Blue Mountain Handcrafts - Phat Fiber Sample

Blue Mountain Handcrafts - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Now here is a sample I can fall in love with. A carded mix of domestic wool, firestar, fine merino and some extra sparkle, it's just a whole bunch of fun. Blue and green are the dominant colors of "The Frog Prince" but there's a strip of orange running through it as well. Blue Mountain Handcrafts gets extra kudos for very clearly labeling the contents of the batt and sending MORE fiber than was labeled. The batt is marked at 10g, but it measured out at 12.2g.

This is not what I would usually spin. I would call this sort of thing an "art batt". The crazy colors cause for some interesting play, but more than that there are nubs of fiber that don't spin in evenly. What distinguishes this from my disappointment with the After the Sheep batt is that merino/bamboo ought to spin smoothly. A more esoteric blend like this is suited to neps and nubs all over the place.

Because they were so generous with the sample I was able to play with it a little bit. I attempted to spin the first sample as a loosely-spun single. My attempt came out with quite a bit of thick-and-thin. I'm just not that accustomed to evenly spinning with long-draw and the batt itself stuck together in places.

To combat this, I tried re-carding part of the batt with my Ashford student hand-cards. I carefully carded all the colors together, blending them well. This spun much more evenly, but still was marked with small nubs throughout.

Finally I took the last of the batt and spun a two-ply directly from the last section of roving. Like the single, the colors shine out of this sample quite clearly, but because it is plied on itself there is some chromatic blending.