Twin Willows Farm - Spicing Up
Commercial Rovings
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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Contact Pegg
Thomas at twinwillowsfarm@gmail.com.
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Twin
Willows Farm
