So I am going to be making an article about batts. You can blend fibers on batts, in lots of different ways. Then stack the batts and transform them into a nice continuous roving. Did you know that?

I had considered the technique for changing a batt into roving, but never actually tried it for some reason or another. Well I did it finally and was pretty darn happy with the results.

This yarn was my first batt, and I just made it with three scrap peices of fiber I had. The colors didn’t really do so well, although the yarn looks pretty enough. I think it needs a bigger, bluer section lol.

Anyway, the batt, went from violet color on one side, and gradiated to a lime green on the other. The effect on this yarn is so so, but if there was a nice blue section, I think it would have been spectacular. There is an important lesson here, in case you don’t know it. The first attempt is rarely what you wanted, but it can prove if what you wanted is possible. Sometimes it might take 10 times to get what you actually wanted…. This yarn will make a swatch that will be lime green on one end, and purple on the other….cool huh? It is much easier to do it this way, then to dye finished yarn to that effect.

So I then pulled the batt into rovings, and the roving was basically lime green on one end, and purple on the other. Pretty roving! I wish I had photoed the batt, but I didn’t.

I navaho plied the singles, and I am sad to say that I stink at it, but then it was only my first try and I did manage a balanced skein dispite the odd variations in the plying. Beau actually commented that he liked the effect. Well, ok, but that only counts as skill if you do it on purpose lol. But the effect could be used in an interesting way, so I filed that away for later. It looks like socks to me, but call me crazy! Might be fun to try, one sock would be purple to blue, and the other sock would be blue to green heh heh. How fun. There is enough here for a pair of baby booties, a small scarf, hat or something. It is around 13 - 14 wpi. Good size for those things.

I will give this skein to my little friends who are learning to knit. Regina, Michelle, Felicity, and Jacinta. They are all under 12, and I give them all my odds and ends, plus any sample skiens like this one. When I have something nice like this, I go and ask their Mom who has been extra helpful that week, and then they get it. If you need to destash, or find a home for left overs, please contact me. These little girls can’t afford nice yarn, and we all know how I feel about WalMart acrylics. Do a great deed of charity, and send some to these little girls who are knitting feinds. That reminds me. Someone offered to spin them some yarn if I donated some fiber, but I don’t remember if I actually sent the fiber. If that was you, can you email me? allena at spindleandwheel dot com.

So, for the article in the magazine, I will be doing much nicer color gradiations. So I did a little dyeing yesterday - well ok a lot of dyeing, about 3 pounds worth.

I dyed very dark jewel tones, in 4 ounce lots. That will give me a lot of carding and blending materials in all colors. I dyed them so dark because you have to card the fibers once, before you blend any together. So for light colors, I will just blend these with some white for now. Once I have a definite project in mind, then I might dye them to actual desired finished colors.

So, this is a sneak peek to the next issue which will have the theme of “Batty About Batts!”