Blending Fiber!

Are you blending fiber for spinning? What fibers are you blending? Do you blend for color or for fiber content? What method do you use?

I plan on using my drum carder to blend some merino roving with alpaca. Just for fun!

Tags: blending, carders, color, drum, fibers, spinning

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Permalink Reply by christina | AlohaBlu on August 19, 2011 at 11:03am

oooh - i somehow missed this link but just took a looksy - how fun is that??

i came across another blog yesterday for blending using hand carders on knitty.com and had to go home a try it. i didn't use different colors of wool, rather a mer/silk blend that I had already dyed in a particular colorway, and it came out quite nice! I am eager to get home and blend up more. i pulled it into a loose roving 'nest' like she did. i'll have to take a photo and post but it was so much fun!

Permalink Reply by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on August 19, 2011 at 11:12am

Wow... what a great blog... I have some shades of merino that someone gave me a while back, and I had not decided what exactly to do with them. The colors are pretty vivid, but I could blend them into something quite different using this technique...Thanks for the link.

Permalink Reply by KnitWhich? on August 19, 2011 at 11:13am

I just got a pair of combs that can also be used as a hackle, and this thread is a great spot for me to learn about blending properly. I hadn't read anything on it for quite a while, so thanks, Christina, for highlighting it again for me!

Permalink Reply by christina | AlohaBlu on August 19, 2011 at 11:46am

YAY! i thought this blog was pretty informative so I'm glad to share. can't wait to see your 'creations' :)

Permalink Reply by Nutty4Knitting on August 19, 2011 at 12:04pm

Yummy!! Kind of amazing what finished color results from a wild set of components, isn't it?

Permalink Reply by christina | AlohaBlu on August 20, 2011 at 5:12pm

hi all - here's a quick photo of the blending i did with my hand carders.

the roving around the base is what it started as - mer/silk roving in my Ka'anapali colorway - and the 'nest' on top is what it looks like when blended. you can kinda see the bits of pink and yellow in the photo but it's better in real life. can't wait to see all of yours!

Permalink Reply by wendy on August 20, 2011 at 7:32pm

Oooo, love this! So very soft and pretty looking. Who'da thunk???

Permalink Reply by Nutty4Knitting on August 20, 2011 at 8:49pm

Lovely, Christina! Giving me lots of ideas! =)

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on August 21, 2011 at 10:33am

Beautiful, Christina. Thanks for showing the before and after.

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on March 14, 2011 at 11:49pm

That looks like a blast!

Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on August 11, 2011 at 2:13pm

We should play "Guess what this is" but I'll tell you. It's nylon roving.

I got it to mix with the wool I got for socks. In the class I took at Sock Summit with Clara Parkes, she recommended mixing up to 10% nylon with a long-wearing wool for socks. I bought some Romney and some Shetland wool at Sock Summit, so I want to try them out for socks. I also want to mix the nylon with KP's WotA spinning fiber and then dye it some pretty color(s) for the same purpose.
The nylon came from Paradise Fibers. I got a bunch because you get a discount for larger quantities and because if this works out, I may need lots.

Permalink Reply by KnitterGirl39 on August 11, 2011 at 7:27pm