First You Make a Sandwich...

It's the middle of the night and you're Dagwood.  There is only one thing to do.  Make a sandwich.  In this case, however, we're not eating our sandwich. We are running it through our new drum carder to make a glorious, fluffy batt full of texture and interesting bits of personality--sari silk, silk noil, firestar, mohair locks, all sandwiched into a batch of Jacob fiber I had on hand.  

It wasn't quite the middle of the night.  More like 5:30 in the morning. Before coffee, even.  I couldn't wait to crank the handle on Maude (as in Harold and...).  She is as lively and outrageous as I knew she would be, and I could give up regular sandwiches forever if I can just keep making fiber sandwiches.  They feed and nourish me more than food itself!  

Top layer pulled back so you can see my sandwich innards.

Ready to feed Maude.

Feed it in slowly.

My sandwich is getting digested.

I wish you could see how fluffy it is!  Almost 2 inches thick.

It's Yarn!

It's not exactly as I'd envisioned, but that's partly due to the materials and the way it was spun.  Three things.  

One--jacob is a lovely strong fiber, easy to spin, so good for beginners.  But it's not a good fiber for garments.  I think this yarn would make a really cool rug, spun super chunky and knit on gigantic needles.  Or woven.  Then felted a little.  But you can't make a scarf because the itching will drive you bonkers.

Two--that itchiness MAY be because I used a batt of jacob fiber rather than individual locks or roving.  And the yarn came out very uniform in base color because I started with such a uniform preparation for my "bread."  You may or may not want such uniformity in your yarn, but it's not something I realized till it was all spun up.

Three--MORE SPARKLE!

Okay, one more thing.  Would you look at this sunrise this morning!  Today is going to be a beautiful day full of amazing opportunity and joy.

"It is in proportion to our trust in the Divine that the Divine Grace can act for us and help."  --The Mother