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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

All Work And No Play?

No way!

Remember the Christmas colored Cotswold fleece? Well, Saturday I took some to our Appalachian Fiber Guild meeting and flick carded (like a small dog brush) the ends to open (or fluff up) the fibers up a little.



Sunday I started running it through the Louet drum carder (the carder on the right if you click to follow that link) to blend the colors. Here it is after the first pass through.



This is after the second trip - each time blends the colors a little more. Don't you just want to bury your hands in there?



Here is a comparison of three runs through versus two. You can still see a little striation in the darker batt on the top as compared to the more smoothly colored batt on the bottom.



Monday and Tuesday I spun these small sample yarns. I used my Jensen Production wheel and I believe the darker yarn is a fingering weight and the lighter gray is lace weight. I was very happy with both (Cotswold has got to be one of the best beginner fibers to learn to spin thin) and can't wait to do some test knitting.



Also, I spent a little time over the last few days perusing patterns on Ravelry and today I downloaded the pattern to make this scarf. Click the scarf photo to link to more information on the pattern and designer.



You can see that the reason I went to extra "trouble" to super blend the colors is to make sure there wouldn't be any color distractions to take away from the beautiful pattern.

Now if I can just follow directions....and try not to work too hard ;-).

6 comments:

Michelle said...

That Cotswold looks very shiny; I love luster! Can't wait to see what you sent me!

Kara said...

So beautiful! I think if I were to add any other sheep to my spinner's flock it would be a Cotswold.

Dianne MacDonald said...

Gorgeous fiber, beautiful pattern. You are starting the new year off in an ambitious way!

Claire the Shepherdess said...

Oh my, I really do want to bury my hands in that fiber! It looks like a soft little raincloud. Actually, my favorite thing to do is softly touch the fiber to my cheek, like it's a little pillow. Seems I always do that when I order rovings or batts online and they arrive in the mail. Soooo soft...

~Molly~ said...

Everyone in the room had to turn and see why I sucked in my breath!! That is just gorgeous!!!

Molly

Dalyn (AKA The Queen of Quite Alot) said...

Gorgeous! I am so intrigued by raising sheep, harvesting fleece, and spinning- I don't do any of it, but I think it's a beautiful art and am so impressed with you!