One Hump or Two?

Welcome to my first monthly segment.  My goal is to put up a new post each Monday, with the following schedule.  The first Monday of each month will focus on spinning, the second on knitting, the third on weaving and the fourth on crocheting.  The months that there are five Mondays the fifth Monday will be about dying.
This week is about spinning and the fiber in the spot light this month is camel.  I have worked with camel only in a blend.  My first was with merino, then silk and most recently with "fine wool",  That was all the package said.
    The first two blends were 50/50 and the one with fine wool was 84/16, with camel being the lower.  I spun the merino and silk blends on a low whorl 19g suspended spindle.  I spun the fine wool blend on my 1978 Ashford Traditional.  Both tools worked well for the yarns I spun.
I bought both rovings at a store in Black Forest that is now closed, called Table Rock Llamas.  Both of the rovings were natural color.  Even though I bought the same number of ounces of each roving, I didn't get the same number of yards and had some of the silk blend left over.  I'm not sure why this is as I should have run out of the silk blend first because silk weighs heavier and should have made less yardage.  The merino and silk blends were plied together.  They are 24 wpi as a 2 ply yarn and the singles are 32 wpi.

The fine wool blend was plied with another fine wool yarn from the same vendor, The Natural Twist.  I had two different colors of this fiber, Guinevere which is a shade of rose and Merlin which is a shade of forest green; the name of the fiber is Camelot.  I love it.  The single of the Camelot was 30 wpi and the single of the fine wool was 36 wpi.  Plied together they were 20 wpi.  I used these yarns to weave a plaid scarf for me to wear this coming winter, look for more on the scarf in my weaving installment coming in a couple weeks.

There are two different kinds of camels, one hump, Dromedary and two humps, Bactrian.  Dromedary camels live mostly in hotter regions in northern Africa and the Middle East, because of this they do not produce as much fiber as the Bactrian camel.  Dromedary camels have one hump that stores fat, not water, that they can use to survive the harsh desert life they live.  They can go for extended periods of time without though.  Some cultures keep these camels for milk, meat, transportation and fiber.  They can produce about 7 pounds of down a year if the weather permits.  Bactrian camels live wild in Gobi desert and can drink salt water.  Their domestic counter parts cannot.  These camels are where most spinning camel fiber comes from.  They live in a colder area and produce more down.  They are also used for transportation.  The wild Bactrians are endangered and the Chinese government is trying to fix that.
Camels have five coats.  The fine one that we really enjoy spinning is the down under coat that keeps them warm.  The outer four coats keep the sun and dirt out.  These coats can be used for more utilitarian applications such as rugs and yurt covers or woven for tie downs and leads.  The down coat is shed once a year by the animal and can be collected.  This may yield a fleece weighing from 5-15 pounds, depending on the size of the animal.  The staple length of this fiber is from 1-5" and has a micron count of 19-24 for the adults and the babies can be as fine as 16 microns.
Camel down takes dye well, though I haven't dyed any personally, I have seen it in many different color colors.  It doesn't felt easily however and must be blended to be felted.

I have also been trying to finish up some fiber that I started spinning during Spinzilla last year.  It is from Ancient Treasures Alpacas in Arvada, Colorado.  It is 80% huacaya alpaca and 20% tussah silk.  It takes a bit of playing with to get it going, but then it's like butter.  It also likes to fly away in this dry climate and I have found it sticking to everything.  I have 4oz total.  I will spin two bobbins with 2oz each, but I haven't decided if I want to ply them together or ply it with a 50/50 yak/silk blend.  I would need more yak blend if so.  I bought the yak/silk blend from Blazing Star Alpacas.  Their fiber shop is in the back of a vacuum store in Englewood, Colorado, while their alpacas are boarded at a ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado.  The yak/silk blend is from Ashland Bay.  I am spinning both of these fibers on my 1978 Ashford Traditional replica using an 18:1 ratio.

I have been doing demos at the DeLaney farm in Aurora, Colorado lately,  I have been taking my original 1978 Ashford Traditional wheel and to show spinning with wool.  I am using a 9:1 ratio and spinning a bit thicker.  I also bring a low whorl suspended spindle, the same one I spun the camel blends on, and am spinning some BFL from Greenwood fiber works in the meteor color way.

    I spin each Sunday before church starts.  I use a tiny 9g Turkish spindle my husband made and some green fiber from Redfish dyeworks.  It is a 50/50 merino/silk blend that I have been spinning on for quite sometime...  I do this while walking around and talking to people.  It is a very small church so this is easy to do.  It is also a great conversation starter for people of all ages, as I would otherwise be shy and really have to force myself to talk to others.

I haven't been working on any new skills really.  Just trying to keep my fiber consistency and drafting the same.  I recently was asked to spin a 2 ply DK weight yarn.  I knew this was going to take some practice and figuring out because it is not my default spin and I have never done a 2 ply DK before.  I was given Shetland roving to craft this yarn.  I was spinning along and using my gauge got a single that should make a nice DK when plied.  I spun a bit more to make a ply back sample and it was great.  I hit the target.  I will say it did take about a week's worth of trail and error.
    I finally have enough spun to start the project.  I begin knitting and notice that the yarn is a bit thicker than I expected and while the gauge is close to what is listed in the pattern, it is much tighter knit.  I continue on, not sure why all this is or what is happening.  I finish the spinning and knitting nd turn the project in the beginning of this past April.  I finally realized what happened literally just last week!  I didn't have enough twist in my singles and when they were plied together they became fluffy.  Because I only checked the grist of my ply back samples I didn't know the yarn that I was plying wasn't the same until I started knitting.
    Lesson number one, a ply back sample is a good starting point, but for a final yarn, making an actual sample will give you A LOT more information.
Lesson number two, if you want a fluffier finished yarn, use less twist in the singles and they will fluff more when plied.
    Lesson number three, find another spinner who had been doing it longer than you and ask their thoughts when you are getting unexpected results.  I didn't do this.  I know very few other spinners and most of them I have taught.  The only reason this finally all fell into place is because of the Sheep to Shawl competition I was part of in June and because I sit around think too much.  I knew I was having trouble getting enough twist for the Sheep to Shawl team because we were using wpi and twist angle.  I won't even pretend to understand twist angle, but I learned enough to use it for this competition and that's what told me I needed more twist.  Last week I was thinking about that Shetland DK yarn again and it just suddenly all fell together.  I don't like to spin by the numbers so speak as we did for the competition.  I understand in that situation that you almost have to, to get a nice finished piece.  We did take first place.  I prefer to spin by the feel and use wpi to get me in the ball park.  I think though I need to spend some more time with twist angle and figure out how I can use it.