My new Brother Electric Drum Carder arrived a few days ago. I am so thrilled with it. Now I am able to blend colours and different fibres to make wonderful roving and art batts, using the wide variety of plant fibres that I have on hand.
I discovered as I was spinning some of these Spin Flora vegan fibres, that they are a bit easier to spin when there is a blend of different fibres. On their own, they can be quite slippery to spin, but mixing them into a blend, spinning is more manageable. I suppose the different fibres create a bit of friction between them, helping the fibres stay together better.
The first blend that I made was a combination of Dyed Bamboo Top, Soyabean roving and Pearl Infused Cellulose. After carding, I made these into small punis. If you are having trouble spinning vegan based fibres with a worsted draw, try rolling the fibre into a puni and spinning it from the end. This will create more of a woollen type of yarn, as the fibres are criss crossing each other. This also creates a softer and loftier yarn as there is more air space between the fibres.
I am spinning some of this fibre into a singles now, and will be Navajo plying it, to also give the yarn more texture.
For my second special fibre blend, I took inspiration from the flowers that are in bloom in my garden. A small patch of Orange Nasturtiums and Hot Pink Petunias combine to create a summery yarn.
This carded batt uses both commercially dyed Bamboo, hand dyed Soya silk (that I dyed with Earth friendly acid dyes) and some Tencel.
If you would like to try making your own flora blend yarns, you can find the fibres in my Web Shop.
I will also be creating more one-of-a-kind fibre blends that you can find in my online shops on Etsy, Folksy and Artyah.
Spin Flora on Etsy
Paivatar on Folksy
Spin Flora on Artyah.
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