Non-wool protein samples

Well, that's an enticing blog post title, isn't it? 😁 The Sheepspotters' Society's April topic was "Fiber Fervor," and my growth action was to sample some non-wool protein fibers.

I started with camel down. This is natural (undyed) camel down in a carded prep, aka roving:

It's very, very soft! I wish you could stick your hand in that fiber cloud. The staple length of camel down is quite short. Between the short staple length and the carded prep, I knew I would be spinning this long draw. I played around a bit and finally settled on my 12.5:1 whorl and a semi-supported long draw technique. My sample has two plies. This wasn't very easy to spin and the result is a little rustic, but the yarn is soooo soft! I should definitely play around with this a little more. (It would probably help if it were a prettier color.)

Next up is some natural (undyed) baby alpaca. The bag is labeled "roving," but this has got to be top (combed preparation). The color is a deep, rich brown that is officially called "black." Here's what it looked like when it arrived:

You can tell that's top just by looking at it - so neatly combed and slinky. I had to slow down spinning this and ended up using my 10.5:1 whorl. The fiber staple is longer, and very slippery, so I had the best result spinning it from the fold:

Finally, I tried some tussah silk top (a combed prep) that is dyed a lively green called "Grass." This is how it came to me:

This was SUPER slippery and I had to spin it from the fold, also (this keeps the fiber from flying out of your hands). I had to use a faster whorl (14:1) to keep everything under control.

I had a bit of a difficult time getting these samples done, even though they are quite small. I think it's because sampling requires thought and attention, and both of those things are in short supply during this global pandemic time. What I really want/need is a comfort spin.

After I finished up these samples, I found myself thinking about the Cormo roving I found during my #groomyourstash cleanup project last month. Remember this?

Well, it's on the wheel now - and it's so comforting to spin these blues and purples and greens every morning. This is what I needed from my spinning right now.