She Was Twisted

I’ve been playing around with spinning handspun curly doll hair yarn out of hand-dyed Leicester wool locks. But I hadn’t really thought about how it would work with knitting. So I set out to try it out.

I used up some scrap wool locks that, due to all the excess vegetable matter trapped in the locks, were pretty much worthless for anything. I also had some roughly carded Romney wool that also needed to be taken out to the garden due to all the junk in the wool, so I thought these two wools would be perfect for my test swatch.

I alternated the curly with the carded wool, then threw in a few lines of merino wool top for contrast. I spun exactly the way I would for the doll hair – a bit overtwisted, nice and messy.

Here is my skein.

Pretty!

I chose to knit a basic swatch using 3 stitches of garter around the edges to keep the swatch flat. Size 11 needles, at approximately 3 stitches per inch.

I love how it came out! Especially if the curly parts were alternated with more of a smooth top. Much to my surprise, however, much of the personality of the curly yarn was lost in the stockinette stitch, but not too much to bother me. The backside seemed to absorb all the craziness, which is typical.

10 pounds of raw Leicester wool locks are awaiting!

I’ve created the most ugly yarn of all times. …or is it?

Just for the heck of it, I spun a yarn that I usually make fun of when I see it at the store. I call it “used” yarn. Many people adore the look. Me? Yuck. It reminds me of an old sweater that has been wash way to many times, and is covered in pills and felted fibers. I see these horrish yarns knitted into big bulky scarves, and still, my reaction is not a pleasant one. The term “old hag” comes to mind.

So of course, I had to try to spin one of my own!

I started with raw locks from a Merino Columbia fleece that I’m still deciding if I like. When it was in the grease, it seemed like it had so much potential. Then I washed it, and, well…it got scratchy. Very weird. So anyway, I  solar dyed the locks in canning jars into basic color of cools and warms. Then I teased the heck out of the wool by hand, mixed up all the warm colors and put it into a grab bag. After seeing the colors together, I decided there need to be a “pop” of contrast, so I found some lovely purple mohair locks that I dyed ages ago. I teased these lightly and kept them in a separate pile to add when I pleased.

I spun up the ratty mess into a super bulky yarn, all messy and uneven. I added locks of mohair here and there. The result? Nah. O.K. but not great. The colors are dull and and dreary. The texture is “used” and haggered. So what do I do? I plied it with a cherry read yarn thinking that it would liven up those sad colors. Nope! Not the case. I actually think I liked it much better without the ply, darnit.

So here is my finished yarn. ewww?

Just for fun, I’m going to knit it up. Just to see. Maybe seeing it in stitches will help.

More to come.