This spring I started teaching spinning at Yarns Unlimited. After the class ended I decided to invest more time in my own spinning, which I’ve negeclted for a while. Now spinning is almost the only thing I do, and eve though it’s probably a far less marketable product, I think yarn will be the bulk of my inventory at the upcoming A Fair of the Arts. I am starting to spin more novelty yarns, two of which are pictured Here. Below are shots of a merino / bamboo bouclé plied with metallic silver embroidery thread and superfine elastic.
Novelty yarns can be tricky, especially the white merino / bamboo blend (super slippery and unwinds easily). For anyone interested in learning more about spinning I highly recommend the book the intentional spinner, by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. The book gives short but comprehensive coverage of fibers, processes, approaches to yarn design, etc. It’s a wonderful book, and I believe one of the only craft books I’ve actually read. Normally I read only patterns or guide myself from pictures. This book is an exception.
Unfortunately, the color of the beaded yarn below doesn’t come out well in the poor light of my room. When the weather improves I’ll take photos outside, but until then I’m making do with dim light and heavy shadows. I love the result of plying with beads, but so far *hate* the process. If anyone has advice, I’d love to hear it. Threading the beads onto the purple thread with which I plied took ages and I found it very difficult to place the beads fast enough to keep up with the act of plying. I’ll do another skein of this tomorrow, and hopefully with practice it will go better? After the bouclé it’s difficult to find other projects satisfying.
For now I’ll continue spinning and posting the yarn I come up with. I have at least three other types of yarn that I wanted to post today but the photos are just too dismal. Soon.
