Lampyridae - Phat Fiber Sample

Lampyridae - Phat Fiber sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

If you want to see a beautiful drum-carded batt, then Lampyridae is a good place to look. This lovely poof is our next installment in Phat Fiber spinning. It came packaged up in a small pop-up box and tied to the lovely little card you see here. The verse on the front is "Beware ye do not slumber by the water, for the devil's darners shall knit thine eyes closed!". This quote references old myths that call dragonflies "The Devil's Darners" and is the theme and name for this sample.

Unfortunately there isn't a content list for this sample, but I'd lay odds on wool and either milk, soy, or silk blended in. The other major disappointment is that after all that packaging (pop-up-box, blue ribbon, card and gold ribbon holding the card on) there was only 2.5g of material provided. I realize this is a sampler, but 2.5g isn't even 1/10th of an ounce. If I had any advice to the seller, it would be to dump the packaging and include a full 1/4 ounce of fiber instead. I can't spin cardboard, or even re-use the box with the amount of hot-melt glue that was applied to it.

With so little available I didn't save a little tuft for reference later, but rather spun the entire sample. I also went for spinning the fiber as thin as I could get it (and still want to knit it). So with that in mind, I carefully spun it worsted to see what I could get.

The batt drafts very easily and the fiber was lovely as it slipped through my fingers. I was pleased that the quality seemed to be high and I didn't run into nubs or noils. I found myself wishing for quite a bit more to play with, but went with what I had and was able to create 15 yards of 2-ply yarn. The resulting yarn is very soft with a nice luster from the blending and the subtle shifting of blues and greens creates a lot of color-interest.