As a knitter, I prefer solid colored yarns that are spun worsted and have nothing unusual about them except perhaps being a beautiful color or spun from an exotic fiber.
As a spinner, I still love to spin the yarns with which I love to knit but color and whimsy are just too hard to resist.
Ever since I took that Navajo Plying class, I am enjoying knitting with yarn that changes colors as I knit.
I dyed some Blue Faced Leicester top.
Ans spun it up.
Navajo plied it and ended up with about 200 yards of a dk weight. (When I start using wraps per inch, you'll now that I've become a real spinner!)
And knit them up into fingerless gloves.
I have been teaching myself the woolen method of spinning and I am catching on. I spun some singles using my hand cards to blend the colors of some NZ carded wool I bought at Weaving Works in Seattle.
Unfortunately, I didn't even take time to take photos of the skeins I spun up. I just started knitting some slippers with it. They were felted and although looked okay by themselves, they just didn't seem to work on my feet. Too floppy!
So I put a loop and button on each one and now I'm very pleased!
I really fell in love with the colors in the slippers and really want to use them in another project...a vest? or maybe a felted bag?
My approach to color is at this point purely intuitive but isn't it amazing how I came up with analogous harmonies for the two projects! If I learn more about the color wheel, it can only help.
Or then again, maybe I just absorbed the information subconsciously. This color wheel was in my room for weeks on exactly the same setting.
And I have an idea for a large project knit in sections that involves navajo plied silk.
The original skein began its life as the start of a bag.
But I ripped it out to use it with these two yarns.
I think silk is very forgiving in terms of color. I'm not sure if I'll be sucessful in combining these colors in my project but look at them all twirled together in a big skein. It seems silk by its very lustrous nature makes allowances, making working with it so much more fun.
Awhile back, I had a not so successful dye experiment go awry so I decided to spin it up into a somber 3 ply. My friend Guy saw the skein and exclaimed "It's beautiful. Let me go look at it in the light!" Such enthusiastic appreciation is very rare so I had to knit him a hat out of it. He's very happy!
It's a merino superwash from Henry's Attic. It's a very springy yarn. Guy even noticed the springiness while I was knitting to fit. He picked up a piece of the yarn and stretched it and saw how it sprung back and pointed it out to me. He is not a fiber person, at least not actively, and it amazes me how he notices these things. Unfortunately, he can immediately zoom in on what's wrong with a yarn or a project and always points it out. Well, it's really not unfortunate. It's actually pretty helpful but sometimes I can enjoy a yarn or a project with its obvious flaws and don't always want to be reminded of them.
I did try to teach him to spin on a spindle. He seems very interested in traditional methods of spinning as in Andean spinning or charkha spinning. I bet he would enjoy a charkha!
I have been spinning up some superwash merino/alpaca blend that I bought at Weaving Works. It was a limited supply but was an amazing .90 an ounce. I bought enough for socks but unfortunately got it into my head to navajo ply some and I'm not pleased with it. I think I'll end up with a pair of gloves. Which isn't bad because fall is almost here.
I feel so fortunate to live in an area where I have access to fiber because otherwise I'd have to save up and spend hundreds of dollars at fiber festivals and saving money isn't my strongpoint either. Well.........there is the internet but being able to see and feel is very important.
They had some Romney batts from a local farm. I bought a little less than a pound. I'll practice woolen spinning and maybe have enough for a vest!
I'm also going to spin up some dog hair from a Cairn Terrier for a 12 year old girl. She wanted purple but I left some natural and dyed some pink so that the colors will change as she knits. She's a very basic knitter so the color changes will make the knitting process more enjoyable. I was thinking of adding beads too though I'm wary because I've never done beaded yarn before.
