I have begun the Fusion merino. It’s a good thing I have as much practice under my belt as I do by now, because this is a whole new level. For practice purposes, I weighed out 5 gram chunks to spin and ply.
Merino must be spun at a higher ratio (higher twist) than the other wools I’ve been working with, and the fiber length is shorter. This means things happen a whole lot faster. Things that worked OK on the Falklands, for example, got me in trouble with this wool.
For instance, I want to keep the twist out of the fiber source and control it by the pinch. With the merino, this means I have to be vigilant about how I draft. Several times today I let it get away from me, and found myself chasing the twist down the fiber instead of feeding the draft into the twist. That meant stop, back up a little, and get myself back where I wanted to be. In general, I am having to SLOW DOWN so I can keep up with this new experience.
LATER: I couldn’t resist. I returned to my wheel and spun a second 5 grams, then plied them together. That way I can check the result and adjust if I need to for the next round. And oh, it’s beautiful. I’m going now to put it on the niddy noddy.
Until tomorrow.
