Challenge core-spinning

I love spinning - for so many reasons - and even if I still very much enjoy the very plain spinning of a simple roving into a normal single, then plying it into a basic balanced two-ply yarn, I can now feel tempted trying out new challenges, like core-spinning, f.e.

A short while ago I suddenly held a beautifully hand-dyed fleece in my hands with the hint, that it is quite possible to spin directly from the fleece, without carding or preparing it much further, and at about the same time, I had also seen a sequence regarding core-spinning in Jacey Boggs' book and DVD 'Spin Art'.

So I tried it out with this Polwarth fleece and BFL locks -



- and with this Romney fleece -



- and it was great fun!

Normal spinning from the fleece (below showing milksheep fleece, still a bit greasy) - was fun too, somehow it made me feel much 'closer to the sheep' than with the carded roving.



But back to core-spinning: it's such a pleasure spinning and creating this fluffy, delicate yarn, it's just a feast to the eye and a wonderful feeling for your hands ... but what do you do with it? How can you work with it and use it, without destroying the lightness of its texture? And the small amount of yarn I had - just a bobbin full - limited the range of projects furthermore ...

I guess you can either first choose a project and then design your handspun yarn to fit in - or you can choose to have your fun while spinning and must then use your imagination finding a project suitable for your fancy yarn ...

Anyway, I realized this yarn needed an uncomplicated pattern and really big needles or hook to perform well - and was very happy to pick out my crochet hook 19 mm (!) for it, my absolutely biggest one -

and after some experimenting, I decided to crochet a moebius scarf, just single crochets in a twisted loop ...



- I used the yarn up to the very last inch, and had great pleasure in crocheting with it too!

What would you use your core-spun or bulky art yarn for? Any ideas or experiences to share?

(German summary: Ich spinne so gern - auch ein ganz normales Garn - aber diesmal wollte ich etwas neues probieren, core-spinning, direkt aus dem gefärbten Vlies heraus.

Eine reine Wonne, sowohl das Spinnen an sich als auch das Ergebnis! Aber was macht man daraus, so daß auch das Flauschige, Leichte erhalten bleibt?

Ich habe einen einfachen Möbius-Schal gehäkelt, mit Häkelnadel Nr 19 und normale feste Maschen - aber ich würde gerne mehr Vorschläge und Ideen sammeln! Was macht ihr mit eurem Artyarn?)

Spinning a rainbow/Regenbogen spinnen

I'm spinning again - enjoing the very, very last late summer days with the spinnig wheel outside in the garden - spinning more of that beautiful handdyed wool from Susa (earlier posting here).



It's funny how different a yarn can turn out, depending on the plying thread used. For the rainbow roving, I first used a thin matching thread for plying - and wasn't convinced at all:



So I searched my stash and found a ball of lace yarn (Schoppel Crazy Ball) and plied my rainbow Masham wool once more with that (ah yes, I mixed in some dark blue wool at an end too) - and suddenly, I could really see the rainbow coming through!

Due to the different colour sequences in the plying yarn, there were exciting new colour combinations - made me think of the Hundertwasser colour scheme here and there -



The next is a very light-coloured Cheviot roving, which I'm planning to use for a plain Victorian lace shawl - I'm plying it with a vintage rosé silk thread (one more of those rayon silk threads dated 1936 which I found in my mother's cellar a couple of years ago!) It will be a gift for a friend of mine.



And for the last one, a Falkland wool - the colours are deeper and more 'cloudy' in real! - I've spun it in a soft thick & thin manner, plying it with two skinny wool threads.

I'm not sure what to knit out of this yet - it's very fluffy and delicate, so it would be quite suitable for some kind of shoulder shawl too - and even if I already have some, I still adore those kind of wraps now that the nights are getting colder ...



Of course, I'm not a spinning artist like Jana, who I admire very much indeed - but at least I'm beginning to feel that I'm getting closer to controlling the spinning wheel (and not vice versa :-) - and that I can at least roughly make it produce the yarn I'm aiming at. I'm so glad I bought that wheel and just kept on trying until it worked out!

(German summary: Ich spinne wieder - wunderbar gefärbte Wolle von Susa - und freue mich, daß ich damals das Spinnrad gekauft und einfach so lange herumprobiert habe, bis ich annehmbar spinnen konnte - es ist so eine Freude!)

What a joy to recycle this! /Wunderbare Wiederverwertung

Look what I received from Sara today! A whole bunch of sari silk fibers which she had ordered from India! I'm so overwhelmed and so happy! What a joy to recycle this material! (The two small balls at the left are my very first try-outs with the material ...)



And as this seems to be my lucky day, I had one more present - this time from my 13-year old son. Coming home from school, he jumped into the workshop and just made that much-longed-for lazy kate which I've been talking about that I would really need ...

As you can see, it's the luxury version, holding seven (!) bobbins!



(And in German: Diese wunderbaren indischen Seidenfasern aus recycelten Saris hat Sara aus Indien bestellt - und mir einen Batzen davon geschenkt! Ich freu' mich so! - Ganz links oben die allerersten Versuche damit ... Und dann noch dazu ein Geschenk meines 13-jährigen Sohnes: ein heiß ersehnter Spulenhalter - für gleich sieben Spulen - den hat er heute einfach so zusammengezimmert! Wenn das nicht ein Glückstag ist ...)

All shades of grey/Graubunte Fäden

A friend asked me if I wanted some threads, which had been left behind by a lodger who had moved on. "Threads? Yeah, sure," I said.

Well, here they are, and I'm now trying to figure out what to do with them.

Straight threads, entangled threads, wound threads, all different shades of grey. A metaphor for life.



Among the threads there were three rope-like items - neat threads wound around thick strands of other threads - and I started with them, sewing them together like for a bowl, trivet, mat ...



I also tried out the threads on my daughter's flower loom (when googling about flower looms, I learned that this is a revival tool from the '70:s - didn't know that!).

I like the flowers best when they're a bit sloppy and not too neat - and this seems to be the perfect stuff for that look! I could imagine how great a waist-coat or a belt would be with these flowers - maybe with a felted center to it as well ...

What I enjoy about these threads is that there are several matching shades and that there is such a lot of material! This gives me the opportunity to play and experiment with them, considering punching the whole entangled batt with the embellisher as a 'filling embroidery' to the fabric background ...

Thinking of seaweed, drift wood, a harbour fence, a coral reef ...

Sea shore and maritime motifs are definitely connected to my summer feelings. The blue and greyish shades of the threads - in combination with different white fibers - maybe with some natural found objects like sea shells and drift wood - would most certainly make a good arrangement.

I think I would like to work on that.

(German summary: Ich habe einen ganzen Haufen Baumwollfäden in verschiedenen Grautönen bekommen - und überlege, was ich damit machen könnte. Ein paar dicke, umwickelte Stränge waren schon dabei - die hab' ich gleich zusammengenäht. Mit dem "Blumengerät" (Prym) meiner Tochter probierte ich einige 'schlampigen' Blumen aus - da eignen sich die verworrenen Fäden sehr gut - und ich könnte mir diese als ärmellose Weste oder auch als Gürtel gut vorstellen ... Zuletzt noch ein paar Experimente mit dem Embellisher - in maritimer Richtung. Eine Kombination mit weißen Fasern und einigen Naturfundstücken würde sicher ein recht nettes Bild ergeben!)