At long last, I’ve finished spinning the carbonized bamboo I started talking about several months ago. My motivation was the Tour de Fleece, the spinning event that coincides with the Tour de France.

One of the ‘rules’ of the Tour de Fleece is that you should spin every day that the Tour de France riders are riding, which I am pleased to say that I actually did. Some of the days I didn’t spin much, but I did manage at least 10 minutes a day or so. That’s about the only guideline I followed, but I’m glad I participated because it got me back to spinning regularly.

But I digress. Back to the yarn.

The three large skeins on the left of the photo above are composed of one ply of carbonized bamboo and one of black merino wool. The final result is probably a heavy worsted weight yarn, very soft and bouncy. The two smaller skeins on the right also have one ply of carbonized bamboo, and I think each has one ply of superwash merino, although I’m not quite sure. Because I had a bit of bamboo leftover after I finished the black merino, I wanted to use up the bamboo so I just plied it with leftover singles I had from previous projects.

Here’s a close-up of a carbonized bamboo/black merino skein:
Handspun Close-up

I don’t have a project in mind for this yet, it was just one of those yarns I spun just for the fun of spinning. I do have a bit over 700 yards though, so I should be able to get a couple of hats and a couple pairs of mittens or gloves out of it.

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Spinning Carbonized Bamboo

March 29, 2009

This is what’s currently on my spinning wheel–it’s carbonized bamboo!
After reading a bit on how to spin it, I tried a couple of techniques. What I finally settled on was to spin it long-draw. The fiber is a bit slippery, kind of like silk, but is not too difficult to work with once you [...]

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Another Attempt at a 3-Ply Fingering Weight Yarn

March 5, 2009

This yarn is the product of another of my attempts to make a three-ply fingering weight yarn. Depending on what yarn weight chart you use, this is either on the heavier side of fingering weight or sport weight at 14 wraps per inch. To my eye and hand, it’s pretty close to Blue Moon’s Socks [...]

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