Transcript for
Episode 111:
Get Started Blending Fiber
Do you create your own fiber blends? Blending different kinds of fibers together can be a great first step in designing a yarn for a specific purpose, because you can choose fibers whose properties can add up to more than the sum of their parts.
But if you're just getting started, blending fibers can be a bit intimidating. Not only do you need to understand the characteristics of each fiber in the blend, but you'll also need to figure out how to prepare the fibers to make the most of those characteristics and ensure that you enjoy the process of spinning your extra special blend.
Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 111 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love. In this episode I'm going to point you to some resources to make you more fiber savvy and help you get started making great blends. I'm also going to talk about the one thing that determines whether any blend is a dream to spin--or a nightmare.
Since our theme for this month is fiber, I'm not going to talk a lot in these episodes about the mechanics of actually doing fiber prep, but I promise I will be returning to prep and prep tools in October's episodes.
If you'd like to take a deeper dive into the characteristics and best uses of different fibers, I've made a downloadable PDF for this episode that lists all my favorite books and videos on that topic. That PDF will be available in the "free resources" section of The Flock, under "podcast freebies."
Staple length is everything
There aren't a lot of rules about blending fibers. You can combine anything: wool and silk, cotton and cashmere, or whatever else you have available to you. It's all fair game, as long as everything in the blend can be cleaned the same way.
There is one rule, though, if you want to make spinning the blend a happy experience: everything in your blend should be about the same staple length. Depending on what you're using, this may mean that you'll need to cut some of the longer fibers to match. I promise nothing bad will happen if you cut some of your fibers! Don't make this weird. I promise you will thank me when you get to the spinning stage.
So my first recommendation for getting started blending fiber is to observe this one rule, and have a pair of scissors nearby when you're blending fiber.
Watch Sarah Anderson's Spinning Exotic Fiber Blends
Once you've internalized this one rule, the next thing I suggest that you do is to watch Sarah Anderson's video for Long Thread Media called Spinning Exotic Fiber Blends. There's surprisingly little information out there that's specifically about blends. Fortunately we have this gem from Sarah about creating blends featuring exotic and not-so-exotic fibers.
This video is based on a class that I actually took from Sarah many years ago. She gave us all a big bag filled with lots of little bags of all sorts of fiber: wool, silk, camelid fibers like alpaca and camel, and inner-coat fibers like qiviut, bison, and yak. We grabbed a pair of hand cards and got to work sampling. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. Sarah's approach to creating blends is so accessible: all you need is some hand cards or combs, and some little bits of floof and off you go.
So my second recommendation for getting started for blending fibers is to watch Sarah Anderson's class. I'll put a link in the show notes.
Start Collecting!
The next time at a fiber festival, collect some small amounts of exotic fibers (camelids, inner coats, silk) to experiment with. You really don't need much fiber to get started; an ounce is plenty. If you don't have a festival coming up soon, try retailers like The Woolery (US) or Fibre Garden (Canada). Or The Fiber Imp sells a kit called the "Sheepless Fiber Sampler," which contains small amounts of both protein and non-protein fibers. I'll put a link to it in the show notes. Please tell them I sent you!
You're also going to need some sort of a blending tool. You don't need a drum carder for this, though if you have one, great. You can use a set of hand cards or mini-combs. If you don't have either, I recommend getting hand cards first; they're less expensive and you can really do a lot with them. I have the 112 TPI set from Schacht and a 72 TPI set from Clemes and Clemes and I love both.
Again, you'll find links in the show notes.
I always seek out a range of natural colors when collecting these fibers because I like to use undyed fibers in the chemo hats I'm going to teach you how to make next week.
That's my third recommendation for getting started blending fiber: start collecting little bits of precious fluff and a tool.
I hope you've found this primer on how to begin exploring fiber blends useful. To recap, I've talked about the one-and-only rule for fiber blending, which is that if you want a fun spinning experience, make sure all the fibers you're working with have similar staple lengths. I've advised you to watch Sarah Anderson's video class on blending. And, enabler that I am, I've given you permission to begin your own collection of small amounts of things you might like to use in your blends, and to get yourself a set of hand cards so that you can start playing.
I would love to hear about your fiber-blending experiences, whether you're new to this or you've been doing it for years. As always, you'll find a dedicated thread in The Flock where you can discuss this episode. You'll find the link in the description of this episode right inside your podcast app. And don't forget to download the freebie for this episode; it's a list of all my favorite resources on different kinds of fibers. You'll find that in The Flock as well, and it's linked in the show notes. The Flock is free, y'all, so get in there!
Darling Sheepspotter, that's it for me this week. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back next week with an easy project that will allow you to experiment with blending fibers and create some really special yarn. You don't want to miss it. Until then, spin something! I promise it will do you good.