Spinning Before and After - "Hellebore"

I think I've really reached a turning point with my spinning. I am much more comfortable with raw fibers, locks, fiber prep and color blending after this latest project. I went into this with a clear idea of what I wanted, and I was able to spin to get that result.

I started with two colors of plant-dyed Shetland locks from Natchwoolie. I had about twice as much of the darker cranberry purple "Lambrusco" than the lighter pinkish "mauve". I recently bought a scale and I don't know how I lived without it before this. I split the two colors into two equal piles each. Each one was destined to become a skein.

Next, I started on the first skein. I split the piles again into two equal halves so I could spin a two-ply yarn. I have more purple than mauve, so I wanted to be sure I was able to blend it effectively. For the first ply, I flicked open the locks with a cat brush and left the two colors in separate piles. Flicking the locks really opened them up and made them easier to draft.



When I spun the first ply, I alternated grabbing from each pile and spun from the cloud. I ended up with a rustic, textured single with occasional slubs and thick and thin spots. I didn't want to card all of the personality out of this fiber, and I like how the singles turned out.



Then I started on the second pile of fiber. I flicked the locks open again. I added an extra step and roughly carded the two colors together by grabbing random combinations of locks and flicking them together. They all went into one big pile.



I spun this pile from the cloud, pretty much as it looked there and didn't pay attention to what was happening with the colors. The singles still varied a bit, but the changes between purple and pink were much less dramatic.



The final step was plying the two back together. I ended up with 2.5 oz, 110 yards and a bit of variation between sport and worsted weight. There are sections that are all purple or all mauve, but the rest is varying blends of the two colors. It's heathered with a bit of added excitement and I love it.






I swatched it on US5's and I love how this fabric shows the texture and variation in color. It's not stark stripes, but it's more interesting than a well-blended heather.

Spinning Before and After - Orange You Excited

I ordered these gorgeous cheerful batts from Extreme Spinning last month. I originally saw them and commented on them when PhatFiber did a special post about her shop. I coveted them for a while and finally caved in. I'm so glad I did! Each was 2.5 oz of superwash wool and angelina in shockingly happy orange and yellow.

This past week, I pulled them out of the fiber stash and got to spinning on the wheel. I split each one in half, spun two bobbins of singles and then made 2-ply yarn. I made a conscious effort to "overply" this time since my 2-plies tend to be a little loose. It worked! After washing, the yarn was balanced and the twist didn't unwind itself. I've been squooshing the skeins ever since. I got 255 yards total out of both batts.

My favorite part, other than the orange, is the subtle gold twinkle peeking out here and there. It's wonderful! (Click images to see them larger, especially the finished yarn).

Spinning before and after - II

I've been spinning everything I can get my hands on and now have a bowl full of handspun mini-skeins to play with. (Click any photo to enlarge)

This lovely purple and blue fiber is mixed wool, mohair, firestar and angelina from Sweet Pea Fibers. I spun thin singles and then Navajo plied them into a heavy worsted 3-ply, all on the spindle. The little half ounce puff of fiber yielded 7 yards of lovely sparkling yarn.





Another Sweet Pea Fibers batt was about a half ounce of mixed wool, cultivated silk, sari silk threads, angelina and firestar. This was the first time I'd spun anything with threads mixed in and it wasn't as difficult as I had expected. They give a nice texture to the yarn, and personally I think plying really helped keep them in line. Like the first one, this was spun and then Navajo plied on the spindle to give 9 yards of rustic worsted. I think the mix of colors is actually better in the spun yarn than in the batt.





Another fiber in the Sweet Pea Fibers sampler was a pink, brown and green hand-dyed merino top. I split it into thirds and spun it on the spindle. I loaded each third onto a bobbin and then plied a 3-ply yarn off the bobbins, back onto the spindle. I was aiming for a yarn that gradually changed colors and had sections that were mostly pink, brown or green. It was fairly successful and I got 23 yards of squishy round worsted with regions that are more strongly one color than another. I really like the effect in the skein and it will be interesting to see it knitted up. I ran out on one bobbin first and had enough left on the other two to try another mix. I still had some of the solid green merino/tussah singles on another bobbin, so I substituted it in as the third ply. I ended up with 5 1/2 yards of spring green yarn with pops of pink and brown. Again, it's fascinating to see how changing one ply can have such an impact on the final yarn.









The solid green single also came into play when I spun up my hand-dyed merino wool sample from Hedgehog Fibres. It's a colorway called "Stranger" and I love the chartreuse, moss green and eggplant mix. I didn't want to muddy all of the colors together, and it was fortuitous that the green merino/silk was such a close match to the base green. I spun each one up on the spindle and then plied them together to make 18 yards of worsted 2-ply. The greens gracefully intertwine through most of the yarn, and the eggplant and dark moss green and brown pop out here and there. I really love how this finished and I think it's more interesting than it would have been if I had attempted to spin a singles yarn. It's one of my absolute favorites so far and I keep taking it out to pet it. I may even love it too much to knit with it.







After my two experiments with the Silver Sun Alpacas "Wine and Chocolate" batt, I still had some singles left. I Navajo plied them on the spindle to finish with six yards of very lovely 3 ply. In this case, the white mohair streaked out and took the limelight from the brown and wine. I really like how the Navajo plying maintained the color progressions in the singles.





Sweet Pea Fibers sent a bonus batt with my order made of hand-dyed wool, tussah silk, nylon sparkle and angelina. It was a fun mix of pinks with little shots of teal and gold. I spun and Navajo plied this on the spindle. It's bulkier than the others and gave nine yards of cheerful 3-ply. The sparkle is subtle and the same color as the yarn, but it's enough to make it glitter in the light. I had contemplating plying this with a lot of different singles, but in the end I thought it needed to stand on its own.





It's really hard to believe I got my spindle a week ago today. I've been having so much fun trying different techniques and experimenting with different fibers. I have a whole pile of mini-skeins to admire and each one is so unique.

Spinning before and after

Spinning the Phat Fiber samples and the little half ounce balls of fiber from Sweet Pea Fiber is like digging into a box of Valentine's chocolates. There are so many different flavors and only enough for a bite of each one. I spent the evening spinning and plying a variety of different samples and I'm having so much fun playing with color. I honestly didn't think I'd like spinning this much, but there's something about the feel of all the different fibers - wool, silk, mohair - and the interplay of colors. The batts and rovings change when they are spun, and change again when they are plied and it's always a surprise to see what happens.

(Click any photos to see them larger)

The February Phat Fiber box included a bunch of pink and brown fiber samples based on the "Romance and Chocolate" Theme.

I spun up the 0.2oz Corriedale Pencil Roving Duet in “Raspberry Truffle” from Aurora Fiber Arts. The duet is made of two complementary strands of roving that can be plied together to make a fun yarn. I spun one continuous strand from both halves of the duet.



Then I spun up a special batt that came in my order from Sweet Pea Fibers. It’s hand-dyed wool, tussah silk, sparkle and angelina.



Then I plied the two together on my wheel. The end result is 10 yards of worsted-to-bulky bright pink yarn with bursts of brown.




Silver Sun Alpacas sent a batt of alpaca, merino and mohair in a lovely blend of chocolate brown, wine red and white aptly named "Wine and Chocolate".



I spun it up on the drop spindle.



Then I spun a January box sample of white 70% mohair and 30% wool from Natchwoolie. It spun like butter into fuzzy, white singles.



Then I plied the two together on my spindle (first time) to get 16 yards of worsted-to-bulky two-ply with a nice halo.





I still had some of the Wine and Chocolate singles left, so I spun a little Mini Bon Bon in color "Cherry Chakka Latte" from Natchwoolie. It was chocolate merino lamb wool with pale pink plant-dyed mohair.



I plied it with the Wine and Chocolate on the drop spindle. It made 6 yds of worsted two-ply. The difference in appearance between this and when it was plied with the white is really interesting.




I also spun up two samples from the January box. I put together Moonlight and Laughter’s BFL in “Deep Lake” with Enchanted’s hand-dyed merino. They were in the same blue/teal color family, except Enchanted’s was lighter. I ended with a good 18 yds of worsted-to-bulky two-ply and only had 12 inches of leftover Deep Lake singles. They were a perfect match!













This is a batt from Extreme Spinning. It's 1 oz of purple and pale yellow superwash wool, layered with silver angelina. This was soft and silky and spun easily. The angelina is nearly invisible in the fiber, but the yarn glitters in the light like newly fallen snow. The colorway is "Prince Humperdink", based on the movie The Princess Bride. He's dressed in royal purple, with a yellow belly.



I spun this on my drop spindle and then wound it into a center pull ball. I plied it into a bulky two-ply from the inside and outside of the ball again on my drop spindle. It made 11 yards of very fun, soft yarn.