Snail Spirals

Remember the blue/green/purple top I recently dyed? Well, it grew up and became a couple lovely batts. Introducing the inaugural run of batts for sale at my Etsy shop:



Clockwise from the top left, they are:

• Snow Shimmer (75% bluefaced leicester, 20% silk)
• Spindrift (98% superwash merino, 2% Icicle (nylon sparklies))
• Seamist (80% superwash merino, 20% silk)
• Latte (50% natural white bluefaced leicester, 50% natural brown bluefaced leicester)

Each batt is about 50 grams (1.8 oz). These were so fun to make. The BFL, a fiber I've not worked with before, is quite nice. Soft, but not cottony soft, not too fine or slippery, and with a good staple length and luster. I see why people recommend it for beginning spinners. The addition of the silk in the Snow Shimmer batt gives it a lovely shine and softness.

For the Latte batt, I took equal amounts of each kind of BFL and split them into thirds. I carded one third of each together to give a medium brown blended mini batt, which I removed from the carder. Then I carded the dark brown through and left it on the carder, carded the medium brown blend again and left it on the carder, and finally carded the white on. This gave a layered blended batt, with a gradient of colors from white to brown. I like it.



Recarding the dyed merino top was a smashing success. Soft soft soft batts, and the colors blended beautifully. I only sent them through once, alternating layers of the merino with toploaded silk or Icicle. I have a bit of the top left over, and am going to card up a mini batt for myself. Just because.

I love the way the blue and green combined into an aquamarine color. Most of the purple spots from the top went into the Spindrift batt, and it looks fabulous with the Icicle.



And the Seamist? Really, you just can't go wrong with merino and silk.