My New Toy: "The Un- Ewes- Ual" Blending Board

While acquiring a blending board was on my to- do list, I didn’t intend to get one as soon as I did. A St. Patrick’s Day sale, however, caught my attention- and the offer was too good to refuse.

I bought my blending board from “The Un- Ewes- Ual”- located in Oregon (USA)- for a mere $100.00.

It came with a blending brush, carding brush, two dowels, and a bag containing different types of fiber- some with interesting textures.

The board also came with instructions and a link to a video in which using a blending board is demonstrated.

One thing that I really liked about the package was that it came with a handwritten letter from the couple who made the board. I found this touching- and extremely personal.

It is a high- quality board that is both sturdy and aesthetically pleasing. There are a few positions for the keel- which is helpful.

I am pleased with the quality of the board and would highly recommend this board to anyone.

The Un- Ewes- Ual Blending Board comes with a blending brush, a carding brush, two dowels, and a bag of interesting fiber. 

Initial Impressions/ Issues

I tried to follow the directions but found that they were very basic- and so I turned to YouTube for help. One thing I must say about YouTube videos is that there is a lot of chatter in most of the videos- some relevant and some not. In any case, because I really don’t have internet- but instead must buy internet piece- meal from a cellular service, I have to be extremely careful about how I use it. The chatter was extremely frustrating because I didn’t want to pay for useless chatter. Perhaps when I feel confident enough in my abilities, I will create a video without any useless chatter.

The point is that- if you decide to watch YouTube videos on using a blending board- be prepared to watch 15 minutes ot chatter and 5 minutes of actual demonstration.

So, back to the blending board.

I have found that there is a steep learning curve when it comes to using a blending board- and that it is actually much easier to use a drum carder. However, the possibilities seem almost endless when it comes to using a board.

Also, once I got the hang of it, I really started to have fun. It is amazing what you can add to te board- all the textures you can achieve!

There are a few issues I am having/ had with the board. These issues have more to do with my inexperience than anything else, though.

I am having/ had a hard time applying fiber evenly to the board. This means that, while spinning my rolags, I am getting an uneven draft. I suppose this would be OK while spinning a textured rolag- but I am experiencing this issue with all of my rolags.

This problem is slowly being solved by paying close attention to how much fiber I am applying to the board at once. When I first began using the board, I was nervous and, also, had the attitude that this was all for fun and experimentation. I suppose I wasn’t yet ready to put much thought into it.

Another problem is that I seemed to be forcing my fiber too deeply into the tines of the board- making it impossible to grab all of the fiber when lifting it off of the board. This really seems to be a lack- of- experience issue, though, as I am learning to apply a certain amount of pressure when applying the fiber.

Another remedy was applying a few layers of fiber and very gently tapping them with the brush to just hold them in place. After a few layers have been applied, I gently tap the layers down into the cloth- being vigilant about not pushing them too deeply into the tines.

Last, I have found that the TPI on my board presents an issue for very fine fibers- like merino and firestar sparkle. If I use them as my first layer, they inevitably will not adhere well to the tines. If I can get them to adhere, I can’t draft and pull them up with the rest of the rolag.

The problem with this is that most of the fiber on the inside of the rolag- that is, not in the first layer of fiber- will not be seen in the final yarn, as it will make up the core of the yarn.

So, if I must use a layer under sparkle/ pop- out fiber layer, it may not come through as vivid as I would like in the final yarn.

This also means that it will be difficult to soften a coarser fiber by combining it with a finer fiber- as the coraser fiber will have to be the under/ outer layer of the rolag.

I suppose this is the same issue one would have on a drum carder- as a result of making a “fiber sandwich” in order to blend different fibers/ textures, etc.

With a drum carder, blending fine and coarse fibers can effectively be done by carding repeatedly; however, this, too, causes potentially vibrant, vivid, and interesting textures to become lost in the blend.

On the board, I am getting around this by applying a very fine layer of a coarser fiber with a long- ish staple length as my first layer.

Next, I will apply Firestar, fine Merino, etc. This seems to work very well.

Using the "fine base layer" method, Firestar is visible in the outer layer of the rolag.

This would be more difficult to achieve on the a drum carder, though, as I often find that I need a bit more than a very fine layer of fiber in the upper and lower levels of my fiber sandwich.

In a few of my rolags, I used teased/ open Lincoln locks for texture. I found that I needed a few layers of fiber on the board under and over the locks in order to get the locks to “stick” to the rest of the fiber. I also had to (gently) work the locks in a but with the paint brush.

Teased Lincoln locks add texture and interest! 

On a drum carder, I believe that barely teased/ opened locks may cause issues- and even break or bend some tines. I suppose in this case, the blender may perform better than a drum carder.

One issue that does not appear to be experience- related is that the board is difficult to clean with the included carding brush. In order to really clean the board, I am sticking a knitting needle through the tines to remove imbedded fiber.

This problem is easily solved by going to any pet, or farm- supply store and getting a cat grooming brush.

This isn’t a big deal- but it is worth mentioning.

Spinning- Related Issues

The first rolags I made were difficult to draft out. I also (by mistake!) made a baby bat. I ended up using a modified long draw because the rolags/ baby batt were/ was not always easy to draft using more traditional long draw methods.

To compare ease and smoothness of draft, I spun up a batt I had carded on my drum carder. It was much easier to draft and spin the batt from the drum carder than it was to spin the baby bat and rolags I had made on the board.

After doing some research, I figured out that I was most likely rolling the rolags too tightly- making it difficult to draft them out.

I also was not drafting as I was lifting- which made for a dense, tight rolag.

Finally, the fact that I was applying the fiber unevenly made for an uneven, difficult draft. Sometimes I would have to modify my draft to account for uneven- ness.

Current Impression(s):

It seems like using a drum carder is more straitforward than using a blending board. This could be because I am used to using a drum carder- or it could be that the blending board requires more time to master and understand. However, blending boards are cheaper and it seems like there are certain things that the board excels at.

As I explained before, I am pretty much on my own as far as learning how to use the board, as I can’t afford to pay for useless chatter on most of the how- to videos.

I do believe that it takes a lot of thought to use the blending board to its fullest potential- this was not something I expected but, also, something with which I feel pleased. I like to think and plan; sometimes thinking and planning a project is just as fun as spinning!

One thing I don’t understand is why people create designs on the inner/ top layers of the board if they will be hidden on the inside of the rolag- and hence the final yarn.

This may work to one’s advantage, though, as undesirable- but nicely textured- fiber can be used as a top/ inner layer without causing the rolag to look ugly.

I can also see the potential for using the blending board in felting projects but, since thinking about this gives me a headache (because the possibilities seem endless), I have put felting ideas aside for the time being.

With practice, my rolags are becoming more even and smooth. 

Conclusion

All in all, I am extremely pleased with my board. It is fun to use- and I found that, once I started using it, I couldn’t stop.

It is going to take time for me to really begin to use the board well- but at least I will have a lot of fun doing so.

In the future, I will most likely invest in more boards with different TPIs; I wonder if this will solve some of my issues?

I would highly recommend The Un- Ewes- Ual Blending Board. The price is right, and it is a high- quality piece of equipment. Moreover, it is cheaper than any new (or, probably, used) drum carder. Therefore, it will make blending making baby batts and rolags accessible to spinners with limited means.

HAPPY SPINNING! 

The Un- Ewes- Ual Blending Board can be found at: 

 Etsy Shop

Lazy, Many, Mini- Skeins!

Because my kids were so well- behaved today, I ended up getting more done that I had hoped…

What I want to do is make several, little skeins for use as dye samples. I have Queen Anne’s Lace, and Goldenrod dye stock left over from summer- as well as onion skins, coffee grounds saved- and some red cabbage to use as dye stuffs.

Also, there is snow on the ground that can be gathered and used as my water (extraction) bath.

My problem is that I have a lot of wheels (12)- most all have one project or another on their bobbins. This means that I rarely have any bobbins.

Now, usually, when I want to ply, I do so with care- investing time and energy into the project so that I can feel proud of my results. But not today.

Today I looked around at my wheels (and their bobbins) and noticed that most of them had junk yarn on them. This is because I have a few newer wheels and, when I am first getting to know I wheel, I use nasty, cheap fiber- rather than nice, expensive fiber. This makes the process relaxing and fun- rather than scary and stressful.

Today, though, my Lendrum also had nasty fiber- yarn on it because I had been having tension issues that needed resolved. Obviously, I used garbage yarn for this. However, once I resolved the issue, I just couldn’t stop spinning- and so I had over half a bobbin of junk yarn on my Lendrum.

The other wheel I was eyeballing was my Swiss lateral wheel- the bobbin was almost full and I just knew that I’d want to spin on her later tonight…

So, being the lazy person I am, I decided not to use a Kate. I also decided that this plied yarn did not have to be fabulous, as it would be the final color that was important- not the quality of the yarn. Last, the yarn singles needed to be plied into several mini- skeins.

Instead of using a Kate, I plied right from my wheels. When it came to the Lendrum, I was just feeling lazy. With regards to the Swiss lateral, I actually didn’t want to remove the bobbin, as (1) it would have been a pain in the butt to put back on; and (2) I find that it’s best not to mess with antique bobbins/ pulleys unless one absolutely has to.  

I removed the drive band from the Lendrum, and removed the drive band from the bobbin on the Swiss lateral- while preparing my trust Ashford Traveller for plying.

The Lendrum bobbin was under a bit of tension, while the Swiss Lateral was not. I did put the yarn through the hole at the end of the metal flyer, though, which seemed to tension it a bit.

I used acrylic yarn as my leader because that was what I had laying around- and this post is all about being lazy, right?

I began plying and, after a few yards (I just measured in my head), I tied some leader yarn onto my yarn and plied it along with my singles for a bit (about a yard) and then stopped and tied it (again) to my plied singles. I cut it off and began plying as usual. I repeated this several times until I came to the end of the yarn on the Lendrum.

I have to say that I must have been quite a sight because all five of my children were standing around me- gawking. They had lots of questions like: why is there “string” connecting those wheels to that wheel? Are you spinning on three wheels? They were extremely curious- and most of them watched until I was done- which means that what I was doing was extremely interesting!

I used my niddy- noddy and began wrapping my yarn around it- using only one side at a time. When I came to the leader, I tied it off, cut it, and tied the ends together (as usual). I did this for all of my yarn/ leader segments and, voila! I had several mini- skeins.

Now, if I had a smaller niddy- noddy, this would have worked out better but, like so many other spinner, I used what I had.

NB: the resulting plied yarn is not pretty… it is extremely unbalanced as one bobbin had lace- weight, while the other had sport- weight on it. Oh well…

My hope is that, once the twist is set, and the yarn is hung (under tension) to dry, it will straighten out a bit.

Why wash/ rinse it? Why not just dye it while setting the twist?

Because it is garbage yarn of unknown- and of questionable origin. I don’t know what was on it and what was been done to it before it was given to me. I don’t want anything to interfere with my dyeing experiments- and so I am starting off with a clean slate- or clean yarn, rather.

Also, in the squirrely state it is in, I don’t want it to become a tangled mess in the (barely) simmering dye bath.

Stinky Black Bean Yarn

So a few weeks ago I made black beans and decided to use the soaking water to dye yarn. Mind you, my (well) water is hard and so the final color of the yarn most likely will be different than had I used rain, or distilled water.

I used a ball of (hand- spun, sport- weight) yarn- thinking that the yarn away from the center would be darker, while the yarn close to the center would be light (lazy ombre). Well, OK; I also felt a bit lazy…

Life got busy- as it tends to around my place- and I kind of forgot about the yarn. Well, I plain old forgot the yarn- until my oldest child asked what smelled near the pasta maker. It was the yarn, in all it’s farty goodness (farty because of the fermenting black bean odor)!

I took the yarn out of the stinky water and put it in fresh water. I changed the rinse water several times and then left it alone- and forgot about it again.

Today was a blah kind of day; it was one of those days when I just felt out- of- sorts. Not depressed, really, just off. When I feel like this, doing something creative always makes me feel better- so I decided to do something with the farty black bean yarn.

I got out my trusty clock reel and put plastic (grocery) bags over it’s arms. Although it is painted, I wanted to be sure that the wood was protected. I tied the bags onto the arms and then proceeded to wind the yarn from the ball.

 Not stylish- but effective!

I thought that, perhaps, if the yarn was dry, it wouldn’t smell as bad. Also, the yarn needed to be skeined so that I could rinse it. I guess I could have rinsed it right after skeining- but I wasn’t sure that the kids would behave long enough for me to do both.

I felt bad, though, because the ball was in a small, plastic container that my daughter was holding. In the process of the ball unwinding, stinky, farty water was splashing up into her face.

We decided to put the ball of fart yarn on the floor in a heavy container- which worked better for all involved.

While there was a bit of fading from light to dark, the difference wasn’t as bold as I had hoped- most likely because the yarn had been sitting in the black bean water for so long.

The color was a light gray- brown- most likely a result of the iron in my water.

In any case, I felt better after skeining; while my daughter most likely won’t feel 100% until she has the opportunity to shower!

Black Bean Dye Facts:

1. Use the rinse water from soaking your beans; do not heat the water. Heating will destroy the dye. A cold- water bath is used to dye yarn/ fiber/ fabric using black beans.
2. Pay attention to what you use to soak; hard water, water containing iron, etc. will have an effect on your final color.
3. Depending on the mordant or modifier used, black beans can produce colors ranging from shades of grey, purple, to dark blue.
4. Sunlight- as well as washing- will cause black bean- dyed items to fade.
5. Fermenting bean water really smells. You may be able to forget about your black bean experiments for a while, but you will not be able to forget about them forever- trust me!