Funyarns

Originally this post was drafted to show and talk about “designing” yarn. (see how I had to put that into quotation marks, so as not to come off too presumptuous 😉 ) And then as usual I got sidetracked from the yarn ideas I had so they still live in my head.

The first yarn that I "designed" shortly after I started spinning, 4 shades of merino blended on my homemade hackle
The first yarn that I “designed” shortly after I started spinning, 4 shades of merino blended on my homemade hackle

The funyarns are figments of my imagination, not so much planned for or even suitable for knitting, but spun just because. Because the colour concept appealed to me, to resemble something I’d seen (such as the half done rowan tree yarn), or just to experiment. I won’t call them art yarns, because I’m just not that good. It’s not that I don’t enjoy spinning yarn for a purpose, but it’s a different joy. Funyarns are really more like painting.

So anyway, I’ve spun almost a pound of wool in the last couple of days for absolutely no purpose at all, it’s colourful and random, so I thought I’d kick off this category now and keep adding once in a while.

jungle2 jungle1

It started out with a challenge on Ravelry, theme “Safari” (which incidentally was my own suggestion). I had a couple of batts that I bought a long time ago before I knew the difference between a real woolen prep and “just” combed top blended on a drumcarder, still running perpendicular. One is not better than the other, just different spinning, different purpose. I thought one set of batts looked quite like a piece of rainforest, so off I went spinning a fat single.

I have all sorts of things going through my head while I see the fiber run by my hands, goes something like this: “I wonder if I should have included some pink tufts for orchids in a jungle, no, all that yellow is enough. So would this resemble the amazonas rainforest or this turquoise, where do they have those mineral lakes in old sinkholes, Indonesia? Hmmmm, this is turning out a bit muddy and earthy, a bit Mexican inspired colouring with the strong greens and yellows? Do they have jungles too? I should make some South American themed colourways. And Chinese inspired drawings (oh, don’t be silly, not in this lifetime. I thought you wanted to be the new Otto Frello?). And definitely look up something on Celtic symbols as well as old Scandinavian. And do a palette of the garment colours used in various times in Europe for some project. But something oriental would be cool too.” Yes, that IS pretty much what the inside of my head looks like more often than not.

jungle1

Turned out much more blended than I wanted, I liked the batts better than the yarn, but such is the way of those things. In any case I decided to spin ALL the batts to practise getting that thickness. Whoosh! All gone, one empty box. And the red and purple with gold thread took me on a trip to India, so around the world in a few hours isn’t half bad, is it? I must be getting better at it too, since each yarn ended up shorter than the previous colour. I don’t normally thwack my yarns, because I don’t want the halo, but these got a severe beating because I wanted them to felt a bit and bloom as much as possible.

bollyw
Bollywood collection 😉

Which leads me to my second mission: fiber stash bashing. When I first started out I bought all sorts of random stuff to try out, then I had a bad spell and didn’t spin for something like 8 months and now I just want something completely different. I still love to OGLE all the pretties that are offered for sale on Etsy, but I do love to make my projects from scratch, i.e. dyeing my own fiber. I also need more space for my paint supplies now, so I’m going to try to spin all that random fiber and in the future keep just a stock of undyed fiber in a few varieties that I like.

This was originally named Sea & Sand when I dyed it – but it actually could go in the savanna category all spun up, yeah? Smallest braid spun this week also.seasand14

seasand17

badboys

In an ideal world and a bigger house I’d have all the yarns and all the fibers (and all the paints, inks, papers, cameras, horses, greenhouses and…). But then I do like my sleep, so I think the current plan is probably the wisest. 😀

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Spindehalløj

Jeg kunne godt tænke mig at tømme lidt ud i mit fiberlager, så jeg kun har ufarvede fibre i mine yndlingssorter liggende. Dels mangler jeg plads til andre hobbyting, dels fordi mit fokus har ændret sig lidt siden jeg begyndte at spinde.

Og da jeg har rigeligt med strikkeprojekter på venteliste, vil jeg bruge den næste tid på at spinde garn som ikke har noget formål, men bare er skægt, har en flot farve eller fordi jeg har en tosset “design”ide.

Så jeg startede med en fletning jeg selv havde farvet, i superwash BFL. Bagefter kom turen til Ravelrygruppens februarudfordring “Safari”, og da jeg var godt i gang med at øve tyk single tog jeg lige de resterende batts i den kasse fra samme leverandør, købt den gang jeg ikke kendte forskel på rigtigt karteflor og kæmmede fibre kørt en gang på kartemaskine for at blande farverne let. Det gik let og gesvindt, og hvert garn blev lidt kortere end det forrige, så lidt bedre til at spinde tykt blev jeg da, selvom det ikke er super-bulky.

Normalt tæver jeg ikke mit garn, for jeg kan bedst lide det glat, men singlerne her har fået rigtig mange bank, så de kunne filte lidt og puffe så meget op som muligt.

17 thoughts on “Funyarns

  1. Nej hvor er det flot. Jeg er totalt imponeret – og inspireret. Finder du på farverne først og farver så ulden, eller er det hit and miss-taktik, eller hvordan, og hvad spinder du på? Undskyld de mange spørgsmål, men jeg vil så gerne spinde også … jeg synes bare det tager 1000 år at karte ulden først *suk*

    1. Øhh .. ps til mn egen kommentar. Hvor er det herligt at du har Otto Frello som et af dine forbilleder. Han har også været en stor inspirationskilde for mig siden jeg oplevede ham på BogForum for snart mange år siden 🙂

    2. Det er lidt forskelligt hvordan jeg finder på. Med disse købte fibre kan man måske ikke gøre så meget, men så alligevel, farverne lå meget adskilt, så jeg tog simpelthen hvert “batt” og satte på min blandekam og trak det af som et bånd, så blev det kørt lidt mere sammen, men alligevel ikke helt ensartet. Man kan blande det så meget eller så lidt som man vil på den måde. Når jeg selv farver eller finder på blandinger, så starter det med en ide om en farvepalet, fx inspireret af naturen, og så prøver jeg mig frem. Men ikke mere systematisk end at det nogen gange ikke bliver som i mit hovede, og når man så spinder, så blander det sig nogen gange lige som det vil! Jeg har mest arbejdet med kæmmede bånd, de er jo lige til at gå til når man køber på den måde. Jeg har også tre hamme liggende, som jeg har sjatfarvet efter vask, og ja, de skal jo så kartes og det gider jeg ikke (ønsker mig en maskine). Men også her har jeg en ide om, hvordan jeg vil blande de forskellige bundter.

      Jeg spinder på en 20 år gammel Ashford – tror der er et billede af den herinde hvis du søger under spinning eller tools?

      1. I know! Started a new job a couple weeks ago, and so am currently working 2 jobs. Am hardly home. Hopefully, I’ll be shuffling hours around soon and will have a more manageable schedule. Until then, know that I’m trying to pop by here when I’m able. 😀

  2. these are just beautiful, I love the way you have presented your yarns! I haven’t had a chance to do much spinning recently but I too have some colourful fibre in my stash that has been waiting for the right moment for some time now. Having read your post I can just feel that right moment approaching fast – thank you for the inspiration!

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