Batts of Love

So, you guys may already know I'm into spinning; I'm not the best spinner in the world or anything, in fact, I'm still practicing a lot- I've mostly got the twist/feed part of the spinning, but it's the drafting that's getting me.

I get the technical aspect- you use one hand to pinch and keep the twist from running into your "drafting zone" and then you use the other hand to tease out the fibers- the problem is, I feel like I have to tug WAY too hard to get the fibers to separate.

Now, I don't know why this is- this could just be because I should be doing more pre-drafting. I don't really know, but I'm sorta testing it out- I figure I don't plan on doing anything that requires me to have perfect technique so long as what I'm getting is likeable I shouldn't care.

The problem, I'm having, however, isn't with the spinning itself- it's with the materials.

Batts. See, the thing about spinning- is that even with roving, it can be hard to tell what your finished yarn is going to look like if you have anything remotely multicolored. And a lot of that, honestly, has to do with how you spin it. For example, a roving with short little bursts of color- you could spread out those bursts into much longer repeats. Are you going to ply it? That'll change things too.

So what I have a hard time with is the fact that I keep finding these batts that look as yummy as the one I linked up above and I honestly have NO CLUE what it's going to look like spun up.

It's much the same thing with yarn, really. You find a nice, gorgeous yarn like this one, and you think "Wow, that's lovely." But knitted up it's hideous, and loses the charm.

It's rough- it's like artists really spend a lot of time making something that looks good as a product.. but then the actual finished product.. turns out not so great.

Sigh.