Using up leftovers

This month (September) we experimented with 4ply cable yarns for our online Experimental Spinning session. Four ply cable yarns are basically two singles overplyed together,  twice, then the two resulting overplyed yarns are plyed together in the opposite direction.

A video that was recommended on the day is Wool n' Spinning presents Cabled Yarn by Rachel Smith. Lots of good information and hints.

I decided to use up some leftovers and came up with these yarns.

I was quite happy, so did a bit of a deep dive into my leftovers and came up with these:

And I finished with these yarns:

I made mostly 4ply cable yarns, but I did have a S spun single that I added to the end bits of my plying creating a few 3ply yarns. All sorts of matching yarns. They do need washing as the singles I've used are quite old.

I'm very happy with all of these and they'll end up being used in the mitred square rug that I've been working on. I've stopped that for the moment as I've run out of little bits of handspun yarn and I really should be moving on to other projects. It has been a bit of a distraction, however pleasant, and I should get on with Stuart's jumper and weaving the plastic rugs for my residency in Ivanhoe.

 

August Experimental Spinning - Fractal yarns

Fractal Spinning is another way of spinning a multi-coloured top to get a mix of colours. It's based on the idea of fractals and indicates an ever diminishing division of colours. 

I decided I'd like to see what happens when you use the primary colours, red, yellow and blue. This should be bright but I was hoping for some optical colour mixing. I had the separate colours and created a run that consisted of the three colours four times.

I split it all in half and spun the first half. Then spun further splitting the remains and spinning half until I had this left for the last sequence.

Which gave me the following two bobbins, which I then plyed together.

A fun and gorgeous yarn, not as much colour mixing but not as starkly bright. 

For further reading have a look at the Schacht Spindle Company website (www.schachtspindle.com) for articles by Benjamin Krudwig exploring this topic.

Also suggested by members of Experimental Spinning:

1. Spinning a Rainbow-Fantastic Three Ply fractal ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIqr00PwvRA )
2. Fractal Spinning Preep and how to - craftymisfits Tour De Fleece Weekly challenge ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYEZwVSIxo )

Five on Friday - what on earth have I been doing?

Well, I have been overseas, and yes, there will be photos, but I'm still sorting them out!

Here are my Five on Friday. I have started working well this week and am feeling active, we arrived back at the end of July after 6 weeks away and it's taken 4 weeks (or more!) to get my act together.

From the last experimental spinning, where we worked with Blending boards, I've spun up this, and it's nearly finished! We're at experimental this Saturday (the 5th) where we'll be spinning embroidery threads and the rooms will be buzzing with activity as the Handweavers and Spinners Guild has a Spinning Open day from 11 till 3pm.

I need to practice my weaving and thought I'd try something simple! A spaced warp with a separate warp for a little bit of seersucker. Warp looks good.

Actually weaving very nicely, except the seersucker is just a softness, rather than a bubble. Maybe when it's washed. 

I'm not supposed to buy anything this year, but couldn't resist the amazing fleece from Andyle when the Black and Coloured Sheepbreeders came to the guild. One of the few meetings I attended. It's been sitting in my car.

Thought I'd better spin up said fleece. It's gorgeous, happy so far.

 And I did fit a bit of knitting in as well.

Lace at Experimental

I always love the challenges that each session of Experimental Spinning brings, this time lace was on the agenda, courtesy of an article in the latest edition of Ashford's magazine, 'The Wheel'. It described a method of add those odd bits of lace to your spinning in quite a wild way. Not being a lace girl, cutting up lace seemed like an appropriate thing to do!

We had plenty of lace with a donation from our craft outlet volunteer, and lots from all our stashes.

The first part involved cutting up lace, taking lengths of wool top and threading the top through the lace.

You end up with a pile of lace and tops, like this!

Spinning isn't difficult, or slow, though having my lovely poly wheel with  big hooks certainly helps and even with that, there is some lace that is stiffer than others and does get caught. As I was going to ply this with a fine single, I hoped I could smooth those pieces of lace that had moved or were scrunched up too much, as I plyed.

That proved the case and the plying was done quite nicely and I ended up with yarn that is really quite sweet!

The lessons learnt....

I think that because the pieces of lace were quite short, when I plied they tended to keep sticking out rather than get wrapped. I think that the longer pieces would have been more twisted from the spinning, making the plying easier.
 

For further experimentation:

Trying to get the pieces of lace closer together, for that full-on lace look!

Dyeing would be interesting! All those different fibres!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yarn, but it was fun! For such an over the top look, it's not difficult or particularly slow.

Plastic spinning

As I look forward to Experimental Spinning on Saturday, I realise I haven't even said anything about last month, and, we had such alot of FUN!

It was a plastic month. I've spun with plastic before and got some great results.

This time I had an ulterior motive as I wanted to have a go at combining some stashed acrylic yarn. Yes, I'm the person who everyone gives it to, and, I just can't say no.....

Even to pink!....

What I wanted to do was spin plastic around the acrylic and see if the colour would show through but be a bit more subdued. The result is not too bad...

Now, I hear you all ask, what are you going to do with it? Well may you ask...but I want to make some more nests....

Anyway, there were some amazing yarns created, combining yarns and plastic. We did discuss what you might do with these yarns and thought that things like little bags, you know, for phones and other young stuff! might be fun. I am looking forward to seeing what the others come up with.

Experimental Spinning Christmas tree

For over 10 years now, the first Saturday of the Month has been Experimental Spinning. I haven't tired of playing with spinning and enjoying the company of fellow experimenters. Over that time there has developed a number of traditions. Christmas is a prime example.

We've fairly recently started celebrating our Christmas meeting with a fibre sandwich, and to keep up the interest, we've decided on a theme for each year, this year it's the Christmas tree.  Think tree, decorations and tinsel!

 First was a layer of green, followed by brown, just a little, for the tree trunk. Then we loaded on the tinsel, silver and silk. In the middle, it's kept in check and is a surprise when you spin it. Then layers of red and green fibre, all added up to an amazing fibre sandwich. And very Christmas tree like.

I still have to contemplate how I'm going to spin it. Split it up, card it together or just go with the flow.....or maybe a bit of each?

Yes, it's yarn!

For nearly the last 10 years, every 1st Saturday of the month is Experimental Spinning at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild. Yep, next meeting on the 1st September we celebrate our tenth (oops) birthday. I've been convening the group for all that time and would miss any of it. We continue to have fun and explore all sorts of yarns, fibres, colour and, of course, ideas. If you want to come along and help us celebrate this momentous achievement, don't hesitate to come along, we'll be there with cake and spinning wheels and a few games, from 1 till 4pm.

For the August meeting we attempted, successfully, I may add, tail-spinning. Lexi Boeger in her book 'Intertwined' describes it. Also many years ago we did a version where you spun the locks together, Lexi describes using a core yarn, which is much easier!

I chose English Leicester, which has an amazing crimp, giving you that lovely curly lock look, with a sheen that dyes beautifully.

We all managed to create amazing yarns and the most interesting part was that the yarn wasn't very overspun, which was a surprise, as it is not a plied yarn. This yarn lends itself to being used just as a decorative yarn without having to be transformed by knitting.

Next time I want to try a variegated fleece, Jen did a fabulous grey skein which she wore to coffee. There were also wonderful colours, with dyed mohair being a standout.

Loads of fun!

Bendigo in a day

The Australian Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo (or Bendigo, Bendi, or other terms of endearment) is an annual pilgrimage for those of us that appreciate wool in all its forms. This year, with the train being replaced with a bus service due to works on the line, we decided to take a car and travel together. This enabled the usual chatter, plus the bonus of a side trip to the Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I managed to spend all my money (?) on beautiful yarns, wonderful tops and NO fleeces (I have TOO many unspun fleeces.) I've even managed to pack them away....sorry....before taking pictures!

I did manage to see sheep! There's always a wide variety of breeds and the judging of the fleeces can be viewed and increases your knowledge of breeds and quality. I did manage to have a quick look at the Cashmere and Mohair goats. Next year, I'll make it to the alpacas!

A trip through the various woolcraft sheds is never complete without a visit to Lewis Harper, the wonderful wood turner.

The Woolcraft competition is wonderful, with a shed full of spinning, weaving, felting, crochet. Young and Novices and the more experienced testing their skills and displaying their craft...and...

the Experimental Spinning group won first prize in the group entry class!

So, a brilliant day, with good company, laughs, treasures, finds and plenty to keep me occupied for awhile, at least till next year!

See you there, sometime.