, my 2-year-old, knew exactly what to do with the buttery-soft merino wool without my saying a word. He rubbed his face in it. Classic!

I used up some scrap wool locks that, due to all the excess vegetable matter trapped in the locks, were pretty much worthless for anything. I also had some roughly carded Romney wool that also needed to be taken out to the garden due to all the junk in the wool, so I thought these two wools would be perfect for my test swatch.

I alternated the curly with the carded wool, then threw in a few lines of merino wool top for contrast. I spun exactly the way I would for the doll hair – a bit overtwisted, nice and messy.

Here is my skein.

Pretty!

I chose to knit a basic swatch using 3 stitches of garter around the edges to keep the swatch flat. Size 11 needles, at approximately 3 stitches per inch.

I love how it came out! Especially if the curly parts were alternated with more of a smooth top. Much to my surprise, however, much of the personality of the curly yarn was lost in the stockinette stitch, but not too much to bother me. The backside seemed to absorb all the craziness, which is typical.

10 pounds of raw Leicester wool locks are awaiting!

I decided that, yes, I did want to lighten up the doll hair for the second skein. Since Theresa will be cutting it into lengths for the doll wig, this gave me the opportunity to change it up a bit if I wanted. What she will do, is combine the yarns randomly and have twice the amount of variation. I can’t wait to see it all in “action” !

I think tonight I will go hang out in the “fiber room” and perhaps get some inspiration. Either way, it is going to be gorgeous. I’m just too nit-picky this way. It’s a curse!

These are the batts that I drum carded for a custom doll hair order. They will all go in the same yarn, alternating colors.  It is mostly Merino wool with tons of sparkle and layers upon layer of color.  I will also be adding stripes of bright pink and yellow Coopworth locks to give some added texture.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Here are the two fabrics the doll hair is to match:

Fun!

Crazy batt consisting of various wool, faux angora for wonderful softness and halo (it’s actually nylon, but made to mimic bunny rabbit, and oh-so-soft, it is), and tiny bits of firestar to jazz it up a bit. Can’t wait to see how it spins up!

This is the wool I dyed some time ago.

And this is the lovely yarn I spun half of it into. Pretty! (Notice how the white spots all blend together and the overall color gets muted when you spin it.)

Instead of spinning the other half, I decided I wanted to transform it into something new. So….out came the orange dye!

I kettle-dyed the wool in a bath of solid orange. No extra hand painting or rainbow dyeing.

And finally, the resulting handspun. (this photo is horrible, it doesn’t pick up all the vibrant color well at all.) I spun it low twist, into a single-ply yarn. I could not be more pleased! So let’s see them side by side:

Neat!

Just for the heck of it, I spun a yarn that I usually make fun of when I see it at the store. I call it “used” yarn. Many people adore the look. Me? Yuck. It reminds me of an old sweater that has been wash way to many times, and is covered in pills and felted fibers. I see these horrish yarns knitted into big bulky scarves, and still, my reaction is not a pleasant one. The term “old hag” comes to mind.

So of course, I had to try to spin one of my own!

I started with raw locks from a Merino Columbia fleece that I’m still deciding if I like. When it was in the grease, it seemed like it had so much potential. Then I washed it, and, well…it got scratchy. Very weird. So anyway, I  solar dyed the locks in canning jars into basic color of cools and warms. Then I teased the heck out of the wool by hand, mixed up all the warm colors and put it into a grab bag. After seeing the colors together, I decided there need to be a “pop” of contrast, so I found some lovely purple mohair locks that I dyed ages ago. I teased these lightly and kept them in a separate pile to add when I pleased.

I spun up the ratty mess into a super bulky yarn, all messy and uneven. I added locks of mohair here and there. The result? Nah. O.K. but not great. The colors are dull and and dreary. The texture is “used” and haggered. So what do I do? I plied it with a cherry read yarn thinking that it would liven up those sad colors. Nope! Not the case. I actually think I liked it much better without the ply, darnit.

So here is my finished yarn. ewww?

Just for fun, I’m going to knit it up. Just to see. Maybe seeing it in stitches will help.

More to come.

When the fiber arrived I just about peed in my pants. It was heavenly. Super, super soft. Just like angora. I couldn’t stop touching it. I dyed some up and started spinning right away.

Here is my roving that I dyed with deep purples, green and pale turquoisy-blue Lanaset Acid dyes. I had to take the photo with the flash on, so the colors aren’t quite so crisp and sparkly.

Dyeing:

Dyeing the fiber was a little bit tricker than the usual wool. It sucked up the color like nobody’s business. I swear the dye had already striked before I even got it to the heat source. So there was a lot of moving and squishing and re-squirting to get the dye evenly without white spots. You also had to be very careful when handling the roving because it would start to pull apart. But the results were gorgeous, and no dye washed out in the final bath.

My only complaints, are 1.) The wet fiber is really slimy feeling. Kinda like playing with a big wad of seaweed in the ocean. 2.) The roving sheds to anything it comes near. I wasn’t smart enough to separate it from my other wool rovings that I was dyeing when I hung them to dry, so there are now tiny nylon fibers all over my other wools. So be careful where you place your fiber.

Spinning:

If you are a new spinner, you will need to take your time because the fiber is very slippery and loose. A little bit of drafting is all it takes. But I found it super easy to spin into a fine yarn. I spun a 2-ply yarn, that was somewhere around a DK/Worsted weight. I really enjoyed spinning it.

Here is my resulting yarn. Didn’t it come out pretty?

The Yarn:

I have to be honest, I was a tiny bit disappointed with the resulting yarn. It felt a bit wirey to me. -Nothing like the original roving when it was loose and fluffy. I blame it on my spinning such a tight yarn. -But then again, had I spun it loosely, I think the shedding would be horrible. I rubbed the skein up again a few items of clothing and was impressed with the minimal shedding. -So we will see.

Knitting:

I decided to knit a pair of children’s mitts for my 1-year-old sister-inlaw, Solara. I used the formula from my favorite book, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns to knit a swatch on size 3 needles. It was a nice tight knit. –Let me tell you, the fabric is coming out beautiful!! The bloom of the faux angora is just like the real thing. Very amazing. It softened up just like I was hoping for. I still have the thumb of the second mitt to knit, then the ends to weave in, and a few final touches of pom-poms. The final test will be throwing it in the washing machine. (scary!) I’ll post a final pic once I get them complete.

The Verdict:

All in all, I love this fiber. It really does feel just like angora bunny yarn for a fraction of the price and none of the hassle. Everyone needs to give it a try!

But….now we can get back to the grind. Spinning and knitting! Yay!

So let’s start with my new obsession. FINE spinning.

I usually get frustrated with spinning fine because it takes forever and I usually end up fighting with the fiber and throwing it across the room. Well, I decided to give it another go. And it was great!

So here is the roving. It is Faux Cashmere roving (nylon) that I dyed with Lanaset Dyes in the microwave. Purtee. I’m going to call this fiber Faux Silk from now on. To me, it is not like cashmere at all, but everything like silk. Sue me.

I started by dividing it up into super, super thin strips so I wouldn’t have much drafting to do. I figured that would be a good way to get my hands into the groove. Since the fibers are so fine and long, I found that you have to keep your hands firm on the fiber and never, NEVER let the twist come anywhere near the drafting triangle. (Just like when spinning silk.) If it does, the whole thing will get choked up and it won’t draft at all.

LOOK! Oh my, it’s so fine! Weeeee.

The more I spun, the more confident I got, and was able to start spinning thicker pieces of roving. Still split pretty thin, I’d say like finger width. And much to my utter surprise, I LIKED IT.

So here is my bobbin filling up with singles….

And here it is plied on the bobbin. Doesn’t all the color mixing look nice? I just love how rainbow or handpainted rovings spin up. You never get bored with the color variations.

And the final product. (This pic was taken in natural light, so it is a better representation of the true colors.) I ended up with a fine, sock-weight 2-ply yarn. Yippie! I’m so proud of myself! Since then, I’ve spun one more Faux cashmere and 2 Merino yarns. The Merino did not come out as thin because it likes to pop out of itself when plied and the twist is set. Sneaky.

I’ve got another Merino ready to spin that I will start tonight most likely. It does take a long time to spin fine and 2-ply, but the results are worth it!