Fiber in the Hands of an Angry Spinner

This awesome thing happened this week.

After the loom is threaded, the threads must be brought through the reed in the beater. In this case, most of the threads are brought through in pairs, for 16epi, except the ones on the selvedges, which are, for one inch, sett at 24epi.

The ends are then bundled and tied on to the cloth beam, then tensioned to make sure that they all have an even tension, allowing for perfect weaving. Then, scrap yarn is used to spread the bundles back out to make nice cloth. Here, I’ve used a sage yarn in the weft.

I suspected it would be pretty, but the real weft, black, is spectacular.  (Click on individual photos to enlarge).

The first yard!

My yarns for the brown bag project at the Cross Borders Weavers Guild in Colville.  We were to bring a brown bag with yarn, roving, beads, etc. to give to another member, who will create an object and return it at the November meeting.  I wonder what I’ll get back?

From the back:

Cheingora-wool mix, two ply, 4 strand round braid.

Cheingora-wool mix, plied with alpaca, 4 strand round braid.

Chiengora-wool mix, plied with alpaca, yarn.

Chiengora-wool-silver flash mix, plied with alpaca, yarn.

On bobbin: Chiengora-wool mix, single ply.

Two piles of fiber.  Carded (left), and picked (right).

Here’s the batt coming off the drum carder.

When the drum is full, you pull the batt off the carder to spin.  This drum carder has a nifty wooden “ditch” to facilitate this.  It also came with the lovely tool (basically a long ice pick with a screwdriver handle).

After picking, the fiber is run through the drum carder.  This further blends the fibers, and lines the up in the same direction, which allows for better, smoother spinning.