Yarn Porn

[liralen]

I should probably cross-post there... hm... been a while...



First the dried roving, both balled and thinned a bit. You can see the way the colors blend together a bit when it's thinned, and there's that fascinating part where all three colors kind of mixed at various levels on the right on the thinned picture.



Next, on the spool, so you can get some idea of how much length there is for some of the transitions. The candy striping is pretty fun.



Okay... I'll admit to the fact that I often, conceptually, dislike worsted singles because I'm lazy and I have to BLOCK them. They kink up a bit if I don't do that, and pill worse if the spin isn't set. So I did the normal hot water set and then blocked it with a bucket with some water already in it. Here's the yarn while blocking:



And miracle of miracles, the skein didn't twist at ALL when it dried. (Which means that the yarn likely won't bias when being knit, and the blocking held, and the wool has settled in the twist of the yarn.) Here's the yarn porn shot:



Whew.

Comments

[mysocalledhell.livejournal.com]

wow ... that is PRETTY ... I'm kinda jealous that you can/get to do stuff like that.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *hugs* It is a lot of fun, and nice to have most of the setup already, so it costs nigh on nothing more, especially when I dip into the really old stuff stash. The wool's probably over 15 years old.

[irana.livejournal.com]

Nifty! Again... so not patient enough to try this. Go you!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! *laughs* It's good to get something done.

[incandescens]

Lovely, lovely stuff. Splendid work!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*beams* Thank you!

I'm enjoying how it turned out...

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is gorgeous! And congrats on getting balanced singles at the end of it.

That makes me want to get my wheel out again... it's been a while.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It's been a while for me, too. I did a commercial stint at the end of last year, did a whole *pound* of two ply sock yarn and I burned out in doing it in less than three weeks. So it took me a while to get back to it. *laughs*

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

WOW!

*makes grabby hands at yarn*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I forgot. YOU can knit with wool. Heh heh heh...

though I'm not sure you'd want THAT colorway...

Is there a worsted colorway you would want to go with some of the other stuff you're doing?

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Are you kidding? I would most certainly knit with that! I LOVE that candy striping!

I am using a lot of warm rose to brown right now, being a fall and all that. Gold to brown is another one I'm going for. Warm grey to green-brown for early spring...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ooohhhh... I didn't know! I should have asked instead of stated. *laughs*

MMmmm... warm colors... neat to know about your spring plans as well.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Thought I should let you know. ^^

So who is this batch for?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It's for haricortvert, Buddhathumper from Y!Gal, in exchange for stickers. *laughs*

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Lucky, lucky! :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hm... what weight yarns do you usually work in?

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Oh I'll work with anything if it's petty! Worsted is just fine! ^^

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

Oh that turned out gorgeous. The did stay pretty vibrant after drying.

yarn porn indeed.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It softened a little, more lost some of the depth. They're more candy cane colors than what I'd hoped for to start. But... again... 100% wool rather than what silk can do to the depth of the color. And it's not so much darkness as saturation.

And, you know, if I dyed 100% silk it might sidestep your barrier there.

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, I'm fine with silk. I've never knit with silk yarn though. Is it slippery to work with?

I can't really tell from the pics that it lost any depth. Could be just my monitor though. I think candy cane is a very good description for those colours and it's pretty cool.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It's a lot stiffer than wool and a little slippery, less give. It also requires more dyes as there's just more surface area.

Yeah, it might be the monitor or my camera's attempts to keep everything saturated to the same level... but yeah... candy cane is how it pretty much turned out. *dances* I'm happy.

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

so pretty! But now explain that bit about needing to block or the skein will twist and the yarn will bias when knit for worsted singles.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Okay... fibers start out straight. When I put spin into them to hold them together to make yarn, it puts twist into the yarn at what spinners call the Z-direction.

Usually... two z-singles are plied together in the s-direction with enough twist to balance the twist in the singles. This makes for a yarn that's twist-neutral.

With a single, there is no counterbalancing twist. So you just have the twist you put into the yarn. If you leave it just as when you've spun it the fibers are still trying to go back to being straight. So it kinks up the yarn, and if you knit with it just like that you can get a bias in the fabric because half a knit stitch will pull harder than the other half. A fine and useful example of that can be found here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/liralenli/2093939708/in/set-72057594071005766/).

Blocking is when I dip the resultant yarn in water so hot I can barely touch it much less keep my hand in it. It literally melts some stuff in the fibers, and when it cools again (if weighted so that the yarn is straight), the fiber, which cools in the twisted state "sets" in that state. And is called "blocked". Since the fiber is now happy in the twisted state it doesn't try to pull back to the straight state it was in.

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

cool! thanks :D

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad it made sense. *laughs*

[hartofthewud.livejournal.com]

such pretty colours *smiles* despite the troublesome bits of the process, i can see how this must be a very satisfying thing to do. and the 'thinned roving' stage makes me think you've laid out a rainbow you caught within a cloud.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Mmm... good description there. *smiles* It is beautiful at that stage. There is a fiber artist that does felting where she can take a white felt and lay a layer just of the thinned roving over it and capture just that feel at the top... rubbing it in with soap and hot water.

Yeah, I love the colors. *grins* Which is probably why I keep playing with it.

it's Buddhathumper, love. <3

[haricotvert.livejournal.com]

OMG! so pretty! i'm sorry i had to be so difficult about that tho. sweet jesus that's going to make some amazingly soft gaunlets. <3 how much is there??

Re: it's Buddhathumper, love. &lt;3

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm just bitchin' for the fun of it. It wasn't that difficult, just... different. And it *worked* so I'm jazzed!! *laughs*

It's 106 grams... *laughs* uhm... probably the usual 3 1/2 ounce skein. I didn't measure the yardage, and it'll probably be a little finer than commercial worsted. *definitely* good for gauntlets!!

Re: it's Buddhathumper, love. &lt;3

[haricotvert.livejournal.com]

ugh. yer gonna make me do a gauge swatch, aren't you. i HATE doing that.

*POUT*

Re: it's Buddhathumper, love. <3

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's handspun, it's not going to gauge real well, unless you do a big swatch and if you're just doing gauntlets anyway you might as well 'swatch' by starting the cuff.

I'll predict 5-7 stitches per inch, on US 5-7 needles, and make the fabric feel a little thin and the gauntlets be longer than you want them and a little wider (more long than wide), and since it's pure merino, not the super washy, you can wash 'em warm by hand!! try 'em on as you wash 'em and they'll fluff and felt just a little and shrink to fit your hands. *grins*

Or just wash 'em cold so they can fluff out and then go shovel the sidewalk in 'em, and that'll do the shrinking part for you.

Re: it's Buddhathumper, love. <3

[haricotvert.livejournal.com]

ilu.

[annieroo2.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I have no clue what most of that meant, but the yarn is lovely. XD

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Thank you! That's good enough.

[nosferatu-blue.livejournal.com]

I've been eying this. I know nothing about yarn; either the spinning of or subsequent knitting.

I do think this looks so pretty, though. ♥
Please do share pictures of whatever this becomes.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins* It's fun to look at, even if you don't do it.

It is very pretty. I've asked haricotvert to share pictures when she's through...

Uhm... here's pictures of more dyed stuff (http://www.flickr.com/photos/liralenli/sets/72157601081117046/), spun stuff, (http://www.flickr.com/photos/liralenli/sets/72157601330561650/) and knitted stuff (http://www.flickr.com/photos/liralenli/sets/72057594071005766/). *laughs*