What's That Fiber?

Day 154: Today, we're going to play a little game called "What's That Fiber?" I was curious as to whether my fingers could distinguish the bamboo/rayon in a mixed roving, so I put some samples under the microscope. There are two cellulose fibers here (as in "plant-based") and wool from two different breeds of sheep (Coopworth and Merino). Cellulose fibers are made by pulping plant material and treating it with chemicals to break it down into a solution which can be extruded, and therefore they tend to be smooth. On the other hand, wool is a protein-based fiber with a rough cortex (outer layer). As opposed to other sources such as rabbit or camel, sheep's wool varies in diameter from breed to breed. Merino is classified as a fine wool, rated at 15-25 microns; Coopworth comes in at 30-39. By comparison, an average human hair measures 70 microns. Cotton fibers average from 11-22 microns, rayon for fabric production falls between 8-25. Given this information, you should be able to identify the bamboo, cotton, Merino and Coopworth fibers shown above. In the top and bottom rows, magnifications are 40x, 200x and 800x. The second row shows a "mixed" fiber at 40x and 200x, with the two fibers isolated in the third row at 800x. Are you ready? Go! (Answers below.)

(Top row: cotton; Second row, mixed; Third row, bamboo and Merino; Bottom row, Coopworth)

Done And Dusted

Day 146: The Coopworth is done and dusted, and the amount of wool I was able to spin in the last three days using the "off the fold" technique was roughly equivalent to what previously would have taken me a week or more. Not only was it faster, I was able to spin more evenly. These last two skeins are significantly smoother than the first six. I decided to celebrate by purchasing some dyed and blended wool as a treat, investing a whole whopping $24 from my limited "entertainment" budget. And as sure as death and taxes, I was punished for splurging on myself when I discovered that one of my ductless mini-pumps had died in the night. It always happens that way. Any time I give way to temptation, something large and bad-tempered comes up from behind and bites me. Maybe if I treadle faster, I can stay warm until the repairman arrives tomorrow.

Old Dog, New Trick

Day 144: Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick? While poking around in YouTube for something else entirely (a recipe, I think it was), "Fractal Spinning" cropped up in recommended videos, and since I'd never heard of it under that name, I decided to watch it. As it turned out, the technique followed almost exactly the same method used for making tweed yarns, but the name had been brought up to the current era (I rather like the new one). However, the spinner was holding her wool differently than I'd seen before, so I checked her other videos and found one which referred to "spinning off the fold." Now I learned to spin before I entered kindergarten and have always held my wool the way my grandmother taught me. There are other ways to get the same results, certainly, and the draw method (long or short) is largely a matter of personal preference. That said, spinning off the fold, i.e., bending the wool fibers over a finger and allowing them to feed from their centers, intrigued me. I happened to have some nasty Coopworth wool on the wheel, hanging fire because it has been so unpleasant to spin, so I said, "Why not? It'll do for practice, and maybe I can get it out of here so I can spin that nice Corriedale in the cupboard." I pulled the wheel out of its corner and ripped off a chunk of Coopworth roughly as long as the wool staple (the length of a single fiber). Within the first few inches of spinning, I could tell that I had greater control over the amount of fiber being fed into the drafting triangle. Not only was I able to spin with a more consistent diameter, I could spin a finer strand even with the coarse Coopworth. Half an hour later, I was halfway through my alloted length of roving, which also told me that spinning off the fold was going to be significantly faster by virtue of not having to fuss with it so much. The Coopworth is nearly done but for plying (a quick job), and I will never, ever buy it again. And I am so impressed with spinning off the fold that I may just turn some of that lovely soft Corriedale into two-ply fingering weight for socks.