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zsenya's LJ the other day, some people might want to see what I've been up to with my spindles and spinning wheel. These are in the order I spun them with a bit of info on each skein. Oh, all the skeins were dyed with Wilton's Cake Icing Colors.
Coppery is 74 yards of 2-ply Blue Faced Leicester. It was spun and plied on my Schacht top/bottom whirl spindle.
Iris is 54 yards of 2-ply Tussah Silk. It was spun and plied on my Tulipwood Vixen spindle.
Millais' Bridesmaid is 119 yards of Blue Faced Leicester with a pinch of "tropics" Firestar. Spun on the wheel.
Tulips is 115 yards of 2-ply Blue Faced Leicester. Spun on the wheel.
Waving, Not Drowning I is 271 yards of 2-ply Blue Faced Leicester. From the wheel.
Waving, Not Drowning II is 189 yards of 2-ply BFL also. It was dyed with the same dye mixes, but in a different pot, so the colors are ever so slightly different. A bit more white and a bit less green than WNDI. From the wheel.
Lilac Skies is 262 yards of 2-ply South African Fine. From the wheel.
Prairie Flower is 284 yards of South African Fine plied with a gold polyester thread. Wheel spun.
Daffodil Fields is 412 yards of Merino plied with a green polyester thread. Wheel spun.
- Music:Arctic Monkeys - Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...
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accomplished
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Comments
Chris
http://stumblingoverchaos.blogspot.com/
(hi!)
I didn't realize you could dye yarn with Wilton's cake icing dye. I knew the stuff was water proof from my own cake decorating days, can't get the stuff off of your fingers for anything.
I'm overwhelmed with the various colors available in yarn today, That's why I have two large containers of yarn still waiting to be used in my crochet work. hee hee!
For the skeins above, I put the unspun wool in to a pot and poured various colors of the Wiltons over different areas then simmered it until the colors were set. It's pretty easy, actually.
The S-17 - is that the new kit wheel? I have a Schacht DT but I miss my Louet for plying, that's for sure.
BFL is such a dream to work with. In May, I went to the big sheep and wool festival here and *gorged* myself on fiber. Now I either have to figure out how to spin alpaca and llama or how to build myself a drum carder.
At any rate, you can comb llama or alpaca with just a wide-tooth dog comb. And you can spin it worsted if you want (I love worsted-spun yarn) BUT I took a class forever ago and the woman taught us to spin that long silky kind of fibre from the fold. You just take a 4-6" length, fluff it up, and "fold" it in half over your index finger. Then you start spinning from the top of the fold, so the drafting triangle is right above your knuckle, kind of, and this puts more air into slick, dense fibres like alpaca than plain worsted spinning does.
What's hard for me is that I've had no formal training and have been spinning for less than a year, so it's all trial and error.