Remember this top from Hipstrings? I was going to spin it into a fine cable yarn. But several people suggested things that had to do with color, so of course I had to go down that road instead.
I wasn't making the connection between this striped top and a striped batt. It's the same thing just on a smaller scale. If I spin in the direction of the fiber's grain the colors combine into a sexy heathery yarn. If I spin against the direction of the grain in the fiber the color plays out in brighter chunks of color, less blended.
You can see it in these bobbins, one is blended and one is chunkier. I plied them on themselves, fraternal not identical yarns.
Left, yarn spun with the grain of the fiber, blending all of the colors. Right, yarn spun against the grain, one color at a time.
Here are the yarns with a chunk of top indicating the direction that the yarn were spun.
Why didn't I buy more of this fiber? I have so many ideas now!