From Locks to Roving: Say it with Colors

"Color is one of the most powerful means of nonverbal expression ... with color we can express the inexpressible."
     -- Lynne Vogel, The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook

When I was a schoolgirl, my mother would take me to a yarn shop to choose colors to send to my grandmother, who knit me sweaters. In my mind's eye, I can still see the store's display bins:  every known hue, in bright or subtle shades -- the array stretched from floor to ceiling. What a joyful sight!

These days, I make yarn rather than purchasing it. Beginning with a newly shorn fleece, here are the steps:

Wash, dry in the sun, and separate into locks.

Dye the locks and dry in the sun, again. Then, pick the locks apart for carding.

Card the wool, mixing several colors, if desired. (At this point, one can create tints and shades by carding in white or black fleece.)

Dyed locks

Picked locks, ready for carding

Grey, green, yellow, and black wool batting has been carded together to make a heather-green batt

Space-spinning, Self-striping, and Stranding

To achieve a patterned fabric you may knit with two strands, one dark and one light. Carry the unused strand in back of the pattern stitches, and the technique is called "stranded" or "Fair Isle" knitting.

Or, you may knit with one strand of self-striping yarn. The alternating light and dark stretches of yarn make a pattern, sometimes called "domino" knitting.

Shown below are lengths of roving ready to be spun into self-striping yarn. Upon knitting, a characteristic right-angled pattern emerges.

Stranded knitting, bottom swatch shows strands carried on back side

Self-striping yarn knit into domino swatches

Roving laid out in order for spinning self-striping yarn

Roving and knitted sample are placed side-by-side for comparison

Old Becomes New

I plan to construct a blanket from various swatches such as those shown below. (The swatches use old, unravelled sweaters.)

I'm sticking to analogous color harmonies of blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. While remaining in this range, contrast of values is essential -- each swatch features a different light/dark pattern.

It takes trial and error to assemble colors which are diverse, yet look agreeable together. Solutions emerge when four or five unlikely yarns are combined, as the eye will blend them into something new.

Five yarns yield the "right" color combination for a "ram's horn" motif

Detail of "ram's horn"swatch

One swatch used eleven different yarns

Four yarns, so far -- but the border will require more

Aurora Colony Spinner's Guild Presents

Today I visited the Guild's Antique Spinning Wheel Showcase, featuring thirty-three 19th-century spinning wheels. All had been beautifully restored and their owners (in full pioneer regalia) were busy spinning silk, flax, cotton, and wool and fielding guests' questions.

To quote from the program:

"The knowledge of hand spinning has been handed down from generation to generation since its discovery over 2,000 years ago. Every country in the world has contributed to this craft.Thank you to all the owners of antique wheels and spinners who keep this craft alive by sharing their knowledge."

A bit about the Aurora Colony, whose buildings housed today's event:

"A trip to Aurora will leave the visitor with far more than an impression of fine old buildings and beautifully crafted material goods. The story of the people of Aurora and why they lived out an experiment in communal living (1856 - 1883) is one of the more unusual and interesting stories to come out of Oregon's pioneer experience."
 

No spinning demonstration is complete without critters. Today, alpacas and Angora rabbits were present. Besides providing fiber for yarn-making, they can be sweet, gentle pets.

Felt Experiment

Dyed locks and pre-felt  made their appearance in earlier posts.

Here are experimental tiles (10 inches x 10 inches before final felting) made from pre-felt.

Rubbing on a washboard blurs the original image. Using a felting needle, I added an additional wool to rebuild the image. 

Pre-felt image before agitation

Image after agitation

Before felting (two above) and after felting (three below)

Four tiles at pre-felt stage

Two tiles after felting on washboard

Three Projects, Three Palettes

So much wool, so little time.

Once designs are drawn, there are palettes to pick.

For the knotted pile miniature, saturated primaries and secondaries.

For the felt wall hanging, values in the middle major key.

And for the forest scene hooked on burlap, a middle minor key.

Layout for Nantucket hooking, forest scene

Set-up for small knotted pile rug

Felt tiles prior to shrinking

Yarns for hooked forest scene

Prefelt for making geometric tiles