I spun this Egyptian cotton sample on an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel fitted with a high speed whorl. Egyptian cotton has a longer staple length so is less inclined to form pills. It was nice to spin and worked up into the swatches well.
I enjoy spinning cotton, but is definitely a sitting activity, either on a wheel, or with a tahkli spindle. I also avoid wearing black, as the small fibers accumulate everywhere.
The next completed fiber study page is for Tencel. Tencel is made from wood pulp and the combed fiber is shiny and silky looking, but it is not easy to draft consistently. I want to like it because it is made from waste product, but it fought me when I was spinning. Maybe it would be better if it were blended with something. Blending fibers is another whole rabbit hole.
Despite the difficulties spinning, my swatches are more rectangular and less skewed than with other fibers. I block most of my swatches, but the Tencel really benefitted from being wet and reshaped.
When I was in Michigan I visited the Sweetgrass Jacob’s Sheep farm and picked up a bump of two-tone roving. The shepherdess told me it a pain to separate out the colors for the mill, but I’m very glad they do because this was fun to spin. I chose to spin it with my Ashford Traveller spinning wheel fitted with the standard whorl and the sliding jumbo flyer, but with a standard size bobbin.
The standard bobbin held all the singles I spun from the bump, barely. I should have started with the jumbo bobbin, but now I know.
I love how this yarn is coming out! The random variations in the color ratios make me happy. Now, I’m not usually a fan of knitted variegated yarn, so I’ll have to ponder the use of this yarn for a while.
I’ve started a new-to-me fiber for my spinning walks: Black Welsh Mountain sheep. This is a threatened heritage breed developed in Wales and imported into the Americas in 1972. The sheep are naturally dark brown or black, which I love because there is no possibility of bleeding dye. I purchased roving from Camaj Fiber Arts, and have another Shave Em to Save Em sticker for my Livestock Conservancy Passport.
I’m spinning the fiber up with a top whorl drop spindle that I made, and holding the roving in an arm bag to keep it tidy. The fiber is enjoyable to spin, soft but not slippery with some elasticity and bounce. It spins thin well and I’m finding it easy to keep the yarn thickness even.
Building an aesthetically pleasing cop of yarn is a skill, and one that I haven’t found talked about much. I build up several wraps at the bottom (the part farthest away from the whorl), then move up the cop in sections while wrapping. I don’t make an even single layer, but do several wraps at the same level. I find this stays better and looks nicer. It does mean that I unwind a little before wrapping, because before spinning I wrap the yarn down along the cop and back up to the hook to keep it from unraveling while I spin.
I did decide to cable ply my angora hand spun yarn to go from a two ply to a four ply.
I am going to let time set the twist, so wrapped the final yarn into a center pull ball. This is yarn spun from raw angora rabbit fur, not carded not combed, not washed. I’ll created my swatches for my fiber book before water touches the fibers, just to see what happens.
Critters and Craft 