As VP of our guild in 2012, one of my responsibilities (along with my good friend Babeth) was to see that there was a program each month. In the spring, she came up with the idea to have volunteer spinners work with identical fiber and report on the results. The guild loved the idea and added further embellishments. The end result is that 4 members carded fiber. We weren't to tell what we were carding, and we needed to make two 4-ounce batches of fiber. Then 8 spinners would take over, each spinner receiving one of the 8 batches of fiber. Remember, there were only four different fiber types so that there were pairs of spinners with the same raw material. We wanted to challenge the spinners and also see how and why they spun the yarn they spun.
Then the yarns would be passed on to 8 more volunteers, who would create a finished product. I was one of the carders and I'm now one of the finishers. I received my yarn in late September but with surgery, the death of my brother, the holidays and radiation treatment, there just wasn't time to consider what to make or even find a chunk of time to work on it. I now have a plan.
Here's the yarn I was given by Babeth, who did a lovely job of spinning:
It's local Icelandic raised and carded by one of our members into batts without separating the tog and thel (long outer coat fibers and short inner coat fibers from this double-coated breed). Left to right:
1. 45 yards of 2-ply tog combed out of the batt, spun worsted
2. 130 yards of singles tog pulled out of the batt, spun worsted
3. 40 yards of 2-ply thel combed out of the batt, spunsemi-woolen
4. 100 yards of singles 'art yarn' spun from the batt pulled into strips, spun woolen and fulled slightly
What would YOU do with these 4 yarns? You'll have to wait to see what I came up with (if I can manage to finish it by next week), because the guild unveiling is tomorrow and I don't want to spoil the surprise by posting publicly.
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