Hand carding fun!

I purchased a fun inspiration jar from Mielke's Fiber Arts in 'royal' colors and finally got brave enough to dig in!

Taking all the fibers out of the jar left me with a rather intimidating pile of different materials and colors to decide how to combine.

It was tough so I just dug in, picking about 3 different strips that I though would go together nicely.  I used the hand carders to comb them together adding pieces in different spots and combing more.  Then I would roll the fiber off the carder.  That may have been one of the more tricky things to figure out.  I knew how to make rolags off the carders but I really just wanted the strip or piece of fibers not necessarily all rolled up.

So they weren't very pretty to look at to begin with, but they spun pretty nicely!

I was going for a thick'n'thin that wasn't to dramatic or perfectly consistent in the thick spot placement.

These rolls were really just super lose rolags but, also great to spin from.  

So far I was using many of the same colors, not too much sparkle or contrast, thinking this would be the first half of a 2-ply created with the inside/outside of a cake.

I'd spin up what I'd estimate to be about half so now it was time to add the sparkle and contrast!

These starting turning into mini batts!  I think carded fiber in this format would be easier to transport than al my previous forms!  These also had some pops of blue and pink, along with playing the white and black as a contrast and including more of the sparkle that my jar came with.

Now it's starting to look fun!

Spinning is finished so I wound it off into a cake...

It would've made a nice singles also but since I'd put all of some fiber types on one end, that wouldn't have looked as nice in my mind.

Holding the ends from the outside and insidetogether, I kept my thumb in the middle so it wouldn't collapse on me.

I ended with a very full bobbin!  And it was late so lighting wasn't the best...

I used my niddy noddy to wind off and see my yardage...

Then sat the skein down to admire it!

And a close up...

Then I had to take more pics today in somewhat better light...

And a close up...

Now I have just under 230yds (presoak) of a bulky weight 2-ply thick'n'thin!