Spicing Up Commercial Rovings
by
Pegg Thomas
From the beginning, when we first twist fibers into something resembling
yarn, our goal is to make the perfect strand of yarn. We always want
to make it better. But for some reason, we tend to think that “better”
means “thin, smooth and consistent”.
Take a walk through any knitting or yarn shop and look around at the yarns
available today. From eyelash to slubby to laddered to whatever… what’s
selling hot right now is not a perfectly smooth yarn! So let’s think
again about what we’re spinning and how we want it to look.
I can hear you thinking, “I have a ton of roving already purchased and
it’s all smooth and well blended.” That’s okay, we can work around
that! One easy answer is to spin two singles, one very fine and the
other as thick-and-thin slubby as you can. When you ply the two together,
hold the thick-and-thin single more loosely and let it gather a bit around
the smooth single as they ply. You’ll achieve a nicely textured yarn
that knits up beautifully.
Another way to add interest to your prepared roving is by adding a luxury
fiber, such as angora, camel or cashmere as you spin. For this I like
to spin one single just by itself. In the next single I take a little
tuft of the luxury fiber and place it under the thumb holding the roving.
As the twist comes up the roving it grabs that tuft and leaves it on top
of the single. Make the tufts as small as you can, too large and you
get the barber pole effect. Do this as close or far apart as you like.
I find that every ten to twelve inches works up nicely for fine yarns, for
bulky yarns, try fifteen to twenty inches apart. Then ply with the
plain single. You can be creative and use natural colored and/or dyed
fibers. Use several colors of luxury fibers and alternate them.
Use a variegated roving with pure white angora. The possibilities of
this one are endless.
If spinning thick-and-thin yarn is difficult for you, but you like the
look of slubby yarn, here’s a little trick using two smooth singles.
In the plying process, make a basic two ply yarn for between 12 and 16 inches.
Now stop treadling and let one ply work back towards the wheel orifice and
back again to where you stopped. This will make what looks like a loose
knot on the other single strand. Try to keep the knot no more than
half an inch in length. The knot itself is actually a four ply yarn,
the basic two ply you are making, plus the extra back and forth over that
two ply. I find this makes a very striking fabric when knitted up.
It’s a great way to use pure white wool, the texture does some interesting
things with the way the light plays off the yarn.
These are just a few suggestions and by no means the end of what you can
do to liven up commercially prepared smooth rovings. Try one or two
and then experiment some more on your own. The skeins you create this
way make great skeins to enter in competition and local fairs too!
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