All knitting, all spinning, all the time

All knitting, all spinning, all the time




Tuesday, 9 March 2010

The good, the bad & the ugly

The good:

A one-row scarf in some handspun merino using the fractal stripe technique. (Not George)


In reality it's much more purple than red. I love this spinning technique. It's such a great way of using a painted roving without it either turning to mud, or trying (& failing) to match the colours perfectly. Basically, you split the roving down the middle lengthwise & spin one half just how it comes onto one bobbin. You then split the other half into thin strips & spin them onto another bobbin. When you ply them together you get the long colour repeats of the first bobbin & the shorter colour repeats of the second coming together in a very pleasing manner. (George was my first fractal stripe & I was so pleased with the result - to quote an old Bugs Bunny cartoon - I hugged it & patted it & called it "George")

The bad:

I had a go a painting a roving, but got rather carried away & it felted a bit. This is the spun result.


It didn't want to draft, & as a result it's 100 grams of slubby, thick & thin that I don't know what to do with.

The ugly:


A multi-directional garter stitch scarf made from a skein of fibre sandwich. This isn't the fibre sandwich we made last week, but a "and here's one I prepared earlier" skein from a Harrietville workshop. This scarf is so ugly it's almost (almost) good.

3 comments:

  1. Just to be contrary, I like the "ugly"--don't think I could wear it, but it makes it to "good" in my view:)

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  2. LOL!!! Love the first scarf, can relate to the second one with the drafting difficulties. The roving I spun at the international women's day celebration at the uni was not easy to draft. Made for a stilted 'demo'. Ah well. And as for the 'ugly' scarf, I want to see it in person, hon. I bet it's salvable. At least it's in a new form, and out of the 'stash'. :-)

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  3. actually i quite like the ugly scarf... i am not suure what that says about me. i like how different it is and the way it goes in all those different diirections - i bet you could get some young thing to pay a lot of moeny for it.
    i also LOVE the good scarf. :)

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