and layering them ever so finer … and finer …. and even finer…
1st batt, 1st carding
just to see how the colors will work together.
Because perhaps I am just ridiculous!
rolags from 2nd batt, second carding, and wonderfully oceanic!
So I have decided to make a new category ~~ Tweed Chronicles ~~ wherein I can post my tweed yarn making refinements, as I explore both predictable as well as the unpredictable color combinations (maybe especially the unpredictable), my learned improvements of technique, and so on.
Techy stuff
20g of white undyed roving I acquired decades ago, the tweedy “nepps” from the slubby roving are excellent for tweed, 20g of mixed Shetland I over-dyed with color peacock, 10g of Corriedale aqua, and 10g of Corriedale dark denim.
I have found another gem in the “Hands” series I’ve been watching countless times over the last month, while I learn the technique of long-draw tweed spinning on my little wheel, and learn the art of color in fiber. And because I have always been so deeply inspired from nostalgia, this one is my new favorite. Enjoy!
I have been refining my technique of tweed color blending on my blending board.
I think of this fiber blending process as a micro wool mill, it is basically achieving the same thing in my mind, that the big wool mills do, the ones which card together whole dyed fleeces of wool and put through massive carding machines to make incredibly rich heathered blends for “tweed” yarn. Furthermore, I’ve been inspired to simplify the process as much as possible, and with as few tools as possible, in what I call ‘micro batches’ of around 30 – 50g.
First batt
In this post I show the different stages of each carding, and with only three times loading the blending board, I almost completely homogenized four separate colors!
An improvement on the last post in which I talk about my fiber blending recipe #3, this demonstration is ever so much easier, showing finer, wispier layers. Fine layering is key I think, to fewer cardings, meaning faster results.
Second batt
I’d like to add that the only equipment other than the blending board needed is some sort of apparatus to spin the fiber with; this can be a spinning wheel, or a rudimentary drop spindle, nothing fancy is needed, in fact, my wheel is very tiny and almost insignificant — I bought it for $250 brand new in 1987, and although there have been times I’ve wanted to upgrade to a big wheel, I resisted the expense, and was determined to do more with less. Thus, making my blending board was a very resonating positive instead of buying a very expensive drum carder, and I’ve learned that one can really have their own micro wool mill, with very little ~~ so empower yourself, and make some tweed yarn!
A retrospective thought: In carding the colors together three times, each time hemongenizing the colors into each other significantly more, I must say, I almost wished I’d spun it from just the first batt, as those colors looked so delicious so fresh and softly vibrant!
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
And now the technical stuff…
Corriedale roving: salmon, fuscia, amber, and ruby.
In this blend, I’ve used only colored Corriedale solid roving, no undyed or other fiber. The steps are illustrated with a slideshow at bottom of post, and they are:
Lay the colors in extremely thin wispy layers (as shown in slideshow) It will take a lot of layers to get through all of your fiber, but this is part of the carding process. I’ve used Corriedale roving in; 20g salmon, 10g fuscia, 10g amber, 10g ruby.
Comb down as needed until teeth are full and all your fiber layered. You can see this above, photo captioned “first batt” , and you can draw off into rolags straight from this step if you want a lesser homogenized look, or even just spin from the batt itself , sectioned into strips and coiled up.
With strips of first batt, layer into teeth again, just as thinly as you have been, because again, this a part of the homogenization process.
Lift batt and either spin from this, or layer once more into a third batt.
Lastly draw off into rolags.
Now, after all this playing with fiber blending on the thing which is called a “blending board” I would like to link to a few of my favorite sources online, all where a spinner/felter can purchase blending boards & fiber additionally, if a nifty fiber & spinning shop is nowhere near you to be found. (These are of course, USA sourced, but I am confident these can be found probably most anywhere, or available at shops which sell spinning equipment & tools.)
The Woolery a whole selection of blending boards, starting at $149
Oh, and in case you’re still unsure of what a blending board actually does, I’ve searched YouTube for you , all ready to surf through the fun blending videos… HERE
What I use: I’d like to say that even though I made my own from a 24″x12″ piece of carding cloth (read in this post) that it would be a lot easier to purchase a regular 12″x12″ blending board already made up, in a kit with brushes & dowels. However, carding cloth is available by the foot if making one’s own is preferred. Additionally, although many people use blending boards on their lap, I find it much better to use on a table top, secure & flat, with the foot of the board hooked on the edge of surface so I can pull the fiber into the teeth and pull the needles toward me when drawing off rolags — not away from me, or sideways. I have found that large slippery metal knitting needles work better than dowels, and use a pair of my mother’s old aluminum ones, size US 13- 9mm. Lastly, the only other tool I use, other than the needles and blending board itself, is a paintbrush comb, which can be found at a hardware store, something like this with rigid teeth and very sharp points, to lift the fiber off of the carding board. I use the palm of my left hand to gently and carefully hold the fiber against the teeth as my right hand pulls the fiber along the carding surface. That is all I use; carding board, needles, and comb.
All my posts related to Tweed Chronicles (blending on a carding board) in this category.
Tweedy mossy wool sausages are the most recent in my string of obsessive experiments in color blending, and this time in which I am basically carding by using the blending board alone! I lay down the layers, and lifting the batt after teeth are full, section out the batt and with little pieces I pull down into the teeth again and again and again. This process doesn’t need hand carders, I am able to homogenize colors & fibers with the blending board as the only carding tool!
The depth of color created from blending many colors together create a stunning result! Compare to the original solid dyed olive roving, to the tweedy rolags with a prism of colors hazing into each other, all together making a very similar green. (I will show spun yarn photos later, for I have notes on actual spinning that I want to go into a little depth about)
I am documenting my tweed yarn making process, hoping that I will arrive with a few tested methods which I can use as recipes in future to refine my own tweed color palette. I am inspired now, to do it all with only my blending board , because there is such freedom unfolding ahead of me, in discovering I can perfectly well make my own personal tweed colorway from an array of solids in the fiber of my choice ~~ making the vertical hand-made experience all that much more in depth & customized. I feel like I am my own micro wool mill, and I am unstoppable.
Meanwhile, I hope all of this fiber tech stuff does not bore the socks off of you ~~ if so, I promise, this will be a string of a few more posts, then I will move on to my usual philosophical banter about life on the mountain.
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
Now back to the techy stuff…
Edit In: I have posted HERE a final best method of my Fiber Blending Recipe #3.
Notes on Blending Recipe 3: For the best homogenization of color I have used only wool fibers, they are: undyed fawn Shetland, olive Corriedale, mallard (dark teal) Corriedale, and amber corriedale. Here is what I am doing , as illustrated by a photo slideshow at the bottom of the post. In case you want to make more than one micro batch, a good idea to write down weights of each color, so you can repeat process.
Portion out the fiber I want to mix, weighing if possible.
One at a time, thinly layer each color into the teeth of the blending board, combing down the fiber between each layer, until all the fiber is loaded onto the board and the teeth are full.
With comb lift whole batt off of teeth.
Divide batt now into small sections, and again thinly layer into teeth, pulling and drafting & “carding” as you thinly layer again. You are essentially carding using your hands to pull fiber along one carding surface.
Repeat this process until the fibers and colors are fully homogenized, or as desired.
Draw fiber out into rolags!
You can find all of my experiments in blending & Fiber Blending Recipes HERE
I am deeply immersed in fiber and color mixing with fiber.
More like obsessed!
This study of tweed & color is finally starting to take a direction.
It all began a few months ago when I was discovering one after another of old mill videos, and longing to make tweed yarn by my own hand, and without the colossal expense of a drum carder. I talk about it back in a mid-summer post. Since I made myself a blending board, I can’t leave it alone, and so naturally I’d be inventing my own blending recipes which I am merrily posting quite feverishly lately, and I am progressing quite rapidly to understanding tweeded color in yarn.
Okay, so these plum wool sausages are the most recent experiment, a hybrid actually, wherein I am including hand-mixing and also a bit of carding, with hand carders against my blending board, just like a flat rendition of a drum carder. You don’t need to use hand carders, you can use a wire tooth pet brush too.
((Actually, a bit of a spoiler, but next blending experiment I will only card, and using only the blending board without a hand carder, and in doing so I realize that doing both the hand mix and carding in the same is overkill. ))
This big beautiful batt of once carded fiber, gets loaded back on for a second finer mix, and then the final mix gets drawn off into rolags.
And then I’ve begun to spin….
For the best homogenization of color, I feel that I need to steer away from varying fiber textures, so this is all wool & alpaca, no bamboo or silk, because I want no clumping up of fibers if possible in this finer tweed color mix, with solid colors still coming out in hints , but no color splashing.
Here is the final result of this fiber blending recipe, although the camera is not catching the spectrum of colors well, they’ve hazed into a nice grey plum pudding!
Fibers used in this micro batch are: grey baby alpaca, blue Corriedale, red Corriedale, and fuscia Merino. Here is what I am doing , as illustrated by a photo slideshow at the bottom of the post.
Portion out the fiber you would like to mix, weighing if possible.
Divide into smaller manageable piles to mix by hand.
One at a time, mix fibers in the smaller piles by hand, holding each end and firmly pulling fiber apart. Repeat as desired — I did this about 10 times each, but you can do more or less.
Fill teeth of blending board with hand-mixed fiber.
With hand carder, card wool and then pull off of carders.
Repeat until all fiber has been carded, and lift off batt of remaining fiber on blending boad.
Fill teeth with carded fiber, combing between applications to fill teeth as much as possible.
This is my first experiment in hand-mixing the fiber before it gets loaded into the blending board to draw out into rolags. Going for a slightly more tweeded affect, I blend the fibers more — by hand — so the colors begin to haze into each other a little bit.
One thing, when using a blend of different types of fiber, adding shimmering slippery bamboo for instance, the odd fiber tends to clump up, which is desirable for a loose mix. Its a little more blended than the fiber lasagna, but not as blended as if it were carded.
Solid colors still coming out in stray untamed splashes…
Fibers used in this micro batch are: grey Corriedale, grey baby alpaca, fuscia solid Merino, salmon solid Merino, topaz bamboo. Here is what I am doing , as illustrated by a photo slideshow at the bottom of the post.
Portion out the fiber I want to mix, weighing if possible.
Divide into smaller manageable piles to mix by hand.
One at a time, mix fibers in the smaller piles by hand, holding each end and firmly pulling fiber apart. Repeat as desired — I did this about 10 times each, but it can be more or less.
Fill teeth of blending board with hand-mixed fiber.
Draw fiber out into rolags!
This method is pretty loosely mixed, but still more homogenized than my Blending Recipe 1 – fiber lasagna. Splotches of color still are varied and add color explosions to the spinning. And here it is spun up…
Spinning has a way of hazing together the colors more than the rolags show, quite a bit in the spinning of the singles, and even more after plying two singles together. I have to keep this in mind when I make the rolags, knowing the spun result will play the colors down far less dramatically.
Almost a disappointment, although I hate to admit, after careful ‘painting’ of the colors and all the work hand mixing, to have the colors melt into each other so much. Again, one learns for the result, how to prepare the fiber. For big splashes, I prefer the fiber lasagna, and for fine splashes, the hand mix.
And next will be my experiment with a combination hand-mix & carding, for a far more color integrated tweedy result, so watch this space!
