Friday, October 28, 2011

Friday's Fiber Play...Oct 28th

It started out looking like this...
It's a roving of Yak, Merino and Bamboo.
This combination is really soft and when spun it
has a kind of springy-ness.

To help you see where the fibers were "born"
read below.  =)


Yaks have a course outer coat that is used
for making things like rope.  It's the soft undercoat
that is mainly used for spinning. The softness
is often compared to cashmere.  But, the fiber
is short.  So, it is blended with other fibers
like wool and/or silk.

Merino...
 is very fine and very soft...in the realm of sheepdom.
It is a wool used to make garments that will be next to
the skin.  It is quite greasy tho and can become matted
easily.  So, processing it into fiber to spin...takes extra
effort and care.  But, imho, it's truly worth it.  I will post
more about the wide range of wool/sheep, in the future.
  And, about the wonderful and unique properties of wool.

The bamboo content in the roving
I have pictured above - the one in the brown bucket,
...actually came from the bamboo plant.  Isn't that
amazing?  It's really hard for me to think that
the VERY soft shiney fiber comes from the stalk
of wooden-like bamboo.  This fiber has been
compared closely to silk.  But, it is less expensive,
a bit shinnier, and slippery-er.







Hanging around waiting for it's warm bath...

* two things learned*
I found out after the fiber was washed and
dried to set, that I tied the turquoise figure 8s,
that I tied too tight.  There were lines when
I took off the ties.  =( .  I think that if I rewash,
the lines might come out. I'll let you know.

Another thing learned from the last few
fiber-to-yarn experiences is that:
If I want to spin equal amounts onto the
bobbins, I need to divide the roving into
equal parts firsts BEFORE I start to spin.

Why would I need the bobbins to have equal
amounts of single ply yarn?  Well, when plying the
two single ply yarns...some would be left
on one bobbin, while the other would be empty.
Is that clear as mud? Or does it make any sense?

2 comments:

Miss Hillbilly said...

Mudly clear!

I do know from my cloth diapering experiences that bamboo is wonderfully soft!

busyascanbe said...

Wow I am so impressed I didn't know you did this too!

Debboe