Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Handcarded goodness

New fibery goodies

Did I ever gush about my new handcarders? No? Well, I LOVE them! It is so fun to load the cards with bits of fiber in a bunch of colors and then swish swish, see what they turn into.
I bought the cards without knowing how to use them, but I was pretty confident I could find an internet resource or two. Indeed.

This article from Knitty is great for color combining
This video from the motherload of spinning resources, The Joy of Handspinning, is perfect.

Fire in the Sky

The above yarn (Fire in the Sky) is spun from the first batt I blended. Mostly gray local wool, handdyed orange and then blended with a bit of gray and blue wool (the blue that you see wasn't blended in, but spun in).
I spent most of the last two weeks playing around with color combos and trying to perfect the bit that comes after carding: turning it into a spinnable form. When it comes off the cards, it's really just a filmy cloud of fiber...too ephemeral to easily spin from. Using the Knitty article as a jumping off point, I devised a way to make it into roving:

rosy roving

The above pink roving* is the first unspun fiber I'm going to offer in my shop and I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm not sure why...but carding is still new to me and I guess I'm worried someone's going to scold me! I can NOT come up with a name for it...any suggestions?

The winner will get 5% off their next BCB purchase and the winning name will be chosen by my whim. (nothing with the word "rose" in it will be considered, because I've already come up with and rejected it)

*Now, many spinners confuse roving with top, and what I have here is roving.
The difference? Top is combed fiber, all of the fibers parallel with less air between them. Roving is carded, full of air and not as smooth as top.
For very clear definitions of all fiber preps, see the Spin-off article, availble for free download here (PDF).
And for definitions of all fiber-y things, this is a great resource from the Spindle and Wheel.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very pretty! It reminds me of candy so it has to be synonymous with sugary goodness. How about divinity? Or cotton candy?

Denise

Tanya said...

I'm thinking you should call it "Pink Elephants" like the ones from Dumbo.

calicokitty6 said...

I was thinking of candy fluff.

gradschoolknitter said...

Sugar and Spice? I don't know if that's great but since someone else already said cotton candy, it's all I've got on the fly. I'll be back if I think of something better!

Cynthia A. said...

Fuschia Storm? Kind of looks like a little storm-cloud at sunset.

Cynthia A. said...

Whoops! I didn't see that you already had a "Fuschia" name for one of your etsy handspun yarns - maybe they are family.... ;)

mooncalf said...

I'd call it Raspberry Fool. Delicious and pink.

There's a BBC recipe here if anyone has raspberries to spare:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/food/recipe76.shtml

dawn said...

Bubble gum. Of course.

Or, strawberry cream?

September sunset?

dawn said...

I also sell rovings and tops. I did a perhaps not very technical blog post on the differences b/w the two on my blog a few days ago. I'm curious which you prefer to work with and why. I like both, can't really decide which is better, so I continue to dye both.

Morandia said...

I kinda like "Hot Mamma"

Linda D said...

Looks like Raspberry Beret to me!

Lydia said...

Raspberry Sherbet

Anonymous said...

Reminds me the color of a Lady Slipper. Very pretty.

Witchypoo said...

Cherry Sorbet
Sweetheart Roses
Peonies
It's beautiful whatever you call it

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking Raspberry Daiquiri or Raspberry Mojito...or maybe Razzle Dazzle.