picture

picture

Monday 20 June 2011

trying out beading

I've been spinning all those batts I made for the demo spinning some weeks ago. funnily enough my favourite is the "mopping up" batt, mostly white with the leftover fibres of the batts I did before:)) the white is white alpaca and merino, very soft, and the few other colours look a bit like marble to me in this yarn. I think I have to do some more like it - or similar at least, lots of white and only bits and pieces of added colours, grey and pink maybe, to match marble colours?
I only had one batt of the blue/rosy colours - because the dark blue was a leftover as well. never mind, I do have other yarns in those colours and I think I can mix and match.... 
 I am still spinning the last batt with grey/white/black plus some pink. at first I thought I'd add beads when plying, but then I remembered the arcticle in the latest spinoff, about adding stuff while spinning. I wanted to add clear glass beads with silver lining, to make it look like dew drops... it was quite late, when that idea hit me and I was too lazy to hunt around for grey or black alpaca - you need longer fibres to attach beads like this. it looks quite drab in the photo, much better in reality - I think!
eventually I decided to not go digging around my stash - and use handdyed teeswater top for this. it looks yellow in the photo, but it is actually a may green - and I like the resulting yarn. the good thing about spinning in beads on loose fibres is that the beads are fixed and don't slip around the way they tend to when added on another ply! getting the beads on the fibres is another matter - you need to fiddle about a bit to find a suitable needle - which goes through the bead, but has a big enough hole to get the fibres in as well:)

this morning, after one of many showers (again) I saw this blend of colours in my (handmade) "stone" trough - looks like tapestry to me:))

off to spin the last batt of grey/pink - I might even be able to finish plying with a simple grey commercial yarn that I already dug out this morning....

10 comments:

Jana Muchalski said...

Was für schöne Tautropfen! Wie sie entstehen, hab ich jedoch nicht verstanden.
Herzlich
Jana

Delighted Hands said...

Incredible way to add beads....be sure and post the finished yarn! And yes, the flowers look great!

Judy said...

Wonderful spinning!

Guzzisue said...

I would never have thought of adding beads like this, many thanks, will have to give it a try :-)

Nina said...

The beading method sounds much less fiddly to me than plying with it. It does indeed look like dew drops. I love the tapestry in your planter trough. How beautiful it is, with all the lovely summery colours!

Sprotte said...

Hallo Bettina,

das sieht ja wirklich wie Tropfen aus, cool! Wie hast du das gemacht? Etwas Wolle durch die Perlen gepfriemelt und sie dann wieder auf das Spinnfutter gelegt und mit versponnen -oder wie? Kannst du das blondinensicher erklären?
Danke im Voraus und viele Grüße,
Sprotte

Ash said...

Love the idea of adding beads like that, maybe I will have a go - suppose I must finish my current yarn first..... :)

Janet said...

The "tapestry" flowers are an inspiration.

Leigh said...

Love your new header photo! Are those rigosas? And I love that you're experimenting with beads. I've seen folks do some lovely things with them. And interesting that a dyer like your self should love a shades of white skein of yarn!

Woolly Bits said...

thanks for your comments!
Sprotte - yes, you just take some longer fibres, pull a few out, put them into a needle and push it through the bead hole. the only difficulty is to find a needle that holds enough fibres, but still fits through the bead:))
Ash - I usually have ideas like that "stewing" in my head for a while, and all of a sudden I might stumble across some material, dig out my beads - and start fiddling:)) I started to jot bits and pieces down - they keep, but only if I don't forget them again:)
Leigh, yes, they are - my favourite hips to pick, because they are quite large (round) and soft, easy to de-seed and lovely for jam! the downside, if you can call it that with roses, is that they spread with underground runners. we planted 2 or 3 in the front garden - you see the result of a few years growing in the photo:) and I might be a dyer, but I still appreciate naturally coloured wools and cottons - and not everything has to be bright and shiny, subtle colour changes can get me excited, too:))