Spinning Side Trip

Day 62: With five out of six bobbins of "Salt & Pepper" spun up (two already plied together), I decided to take a short side trip into woolen before working on the last one. Paradise Fibers experienced a fire last spring, and put all their undamaged stock on sale. I picked up several things, among which were the "Green Chaos" I just finished, and a bag of eight 25-gram balls of carded Corriedale in a rainbow array of shades. Before I go on, let me explain a couple of the different ways wool is prepared for handspinning. I have gotten very spoiled on combed top. Also known simply as "top," the individual wool fibers are in alignment lengthwise. The spinner draws the fiber out from its ends to make a durable, dense yarn using the worsted method. Yarn spun worsted has less loft than that spun in the woolen style because the fibers lay close to one another with little air space in between. Top is ideal for spinning in the worsted manner. On the other hand, roving has the fibers more jumbled together. With work, it can be spun to give something approaching worsted, but it is really better for spinning the woolen way. There are many other preparations as well, but the distinctions aren't germane to this particular discussion. However, as you can see in the photo, the preparation I am spinning here is an absolute spaghetti of fibers! This is commercially prepared "carded wool," just as it would be rolled off hand carders and formed into rolags. It can only be spun in the woolen style which results in a less uniform but loftier (and therefore warmer) yarn. As I mentioned at the beginning, I bought a bag of eight balls of carded Corriedale, knowing that I'd have to spin them in the woolen manner despite preferring to spin worsted. I played around mentally with several colour sequence options, and finally just decided to break each ball into two sections, spin each piece as a single and ply them together as a single colour. That way, I can knit a striped hat or scarf, changing colours as desired.