Hardcore

Adventures in core spinning....

It seems like you are more willing to try a new spinning technique when the fiber isn't one you directly invested in.

I received 2 really awesome batts as a gift this Christmas..and was itching to get them on my wheel for the rest of the trip in New Mexico. Not that I didn't receive a lot of other really awesome and thoughtful gifts..but this blog was intended to be largely about spinning and all things fiber-y.

I set the batts on the table in the kitchen and stared at them every time I walked by. An interesting blend of mohair and wool, in a deep chocolate brown and raspberry purple. They had traveled all the way across the country, in to Canada, and back to the desert, and were now sitting there on my table waiting to be spun.
Ohhh the dilemma. I have been on a personal challenge to spin as fine as a hair for a while now..singles that have to be separated by tissue on the bobbin so they don't get lost fine.

But this stuff begged for something different. Maybe something I have never tried before?

Noo....these are good batts stick with what you know.

But if you do that..then you never learn anything new and you never challenge yourself.

But if you try something new and totally hose it, you can't just run down to the fleece store and buy 2 more of these .

arrrrrggggggg......

So they sat on the kitchen table and caused me anxiety every time I walked by them. Every once in a while I would stick my hand in the bag and squish them around a little. I even held the bag up to my ear one day to see if they would speak to me. No such luck.

A few nights ago, while thinking about my sample project for phatfibers (www.phatfiber.blogspot.com/) I got the idea. Yes I would try something new..core spinning.

The fibers were perfect for it, shiny, with the bounce of mohair, and a way to preserve the cool colorway that plying would have made muddy.

I took the batt out of the bag and inspected it closer . Yum. So the theory behind core spinning is not difficult. You pick a core, usually crochet cotton or a 2 ply yarn, and spin your fiber around the core at a 90 degree angle, wrapping the core with fiber. I also read a tip about de-plying your core a little bit first to make a more blanced yarn. Easy enough.

I dug through my supplies and found a spool of crochet cotton, hooked up to the wheel and began to untwist it. I treadled..treadled, did it some more. I stopped to turn the TV on to have something to watch while I was treadling. I recited the periodic table of elements while I treadled. I sang songs to myself while I treadled. I decided that the mechanical action of it was ingrained in my body enough to allow me a few minutes to nod off while I treadled. And then I treadled some more. Ok, realistically it was only about a half hour. But it seemed to take forever, and in hindsight it was the longest part of the whole danged process.

When I was done, I had a nice bobbin full of untwisted cotton thread, hopefully better able to grab my happy fibers and make a yarn that would be the envy of the gods. Or at least knittable.
Actually, while I uploaded the picture of my nice bobbin, I noticed an X Box controller sitting in it. Next time I have to de-ply some cotton thread, I am going to load up Halo and have fun blowing make believe things up to pass the time it takes to treadle.

I grabbed the batt and tore off a long strip. Pulled a few fibers out of the end to check the staple. Probably not neccessary but has become a habit. A good long staple, lots of bounce from the mohair. Difficult to separate the colors but that could be cool in its own right.

Loaded up a new bobbin, and reverse threaded it with the de-plyed cotton as a leader. Mumbled an incoherent prayer to nothing in particular and began to treadle.

My lovely strip of fiber wound on like a groupie to the lead singer of a hot band, then promptly jammed in the orifice of the wheel.

Damn.

With suprisingly minimal swearing, I patiently unwound the strip of roving and decided I should probably do the smart thing and pre-draft it a bit. Duh. I even had my patient hubby take a picture of it...what was an 9 inch strip of fiber is now several feet long.

Yes, I am in my pajamas, no you are not allowed to make snarky comments about it. Just keep reading, ok? Wow. I really need to vacuum my work area....

Ahem..Round 2 of core spining adventures. Treadled again and let the end of the fiber catch, and watched while it gleefully wound around the cotton thread. Success!! Wooo!

It took a bit of finagling to make sure the fibers covered the core completely, bits of white thread kept worming up to irritate me. Next time I will use a darker core to match the fiber.

The only other issue I really had with it was the yarn was a bit too thick to go through the orifice, and would have to be hand wound on to the bobbin. I also had to change from my scotch tension over to double drive on a really large whorl to get the strongest take up possible.

My first bobbin was a bit of a mess. The second wound on a bit more smoothly after much fussing with the wheel to get the settings right.

When I was done, I had 4 skeins of bulky soft shiny yarn. Preeeeetty.

I finished them off in hot soapy water and pounded the bejeezus out of them to open the fibers up around the core and hopefully stabilize them on to it a bit more. Even after de-plying the thread, there is still a lot of active twist in these yarns. I gave them a good thwack on the counter then wet blocked them by hanging them on a rod with a three pound weight. I am super uber pleased with the results, and am now core spinning all of my scraps I can get. Sam the Siberian Husky is now running and hiding when he sees me coming towards him with the comb in my hand.

So here is the result of my core spinning adventures:

It is soft, spongy, has a bunch of character and has a really good hand. I have it hanging off a chair until I decide what to knit it in to . Should I try something new?

Stick with the old standby scarf?

Make it in to something really cool and artistic?

Arrrrrggggg.......