Love spinning, hate my yarn
Here are my rovings from the Lynne Vogel workshop. They are paired with little spun samples of the roving plied on itself. Foul. Do not dig the barber pole/marled effect at all. I don't like it in millspun yarn & not in handspun either.
My choices to correct this crime against personal aesthetics?
Learn to love Navajo plying
Dye the yarn after I spin
How do I prepare fiber to make tweed yarn?
My guess is to card little bits of other yarns into fiber then spin.
My choices to correct this crime against personal aesthetics?
Learn to love Navajo plying
Dye the yarn after I spin
How do I prepare fiber to make tweed yarn?
My guess is to card little bits of other yarns into fiber then spin.
posted by jillian at
7:16 AM
12 Comments:
oh my! is it bad that pics 2 and 4 especially are EXACTLY what i want to spin? i love them.
i know, you don't like that marled look, but it is BEAUTIFUL to me. shame that yarn ain't silk, eh? i'd take it off your hands in a second.
Since you don't like it, I'm thinking you should probably send that handspun to me then. I could give it the nurture and respect that it deserves. Email for my new address. I've moved. : )
The other option is to just leave the yarn as singles.
For tweed yarn you'll need to card in little bits of other colors. You can't make it from commercial roving. I made a fabulous (if I do say so myself) tweed by drumcarding a rainbow dyed wool just one pass, then I pulled little bits off of the big batt and rolled them into rollags. I spun these long draw with low pull and medium twist for a funky aran-weight tweedy yarn. I got about 800 yards out of 14 oz of wool. I think I might make one of those cropped bolero things everybody is wearing this season.
Maybe try fewer colors per roving? That way you might end up with a more variegated effect, with less barberpoling?
Or dye lots of fiber separately, then card them together for greater blend?
And someone at a fiber shop told me last weeeknd that the way you get a tweed effect is to mix in little neps of contrasting fiber while you are spinning - how that works, I don't know - maybe prepare the little lumps separately and add them in randomly as you spin - or card them into the roving?
Anyone?
I'm with Jessica -- I tend to not ply things because I like the singles so much better...
Just found your blog after checking your knitty bio url for years. So glad you are back.
I've been thinking about this and I think Juno is right. We dyed such short repeats that I think it's hard to get any length of color going when you have to switch to another color so soon. I think we need to try again with longer lengths of roving, fewer colors per roving, and more space for each color on the roving.
That said, your yarns are beautiful! I know you don't like the barberpole, but they're such gorgeous barberpoles! Knit a swatch...we wanna see some swatches.
I do think the marled plied yarns are beautiful. That said, I think the colors are brighter and dance more in the singles. I am new to spinning (fellow bloggers out there got me into it!), so I don't have any suggestions. I would like to see how "cj"'s suggestion would change things.... Looking forward to your adventures in dyeing!
We will learn to love Navajo plying. But on longer color repeats, I think.
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Hi jillian, very unique blog you have! I was looking for yarn related information and came across your site. Very good info, I'm definitely going to bookmark you! I have a yarn site. You can find everything about knitting stitches, needles, machines, magazines and more. Please visit and enjoy!
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