totally fabricated

Hello, roving. This is a pile of roving I photographed when working on my Penland application. The black background is a trampoline, which was the most convenient monochromatic surface I could find at the time. Photography on top of a trampoline is of course its own bouncy adventure.

What’s roving? Essentially a bundle of unspun fibers — wool, in this case - more specifically Blue Faced Leicester (don’t let the complicated spelling throw you off - it’s common pronounciation is “LES-ter”). Blue face generally comes from England, is easy to spin because of its long staple length (the length of the wool lock on the sheep), and is pretty soft as far as wool goes as well as pretty sturdy. This particular roving has been combed, so all of the fibers are lined up parallel to each other.

I love the colors, and am thinking about embarking on a project i’ve dreamt of for quite a while: spinning and knitting knee-high socks. It was dyed with indigo and other natural dyes which, as I’m happy to discuss with anyone who asks, was of paramount importance to the British empire and involves a mystifyingly complex process to function as a dye.

Here we have the first felted laptop cozy i ever made, for my very own ibook. It fits perfectly and turns the otherwise recalcitrant computer into a cuddly, hug-able friend. Plus, it’s water-resistant. And did i mention soft? And seamless?