Jobo Designs

As a post holiday treat (using some of the money I earned on holiday custom knits) I ordered myself some batts from a company I?ve been dying to try ? The Cupcake Fiber Company.  Their products are tailored to lace spinners? with smooth blended colors, fibers like silks bamboo and merino, 6 ounce put ups, and measured weight batts? basically I just have to grab a batt and start spinning :)  And don?t you just love the packaging?  So simple and elegant? and neat for storage too!

?Water? Colorway? Merino Silk

Maybe after I finish a few things, I can take this and start out on a new spinning project.  I?d like to aim for a soft and airy medium weight lace yarn? and maybe pair it up with some beads of some sort.  with the 6 ounces I should be able to get excellent yardage and hopefully make something larger.

• I had some odds and ends of dyed Merino and Mohair Locks… and some very VERY bright orange merino roving leftover from last year’s “Spin Wild” Maritime Handspinner’s Retreat… So I carded some technicolor batts, with Orange as a base, and whatever odds and ends matched the Red, Yellow, Orange, Black, kitchen sink. 
• The Fiber was carded on my Strauch Petite, with much gusto, and little thought or planning.  I unfortunately forgot to photograph the batts...
• The Yarn was spun extra chunky on an Ashford Traveler, and plied back upon itself instead of leaving as singles
• The leftover screaming orange Merino was spun in a similar manner (what else was I going to use it for?)
• The Mittens:  a makeshift pattern
• -Cuffs in K1P1 Ribbing, cast on 22 stitches, 7 rows
• -Knit 10 rows plain, then knit 3 stitches in waste yarn a-la-Elizabeth-Zimmermann thumb technique, then knit up approximately 14 rows and decreased like a usual mitten top (K2 K2Tog around, 1 row plain, then K1 K2Tog around, 1 row plain, K2tog around, draw through.)

-Thumbs: 7 stitches picked up (3 bottom, 4 top) from the stitches after the waste yarn was removed, knit 8 rows, and drew through. Results: VERY orange Mittens…. hopefully some kid decides they really like Orange, and I can give these away. They aren’t as ugly as I thought they would be, but not exactly my style either!

I decided over the weekend that I should try and process some of Ruttiger's fluff... just to see what it would be like.  I have 2 good sized shoeboxes full of "combed" fur, aka the stuff that tangles around the wire comb when I am grooming him, and even though the little poofs are tangled, I wondered what a little pass on the handcards would do to them.

Well here is the result!  I did not measure or weigh anything.  I simply layered the 3 fibers and carded gently. 

I started with just a barely visible wisp of natural ecru Merino top, then teased open a layer of the soft Grey angora and carded.  Next I put a barely visible layer of gunmetal gray carbonized bamboo, then again a layer of the angora.  I repeated the process for a total of 4 layers (Merino+Angora, Bamboo+Angora, Merino+Angora, Bamboo+Angora)  and then removed the batts from the carders and "pulled" them like you would prep a batt for spinning (Not as rolags)  This gave me a semi worsted strip of fiber, which were promptly rolled into light airy nests!  The lumps and bumps in the angora teased out and carded up beautifully!  A perfect homage to the fluffy fella the fiber came from :)

  This photo shows a batt or two with the latest handspun mittens... using the yarn featured a few weeks ago on Yarn Candy Monday.  I think I might use the batts to make the lining, though that means I have a bunch of carding to go.  The bowl shown above has 10 batts/nests in it... which weighed just under 0.5 ounces!  (seriously it's like carrying an empty bowl, if you were to sneeze, it would blow away!)

Happy Monday :)