I have a few days practice now with the Milk Fiber. It’s trickier than it seemed that first time I posted about it.
The 2-ply I did first came out OK, done via the Andean bracelet method. The next day I spun 6 grams and tried a 3-ply using Navajo plying. It was a miserable failure. I didn’t think it was particularly slubby, but in the context of this fiber I was dead wrong. Because it’s so slippery, each slub fell apart under the stress on the singles that goes with this particular plying method. I was very frustrated, because overall I liked the 3-ply better than the 2-ply in the parts that worked.
So, now I am spinning the remainder FAR more carefully, with serious vigilance to prevent slubs as much as I possibly can. I’m not going to Navajo-ply it, but still. I divided it into 3 equal-by-weight chunks, and each will go on its own bobbin for plying.
The pictures show not-too-slubby (left) and too-slubby (right). I check this by letting the singles twist back on itself before feeding it to the bobbin. While spinning, I can go back and fix too-slubby at this point. I’m reasonably good at feeling even little slubs and taking care of them before it’s too late.
Until next time.
