Irresistible carder waste

Having converted all the dyed locks in the house into carded batts, the question is:  What to do with the beautiful wool rejected by the drum carder? (Short or tangled fibers stay on the feed roll rather than going onto the drum to be part of a batt.)

Instead of discarding this "waste fiber," I put it in a box so it can be admired!

Here is a perfect example of the weaver's-eyes-are-bigger-than-her_stomach dilema. Delicious colors. Plenty of imagination to picture finished yarns and fabric you could make with the colors. Never mind that one has ten times more great ideas than time in which to execute them. The colors are irresistible...

Carder waste made into roving for spinning, with previous experiment shown above

The irresistible question:  How will this stuff look once it's spun?

A box of fleece that wouldn't go through the drum carder -- hence the hand cards!

Off-loom weaving

While downsizing the stuff in the house, forgotten items keep surfacing:  Tapestry done on a cardboard- box-loom. Two rugs woven using a bicycle wheel.

One pillow has a tablet-woven band around the edge. Tablet weaving is also called "card weaving," as the warp is threaded through holes in a pack of cards. To open the shed, you rotate the pack -- no loom required!

Experts disagree as to whether tablet weaving began to be used in the 6th century BC or somewhat later. It has definitely been in use for over 1,000 years. Quite a few excellent books have been written on this fascinating technique. It has great potential for making elaborate graphical designs.

Detail of a tapestry done on a cardboard-box-loom

Rag rug woven on a bicycle wheel loom

Crocheted pillow with multi-colored tablet-woven edge

Another rug woven on a bicycle wheel

What color is next?

Surely we are going to have some hot weather eventually?

When it comes, there is fleece waiting to be dyed. I thought it would be interesting to lay out samples of every batch of dyed fleece currently on hand to see which colors need filling out.

Seems greens, blues and crimson could use more variety.

Bits of batts awaiting spinning

Oranges and purples with hand cards

Reds and purples already dyed, plus undyed white locks (center)