Rolag Spinning!

I had so much fun making a giant pile of rolags on my new blending board yesterday that I just couldn’t wait to spin them up!  I set up my wheel on the 5.5 drive ratio and spun the rolags with a woolen method, letting twist enter the drafting zone.  I haven’t gotten longdraw down yet on my wheel, so I used more of a short backward draft against the twist.  There were plenty of lumps and bumps, and while I wasn’t expecting a super smooth yarn, this still tells me I need to work on creating smoother, more consistent rolags.

I spun 2 bobbins Z twist about 1/2 full and then plied them together S twist onto a new bobbin using the same drive ratio.  Plying really helped my yarn look more even.  I wet finished the yarn in very hot water with some dawn dish soap and snapped it several times to even out the twist, then I hung it outside to dry on this lovely spring day (it’s over 60 degrees 😁).

I won’t lie and say I am super happy with how the yarn turned out, but I did learn a lot from this project.  My next batch of rolags won’t be quite as large, so that I am able to experiment on a smaller scale in case it’s not something I love.  Lumps and bumps are normal with a woolen drafting method, but I came up upon a lot of inconsistencies in my rolags which tell me I need more practice.  I also learned that having a game plan before making the rolags is pretty important.  My method produced a yarn with a lot of random splotches of color that stand out in a unpredictable way.  Next time, I will pay more attention to the placement of colors so I get a more cohesive finished yarn.  

Good thing wool is a renewable resource!  🐑