Yarn

Need to know how much of that mystery yarn you have? Get a yarn balance.

Need to know how much of that mystery yarn you have? Get a yarn balance.

Mystery yarns! We all end up with them eventually. There are ways to figure out what sort of fiber it is which I won’t cover in this post, but if you simply need to know how MUCH of a yarn you have, there is a simple tool to tell you. It is called a yarn balance. I’ve had mine for decades and it does come in handy if I need to know how many yards I have of something calculated from the weight of the ball of yarn.

Long ago in my fabric-weaving days, someone told me about the McMorran Yarn Balance. I pulled it out recently to calculate yards per pound of a tapestry yarn I was testing and thought you, dear readers, might not know this simple tool exists.

How, why, and when to scour yarn for tapestry weaving

How, why, and when to scour yarn for tapestry weaving

Why would you need to consider scouring yarn for tapestry weaving? And what does scouring mean anyway?

Scouring is simply the textile word for washing. Some (very few) yarns come with machine oil in them from the carding process and that needs to be removed before using the yarn for tapestry weaving. This usually only happens with coned yarns because the yarn goes right from the carder to the spinning and onto cones without any other processing. The oil is added in the picking process so that the fibers go smoothly through the big carding machines.

Nothing rhymes with orange

Nothing rhymes with orange

I’ve been making red-orange yarn this week. According to my dye book, it has been over a year since I did any dyeing and I’ve enjoyed being back in the dye studio (my garage) a great deal. I’m dyeing some yarn for a friend. She might be the only person on the planet who I’d do this for, though no one else has tested it yet. I’m trying to match a naturally dyed yarn that she needs a lot of. Because it is so hard to replicate naturally dyed colors (and she is a master dyer of natural dyes), she asked me to make her this color using synthetic dyes. I can replicate colors without much difficulty and I have a great big pot that I can dye the whole lot at once. I think it will be about four pounds of fiber.

The color is red-orange. I’m pretty happy that I did a lot of sampling of oranges several years ago when I was working on a commission because I learned a lot about orange. I struggled to make it back then, but this time around I felt inundated with options.

I made yarn!

I made yarn!

The new module that went live in the Design Solutions class this week is all about how materials influence design in tapestry weaving. And yarn is definitely the primary material in tapestry. I have become fascinated by the variety of ways to make yarn and learning to spin some years ago now has definitely led me down many yarn-y rabbit holes. And spinning has taught me so much about how yarn is made and how different materials in yarn can change the way it behaves, reflects light, and influences the structure of the textile.

I’ve been working on Jillian Moreno’s current Sample Along (#samplealong2). We are spinning four yarns and so far I’ve only finished this yarn. And I love it. To be honest, every single time I take a new skein of handspun out of its bath in the sink, I think with a bit of a giggle, “I made yarn!” It never gets old.

A skein of hibiscus-colored yarn and a bit of anxiety-managing weaving

A skein of hibiscus-colored yarn and a bit of anxiety-managing weaving

March 2nd. Another round of book edits were due and I had sent them the night before. The new material for the Design Solutions online course was also up and everything seemed to be working in technology world.

March 2nd. Before the world changed so quickly and drastically.

March 2nd. I went to the yarn store because yarn makes me feel better. I ostensibly was looking for yarn for my nieces to learn to crochet with. But we all know the truth. I had met two huge deadlines which happened to fall on the same day and I was tired. And a little dreary. And petting the yarn always cheers me up. I try hard not to stop at yarn stores and when I’m tired or down is the most dangerous time (because who knows how much yarn I’ll add to my already large knitting yarn stash). But March 2nd, I visited. The Loopy Ewe.*

Harrisville Designs: a yarn company with heart

Harrisville Designs: a yarn company with heart

One of the days of the photoshoot for my upcoming book, the team went to Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, NH. We wanted to get some shots outside the studio that also included some of the yarn and tools that I use in my work and teaching. Since Harrisville is only about two hours from North Adams, MA, it was a feasible day trip. Nick Colony and Sasha DuVerlie were fantastic hosts and we were able to take photographs in many areas of the Harrisville campus including the store, classroom, workshop, and mill. I am sure some of the marvelous photos Mars, the Storey photographer, took will end up in the book.

All the yarn-y joy... and getting just the right color

All the yarn-y joy... and getting just the right color

On my studio Fridays I have been working toward getting a big tapestry on the loom. Because dyeing takes so long, I’m still working on that part of the puzzle though my fingers are itching to be weaving. I am finding that having some space between the days I’m making color and dye decisions has been helpful. The yarn I pull out of the pot dripping wet and prop in the corner of the living room to dry* might not get assessed until the next Friday. Somehow that lets my brain relax around those decisions and I’ve found myself much more willing to accept what came out of the pot even if the small swatch I was dyeing from feels different in the larger amounts of yarn.** So colors that I didn’t like when I hung them the last Friday actually seem great by the next Friday. I suppose that could be mostly the realization that if I don’t go with those colors or keep fussing with the formulas, I may never actually start weaving… but we’ll go with the first idea that space allows acceptance.