Yesterday I filled roughly half an EEW 6 bobbin with my Hebridean blend top! I was using a mongrel long draw: partly English, partly supported (mainly to coax more fibre into the thread when it was getting too fine), and not all that long due to my osteoarthritis. I call it my Cripple Crutch Drag Til It Hurts Draw…
These bobbins are BIG. They can hold 200g (8oz for the colonials) of singles. That means there’s close to 100g on it already. I bought 500g of this blend originally, and spun a sample to see what it was like. The sample is somewhere in my completed-spins bin. The bag of fibre now weighs around 300g, minus the sample and what’s on the bobbin. I thought it would take all of TdF, including the Tour Des Femmes, to slog through this fibre, but I’ve spun about 20% of it in a few hours, and have a (presumably) 100g sample already done??? This does not compute… I’m going to have to re-jig my TdF goals if this keeps up.
I also made a start on my 3-ply fractal spin on Blaise, my Herring wheel. That was not as epic as the Shetland. The fibre, which is sumptuous, is a bit compacted from being in the braid, so it’s fighting me all the way so far – snapping, not coming out easily despite pre-drafting, and of course I’m not used to the side-to-side drafting necessary to maintain colour separation – I’ve only done one fractal spin before. Blaise can be a little temperamental, too. Sometimes she sings along producing invisible gossamer strands fit for an emperor, then suddenly it’s DK singles or nothing and don’t even think about plying – this lady is not for turning (anti-clockwise).
I should add something about the decision to do a 3-ply fractal spin. There are basically 2 reasons:
- I tried to pull the released braid into 2 sections, but it insisted on parting into 3*.
- A 3-ply fractal spin requires 4 bobbins – 1 for each single, and 1 to ply onto. By sheer coincidence, Blaise has 4 bobbins – 1 original, and 3 purchased recently from Frank Herring & Sons.
So obviously, it was a thoroughly-researched, analytically considered, and deliberative choice, as is usual for me.
Stop laughing, there at the back!
I did consider dividing the 2nd length into 2, and the 3rd into 4, before wising up. Instead, Bobbin 2 will consist of 3 x 1/6ths, and Bobbin 3 will have 3 x 1/9ths, as is tradition.
*: This is often the case with commercial combed top. The mills have 3, umm, extruders where the final top is spat out. These are positioned close together in a triangular shape, so the top comes out as one length, even though it’s really 3. IYSWIM.
thornmaiden.com 