I have been colossally distracted in a major yarn tangent in recent days.
I’ve been going through my ‘stash’ (that is yarn which is in one’s possession, otherwise free to use at whim), and over-dying & having a bit of fun.
But this particular little project was super fiddly and a major study in “un-spinning”, using my spinning wheel, ball-winder, swift, and dye pot. On my spinning wheel, I literally unwound the 3 plies of a bulky-weight very soft 100% alpaca yarn I had, while at the same time winding them into 3 separate balls. I splice-joined the 3 single balls into one skein, and then attempted to relax the energized ‘singles’ with some simmer-dying. And relax they did!
Even the spliced joins were completely invisible when I wound and re-wound on to the swift. Ever-so-slightly felted made a terrific halo (fuzz) when the final product was skeined.
178 yards and 66 grams, of extremely soft alpaca single ply yarn, now ready for a delicious soft lace cowl. I would think this would classify as sport-weight. I am frankly amazed at this result, and my eye is wandering through my stash now, with ideas to deconstruct. 
Well, it was a huge amount of work, but its done & dusted and I’m very proud of such an alluring result. That’s me on a beautiful day, I should be knitting socks, but sometimes distraction is good for creativity!
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Jenjoyce Design 
You are so clever! x
Kelly, this whole yarn deconstruction project is teaching me a lot about commercial yarns, and which are the best-made (the ones which can endure deconstruction!) and which ones are not worth the time. However, I am feeling like my spinning wheel may feel a bit pleased with itself, being that suddenly after sitting dormant for another couple of years, it’s got fresh new purpose!
Everybody needs a happy spinning wheel. 🙂
Ooh, smooshy!
Oh Stefanie, and it is! The alpacas and the superwash wools are winning by big strides in the deconstruction competition, and especially in the smooshy department!
Freaking Awesome color! The texture is great looking!
Thats it Sorcha, the texture you see, the ‘halo’ is very sought-after quality to yarns these days. Alpaca is beautiful that way! The color was first a light lavendar over a grey, but worrying it wasn’t enough dye to make it ‘different’ enough, I dyed it again with (a bit too much) light blue… looks like the end result is a lovely dusty medium blue!
What a great idea! And a fab result.
You are the Queen Of Upcycling Liz, so I’m happy that you like it. I have no wish to compete with the massive yarn industry , but there’s gotta be more choice in our personal stashes, to upcycle left-overs from big projects, into one-skein-wonders. At least I think that is my niche here .
That’s crazy and amazing all at once! The yarn looks gorgeous.
Hi Bonnie, thanks for joining in! You are not kidding, totally crazy and amazing is the yarn deconstruction, overdying, and end results are about half good and half great! 🙂 ((its taking a lot of my time these days ))
Your yarn is wonderful looking. 🙂
Thank you Wen! Well, I think that you might get your guild in-the-know, show some of the spinners this blog post, and they’ll know what to do from there. 🙂 xx
Unplying yarn, an obvious technique when you think about it. But I would never have tried it myself…
But now you must ! 🙂
Thanks for the tip. Very cool.
Hi Kelly! You’re welcome 🙂
Good question, but I’m afraid the spliced joins would not work . If you don’t mind a knot tied (to hide at back of work) then I think it should work fine.
Sure, a drop spindle works the same, but you will really have your work cut out for you. LOL!
Thanks! It was rather by accident, first being lavender, then light blue, the color over-dying a grey yarn… yes, sheer accident. I think this would be called ‘French Blue’. I’d like to think so anyway. 😉
That is great ~ the work of four hands makes a very special skein of yarn indeed! I hope you make a lovely cowl for yourself from it! 🙂