I thought I’d share my current project that I am spinning up. 200g Black Corridale singles and 100g pewter/dark grey Tussah Silk singles – plied into a monochrome candy cane (or marl). I’ll let you know how much warp yarn I manage to spin up with the 300g.
Black Corridale and Dark Grey Tussah Silk
My last bobbins to ply before warping my loom
This project is inspired by my daughter – she is one of the many young people who have just taken the leap to university. I miss giving her a hug, so I though of spinning and weaving her a ‘mama hug’ of a throw for her uni room in halls. She’s bit of a romantic type goth at heart, so the brief I got from her was “Black and textured”. When I quizzed her more on what she meant by textured, she said “shiny and matt”.
So I decided to choose a Tussah silk to elevate the black wool and hopefully provide an unusual definition to a weave. My daughter opted for a very traditional herringbone (broken twill) weave for her throw. I will post more photos of the handspun on my loom soon; I think I’ll dress the floor loom, as my Dobby loom can be too harsh on handspun yarns (I think I need to invest in some newer reeds).
Spinning for others really throws up some challenges, but also gets you out of always doing the same thing – I would never normally have thought of spinning in terms of ‘shiny and matt’. I’m not too sure how the monochrome ply will affect the herringbone weave, but suspect it will fracture the broken twill even more – but hopefully it will be interesting on the eye!
This is the reason we make – to dream up things a machine never could, and to have something truly unique. But, also to imbue a feeling into something; in this case a hug from your mum, when you know she’s thought of every fibre, yarn and beat of the weft.
What have you spun or woven (or knitted or crocheted) that’s heartfelt?