Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Spinning Samples...Craziness!

I know this flies in the face of everything we hold dear, like not knitting a gauge swatch and praying for good results, but I went and spun up samples to see what I'd like the finished yarn to be. This even involved water and twist setting. I get dizzy just thinking about it :)

In all seriousness, I thought I'd take a departure from my usual "let's see what happens" approach and actualy plan a project from start to finish. I still haven't nailed down a pattern, but there has been definite progress. I spun three different samples, all laceweight, in an attempt to figure out what I liked best. I went finer or thicker to compensate for the plying method, so they're all roughly the same weight. Pictures were taken in the middle of the night, so they may be a little dark.

First, we have a Navajo ply,

IMG_3332

then a 2-ply,

IMG_3331

and finally a single.

IMG_3330

I could espouse the minimalistic glories of the simple single, but really, it means when you're done, you're done. I do feel drawn to one other thing, but I only have 2 ounces of these gorgeous golden green flecked maroon mohair locks and that's not nearly enough for a shawl. Here's a sample of one of the locks spun up, though. It's finer than the single shown above (I really need to include something for scale).

IMG_3333

Of course, I'm still undecided.

5 comments:

Queue said...

any way you go the colors are gorgeous. Nice job!

Teresa said...

Such elegant colors. Very rich and autumn-like. I like the Navajo plied.

Kirsten said...

They are all so beautiful!
I am trying to decide if I want to ply my singles or not. I think there is nothing to do but swatch at this point. . .
I must learn how to Navajo ply. I really like the way that one looks.

Monika said...

Navajo ply looks the most professional. I don't like 2 ply anymore, I need to learn how to Navajo ply as well. The single looks good to me too. The last one's really gorgeous. I'm getting there! ;o)

Natasha said...

if you were going to ply I would use the navajo, but the single looks good too, actually they all look good lol