For the last while I’ve had this blanket project on the back burner. It was meant to be a straightforward spinning project. Spin the warp for a handwoven blanket. The fibre, while clean was a bit sticky so it had to be rewashed. Then it needed to be carded. I originally thought to comb it, but really wanted this blanket in my lifetime. So onto the drum carder it went, as you can see below.

For warp you need a strong yarn, so worsted spinning would be best. But as it’s a blanket I also wanted it to be soft and warm, so wanted a bit more air in the yarn. After some sampling that I noted in the last post I used a short forward draw that I let the twist into it, so it’s a modified woollen draft. And it didn’t smooth the yarn at all while spinning. Just pinch, draft out, let go. Repeat a million times. In the next couple of photos you may just be able to see how fuzzy the yarn is.

And here are three newly plied skeins totaling about 740 m of two-ply yarn. I haven’t washed them yet. I plan to spin it all up and wash them all at the same time. Now that Fibres West is over an my workshops are behind me, I can devote all my time to this project.