Randomised Yarn

Not sure that it is even a word, but...... I am trying to create a randomly striping patterned yarn, with quite short repeats to knit gloves with. I was inspired by a commission for a pair of gloves from my dyed Cotswold fleece. I choose three colours (lilac, purple, and burgundy) and spun them in short sections keeping the colour changes to a pattern. This was the finished result:

I really liked them, as did their recipient ( I am glad to say!) As I really enjoyed the process of designing the yarn with the finished item in mind, I thought I would try some more, but wanted to create a more random effect. So I choose my colours: Yellow, green, lilac and deep purple. Tore the fleece into small sections and began to spin the colours randomly. However it is quite hard not to start making a pattern, so that is my point in today's blog - being random on purpose is really quite hard!

Colours haven't come out brilliantly in the photos, but it gives you an idea.

Have a good weekend. x

Yarn Maker

As a 'Yarn Maker' I was intrigued when I came across a new publication of the same name:

I duely ordered the first copy and a couple of days later it arrived. Well what can I say - an itelligent interesting magazine, full of articles related to yarn making ( no surprise there really!).

A cup of tea and a couple of hours uninterupted biscuit eating later, I can report that the magazine is really worth while. There are inspirational articles about spinners and weavers, informative sections on drop spindle spinning and how to get free fleece through freecycle. There is a nice pattern for a small shawl or mat made with handspun yarn and some mouthwatering pictures of drop spindles. Instuctions for growing and dying with japanese indigo and a round up of events to come.

Suffice to say - I will be subscribing! link: www.yarnmaker.co.uk

Rainy sunday

Today is rainy and windy, but far from feeling sad about it - I love this time of year. What a fab excuse to curl up with knitting in front of the fire or get some more spinning done.

Yesterday with the Syresham Historical society's 'Rural Craft' exhibition. I took my spinning wheel and a few knitted goddies along to spin the day away. There were lots of crafts represented: Beekeeping, thatching, stone masonry, lace making, pottery, corn dolly making to name but a few. As always the people in the crafting community are friendly and open and love to chat. With out giving too much away, I hope that we will be seing alot more of some of them in the coming months.