Here at my house we are each allowed a handful of fetishes or quirks. I'm working on a series of projects to try and overcome one of my fears/fetishes. I spin yarn. I want to weave with yarn that I spin. I_am_afraid of working with my handspun yarn.
Why am I afraid of it? What do I think will happen with it or to it? I don't know. That's why it falls in the fetish/quirk category.
But, I am a brave girl! I can overcome my fears of using my handspun yarn.
I've put together a couple of different bits of handspun yarn with the intention of making samples. Really, just samples. These projects serve no purpose, except the one to help me overcome my fears!
This warp is a two-ply yarn, probably a Romney wool, handdyed with dandelions. I sett it at 12 ends per inch, threaded in a straight twill, and wove a pattern from Strickler's Patterns for 8 harness weaving. The weft is a handdyed, handspun single.
When the handspun single weft ran out, I shifted to some other handspun yarns and plain weave. The red is a dyed two ply, probably cotswold wool, and the brown is a natural brown wool single.
Would you like to know what happened when I wove with my handspun yarns? Did they explode? Pull apart? Make strange lumpy, bumpy fabric? Nope. The yarns behaved like....well, like yarns!
Go figure! Maybe there is hope for this fetish of mine!
2 comments:
I somethimes struggle with the committing a skein to only one use-you know the 'I could make this or that or...' and can't choose a path. It frustrates me but usually waiting produces great results and then I am so happy...see how nice your samples are turning out-Make something out of the samples like small purses and then you can always see how brave you are!!
I like that you dyed the yarn with dandelions! And once you start using your handspun (I used my own 2-ply handspun), you'll really enjoy it. There's something about taking a piece of fabric off the loom, fulling it and realizing that it was just a bit of fluff when you started - and now you can cut it, sew it and wear it.
Are you coming to Dye Day in October?
Post a Comment