Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Beating the Blues with Batts

Above is a Jacobs ram named Frodo. I am debating continuing to keep this breed, since he is so aggressive and their fiber is not "next to the skin." The horns and color are interesting, but maybe not $300+ per year?
His companion looks like she might be the first to deliver this spring. She has that depressed look of pregnancy about her. I am feeding her extra grain, since I lost her mother to toxemia last year.
My cure for dreary skies is carding up cheerful color combinations. This is actually still hanging and I plan to spin it up tomorrow, unless someone comes in to buy it before I do.
All of my batts have a front and a back and they never match. The yarns turn out variegated and have lots of texture, since they are a combination of different wools and mohair.
This is a close up of the backside of the previous batt.
This is a cheery orange batt. They all measure between 20 and 30 inches wide and are 60 inches long.
This is a cool blue one. The other side has no blue in it at all.
A close up of one that I will probably spin. I added black Jacob/Shetland to it and the sheen of the mohair really popped.
This is the full length of the batt.
I came up with a new way to hang my batts for photographing. I am clamping one end of the batt between poles and hanging it from one of the shelves in the studio. I carded this batt up last night and it was so lovely that I left it hanging while I pulled strips off it to spin. One 4 ounce skein is drying and the second skein is almost done.

1 comment:

Susan Liber said...

I found your blog when googling for yarn stores in Tucson. I am going to be in the area in February to visit friends in Portal. (I am flying into Tucson and they are picking me up there.) I found your blog very interesting and I have saved it to check back again. By the way, your roving is beautiful....learning to spin is on my list of things to do. I have a drop spindle but don't remember how to use it - I learned in college but that was a long time ago.