Spinning Color Blending: Lasagna or Salad

Before:  Colorful Fibers from the Fall Depot

After: Blended, Carded Batts Await Spinning

Throughout the guild, our fiber groups have been studying color. Incorporating theories of color, the interactions, design, and its application to their specific art form. In the fall the spinners held a dye session, learning the process of kettle-dyeing and its application to several fleece.

Jeanette selecting her fiber

This month the group brought in those fibers to learn color blending through carding. Jeanette Ryan Busch of Fae Ridge Farms shared a technique she calls "lasagna layering"

Jeanette creating her lasagna

Jeanette removing her batt from the drum card

"Spinners chose from tables of many colored fleece from their earlier dyeing session and used their personal color palette to blend the layers of fluff" into batts for future spinning. The evening was best described by the spinner's chair as "a flurry of activity with tables full of kettle dyed fleece and drum carders rolling."

Using Jeanette's technique, the spinner begins with the selection of fibers and toss them around, hence a salad

Lucy making her salad

Wendy's Salad

When the spinner likes the color combinations, the spinner begins to layer the fibers, hence the lasagna, building to integrate color and texture prior to the carding. The group used several drum carders to produce their batts. 

Wendy's finished lasagna

Wendy's lasagna in progress

Wendy's finished batt

Collen's Salad

Collen laying out


 

Collen's Batt

 

Drum Carding

Resulting Batt 

Kenda carding

Kenda's spun yarn

It was exciting to to look around and see a spinner's own color vision play out in the yarn. Obviously a good time was had by all. I know there will be many hours of fun spinning ahead.