Fibre rehab

So you remember that drum carder I got for my birthday in the fall? The one I am so totally in love with, because I can stick all sorts of interesting fibres in one end, give 'er a crank, and eventually peel a beautiful, fluffy, totally spinnable batt off the drum?

Well, combine the drum carder with the new spinning wheel, and you have a very dangerous combination. Because, you see, I have discovered something crucial: it is possible to renew, rejuvenate, and rehabilitate old, dead fibre from my stash.

You know the stuff I mean—a braid of something-or-other, let's call it Blue Faced Leicester for example, that has migrated down to the bottom of the stash (don't laugh: wool can so migrate. It's a proven medical fact of science), and on its way down, it got kind of compacted and squished up and felted in places.

You pull this once-proud piece out and sigh, because it used to be so beautiful, but now you really can't face having to tease it apart, one molecule at a time, preparatory to spinning it; and yet you can practically hear your Scottish ancestors spinning in their graves at the thought of wasting it.

Over the past few days, I've been on a salvage mission of sorts. I found a hank of cream-coloured BFL, some dark brown, some medium pinkish-brown, and a few wee bits of ultra-dark Shetland, all crammed up and felty and just not looking happy. I began tearing off pieces, arranging them somewhat randomly, and feeding them into the drum carder along with some strands of brilliant red Firestar (aka "that glittery stuff") to pep things up, colour-wise.

I started producing batt after batt, most of them brownish/creamish with bits of red.One I kept cream-coloured, and one I kept almost all brown. Then I tore pieces off the batts and started spinning them, then plying. The result so far is about 300 yards at approximately 14 wraps per inch. Almost enough for a pair of socks!

What I like best about this is the idea of using up fibre that would otherwise have gone to waste. (Actually, is there some kind of theme happening here? Because that was part of my motive in making that accursed linen stitch scarf, too. Must ponder this.)
Poor little BFL fibre, happy at last.