*Sigh* Yes, I admit it, I’m an overly thrifty person. See….here are all the scraps (of mill end wool, no less!) that I tossed in a bag from cleaning Big Tom, my Fancy Kitty drum carder.
I really don’t know what I planned to *do* with this stuff, but I kept it. I think my plan was felting, but I haven’t been sucked into that vortex yet. Anyway, this weekend was a new retreat, Stringtopia, with Abby Franquemont, Jacie Boggs, and Morgaine from Carolina Homespun. Unfortunately, it did not work out for me to go this year (we’re hoping it will become annual, and perhaps ‘traveling’). So some online friends and I are conducting a Virtual Stringtopia this weekend. Our first challenge was to do something crazy on Friday night (ice breakers and all that good stuff). A couple people spun their spindles off bridges or their apartment building roof, and I had planned to spin from my balcony, but a last minute errand prevented that. Guess that is a hazard of virtual events….real life forgets you are ‘away’. Anyway, the other part of my Friday Night Crazy was to do something with this bag of scraps. So here it is all sorted out, and I supplemented a bit to fill in color gaps.
Hmmm…..looks like something. So my FNC turned into my Super Specific Spinning for Something class, my art yarn class, and soon my rigid heddle class.
I decided to do the whole rainbow (uh, yeah, I like rainbows if you haven’t noticed!), and make the little batts all tweedy and blended colors and bits and bobs. So I mixed up some pure colors, then tossed in a bit of this and that from the rest of the pile. I carded using two pet brushes, which I have to say was less than effective. I think I put more blobs in the fiber than I straightened out. Ah well!
I set my trusty Pocket Wheel at about 5:1, and spun each batt-let in order as best I could. I didn’t worry about noils and snarls and such, just let them through. My result is this highly textured yarn, 98 yards worth.
After spinning, I wound it, tied in four places, and subjected it to a bit of abuse. Hot and cold shocking baths, several times, then a good thwacking. It hangs nearly open, pretty good for being a single.
Now off to warp my cute little Cricket loom and make something functional from this fun yarn!
Link to the weaving post: https://thepaintedtiger.com/blog/2011/06/08/weaving-the-scrappy-yarn/
