Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Spinning One Pot Dye Fibers

Okay, so you've dyed the one pot method and now are thinking how to go about spinning those fibers? Away we go--take wheel, find a comfy chair and the bag of lovely fibers and you are set. Maybe, you want to keep the colors uniform and in the same color range. Then just pull those colorful locks from the bag, find the cut end and spin away--no need to card (unless you just love to card). This is a great way to spin if you have long locks and with the one pot dyeing method, you have no boiling, no stirring so the locks should remain intact.
All range of yarns can be achieved from these locks. How about just pulling locks from the bag with no rhyme or reason to adding color?
You will get an unusual yarn--of course, it's hard to repeat but it's also unique and one of a kind.
And to ply, why not just ply the full bobbin back on itself? This is two ply yarn kept in colorways, plied from ball. The front skein is just "helter skelter" yarn, plied from ball.
And nothing thrills a spinner more than to skein off the yarn from the bobbin to find it has been perfectly spun and in balance--no twisting back! Hip hip hooray! Pat yourself on the back when that happens.
This is the way my yarns are done to set the twist. After washing in mild soapy water and rinsed clear, take two plastic coated hangers and bath towel. Place the skein over the top of one hanger
Take the second hanger and lay the bath towel across the wide section. Place this hanger into the bottom loop of the skein.As the skein dries and water drips onto the towel, weight is added to help set the twist in the yarn. Once dry, you are ready to create magical items. If you knit with the multi colored skein, you could get this result.
Happy treadling!!

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Cheryl. You've been holding out on us at Way Out West weavers meetings! You are into much more than I realized! Lots of quilting. But your handspun and hand dyed yarns are the cream of your crop. Luscious, in fact, "to dye for." Gerry Woodhouse

    ReplyDelete

Road trip continues

 Crossing over into Tennessee, we are now on interstate highways: lots of 18 wheelers, less green nice scenery, some dogwood trees and redbu...