Fibre and first day back!

Yay, we had our first day back at spinning class. I missed that weekly get together with people. We had a few new faces and it looks like myself, and one other will be doing the Certificate of Competence in Hand Spinning (CCHS) which is through the NSW Handspinners Guild. So I have till the end of February to get some samples together for the general meeting and get initial feedback. I'll talk more about courses I am doing in another post.

Awhile back a spinning friend had some fibre for offer from a bulk buy she did. As my friend and I both ordered from my spinning friends, our orders went to my friends house initially. So this is the gorgeous stuff that I had to wait until spinning class to get. (This was before my no buy, I was just waiting for them).

So six different batts/tops!

As you can see someone decided, I wasn't paying them enough attention so he decided to model for me!

This first one is a Superwash Merino in lovely Mauve, Brown and a kind of taupe colour.

Another pink/brown/purple in Merino.

These cute pink-purple rolags have a mix of merino, angora, Tencel and "a splash for sparkle". I have never spun from a decent rolag (just my early experiments).

Smells good, you may use it now!

This next one is an inspiration colour way for an entry into the Sydney Easter show. This roving is another interesting one as it is centre pull and self-striping....guess we will see what that is like. This batt has Merino, bamboo and Angelina. The brown and pop of turquoise are the colour draw for me and you will see the inspiration once I get my dyes.

While a dull white this Merino/cotton mix is so dangerously soft and cool. Due to the mix of long, and short fibres, this will be an exciting challenge for me and a good start for getting into cotton which I need to do for the CCHS.

This final one is to die for! A lovely mix of browns with a mixture of wool, recycled silk, sari silk, sparkles and bamboo. It is so soft and also seems to match the cat! I always thought he would make an interesting colour-way.

Were you collecting my coat each time just for this!?

Currently, what is on my bobbin is another unusual fibre that contains Stainless Steel! So that makes it conductive and if made into gloves with a fibre with the right ratio of stainless steel could use a touch screen without removing gloves and freezing your fingers! As with any of Ixchel's work it has some Angorino, Silk, Cashmere and Silk. I have some more Ixchel on its way! I am spinning this with a medium thickness. I am finding it ok to work with; I was having some issues with the fibre breaking off as I was not getting enough twist.

So I have been working with the wonderous Aura to get the right mix of twist and draw. By the end of the day, I was getting a nice consistent spin with it, I feel the combination of a new wheel and a new type of fibre was my initial problem.

Have fun spinning!

Posted in: fibre, ixchel, spinning