I am more than half way through my fiber preparation, and I am really happy to say that I have made a breakthrough with the blending board! In the last two years I have been doing a lot of fiber blending experiments but it seems recently I’ve noticed my results are overly compact rolags, so much that spinning has been difficult. I couldn’t even see why I ever decided trying to spin from the rolag method or why I thought it was better.
Backstory: If you see my post from August 2017 “Woolen or Worsted?” , I muse a little bit about the preparation of the wool & that I noticed how it affects the end result of the yarn. Whether taken off the blending board in one big batt, and pulling apart into smaller sections, or using a ” diz ” to gather a continuous roving from your carded fiber, or like I am doing here, making rolags around two dowels from off the blending board, in a perfect world, a spinner should try all ways I would think. I am aiming for a bouncy airy “woolen” spun yarn, and why I’m practicing spinning from rolags.
After the first 50g color test of my 500 gram project of English Rose Tweed blend, I realized I may have a technique error. I remember back in my first blending projects , especially this one, blended with super fine & fluffy ingredients, and how light & airy the rolags were, and so very easy to spin. So I tried a change with this batch; I lifted more and pulled over the teeth less. That’s it! Just more lifting when rolling the fiber around the dowels ( I use slick aluminum needles) to make the rolags, and less pulling, and that took a lot of friction out of the process. I guess my technique had morphed without my thinking about it, and over time I was working the rolags with a massive amount more friction. Well I had a big ” duh ” moment, and now I am conscious of this I am getting fluffy frothy whipped woolly confections again, to spin later. Later that is, when I’m through blending all of the rest of the carefully measured ingredients to English Rose Tweed. Committing to the long-haul of a big project is something I haven’t done in a long long time. This is work I tell you! But just look at these beauties….
each one like mouthwatering fruity candy floss . . .
into these fluffy rolls . . .
Magically transforming, while colors fuse
and melt into these opalescent silvery grey rolags to spin !
I have been thinking about this mix for a year now, and finally was able to do it ! It is a pastel variation of my original recipe mix “Color Saturated Neutral” , an experiment I did over a year ago. I am amazed at how the colors just melt into each other , and these pale pastels washing out into a silvery opalescence ready for spinning. This is how I did it . . .
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Techy stuff for Opalescent…
Equal parts of pastel primary colors: pink, pale yellow, light blue — plus — pastel secondary colors: pale green, lavendar, pale orange. These were 6g each, for a total of 36g.
NOTE: Each time you blend the mix, the colors become less distinctive and magically the all-over color becomes nearly a neutral. These were blended 3 times, then a 4th before drawing out rolags. Blend only once or twice for most colorful results, 3 or 4 times for very subtle and subdued ” neutral ” results.
Lifted bat, and sectioned into strips of about 3, layered again, loosely.
Drew off rolags.
I’m naming this colorway blend ” Opalescent ” .
See ALL color blending experiments & recipes archived inTweed Chronicles
(( Click 1st image in mosaic to go to slideshow with commentary. ))
6 grams of each color
pastel primary & secondary colors.
Ready to blend!
First pale blue…
then pink…
then pale yellow…
then pale orange…
pale green…
and pale lavendar.
Combed fiber into teeth after each color is added.
Lift batt with comb.
Section into three pieces, and rolled for photograph.
Repeat for a second blend
And a third. Colors are washing out dramatically!
One last blend, then rolled off rolags on to knitting needles.
How good it is to be back to my Tweed Chronicles! I seriously have been yearning for this moment for what seems forever, thinking about wool blending in my sleep. So having moved tools of the trade into the new loft room, it is with great celebration that I resume my blending experiments, just as I was doing two years ago. I have been contemplating a pale palette over the last year, ” pastels ” just appeal to me these days, wanting to tame the intensity in life with soothing color I suppose. I received so many gifts from the spinning community after the wildfire, not only a beautiful Ashford Traditional spinning wheel from “L” (thank you so much L , I am forever grateful, and the Ashford is working beautifully after being stored four seasons in a shed!) but there were many gifts of spinning wool too (thank you & hugs to everyone who sent wool!). So now having everything nicely within reach, I looked over it all and got an idea with a hand-dyed color braid I found, by Nest Fiber Club, called “Muse”.
Wanting to lighten up the color a great deal, I added one part white. I went from these . . .
To these . . .
to these . . .
and finally to these . . .
I reckon I will be spinning up these tasty wool sausages next and seeing how my hand at the wheel does after an unplanned hiatus. This was the perfect re-entry into my blending experiments too, although I was a bit forgetful about the steps, it came out lovely. Now as I need some practice again with my recipe documentation, here’s how I did it . . .
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Techy stuff for One + One…
Recipe I am calling “One + One” is 1 part hand-dyed colored roving plus 1 part undyed roving in natural white, grey, brown, or black, etc. (in this case white).
I split a sliver off the “side” of the length of dyed roving, along the entire length so that it has the same colors in sequence as the hand-dyed roving. I then weighed, and it was 28g. I then matched the same weight in ultra fine white merino, totaling 56g.
Then divided the two rovings equally into 4 thinner slivers ( made into little rolls to photograph) to hold together while drawing onto the teeth of the blending board, until the teeth were moderately full ( which actually only took three times, and why you see my wool rolls count go from 4 to 3)
Using paintbrush tool to lift batts from board, (rolling up again to photograph 1st mix) I drew out each roll onto the board again as before, resulting in slightly finer mixing of color, for a second batt.
Repeated last step again, ending after a third time.
Drew off rolags.
See ALL color blending experiments & recipes archived in Tweed Chronicles
Click 1st image in mosaic and go to slideshow in sequence with commentary…
Nest Fiber Club “Muse”, blending board, needles, and paintbrush cleaner.
28g of color braid, 28g of fine merino in natural white.
Divided into four “fiber bonbons” to draw onto blending board in four batts.
Hold dyed & white together, for first draw on to teeth.
Fill up teeth
more…
Blended once.
Draw each batt out again
Lift batt off teeth with paintbrush comb
Blended twice.
Batt is ready to draw into rolags
Around 2 large knitting needles, pull fiber off of teeth into rolags.
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!
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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.
I am more than half way through my fiber preparation, and I am really happy to say that I have made a breakthrough with the blending board! In the last two years I have been doing a lot of fiber blending experiments but it seems recently I’ve noticed my results are overly compact rolags, so much that spinning has been difficult. I couldn’t even see why I ever decided trying to spin from the rolag method or why I thought it was better.
