my Spinning Frustration... help!

Sep 14, 2007 4 Replies
Y

Hello all,



I need help with spinning this time:



I just brought this beautiful fiber from local Sheep and Wool festival:



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to spin it into thicker 2 ply yarn and make a nice winter hatand mittens for my son. The fiber is a blend of 40% kid mohair (second cut), 32% alpaca and



28% lambswool, everything naturally dyed. I simply couldn't resist this golden mohair luster. And I expected to get something like this all the way :

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my idea turned into a total disaster: instead of evenlybeautiful two color thread I'm getting a 'first-timer' mess onspindle, uneven and with places without mohair, like this:
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fibers have very different staple lengths and very differentqualities, and I cannot get even drafting. I'm not an expert but I canspin fine and even, like here:
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is there a specific way to deal with such combinations or this isall I can get? May I change somehow my technique before I 'ruined' allthe beauty?



It probably will be beautiful anyway, although it's not what I planned.



Still hopeful,



Yulia



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W

That does look tasty.

Eh, that's the hazard with fiber blends.

You can try carding a bit by hand to more evenly blend the fibers. You'll still have different staple lengths but you'll have less chance of encountering blobs of single fiber types as you go along.

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V

Hi Yulia,

I have no great advice but just wanted you to know that I understand your frustration. I think you've got a challenging fibre mix there. Do you have a wheel at all or are you just a spindle gal? I suspect even drafting of this fibre on a wheel may be easier but that may just be because my spindle skills are not great and I really rely on my wheel to produce a nice yarn. Your spindle skills are clearly superior to mine.

VP

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C

In _Your Handspinning_, Davenport spends pages on carding, both explanation and pictures. She covers mixing fibers on the cards. The book is long out of print (even of the fairly recent reissue) but it can be gotten through libraries. If your library does not have a copy, ask about InterLibrary Loan. Your Handspinning, by Elsie G. Davenport. Select Books, June 1978 (this is the American reissue).

Cece

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Y

Not sure how you are dealing with it initially, if you are spinning it from it's length then pull it into strips so that you aren't holding great thick wedges of it, and ease it out into spinnable widths, and mix colours together that way... if you are spinning it as a semi worsted from over your finger then you may be picking up more of one colour than the other.... ?

higz Cher

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