Instructor: Sylvia Smith.

Saturday February 22nd 2-4 pm

Blending Board Basics

You received a nice blending board as a gift, or you bought one because the name suggests you can use it for blending fibers. You want to create some one-of-a-kind fiber combinations for spinning or felting projects, but the tool’s size might be intimidating because it looks like a hand carder that received an overdose of growth hormones. In this fun class, Sylvia will show you how to use your blending board to create beautiful rolags for spinning, or fun and wild batts for spinning or felting. Blending on a blending board yields best results when used with ready-to-spin fibers rather than unprocessed fiber. It’s a great way to re-imagine the colors in handpainted braids, or to deal with roving made by blending fibers of different lengths. We’ll create our custom blends with the help of some atypical tools like a paintbrush, pet slicker brush and dowel rods or old straight metal knitting needles. Sylvia will also demonstrate how to create artful batts that can then be used in textured yarns from carding and combing waste. No prior fiber processing experience is required. Participants will learn to use their blending board as a tool and expression of their fiber arts interests.

Materials Required:

Blending board and accompanying tools - *Not required but strongly recommended for hands-on experience in class. A discount is available to registered class participants for purchase of blending boards.

Fiber for blending – Sylvia recommends bringing solid-colored rovings or batts as well as hand-painted braids. This is a good way to rescue the braid you bought because it’s eye candy and has a great name, but you are afraid to spin because it may become a psychedelic nightmare.

Sylvia also highly recommends the Ashford packaged wool/silk multi-colored rovings

available at Fiber.

A discount is available to registered class participants for purchase of fiber for use in the class.