Skein #31: A Special Effect by Blending Color as well as Two Different Fibers

Image 1: Fiber Sample Image 2: Blended Fiber Image 3: Yarn Skein Image 4: Yarn Detail

Fiber

Cotton and silk

Type

Natural brown cotton top, silk brick

Reason for choice of this sample:

This brick has a short staple, so it blends better with the cotton. The cotton contrasts in both texture and color. A fine thick and thin yarn shows both yet still makes a stable yarn of two short fibers.

Source

Natural color FoxFibre cotton sliver, industrial surplus. SCRAP — San Francisco, California.
Silk brick from LookChina — Cramerton, North Carolina.

Preparation for spinning

I put a thick layer of each fiber on the cards and carded just enough to form a solid batt without much blending. Each made two punis.

Equipment Used

Cotton hand cards, wood dowel, flyer spinning wheel

Type of spinning

Unsupported long draw

Direction of Twist

Z/S

Number of plies

2

Finishing

Washed and dried without tension

Suggested uses

This yarn is designed to be used as weft with a warp of the same brown cotton. It could also be combined in a mixed warp with a large dent reed. The soft yarn makes an excellent garment fabric, the silk shows good contrast with the brown cotton and the fine yarn makes a lightweight fabric. The cotton will continue to darken with washing, eventually reaching the color of skein #13.

Notes

Maximum 54 points

Examiner 1: 45

Examiner 2: 45

Somehow I managed to not get the wraps per inch on the card for this one. It was one of the last ones I wrapped, because I had almost no yarn left over and had to ply some more. Examiner 1 thinks this needs more twist, Examiner 2 thinks the colors would make unattractive "uneven" stripes in a woven fabric. I thought that after so many yarns with very regular design elements, random would be a good thing, I was trying for random.

Examiner 1 also noted that the plying was inconsistent. I'm not sure how to interpret that for a yarn that is intended to have thick and thin places. I finished all the plied yarns by winding them across a long length to even out the plying twist. Some I even did with a spindle, checking each length of damp yarn to be sure it did not have extra plying twist. This yarn is balanced, there is very close to zero net twist in the singles after plying. But because it is thick in some spots and thin in others, the plying twist varies as the singles vary. I didn't want to make it too even, because that would reduce the contrast between the two fibers.