Tamarind sampling continues

Hi again. My hiatus is to blame on the nastiest case of poison ivy I have ever had. It’s only my second one ever, so I guess I’m officially way more allergic than the average person. My entire left forearm is pretty much one continuous blister or oozing wound. My doctor put me on a steroid, an antibiotic, and told me to start using xeroform pads (which are designed to protect open wounds) instead of using the “nonstick” ones that were sticking to my skin. I will not subject you to a photo (which might require a trigger warning). Needless to say, this condition did not encourage knitting or spinning. On the bright side, I read a lot!

I worked one another round of samples from Tamarind on Day 2 after exposure. I had some itchy bumps, but no blisters or oozing yet. Finally today I had the wherewithal to photograph the finished samples.

Remember that my first two samples (A & B) were from the first batch I washed. I found the fleece too sticky to handle easily, and I wasn’t very pleased with the quality of the yarn. I’m capable of spinning better. Here are closeups of A (hand combed, spun worsted) and B (flick carded, spun woolen).

At Dave’s suggestion, I rewashed a handful of fleece in the kitchen sink and then made samples C-E. This fiber was noticeably easier to draft, confirming my suspicion that I just didn’t wash the fleece well enough the first time.

C is combed and spun worsted:

For D, I carded some rolags (I don’t think I did a very good job, but here they are) and spun the yarn worsted:

And for E, I flicked carded and spun worsted from the cut end. Why worsted with a carded prep? I consulted Beth Smith’s book (The Spinner’s Book of Fleece) and noticed that she said she likes to use a short forward draw (SFD) with flicked locks to get a lovely, smooth laceweight yarn. SFD is a worsted style of spinning, but I tried it here. I DID get a finer yarn, and I also really liked the feel of it. I may work a larger sample this way and make a 3-ply yarn.

Since I have rather a lot of fleece from Tamarind and Muesli, I am thinking about a sweater. I thought it might be nice to make one of these beautiful yoke designs we’ve been seeing lately… perhaps Humulus? I would use Muesli as the main color (better for my complexion than the deep brown) and Tamarind for the hops design.

But if I make a sweater, I think I prefer a woolen-spun yarn, which will result in a lighter, loftier (and warmer) fabric. A worsted-spun sweater can be quite heavy. So maybe I need to revisit the idea of flick carding and spinning SFD. Maybe I should practice my hand carding, instead!

On the same day I made samples C-D, I re-washed the rest of the first batch of fleece. I weighed what I had left before beginning, since I was curious about how much more grease would come out. I started with 616 grams. I ran my hottest water into the washing machine, added 1.5 T Power Scour, and soaked the wool (in mesh bags) for 20 minutes. At this point, I fished out the heavy, wet bags before draining the water from the machine. I wondered if this was a mistake I made the first time around… was it possible I forced all the grease in the water right back into the bagged wool during the spin cycle? Then I refilled the washer with hot water again, added .75 T Fibre Rinse, and soaked for 20 minutes. This time I spun out the water with the bags in there.

After I left it all dry on the screen, under the ceiling fan, AGAIN, I weighed it. To my astonishment, I got exactly 616 grams, which was my starting weight. So perhaps all that extra effort was for naught?!

I haven’t yet had the chance to comb, card, or flick any more of this rewashed batch, so that will be what I report on next. My left arm is in no shape to wield hand cards or combs. Typing and holding up hardcover books is as much as I ask of it right now. And plotting my next steps with this gorgeous wool…