FROM TRASH TO TREASURES

Every year when I teach my Beginning 3-D class to spin their own yarn,

there are always bits and pieces of roving that fall to the floor,

or that the kids mess up on and give back to me.

So I collect these little bits and at the end of the spinning unit...

I drum card them into a big batt of fibery goodness.

Then I spin it up on my spinning wheel.

The ball above was spun and plied on itself,

but below I wanted to try to ply it up with another fiber,

so I chose a nubby speckled cotton.

Here is the skein off the bobbin in all it's glory...

ready to be knit, 

woven or crocheted into something fun.

Recycling at It's Best

Recycled Wool on the Drum Carder

Always during the Spinning Unit in the Beginning 3-D class, there is a lot waste roving as the kids struggle to learn how to spin.  And many times it lands on the floor, these little wisps that float around the floor.  so after the kids leave, I go around and collect it.  I also collected this year bits of lace and threads from our Nuno Felting Unit.  So I had my T.A. Josh Berger, of the Succulent Garden fame, use my drum carder and comb out all the bits and pieces into a cloudy mass.  

Here is the fluff after it came off the carder, and a close-up- below.

I treated the recycle as an art batt, and spun it thick and thin, then plied it on itself.

I crocheted it into two granny squares and trimmed it with a bit of my own handspun yarn, then gave the two squares to my most outstanding beginners thus far, Bianca Tolentino, and Kaili Hamada.