Sock Fiber Samples

Every year my guild has a challenge.  This year I couldn’t get my creative juices to come up with anything that excited me.  But for next year, I have something in mind that I’m jazzed about.  Next year is the 50th anniversary of Alaska becoming a state, so the challenge is make (weave, spin, knit, crochet…) something with blue and gold.

(There is neat story about the design of the flag by 13 year old Native Alaskan Benny Benson.)

I have decided to knit some socks.  I am going to spin the yarn and then dye the skeins separately blue and gold.

To help decide what fiber to use, I spun up some samples.

So much for a picture saying a thousand words.

I am trying to determine what fiber or blend of fiber that would have some durability, yet was still have soft/squishy/elastic qualities.  I also don’t want a fuzzy yarn.  I am going to using stranded knitting to knit the socks. 

The singles are 3 ply and spun semi-long draw worsted.

Skeins C (100% Corridale), D (100% Merino) and E (100% BFL) were spun from tops.  The Merino and BFL were very nice soft/squishy/elastic, the Corridale didn’t have much of these properties. 

Skein F (90% BFL, 10% Mohair) (spun from batt) was soft but less elastic than the 100% BFL, it was also slightly fuzzy.

Skein B (50% Corridale, 50% Merino) (spun from batt) had some soft/squishy/elastic properties, less than the 100% Merino, but more than the 100% Corridale.

And lastly skein A (48% Corridale, 48% Merino, 4% Mohair) (spun from batt) had the same soft/squishy/elastic properties as skein B, the Mohair didn’t seem to add fuzziness to the yarn.

Mohair is suppose to add some durability, though I am not sure if 4% will add much.

I’m going to blend/spin some more of A and knit some socks.

I have ordered some romney (a fiber I haven’t worked with but have heard some like to use it for socks) and will spin up some samples of it.

Plying For Colour, Part 3

Well, I was a total star struck fan with Deb.  She gracefully signed my copy of her book.  I brought along a case of coloured markers, I wasn’t going to give her a boring black pen to autograph “Color In Spinning”.

Check out her watch, the face is a colour wheel.

Her book wasn’t the only thing  I had her sign.

Yep… that’s my drum carder, “Deb’s Delicate Deluxe”.

This is the first time someone has asked and she has signed a drum carder.  She got a good giggle out of it.

Attending the workshop was another “fiber star,” Celia Quinn.  

She a spinner who teaches and has written for “Spin Off”.  Deb and Celia are good friends and Celia is listed in the dedication and acknowledgements in “Color in Spinning”.  Celia lives in Alaska and I have had the pleasure of taking one of her workshop.

Here’s a peek of what is on the loom (a computerized one) in the background.

Our host/weaver is going to use the fabric for a table cloth.

At the end of the workshop, the hand painted fiber that was not used was available for sale.

Here’s my acquisition with some solid merino that I might spin with it.

As I mentioned in my first post, I had an absolutely fantastic time.  I learned a lot, Deb is a great instructor and has a wealth of knowledge to impart.  The other spinners that I took the workshop with were a joy/hoot to be with.

I’m still grinning.

Plying For Colour, Part 2

These are the yarns that I created during the workshop. (Deb Menz’s “Plying For Color Workshop”)
You can click here if you haven’t seen the first post.

I tried to step out of my colour comfort zone and pick colours that I wouldn’t normally choose.

The first study was hues.

We spun a roving and then picked rovings with the analogous colour right and left of the spun colour on the colour wheel.

The next study was value.

Saturation…

Complementary Colours (blue and orange)

I didn’t get to spin the next study for warm and cool but these were the rovings I picked.

The next study was to pick a random roving and ply it with another roving that has only one colour in common.

The last study was to pick two random rovings (outer skiens)
and ply them together (the center skien).

The first study and the last study results are my favourite.

Again, all the information for this workshop is in Deb’s book “Color in Spinning”.

I’m still grinning and I’ll have another post about the workshop.