I spin lots of samples. I make samples for writing articles and teaching, but a lot of my samples are spun due to the fact that I love the experimenting. Before I started writing about or teaching spinning I spun lots of samples just to see what happened when I changed and element or two.

I don't make very big samples, some are an ounce, some are just a big ply-back sample. It depends what changes I'm making and if I will knitted samples are on the docket.

I try to do as many sample as I can without switching bobbins. I think I've mentioned that I'm a lazy spinner, right?

I'm making singles samples right now and I filled a bobbin with about a dozen different samples. Here's how I did it the quick and lazy way.

I spun in a contrasting fiber between each sample. That's it. In the photos I used a natural grey fiber between a color blended fiber anda color blocked fiber. I spun in 2"-3" of the grey quick and dirty between the two color samples. My joins aren't pretty and they won't last much more than winding the yarn on and off of the bobbin, which makes removing the spacer yarn easier when I wind my samples off individually onto a niddy noddy.

When you try this make sure of just two things: 1) The spacer fiber has to contrast with both of thefibers it spans. When I make many different colored samples I change the color of my spacer fiber as I work through all of my samples. 2) Write down what you are doing! I write it down in detail, what's happening in each sample, so I can tag it after I wind it off.

And don't forget to note if sample #1 is the first sample on the bobbin or the first sample off of the bobbin, I've made that mistake many times.

Happy sampling!