Merino and Silk

You may have noticed in my last post that I had a little spinning on the wheel.

This is a white merino/silk blend from Knit Picks.

It starts out like this.

It unravels into a long strand of roving, which I seperate into pieces, like this:

Silk has a really long staple length and is pretty slippery, so I have been "spinning from the fold."  I started doing this accidentally before I knew it was a real thing.  But you basically fold your piece of fiber in half,

And let the fiber draft from the fold rather than from the end.  It seem less likely to draft too quickly/get too thin.

I've been practicing "long-draw" drafting where you control the amount of twist with your front hand while drawing the fiber out with your back hand.  This lady does a really good demonstration of what I'm trying to accomplish.

She is a lot better at it than I am, but I'm getting better.

I am also spinning this purple silk/merino I got from the MD Sheep and Wool Festival last year. 

I am sad I didn't get to go this year, so I am celebrating from afar.

I plan to ply the two together when I'm done.