Thank heavens for the stash!

As is usual, all ideas and suggestions have been pushed aside, as well meaning and excellent as they were, for something I managed to find in the stash:

My main problem with all the ideas is the beginning, cream, and the end, black and how these would look. This mostly purple, multi-coloured cone has been used to make one of the lovely machine lace shawls, which have easily disappeared off this years stall. Only a small amount is left, though plenty for this purpose.

I like the final result:

Now, I'm off to wash it and start on the knitting. Have a look at knitspingirl's yarn, what is she going to do?

The search for the perfect partner!

Well having sorted, carded and spun my fibre sandwich, I now have to decide what to do about plying. I'm not the only one. Knitspingirl is having similar problems!

Anyway, here is my lovely bobbin full of colour.

There are a number of options for my plying dilemma that don't use another yarn. I could just use the yarn asis. If I wash it and hang it, the kinks will lose their bite, or I could use it, kinks and all. I could also navajo ply, which would create a three ply yarn by itself and the colours would remain distinct. But I'm looking at making a hat with this yarn and for reasons of frugality, I want a thicker yarn with length to ensure my hat has enough yarn. I can't have too much, but I can have too little.

So my options are to ply it with something. Here they are:

- the neverending purple, but this works better with a yarn with more indefinite colour

- the crazy multi colour yarn, that is too green

- the fine wool cream boucle, which will show up a bit too much

There are a number of other options, but they take time and I need to get on with making shawls for my summer markets. What to do??.........

Bollywood yarns

This month at Experimental Spinning, we were playing with plying with a Bollywood theme. I brought some recycled sari silk yarns that I had purchased in San Remo. These provided the inspiration for colour combinations.

I'm not sure I quite achieved a real Bollywood effect, but they're very bold yarns.

There was some discussion about cable and crepe yarns. My take on this is that if all singles are plyed together at the same time, then it's a cable yarn. The yellow is my cable yarn. If the yarn is built up with successive plyings then it's a crepe yarn. The crimson yarn. They give very different effects. I think I might follow up this line with some research. In the name of accurately and consistently describing yarns, it might be worth it.