Thursday 22 September 2016

Making yarn from fabric - explorations

What's a useful way of making yarn out of fabric? That was the question first put to the test in my month long stay at the Project Space.

I used a roller cutter and tore the fabric. The roller cutter was good for 1cm wide cutting and for cutting knit fabric. Tearing was very therapeutic and gave a really good edge. I explored only 1 and 2cm wide fabric, but might expand that to 3cm for my final project. Nice size for knitting and for small basketry.

Fabric cut into strips and joined
To create continuous yarn, I have spun the yarn, picking up strips when another ran out. I created a very thick chunky and satisfying yarn out of 4 lengths at a time, 1cm wide...colour co-ordinated, of course!
Handspun yarn from fabric strips

I found a way, can't remember where, of joining strips of fabric, by cutting a slit, in each end, and threading two strips through the slit on the first and then through itself, no knots. I've also spun the resulting strips and plyed them together.

Joined fabric lengths, twisted and plied

All sorts of yarns were created, and I think I now have a workable knowledge of fabric yarn. Lots left unanswered, but let's tick it off the list anyway.



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