Sunday, June 15, 2008

Core Spinning-what's on my bobbin now...

I love to try, and try to perfect new things. I've got Navajo plying down, I've been carding like a mad woman (I've gotten fairly fast at it with minimal damage to my knuckles), and I've been trying new fibers.

I carded up a beautiful .75 ounce batt with natural black alpaca, natural grey wool, and beautiful rambouillet/angora blend in fuchsia. As soon as I took it off the drum carder I knew it wanted to be core spun.

I tried to core-spin mohair some time ago. I can't begin to tell you how unsuccessful that experiment was. I though I'd better practice before attempting it with this lovely batt. I started off slowly and worked about 20 yards with wool on a cotton core. I discovered that keeping the drafted fiber about 1/2 inch wide and working at a 45 degree angle worked best for me. Eager to get started I grabbed my batt, along with some black size 3 crochet cotton and got to work. I found that I was able to move along pretty quickly and managed to spin up about 50 yards in 20 minutes. Not bad for a first try.



I expected the skein to be unbalanced. I started with a balanced core and put twist into it. I shocked the yarn in hot, then cold water, and hung it with weight to dry. Still unbalanced.

Now, I've heard (or read) on various posts that a balanced core-spun yarn is possible but, unless you're using a hand spun single that is equally unbalanced, I don't see how it's possible to get a balanced yarn. I tried spinning the core onto a bobbin in the opposite direction before core-spinning and it was still unbalanced. Any ideas or suggestions?

With that skein done I'm now spinning up singles of the rambouillet/angora and it really is like spinning heavenly clouds.



I've ordered some rambouillet and am hoping to include it in some of my listings.

I would love to hear any stories and advice anyone may have about core-spinning.

Thanks for visiting!
Angelina
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