I had a backlog of things I needed to get done since I recovered from the holidays (and I'm here in Korea again with my Babe wheel), but now I've started working on 'What to do with leftover Christmas Tinsel?' which I talked about in this video:
My container of random bits of wool and silk and yarn (which I used to make pottage batts) was majorly overflowing, so I grabbed my hackle and threw on a bunch of interesting things. These rovings have merino wool, cormo/mohair/cotswold locks, silk, tencel, angelina, firestar, silk ribbons, yarn scraps, and, of course, tinsel. I have a diz (the tool used to remove fiber from tools like a hackle, and it produces a short roving), but it didn't have a large enough hole for all of this texture. To remove the fiber, I grabbed a small bit of fiber in my hand, gave it a half turn, then pulled a little. Short twist, then pulled. A long, fat, artsy roving about four feet long was the result. I did that twice to get two different rovings. Here's how they turned out:
The pink one had more shorter fibers than the blue one, so I pulled off the short fibers, placed them on the hackle again, then drafted them out into a lumpy roving:
As part of the tutorial, I will be showing you how to spin the pink one (my favorite) in real time, but I will also show you how I spun the blue one in time lapse. I've been thinking of adding time lapse videos to my tutorial series to show you more examples of how to spin various kinds of yarn (and for further examples of carding or blending or whatever else seems appropriate). The demonstrations I do are great, but I know that some of you just want to watch the process for longer. I think this is a good trade-off: I can give you the extra content you need without making you sit and watch a thirty minute video of me rambling while I spin. :)
I already filmed the first yarn, and I will be filming the second yarn on Monday. Here's a sneak peek at how the blue yarn turned out!:
I used the plying thread which had sequins already spun into the thread. Here's a better picture of my plying thread here.
I was a little concerned at first that the tinsel would feel scratchy against my neck, since it is designed to be haphazardly thrown over a tree, but it's actually quite soft. It reminds me of angelina fibers, which are designed to be soft and pliable.
I haven't completely committed to this idea yet, but I kind of want to use this yarn for a future weaving project. It'll provide a ton of interesting texture. Or, and this is why I'm not completely committed to the weaving idea yet, I might knit it as fringe on the end of another large shawl I want to make. I love how the striped Cora shawl turned out, and I like how the heaviness on the bottom stretched the stitches slightly so it looked more lacy, yet substantial. Here's the one I'm talking about:
If you would like to add in specific requests for this Babe art yarn tutorial, be sure to let me know in the next day or two so I can get it included in the video!
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