Wool Silk blending

Anne has a friend who is an accomplished stained glass window artist and who expressed an interest in creating some pieces for us.  The payment would be in some fiber product.  Anne suggested Clun Forest/silk blend (silk for luster) spun and made into a shawl as a starter, possibly dyed as well.

As luck would have it I had some silk, bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival some years back with the intention of trying this very thing.  Unfortunately though, I couldn't find it - although I have no doubt it is in the spinning room somewhere.  Luckily though (!) there was a couple of ounces of silk amongst all the fiber I was given by my sister-in-law.  So the test was back on.

Clun Forest and Silk ready for carding

I used flicked locks from the large supply we have, and broke off similar lengths of the silk, finding that the best method was lay out the silk and cover it with CF wool on the input tray to the carder.  It then took 6 times through the carder to blend it smoothly.  Each time I took it off the drum I split it about 7 or 8 times and flattened out these to re-card.  The mix ended up about 20% silk 80% wool (worked out by weighing before the mix).

Finished 1.2oz batt

There is a distinctive sheen to the batt, and needless to say I did a quick trial at spinning it.  As with any batt that has gone through the carder a few times, spinning was a breeze.  I spun a fine single and plied it back on itself as 2 and 3 ply.  While this gives a quick idea of how it will look, the real plying will have to be a bit tighter which will emphasise the silk/luster. 

2-ply top, 3-ply bottom.

The other job today was to pickle some of our peppers - 6 jars done, and some washing.  The latter is done as the sun came out after thunderstorms rolled through this morning.  Unfortunately it now seems to be clouding over so I may have to bring that lot back in.

I have some Rambouillet to flick sometime today and Anne has been flicking more raw wool so perhaps a wash again tomorrow.