From stash trash to mega ply yarn
I do a lot of carding with many
different forms of fibers, wool top, locks, silk waste, mohair, sparkle…you name it, it goes into my batts. I can’t always pack on each precious morsel
of fiber so the tiny left over bits goes into the “I will do something with
this stuff one day” basket.
The basket soon grows big and fluffy with colors, textures, sparkle and
just by itself is almost a work of art.
The fibers in my special basket start to ooze over the sides threatening
to make a home on the floor, A similar
dilemma are my hiding places I carefully store my fibers and
yarn. Sometimes hiding much of my
precious haul from my dear husband who would most definitely call me a hoarder
and insist I take medication to cure my malady.
The fibers insist I make them into something amazing so I start to plan
and scheme writing my thoughts down on paper.
I will make a mega multi ply yarn that will be like no other, to show
off the gorgeous colors and waves of the delicious fiber I saved from the demise
of the waste basket.
I start by taking each fiber and carefully fusing one to the other as I
spin a rustic single on my trusty Louet S10, whose leather brake has been
chewed off more than once by my pup. And
just to liven up the party I auto wrap as I go with a glorious gold lame
thread.
Next I take a silk 20/2 yarn in a deep, romantic color and ply the yarn
to make it bend and lean over the silky yarn as the gold lame thread darts in
and out playing hide and seek. I take the
bobbin full of my “in the works” yarn and wind it on a ball winder. I then proceed to skillfully two ply it from
each end of the wound ball as it becomes even more textured at each twist and
turn.
I have a skein of interesting eyelash yarn I got from a garage sale in a
moment of weakness and it would be perfect to ply around my growing
masterpiece. My brightly dyed silk
hankies, that I have had laying around for months not knowing what to do with
them, are going to make a wonderful addition as I use a spider web ply
technique to meld the yarn together. My
final spin is to Navajo ply this monster.
I need to use my Ashford Country spinning wheel for this gargantuan
task.
The final result is my most favorite yarn yet. It reminds me of all the wonderful batts and
yarns I have created over the past year wrapped up into one glorious yarn. Now, where am I going to put this yarn in my
yarn stash?
How I spun this yarn:
Z direction – single with auto wrap of
gold lame
S direction – coil ply with 20/2 silk
yarn
Z direction – 2 ply from wound ball
S direction – ply with eyelash yarn
Z direction – Spider web ply with silk hanky
S direction – Navajo
ply
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