In Which the Pirate Prepares for the Tour.

After a variety of fibre is selected, the next step of a Combo Spin is to unbraid/unfold it all, split it up into smaller pieces, and then evenly distribute those pieces. This is two pounds of wool (with a little bit of silk and bamboo in the mix) unbraided onto my dining room table. It was interesting to feel the differences from one braid to the next – this one is softer, that one is more compacted, this one is thicker, that one is less solid.

In this video from the PassioKnit Spinner, she explains her method for splitting up her fibre: first she divides it into eight pieces the short way, then strips each of those pieces in half the long way. For four-ounce pieces of fibre, that comes out to sixteen quarter-ounce pieces – a pretty good distribution!

Half of the fibre I’ve chosen is tonal or evenly variegated, so it doesn’t matter if I split them up the short way or the long way. They’ll be pretty much the same, short or long. Since I find it easier to spin from thicker chunks of fibre, especially if I’m going to be spinning longdraw from the fold, I’m going to break these up the short way. Here’s a picture of those pieces so you can see what I mean (the stripy one on the left is eight ounces; the burgundy and yellow ones are four ounces each):

For the rest of the fibre, however, it *does* matter. I refolded each of the four pieces of top to find the colour repeat. In this one, each colour only appears four times. If I divide it only the short way, I’ll have longer runs of each colour that appear less frequently. The more times I strip it the long way, the more times each colour will appear throughout the entire project.

It was fun to find the repeats! Some of them were very clear:

But some had a couple of places that didn’t quite fit in with the colour pattern:

I’m not going to overthink it (too much); I’m just going to start splitting it up with the intent of even distribution. I can imagine that bright aqua colour in little subtle lines throughout, or in longer runs in fewer spots, but it’s sure to look good either way!