Oops, it's a badger!

This morning I saw this video and got really inspired. Making a layered batt and pulling it through a diz to get a striped rowing. Well, I could not wait to start my trial. I picked some 50 g of superwash merino, 15 g of silk noil (white - the inspiration hit so hard there was no time to go dyeing), 5 g of long staple egyptian cotton, and 19 g black diamond bamboo. The idea with blacks and whites was to get a lot of contrast in the test.

Note: I apologise for the big amount of photos (15) in a single post, but since I am trying something new I wanted to document every step, in case this post has inspirational or educational value to someone. If you are busy or not interested, just skip and check the last pic for the end results.

First I layered some merino to make a lining.

Next, I added half of the silk noil. It needs to be spread really thin to get a nice batt.

It makes a nice effect... like snow?

Then the bamboo. It's has a long staple so it easily gets wound around the feeder drum.

That's not a problem, it clears when the fiber gets packed to the main drum.

The cotton. This is my preferred method for adding cotton. This way I can get very thin and even layers, not clumps. Also, it is a good idea to keep the amount of cotton small.

Looks like this so far:

Finally, all the rest of the merino going in...

The finished batt looks like this:

And nothing sticking to my feeder drum!

Then I took my needle measure tool and used it as a diz to pull the roving out. Well, I used it because I read somewhere in the Fiber Prep group that it works - well, I nearly broke it... At first I tried to make my rowing too wide. What happened I got the circumference of the drum and ended up where I started and made a corner by taking some fiber with the doffer tool. I used a much smaller hole and started slowly, to avoid a "corner" where I started. It works!

I could not get all of it as I pulled, but very little was left on the drum:

The biggest roving I got was 420 cm and 33 g. It made me think of a cute little badger. :o)

And here are all 88 grams of cuteness! A flower of spring. I wonder what spinning it will be like... pain or gain?