Fiber Millstress of 84 Alpacas: Cover of the Magazine

Well, it is not exactly what you might think if you read a lot of tabloids. Yesterday we decided to revisit the rug yarn maker. All the poofs from the spinning machine, rovings that pepe lepew'd and would not go thru the pin drafter were bagged up and put in "Rug Yarn Heaven".

Now, every time we think a machine will be easy to learn, we find it has little glitches as well. We learned that the bumps were not sliding off because the lead line we were using was wound to tight. English, Barb, english - put that in layman's terms!

The rug yarn maker works using a core yarn. You thread the machine with twine or yarn and the fiber coming off the carder winds itself around this core. But you need 2-3 yards of core line to thread it completely. This means 1 yard or so is beyond where the fiber attaches. And this yarn, if it is the wrong one, can wind so tight around the metal bobbin it refuses to come off. Some people use jute, some use twine, some use bakers cotton, etc. We had used one spool of cotton Jeff brought with him so when it ran out, I attached 8/4 cotton rug warp. Oops. Also, we were getting a fairly inconsistent product.

I had a revelation and switched to a much larger alpaca yarn for the core and what a difference! The inconsistences are all but gone. Why use yarn or twine? Twine or jute gives the yarn a nice stiff quality which many rug makers want. Yarn has a softer effect. The core also allows you to spin some less quality fibers that may not survive the pin drafter and spinner. Plus, it is for rugs. They do not have to be your best yarn to make a great rug. And all those poofs from the spinner can be reused here instead of wasted.

The rug yarn maker will also make a coreless yarn. We have not experimented much with this yet.

So here is your baby bump px: