Over the past few months a friend in Hokitika and I have been working together on a project to create a heathered yarn.
The project started for me when I realised that the style of wool that I was used to working with in Shetland is not available from local sources in Aotearoa New Zealand. A conversation with Maria who had been working to set-up the looms in the studio in Greymouth started a whole chain of events. Maria had been blending and spinning already and so had the knowledge and expertise to experiment with making a suitable yarn. It has taken a few months to get to this point and there is still a little way to go before there is a suitable yarn for my purposes but the results are promising.
This week Maria presented in the Hokitika Library, showing the colours that she has blended and spun, and how her thinking is influenced by going to art school and re-training as an artist.
For anyone unfamiliar with the process of blending, the step prior to spinning a yarn, here are some pictures of the drum carder along with some text explaining what the image is about.
The display in the library with a colour wheel of blended and spun wool
The drum carder has one large drum that rotates against a smaller drum, both with pins in. Fibre is fed in in under the smaller drum and is transferred to the larger.
The process straightens the fibres and spreads them out while blending colours together.
The larger drum is turned by a crank and the belt attached to that drum turns the smaller one, transferring the fibres from one to the other.
Removing the blended rolag. The bundle of fibres are now ready to spin.