I’ve been careening madly around the internet posting photos of this yarn. Well, on Ravelry and in a Picasa web album, anyway, which goes on G+ which feels very much like the entire internet sometimes…
POINT being, if we’re connected anywhere else, you may have already seen this, sorry. But really, if this yarn isn’t screaming for attention, I don’t know what is.
"Look at meeee!"
This is my latest yarn, and probably my best spinning result ever to this point. Especially as I did a chain ply (aka: Navajo ply), which I’ve needed to practice.
I’ve really been wanting to spin a gradient yarn after seeing friends on Ravelry produce simply gorgeous skeins from gradient-dyed rovings. I found this bold roving of Merino/Silk at Fiber Optic Yarns and snapped it up, even though the colors scared me a little. I love orange and yellow! But, yeah… no… scary.
I knew I could not split this in half and then try to ply the two singles together… I wanted NO barber pole effect! The spinning took several days and I think the plying took about a day. It’s all a blur.
Anyway, I’m really excited about these results and cannot wait to spin another gradient. There is some un-dyed roving in my stash and a couple of new green dyes… new project!
Am I boring ’cause I like browns and tans? (Wait! Don’t answer that.)
I purchased this Merino/Tencel (50/50) fiber from Fat Cat Knits and spun it into a fingering weight singles yarn. There are about 218 yards in 2 oz. I just find the colors so soothing and beautiful, like playing with rocks in a shallow stream.
This is the latest yarn to come off the wheel. I really love this one… it makes me long for summer and an ice cream cone!
It’s a sport weight yarn with about 130 yards in 1.8 ounces. The fiber is a lovely Merino/silk blend from BohoKnitterChic Spins.
*nom*
*nom nom*
Ever since I started spinning, I’ve never really felt sure enough about my singles to use them on their own. I’ve always plied two or more singles together, or at least with something like thread. After spending some time with my friend Brandy, my entire outlook has changed! She has spun some gorgeous singles yarn and has inspired me to try it as well.
Here is my first skein:
Bluefaced Leicester Singles Yarn, 186 Yards, 20 WPI (fingering weight)
I’m thrilled with it! I’ve been using some commercially spun singles yarn – which I really like – and I think this one is going to count among my favorite handspun yarns.
Thanks, Brandy!!
My friend Brittany has some gorgeous batts and fiber for spinning in her Etsy shop. She’s seriously an artist. I caught up with her at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this year and purchased this superwash BFL roving. I spun half of it just as I normally do, letting the colors do their thing. I then split the other half into separate colors as best I could and tried to spin two singles in order from orange to white to light blue and then the darker blue.
I wasn’t completely successful — splitting it was harder than I thought it would be! But, still, I love the color progression, and I decided to make a child’s crochet beanie:
I really like the way it turned out… I think I will attempt this again in the future!
This post is photo-heavy… ready?!
So, I figured I should go ahead and wrap this up. Had fun, won a prize (more on that in the next post), and got lots of yarn spun! Without further ado, here are my final photos from this year’s Tour de Fleece:
Days 18-19 – No photos. Day 18 was a frustrating day and I didn’t really produce anything I wanted to take a photo of. Day 19 was officially a rest day, though I still spun. More frustrating stuff. Moving along.
Day 20
50/50 Merino/Bamboo from Creatively Dyed – corespun
I could not figure out what to do with this fiber for the longest time. It’s absolutely gorgeous, I love the colors and the shine of the merino/bamboo, but the color repeats were so small and it was so slippery that trying to spin straight-up yarn with it was not working out for me. Muddy yuck. So, finally, I thought of trying corespinning. This is only my second attempt and I thought it was going pretty well…
Day 21 – Hilarity ensues!
Corespun – way, way, way spun
Whoops.
Day 22
I seem not to have taken a photo on day 22. I started spinning something new, and the finished yarn is shown on the last day. But for day 22, let’s take another look at that corespun:
twiiiiiist!
So, so, pretty. But so, so twisty. I despaired.
Day 23
Merino/Tussah Silk from Dicentra Designs
This yarn was so shiny and bright, it was hard to photograph. It’s not my best… think I was getting a little tired of spinning by this time.
So, that’s everything for this year! Here’s a little collage of everything I worked on:
Thanks for following along! A couple of these are up for sale at my Etsy shop if you see anything that interests you.
So, I’m participating in this challenge called “Tour de Fleece” — the idea is to spin every day of the Tour de France & share progress. There are awesome prizes, too, but I doubt I will win anything unless it’s in the random drawing. The TdF runs from July 4-26 with resting days July 13 & July 20 (just like the real Tour). I was actually feeling it a little bit in my calves yesterday… couldn’t believe it.
Here’s my progress for week 1:
Day 1 (July 4)
Spun in public in the morning at the Corvallis Artisan’s Market. That was fun, I’d like to go join those ladies in their booth again sometime. I started spinning the New Hue Handspuns, merino/angora that I got at Black Sheep Gathering.
Days 2 – 4 (July 5-7)
I set aside the singles from day 1 and spun this 100% Tussah silk that I found at the Rose & Ram knit shop in Independence. This is a gift for someone… I hope they like it. It is most definitely not perfect. In fact, I broke the strand a couple of times, so there are two knots. Boo.
Days 5-7 (July 8-10)
Started in on this superwash Merino from I’Did’A'Twist & spun two bobbins of singles to ply together. LOVE the color:
On day 7, I also spun a little more of the fiber I started on day 1.
Day 8 (July 11)
Done plying! Very happy with this.
I also spun the bobbin on the right in this photo. That lovely plummy-purple comes from Bellwether Wool & I’m pretty sure it’s a Wensleydale/Mohair blend. (I’d spun the other one a while ago — it’s from a batt I put together myself on my drum carder.)
And then plied those together — the result is just okay. The blending in the single from my carded batt really doesn’t show up, it’s just overwhelmed by the solid color of the Wensleydale.
Day 9 (July 12)
Yesterday I started on this & got one bobbin of singles done. This is a Shetland/Merino blend from Sporfarm:
I feel like I want to make a 3-ply out of this and use a thin midnight-blue velvet ribbon for the 3rd ply. But I can’t decide if that would actually look good or not…
So, there’s week 1. Back next week with another update!
Craftgawker
Etsy Mini
