Guest Author - Pegg Thomas

We all tend to have little baggies of this and that collected along life’s way in amounts too small to do much good. You may have a baggie each of reddish brown buffalo, pure black alpaca, fawn angora, raspberry dyed silk, etc. Blending gives new life to these odds and ends. Some quite extraordinary yarns can result!

First look at your colors. Pick and choose colors that will go well together. If you aren’t particularly gifted in putting colors together, Deb Menz wrote a great book titled “Color in Spinning” that can help you out. You may use up your whole stash or just a few choice bits with your blend.

Now pick a nice base fiber, the ‘glue’ so to speak, that will hold your odds and ends together. Wool is a good choice, being crimpy and willing to hold onto the softer and slipperier fibers, but other fibers can work as well. Decide if you want a white, natural color or dyed base to go with the odds and ends you’ve already chosen. (And it’s perfectly okay to change your mind and discard or add new odds and ends!)

The next decision is how many 1 ounce (30 gram) batts you want to create. Let’s say your intended project needs 12 ounces (340 grams) of finished yarn. Weigh your odds and ends and see what they total. For instance, if your odds and ends total 6 ounces (170 grams) and you want to create a total of 12 ounces (340 grams) of batts, you need to have 6 ounces (170 grams) of base fiber to go with it.

It is important that you card your base fiber fully before beginning to blend. Weigh out 1 ounce (30 gram) at a time and card them up into batts. Also card separately any of the odds and ends that require carding. Very small amounts may need to be done on a pair of hand cards. Some luxury fibers, such as angora and dog hair, do not need pre-carding.

Now you will divide up the base fiber into the proper amounts for each batt. Using our example for 12 batts, you need to divide the base fiber up evenly into 12 strips. You can carefully weigh each one, or simply ‘eyeball’ it if you’re comfortable with that. Now divide up all the odds and ends into 12 equal parts. Lay each on top of the base fiber to create piles for each final batt.

For best results in holding many types of fibers together, tear the base fiber for each batt into 3 strips. Begin your first batt by feeding in one of the base strips. Now feed on half of your odds and ends. (If you want all your batts to match, write down what order you’re adding the odds and ends in, so you can duplicate it with the remaining batts.) Next feed on another strip of base fiber. Now add the remaining odds and ends, and finish with the last strip of base.

Remove your batt and take a look at what you’ve done. You can leave the batt ‘as is’ and spin it with the layers as you see them, or you can tear your batt into 3 or 4 strips and carefully feed them back through the drum carder to blend them more. For a very thorough blend, you’ll need to make 4 or 5 passes through the drum carder. However, this type of thorough blending will bury the small amounts of odds and ends and not showcase them. When you have the first batt as you like it, card up the remaining batts to match.

There are several different methods of pulling a batt out into roving for spinning. Some people enjoy spinning directly from the batt, rolled up like a giant rolag. Some people just tear the batts into strips. Whatever method you choose, make sure and do the same for each batt so that the resulting yarn will be consistent. Spin up your batts and enjoy the one-of-a-kind yarn you’ve created!