Mar 16, 2010

Wool, transformed: from locks to roving, by hand

Anyone remember this wool?

2.2 ounces hand-dyed Merino wool


I started carding it in Week 7 of Craft or Bust. When I bought it last October, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it — you know. It was one of those fibery impulse buys. I liked the colors, I wanted to give the shop owner a sale ... and that planning thing is overrated. ;) (Some of science's most famous discoveries were accidental! And there's a story about how the therapeutic qualities of lavender were discovered, too. But anyway.)

After it aged in the stash a little, I decided I wanted to separate the colors. Of course, since the wool wasn't dyed in a way that produces neat, orderly little packets of color, there's a lot of variation and color overlap even within a single lock of wool. (This is fine with me, since it will produce yarn with a depth of color rather than one with a flat, even color.) There were only 2.2 ounces of it, and that's almost the amount I get out of one batt on my drum carder, so out came the hand carders. And voila:

Sapphire Merino


Each little ball was carded as a batch (a tiny batt, if you will) on the carders, then removed, rolled into a rolag, and pulled into roving. Looks a lot neater now, doesn't it? :D There's still some texture in the roving, a few slubs here and there, because honestly, I wasn't in the mood to make obsessively smooth spinning fiber. Some days, with some wool, it seems like too much effort. And I don't mind texture. The yarn that comes out of this will definitely have some personality. :D

Can you guess what the finished yarn will look like? ;)
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