Camaj Fiber Arts - The Fine Side of Fiber

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 leftover bits go 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 is the 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 wastebasket.

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. In addition, 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 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