Spinning Update
My latest to come off the wheel is "Frosted Forest" wool/soysilk from Hello Yarn Fiber Club, I believe its the December 07 installment. I went for doubles for these past few months, so I have 4oz total, about 520yds of my trademarked (not really) "fingersport" weight yarn. I'd been thinking a light and drapey scarf/shawl with this, but once I completed it, I started wondering if the fiber combo might make some silky socks? Who knows, I probably won't get around to knitting it for months, and my whims may have taken me elsewhere by then.
After finishing that, the time came to decide what to put on the wheel next. I love getting to choose new fiber, shopping the stash and having an excuse to pull out and rediscover things I haven't seen in a while. After seeing Rebekah's post about "fractal spinning" here, I thought the idea sounded really neat, so I was "shopping" for a good roving for that. I think I found it:
Spunky Eclectic BFL* colorway Pluto's Fire. I picked this up at last years SPA, deliberately departing my usual color preferences in an attempt to broaden my horizons. Here it is, ready for "fractal" method.
While I've not read the original article from Spin-Off that discusses the tecnique, Rebekah's explanation was plenty instructive. Basically, split your roving lengthwise in half. Spin one bobbin from one half, thus achieving long slow color changes along the length of the singles. For your 2nd bobbin, split the remaining half into quarters, and spin those, thus getting shorter more frequent color changes. Plied together, the idea is you have one single rapidly changing colors against the slow-change single. Like Rebekah, I'm skeptical that all this work actually makes a difference one said yarn is actually knit up, but it seems like a fun experiment. We shall see.
*BFL says the label, my hands and eyes say "No Way!" as I'm spinning it. More like corriedale, but not quite. Certainly not BFL though.
After finishing that, the time came to decide what to put on the wheel next. I love getting to choose new fiber, shopping the stash and having an excuse to pull out and rediscover things I haven't seen in a while. After seeing Rebekah's post about "fractal spinning" here, I thought the idea sounded really neat, so I was "shopping" for a good roving for that. I think I found it:
Spunky Eclectic BFL* colorway Pluto's Fire. I picked this up at last years SPA, deliberately departing my usual color preferences in an attempt to broaden my horizons. Here it is, ready for "fractal" method.While I've not read the original article from Spin-Off that discusses the tecnique, Rebekah's explanation was plenty instructive. Basically, split your roving lengthwise in half. Spin one bobbin from one half, thus achieving long slow color changes along the length of the singles. For your 2nd bobbin, split the remaining half into quarters, and spin those, thus getting shorter more frequent color changes. Plied together, the idea is you have one single rapidly changing colors against the slow-change single. Like Rebekah, I'm skeptical that all this work actually makes a difference one said yarn is actually knit up, but it seems like a fun experiment. We shall see.
*BFL says the label, my hands and eyes say "No Way!" as I'm spinning it. More like corriedale, but not quite. Certainly not BFL though.
Labels: spinning
posted by Pumpkinmama at Tuesday, March 04, 2008
10 Comments:
I know what you mean about wandering intentions. We are such butterflies.
The fractal stuff is worth the try. I don't know either. A controlled experiment sounds deathly boring, so just go for it. It's better than spinning the same thing in two different ways.
You're really becoming a skillful spinner! The Frosted Forest yarn is to die for. It looks wonderfully consistent.
And the Pluto's Fire has all my favorite colors in it, sigh! I look forward to seeing how this one turns out...
I did the fractal thing for that brightly colored roving that I made the corsshatches out of. I liked the way the yarn looked, but I have no idea if the fractal approach really made a difference.
I'm anxious to see how your fractal approach works. So, get spinning, would ya?
Your yarn looks great--love the colors.
Delightful!
I'm looking forward to seeing how this spins up. The other handspun looks great.
The fractal spinning sounds like a fun idea and something that I might try with spindle spinning (though I'm just learning, so not yet) in order to break up the monotony spinning something that large would take.
Interesting concept....I look forward to seeing if the effort really works.
Beautiful spinning by the way :-).
Hah! I think I spin a lot of "fingersport" weight yarn too.
That's a gorgeous colorway, and I can't wait to see your fractal yarn. I still need to finish the project (weave in ends, add a button), but my project with my fractal yarn is pretty much done. I have to say, I think I can actually tell. It's a really neat effect.
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