Using Yarn

There is a photoshoot next week for the Fibershed Marketplace and I have wanted to get some new items ready for it. I have boxes of yarn that I have intended to use and have just never got to. Now is the time. In fact, my goal is to use up all of these boxes by the end of the year.

First box--Single ply Jacob yarn spun years ago at Yolo Wool Mill.

Three scarves in a plaited twill. They feel nice, but have a few issues. They curl at the edges because this is an unbalanced twill--warp emphasis on one side and weft emphasis on the other. Besides that the center stripe turned out to be something else. It probably has some llama fiber in it--it has less elasticity than the rest so it puckers. Are these design features? It serves me right for keeping yarn for so long that I don't remember what it is.

Second box. Full of funky, slubby, heavy handspun yarn, mostly spun by my mom--that means it was many years ago. It will make wonderful throws.

Here it is going on to the loom.

I wove two blankets using the handspun as warp and the finer singles yarn from the first box for weft. Handspun yarn has such a nice feel to it--I don't think you can duplicate that with millspun yarn.

Third box--heavy 2-ply mill-spun Jacob yarn.

On the loom.

I was going to make ponchos, but I took this off the loom and decided that it was a great shawl (and if it was a shawl it was finished--no cutting and sewing). It is very soft with wonderful drape.

Three boxes started. I haven't counted how many more to go.

New spinners

Today was the third and last class in a Learn to Spin series. I got distracted before I got photos of everyone's yarn, but here are a few to share.

This is Debbie's first yarn (Jacob, of course) and she is knitting a scarf. Isn't that gorgeous?

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