Friday, December 08, 2006

Hmm, here's a thing. I spun this up from rollags made from the fleece that Ro gave me (the gray bit) and merino/silk commercial predyed tops from Wingham Wool Works. Then plied the two together.

Because the dyed stuff was combed in varying colours I spun it as worsted, whilst the other was spun as woolen. When I soaked it to set the ply the woolen ply "bloomed" more than the worsted, though before that they were a similar thickness. I'm assuming this is because there is more air trapped inside it. Is this normal?

I'm not particularly bothered by it as I quite like the effect, though I think it's worked better on this than it did on the one I plied with green. (no picture of that as I've already knitted it into the blankie) I would like to know why certain things happen so that I can reproduce it or avoid it next time though.

I've got some plain predyed merino which I can card into rollags and try out plied with the gray/brown fleece and see if that reacts the same way.

I've also bought 400g of white raw cheviot fleece and 400g of brown raw cheviot fleece on ebay which was waiting for me at the post office collection place yesterday. It looks as if it's in good clean condition and I think it was a snip at about six quid (including postage). I'll keep you informed on how it turns out.

3 comments:

Artis-Anne said...

I think its lovely and I have found out exactly the same thing and I agree with the fact that there must be nore air in the woolen ply. Glad your E-Bay fleece were okay I bought two and they were rubish (but at that time i knew no difference )so from now on I will only buy if I can see the fleece or from someone I know. Luckily I have loads of contacts via the guild

Woolly Wormhead said...

Yeah, it's normal for the woollen/carded yarn to fluff up more - it's loftier because of the air.

belaybunny said...

I like all the spinning and dyeing you've been doing. very pretty.