Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Red Sky at Night

I'm in the middle of a very long project, which is taking lots of time. I get ideas during the process, though, and some of them are just hard to put off. Distractions, digressions, and diversions.

One of the ideas involved color gradations in spinning. I googled around until I found some fiber dyed in the appropriate manner:
sailor's delight1

This is Sailor's Delight silk/merino from Yarn Chef on Etsy and is just perfect for a small sample.

I bought two lengths, 4 oz. each. My bobbins hold about 2 oz, so I divided each section of the top lengthwise, weighed the bundles and matched them up by weight for spinning:

sailor's delight2

I wanted the colors to match up closely in the plying, so I spun up each length, then plied the two bobbins together:

sailor's delight3

The fiber was a dream to spin, and worked up nicely as planned. I have 5 skeins altogether, which I plan to knit from violet-to-gold/gold-to-violet/violet-to-gold etc.:
sailor's delight4

The bigger project will have only one color run for the whole length, that is, the dyeing will be in longer lengths, so the colors grade from dark to light only once in the finished project. I know this will be grand to spin up: the interim colors are where it's all happening, and what makes dyeing and spinning like this such a treat. It's a lovely easy way to grade colors from one to another.

There's nothing really new or different about this idea, but I had great fun sampling. Lucky are we who can find such pleasure in simple things, eh?

Now back to work [sounds of nose and grindstone here].

9 Comments:

Blogger Purple Fuzzy Mittens said...

You are right about distractions - I want to dropped everything and try this too!

12:46 PM  
Blogger claudia said...

Being easily entertained is a great attribute.

1:31 PM  
Blogger woolydaisy said...

incredibly beautiful!!!!!!

7:50 AM  
Blogger dianemulholland said...

The yarn looks gorgeous! I love graduated colours as well. Very interested to see what the finished project is like :-)

8:50 AM  
Blogger Julie said...

Very pretty! I start spinning some Merino for the first time last night and found it a little harder to spin but very soft.

1:37 PM  
Blogger Sharon said...

I look forward to seeing what you do with these skeins, though I suspect they might become a shawl. I wonder what they would do in one of Ginger's mosaic patterns.

10:03 PM  
Blogger Deanna said...

What a great idea to divide the roving lengthwise for each ply! The result is spectacular.

5:19 PM  
Blogger dragon knitter said...

one of my favorite colorways to spin was the Lime & Violet colorway that Lisa Souza dyes. my favorite part is not the lime, or the violet, but the "party in the middle" which is white with lots of purple and green sprinkles. a blast to spin.

9:18 PM  
Blogger Leigh said...

That's absolutely luscious Sara! Spining that would keep my eyes happy for hours.

7:04 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home