This ode to pink and purple was spun from BFL that I dyed eons ago. Originally, I had spun the Pepto pink single on my Hitchhiker, a little wheel that I have a love/hate relationship with. I find the little dude a bit funky to spin on. I'd really like to get in a groove with this little wooden wonder, however, because it's a car friendly wheel by virtue of it's size. And let's face it, I could get heap loads of spinning done on long road trips (my current fave way to travel for fun). The purple single was spun on my Lendrum DT (aka, the workhorse wheel). Finally, both singles were then plied together on my SpinOlution Mach 1. I use the Mach 1 exclusively for plying at this point and it does a splendid job each and every time. The wheel is masterful for spinning art yarns as well. Ahhh, I digress.
The wacky stuff above was spun with what was leftover from the purple single used in the previous yarn. I plied it with some red, shiny, sparkly composite yarn on the Mach 1 as well. I only ended up with about 40 yards of this stuff, so it will probably get tossed into the weaving basket(s) for inclusion in some diamond, triangle, square or rectangular loom based wonder (many stacks of woven shapes sitting around my apartment waiting to be made into something).
You might have noticed from this and previous spinning posts, that I tend to ply my singles as a rule. It's not that I don't like to use singles as is. I do. In fact, I have been spinning silk sari fiber into usable singles as of late. However, most of the time I prefer a yarn that has a bit more elasticity and softness. Plied yarns tend to be a bit, uh, bouncier. Also, I do tend to overspin my singles a bit. So, although I have gotten better at controlling the overspin, plying just allows me to correct any imbalance my singles may have exhibited before that process occurs. And anyway, I really like the interesting combinations that can be made when plying two seemingly unrelated yarns together.
Needless to say, I think I am getting back into a crafty groove again (at least I hope so). In the last week or so, I have filled many a bobbin with homespun glory and I am in possession of four huge bins containing much fluff. Not to mention the fact that I returned home from my recent trip to Sequoia and Yosemite with art yarn on the brain. The ideas and wheels seems to be working again!
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