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Another new toy!

My new toy – an Ashford blending board. A great piece of equipment for blending fibres to create wonderful ‘art” yarns. It is like mixing paints but with fibre. 

blending board

The first thing I did was to try and create yarn using a piece of fabric as my inspiration source.

Fibre choice 2Picture shows just the wool bits but I also added silk and some sparkle


Fibre on board2Then you just put the fibre on the board. Keep on adding layers until the board is full – i.e. the teeth are covered. The fibre is brushed down between each layer, just like you would on a drum carder.









Rolags madeThen you take off the fibre in rolags. They are a bit tighter than rolags as you use sticks to roll them., so more like punis

Rolags spunI then spun up the rolags. Here are three hanks. The one on the left I kept colours together in strips on the board to make a striped yarn.

There are some good instructional videos on YouTube. I like the one from Ashford, Kate always makes everything look easy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_FenT3pshrU

I am still playing at the moment, doing lots of samples. It is good to see exactly what a finished yarn looks like when knitted or woven. Eventually I intend making enough yarn for an actual project! The trouble is I just love playing and experimenting.

By the way for my friends in other hemispheres Spring is coming very slowly but the signs are there which are so welcoming after a rather dreary winter.

Spring

That’s all for now. Helen



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