Ha, thank you. I think this was my fourth attempt at dividing it up into a gradient so I’d learned where on the board I needed to place the colours. I’ll be honest, this technique is so time consuming, I can’t see me doing it too often. 😀
I would use this concept if I had that fiber that I just HAD to own and then couldn't bear to use. But knowing me, I'd use the fiber to buy the individual colors and keep the original fiber to ogle! Best of both worlds lol. Have a fabulous today, Steph
i admire that you take the time to separate, spread out, and gingerly place each tuft. I've taken the advice of many to just load up the board with gobs of fiber, the batts/rolags from that are chunky and fall apart too easily. I know it isn't 'wrong' but it didn't feel 'right' to me. i noticed that draughting the fibers or placing tufts gives a more 'drum carded' effect. :) Lovely work, Thank you.
Thank you so much. Yes, this was my most time consuming attempt, and probably one I won’t be doing too often! My favourite method of using a blending board is to just open up the blended top and then just lay it on the blending board. You can add several layers, brushing them down to attach them to the blending board with each pass. You can then draft off 4 rolags that will all hold together really well and the colours will be only softly blended.
I read your article a few days ago and it is really helpful! I'm currently learning about how to spin yarn and your video and article really helps me to study the different methods of adjusting and spinning fibers with many colors and their outcomes!
Hi, thankyou so much for sharing this video. At the moment I dont have any Combed Top in my stash. I do have separate coloured ones. Your video gave me an idea for creating my own striped Rolags. I love how your Rolags look and the Yarn at the end looks amazing. Thanks again for sharing this video. Happy Blending and Spinning...Jen xx 🐏🐏❣️
Those are some of the prettiest rolags I've ever seen, and the end spin is glorious. What advice would you give if you had no blending board and wanted to spin worsted? I have combs and cards, and 16 oz of a very neon flavor of merino I'm trying to keep on an even keel for a project.
Thank you so much. The final yarn in this series is going to be a worsted style yarn, but I haven’t spun it yet. 😀 If it’s a multicoloured, vertical blend like this one, I would recommend tearing it into narrower sections so that you are spinning from a reduced number of colours. Ideally you would avoid spinning from a group of colours that, when combined, would blend together to make brown. This can be tricky if your fibre is well blended and it might mean that you are spinning from some very narrow sections, but it does help to keep the colours clean. You would then chain ply it. If it’s a hand painted top then it’s much easier to keep the colours fresh. You could tear it into 3 strips and spin from the end, or simply draft it out a little and spin it as it comes. The important thing is how you ply it. If the colours are all primaries you could just do a 2 ply and it shouldn’t muddy the colours too much. However if there are two colours in there that would combine to make brown or grey then it would be better to chain ply it if you want to keep the colours clean looking.
Do you predraft your rolags? I've been wanting to do this to preserve some colors in some blends I have but have only spun from rolags once, and they were made for me. I do have a blending board, just not sure how to go about using the fiber once it's in rolag form. Thanks for the video!
No, once I've made the rolag, I just spin it from the end. It took me a little while to work out the best way of using the blending board. After my experiments, I found that pulling off several thinner rolags and then spinning from them was a lot easier to draft from than just one or two thicker rolags.
Even allowing for the magic of editing, something tells me you've done this before! The rolags and the final yarn look lovely.
Ha, thank you. I think this was my fourth attempt at dividing it up into a gradient so I’d learned where on the board I needed to place the colours.
I’ll be honest, this technique is so time consuming, I can’t see me doing it too often. 😀
I never would have thought of doing this. It is beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing. God bless.
Thank you, you're very welcome. Happy spinning!
I would use this concept if I had that fiber that I just HAD to own and then couldn't bear to use. But knowing me, I'd use the fiber to buy the individual colors and keep the original fiber to ogle! Best of both worlds lol. Have a fabulous today, Steph
Ha, sometimes the fibre is just too pretty to use. I can relate! Take care
i admire that you take the time to separate, spread out, and gingerly place each tuft. I've taken the advice of many to just load up the board with gobs of fiber, the batts/rolags from that are chunky and fall apart too easily. I know it isn't 'wrong' but it didn't feel 'right' to me. i noticed that draughting the fibers or placing tufts gives a more 'drum carded' effect. :)
Lovely work, Thank you.
Thank you so much. Yes, this was my most time consuming attempt, and probably one I won’t be doing too often!
My favourite method of using a blending board is to just open up the blended top and then just lay it on the blending board. You can add several layers, brushing them down to attach them to the blending board with each pass. You can then draft off 4 rolags that will all hold together really well and the colours will be only softly blended.
Holy crap! These are so beautiful 🤩 they make me want to cry 😭💗💗💗
Ha! Thank you so much 😘
I read your article a few days ago and it is really helpful! I'm currently learning about how to spin yarn and your video and article really helps me to study the different methods of adjusting and spinning fibers with many colors and their outcomes!
Thank you so much, I'm really glad it was helpful!
Hi, thankyou so much for sharing this video.
At the moment I dont have any Combed Top in my stash. I do have separate coloured ones. Your video gave me an idea for creating my own striped Rolags.
I love how your Rolags look and the Yarn at the end looks amazing.
Thanks again for sharing this video.
Happy Blending and Spinning...Jen xx 🐏🐏❣️
Oh I’m so glad you found my video useful!
Have fun playing and experimenting with colour, and happy spinning!
That came out beautifully.
Thank you!
Those are some of the prettiest rolags I've ever seen, and the end spin is glorious. What advice would you give if you had no blending board and wanted to spin worsted? I have combs and cards, and 16 oz of a very neon flavor of merino I'm trying to keep on an even keel for a project.
Thank you so much. The final yarn in this series is going to be a worsted style yarn, but I haven’t spun it yet. 😀 If it’s a multicoloured, vertical blend like this one, I would recommend tearing it into narrower sections so that you are spinning from a reduced number of colours. Ideally you would avoid spinning from a group of colours that, when combined, would blend together to make brown. This can be tricky if your fibre is well blended and it might mean that you are spinning from some very narrow sections, but it does help to keep the colours clean. You would then chain ply it.
If it’s a hand painted top then it’s much easier to keep the colours fresh. You could tear it into 3 strips and spin from the end, or simply draft it out a little and spin it as it comes. The important thing is how you ply it. If the colours are all primaries you could just do a 2 ply and it shouldn’t muddy the colours too much. However if there are two colours in there that would combine to make brown or grey then it would be better to chain ply it if you want to keep the colours clean looking.
Do you predraft your rolags? I've been wanting to do this to preserve some colors in some blends I have but have only spun from rolags once, and they were made for me. I do have a blending board, just not sure how to go about using the fiber once it's in rolag form. Thanks for the video!
No, once I've made the rolag, I just spin it from the end. It took me a little while to work out the best way of using the blending board. After my experiments, I found that pulling off several thinner rolags and then spinning from them was a lot easier to draft from than just one or two thicker rolags.
@@KathrynCraftmehappy thank you for the information!
As a beginner, this is an awesome explanation of how to help the colors pop when spinning. Thank you
👍