Tag Archives: green yarn

Tour de Fleece

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I’ve been doing some spinning lately… here are the last few skeins I spun.

yarn, handspun yarn, handmade yarn, pink, green, pink yarn, green yarn, textured yarn, art yarn
coral, pink, yarn, textured yarn, handspun, hand made yarn, hand spun yarn,  In the spinning community there is a spinning competition during the month of July called the Tour de Fleece. It happens during the Tour de France bike race, hence the name. It was started in 2006, on a website called the Ravelry. So my personal challenge during the Tour was to spin a textured art yarn called Supercoil.

This is a plying technique that uses up a ton of yardage – the 20 or so yards of single yarn I spun shrank to about 6 yards after plying! To create any real yardage of Supercoil would use a lot of singles.

textured art yarn, supercoil yarn, plyed yarn, handspun, yarn, hand made, hand made yarn, yarn, rainbow

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My First Try at Hand Painted Yarn!

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On Saturday I attempted hand painting a 50% alpaca/50% wool bulky yarn for the first time!

It turned out great! I used Jaquard acid dyes for this project. First I soaked the yarn in cold water with about 2 T of white vinegar, and covered the counter with a garbage bag while it soaked (it’s works nicely and we didn’t have any plastic wrap, which is what you’re supposed to use.) I then mixed my dyes with hot water, but they cooled down over the time I was dying. Probably not a big deal. Then it occured to me that the yarn might need to be hot, so I microwaved it for about 2 minutes, but that cooled down too. It’s the vinegar acid and the steaming afterward that sets the dye.

I spread out the yarn on the garbage bag and painted that dye on! I used a cheapie foam brush for the dye. I wasn’t too happy with the way it looked after I painted it, but the steaming was yet to come. I wrapped it in the garbage bag the long way, coiled it up like a cinnamon bun, and than put it in a steaming basket over boiling water. Once the water boiled, I turned the stove down to low for a half hour and let it steam.
I was a bit concerned about the garbage bag melting, but thankfully it didn’t. When I unwrapped the yarn it looked great! The steaming mellowed and blended the colors wonderfully!

edited swirl yarn

yarn, yarn label, blue sky alpacas

the yarn I used

dyed yarn

my set up for dying

edited wet yarn

soaking the yarn in cold water after steaming

edited swirl yarn

the lovely finished yarn!

edited skein yarn