That way lies Loomacy...: Shenanigans! - Sow's Ear, and Tying it All Together

Franquemont Fibre Shenanigans (FFS) is upon us again, and I've been slowly worrying away at a few things.

The biggest one is my Sow's Ear Challenge/Tying it All Together - I went with some 'well matured' fibres, that have been in my stash since rocks were soft.

The dyed silk noil came from the Fiber Hut in Calgary (closed 'mumble' years ago) The label's pretty faded, but I originally paid $2.50 for 20g - used a bunch, then stowed the remainder.

There were a LOT of bug bits in this stuff - but it was fun to use, and the first noil I ever tried.

The dark green wool came from the 'fibre orphanage' - something a friend passed on to me, probably 10-15 years ago, and the rest was all from a Birkeland Bros Mystery Fibre grab bag, or two... that I got before they moved to Abbotsford. To the best of my knowledge, it's mohair/silk - but being from a grab bag, I don't have a clue what else might be there...

Yarn stew - my fibre *before* the blending begins.

I liked all the colours well enough - but there wasn't a huge amount of any one fibre, and the mohair had begun to compact, and felt, even before I spun any of the items that arrived with it (several of which are _still_ in my stash, but not as semi-felted).

Because it's such a variety of lengths, combing wasn't really an option, and I don't have a drum carder at home - so off to the blending board I went - intending to BLEND this stuff, and not just fling it onto the board in one pass. It's in 5 piles, because I've found that 15-20g is about what works well on my blending board, without cramming on so much it's unwieldy, or having too little to hold together well.

That whole heap is a bit over 4oz, I think it weighed about 113g before I got started - and that was the only time I measured things. Because I don't know the fibre content of most of this pile, there wasn't any real point in getting accurate % numbers for each item.

Here's what it looked like after the first pass, lifted off the pins. I'm fairly picky, so it got a more thorough mixing than might have happened. This stuff is, at a minimum, almost old enough to drive - taking a little extra time with it can't hurt anything NOW.

The noil is barely visible, as it's buried in an inside layer at this stage. The copper and greens are behaving nicely.

I loaded the board in a second pass, pausing to burnish everything down about 4-5 times during the process.

...and finally, the noil appears!

That looked like it was more-or-less where I wanted it to be, so I pulled it off into some boardworms. A bit more blending happens as you draft onto the sticks, but I'd consider this 2 passes.

No flash, and the weird daylight colour we've had lately didn't help... but I thought these looked quite a bit better than when I started.

Then I repeated the process 4 more times, until I had 25 boardworms in the box. Took another pic, with the flash, to see whether the SHINE would be visible... they *really* gleamed.

Aziz - LIGHT! ;)

Then came the spinning, and I could REALLY see things taking shape.

Truer colour on the flash photos, so that's what I went with, sometimes...

I decided on a 3-ply, to help even out any inconsistencies from the chunks of noil, and so there could be a bit firmer plying twist without the yarn getting harsh. I also did it because I usually don't - Shenanigans is about breaking a few 'rules' and habits along the way! (ETA: longdraw, with a fair amount of double-drafting, when the silk noil got clumpy)

I wound a plying ball - again, because I usually don't - I have several tool-based solutions, and often choose those... lots of bobbins, and a tensioned Kate mean that I don't _have_ to wind a ball... but it's a workflow that is used in many cultures, even with the availability of other tools. It's also meditative, in its own way.

Plied the leftover bit into a few yards of 2-ply. More on that later.

Filled a bobbin - I was aiming for, or just past, twist stasis on this - I wanted to keep the hand and drape, even with a fairly firm ply - and it's a pretty dense yarn, because I decided not to fight for anything *too* lofty... I wanted the shine more than 'squish' - and some heavy-feeling, slinky drape.

I may have lost count - but it came up just shy of 300 yards. I'll update here if it changes after wet-finishing.

Wound the skein on my 2-yard niddy, because I didn't want it too short and compact to show off the finished yarn.

...and then I just *had* to address all the comments I've been seeing about making a Silk Purse out of my Sow's Ear... so I wet-finished that tiny sample skein, then grabbed my 4" double-pointed knitting needles... and made a... mess. ;)

Pinned out on the underside of a therapy cushion - because it was the right size... and with my fine linen cordage through the live stitches in place of a bind-off.
This photo REALLY shows off the coppery elements in the yarn, and the shine it kept.

Once it was dry, my other 'studio assistant' helped me with a tutorial on how to close up the purse. It might work out really well for knitting or tatting from tiny sample balls!