Newly finished spinning

January 20, 2010 in fiber arts | 6 comments

A few quick pictures. I’m not sure what these will become. I haven’t quite figured out yet how much yarn I need to make stuff, sometimes I just spin it and then decide afterwards what to make.

This is oatmeal BFL that I handspindled, plied and then dyed with grape and cherry Kool-aid for a nice heathery effect. About 100 yards from 2oz making it about worsted weight I think. I’m not very good about figuring that part out. My WPI and swatches don’t always agree with the yards per fiber oz charts.

cherry plum heathered BFL blue-faced leicester hand spindled and hand dyed yarn

The naturally brown worsted below is also two-ply and came in at around 200 yards from 4.1 oz so about the same thickness although I spun it on the wheel and went for a little more rugged look to it since that seemed to agree with the fiber. I received the fiber through SpinCycle on Ravelry.

handspun natural brown two ply worsted wool yarn

More details on both in my Rav stash.

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6 comments

  1. Snippety Gibbet’s avatar

    Snippety Gibbet on January 21, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    You dye them with KoolAid?????????? How colorfast is that? Sounds like a great idea. jan

    1. Cindy’s avatar

      Cindy on January 21, 2010 at 11:24 pm

      Not always with Kool-aid, but the top one yes. From what I’ve heard it is nearly as colorfast as the commercial acid dyes. You can only use kool-aid on protein fibers, the citric acid provides the “fix”. I don’t have that much experience with wool but I have several silk scarves that I kool-aid dyed for the kids and they have even been through the regular wash with minimal fading. That would be a great springtime project for your students. You can do it just like making sun tea. Fill large jar, add unsweetened kool-aid packets, poke silk scarf into jar, put the lid on and set it out in the sun for a few hours. As long as the water gets hot enough it will turn clear or cloudy at which point you just rinse and hang to dry. Or you can pop it in the microwave to steam and be done even faster!

    2. Cindy’s avatar

      Cindy on January 20, 2010 at 7:51 pm

      I’m laughing at myself. I don’t have the right size needles to knit either of these yarns!

    3. Naomi’s avatar

      Naomi on January 20, 2010 at 4:50 pm

      Gorgeous. Looks good enough to eat!

    4. Shelly’s avatar

      Shelly on January 20, 2010 at 3:07 pm

      This is gorgeous! Nice job.

    5. Janet Dulin’s avatar

      Janet Dulin on January 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm

      Really lovely yarn and color. I knit but I do not spin so I really appreciate what you have accomplished. blessings Janet

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