......yarns of Life: One-Ply

Saturday, November 9, 2013

.....Bug goes for a ride.

In September I took a full time job at our local university. Getting used to the schedule of working outside the home lead to less time to knit and spin. {insert annoyed look here}. But as I get more used to the routine of things I am able to work in time to knit AND spin. On my lunch I relax and knit a spell. In the evenings I relax and spin a while, usually when I am too tired to do anything else. Today was the first day I was able to take my much loved and appreciated spinning class at my favorite fiber shop about an hour south of here. Kate demonstrated how to make sleazy yarn. It is basically a fat wonky one-ply piece of yarn. Very unstable in this state. While with other techniques of spinning you add stability during drafting, etc., this technique adds stability during the wash. What we did was put it in as hot of water as we could stand and then poke it vigorously with our outstretched fingers, squish the water out and run it under cold water and then repeat those two steps again. After the final squishing out of water we give it a good hard tug or two. It has, as this point, been given integrity and stability. It is looking quite adorable as it dries and will just be wonderful when it has dried completely. The particular fiber we were working with today was merino/silk. It was quite wonderful.