While I was away in the States I rediscovered my motivation to spin. I've been treadling like a demented creature ever since. I really wanted to spin good 3-ply for socks. Not too thick, not too thin; not too soft, not too stiff. There are quite a few variables, but as I'm not a very organised or academic spinner I just launched in. I got some Corriedale top and played around with dyeing and spinning.
Attempt 1: soft, but colours went muddy, yarn is much too thin
Attempt 2: colours nice and bright, still too thin, a bit scratchy:
Attempt 3 - abandoned own dyeing and used commercial Falkland: nice and soft, but too thick:
The smaller skein is chain- or navajo-plied. It gives the effect of 3-ply, although in fact there is only one strand looped around itself. It enables one to keep the colours separated. The larger skein shows how the colours get mixed up when you ply three strands together.
Finally, I dyed some humbug bfl top (it's a mixture of natural brown and white) and am just finishing spinning it up. I did two colourways, blue and autumn colours, and am going to use both in the same pair of socks. In fact, I've done the first blue toe - photo to follow. This yarn is soft, not too thick and I love the colours! I chain-plied this.
Here's the autumn version before spinning.
This looks like a lot of fun - can you forecast what the colours are going to look like?
Posted by: jill | 08 June 2011 at 11:01 AM