Easter In July
Towards the end of our dying adventure a month or so ago, there were some odds and ends of Blue Faced Leicester roving that we just didn't feel could be allowed to remain un-dyed. Julie decided that this was a great opportunity to try out some colors that we normally wouldn't be all that interested in. For both of us, this seemed to mean yellow. She opted to go for more solid warm yellow dying test, while I, perhaps not surprisingly, ended up with a cooler yellow with what I hoped would be complementary colors: green and purple. The result, for me, turned out like this:
As an aside, I want to mention that it's still very interesting to me that two people can start with the same exact set of dyes, but come away with fiber with very different color palettes and temperatures. Although yellow doesn't normally float my boat, I really liked this little bit of fiber and decided that I would hold onto it until my spinning actually got good enough so that I could turn the resulting yarn into something knitted. Over the weekend, I decided that I'd reached that point and, since it seems wrong to have an empty spindle laying around, that it was time to see what this collection of colors would do as it moved from roving to yarn.
The yellow shows up here as the dominant color because of the direction in which I spun from the roving (I've discovered that rovings seem to draft better from one direction... I think that has to do with the structure of the wool shaft and the way the scales align), but there's definitely a good deal of green hiding out in the background as well. The light purple/lavender is much more subtle.
I'm going to let this single "rest" overnight on my spindle before I ply it, but I'm extremely curious about how the colors will look once plied. Will the purple in the mix just cause muddy brown regions or will it give the purple and yellow some interesting pop? The thought has also occurred to me to try to learn how to do that Navajo 3-plying technique, so as to maintain the regions of color in series, but I'm not sure I'm up to that particular hand-eye co-ordination challenge quite yet.
Any experienced spinners have any guesses or suggestions? From the perspective of controlling the fiber diameter, I think this is probably my best effort to date, so I'd like to see that it gets finished off well.
Those singles look marvelously even. I've got no idea what that will look like plied or knitted. The surprise is part of the fun.
I have done it both ways--two ply and navajo. I think that the navajo gives you a slightly harder yarn and it works better if you have a good amount of twist in the single. I haven't navajo plied on a drop spindle though, only on the wheel. With this, you will get definate striping. I have come to prefer the two ply, even with different colors b/c it gives a softer yarn. I knit socks with my handspun and have discovered that I will get striping even with the two ply, but it is a little more mottled, but still looks great--I actually have come to prefer this. I have pictures of some socks with both methods if you want to email me.
Wow! You've really taken to spinning -- the singles look so even! And I'm not a very experienced spinner, but I can tell you that it is always a complete surprise to me to find out the finished result. The plying seems to be somewhat magical -- always totally changing the fiber so much from what it looked like as singles. Can't wait to see your singles plied!
I know nothing about spinning, but I like the colors. They're much prettier once spun up.
I'm not a spinner, but those singles looks amazing! Very even. So what are you planning on knitting with this pretty pastel yarn?