Familiar colorways I always seem to go for. I’ve got about 400g of the terracotta blend ( the blending notes are posted here ) and about 650g of the greyish rusty tweed. My goal is to be spinning and knitting the handspun as I did with rescued From oblivion, but I have decided for now to bear down and get a lot of spinning done first, so then I’ll have a lot to choose from when it comes time for knitting. It has been a dream of mine for a long time, to spin samples of my designs from my own handspun, after all, I include gauge substitution charts in nearly all of my patterns just for this reason.

I should have made *Spinning Notes* on this entry, but honestly, I have been focused on one thing, and one thing only, and that is to learn to properly spin “fat singles”. Since watching Jillian Moreno’s LongThread video Spinning Singles , which I highly recommend, I just decided it was one of those things I wanted to challenge myself with, because some of the best yarn I’ve knit with, like Donegal Aran Tweed, with a texture of handspun, loaded with rich layers of colors hidden in the twist, is just what I am striving to create. I have a ways to go yet, but I’ll get there.

But from now until forever I will be leaving off the add-ins of pre-felted nepps in the blending. I think the best tweed blends which have nepp textures are not from the adding them into the blend as much as from the addition of colorful shorter fibers, snips of combed top or even cutting yarn and carding it a little first, but I’m getting rid of all the wool nepps I bought; they are a hazard to drains, and caused me a lot of grief in the spinning. Oh, and after spinning a couple of pounds of yarn almost entirely on my e-spinner, I found the take-up needed to be so great that it was putting definite strain on the motor. So I switched the operation on over to the trusty traditional wheel, and the control was easy, almost like a sigh of relief! I am finding that for Fat Singles, my Ashford Traditional is the tool of choice.

Naming a color, from inspiration, from memory, from an object, a painting, a piece of cloth — the most the poetic aspect of design.  The name damask itself refers to a type of weave in cloth, and is made in a range of colors, the color I am searching for is a traditional silk damask color — a warm vintage rose with a hint of mauve, nearly like the botanical painting from Pierre-Joseph Redouté, the Rosa Damascena Celsiana. I fell in love with the color when I was gathering and over-dyeing colors for the  Redouté Roses design,  which was inspired originally from his botanical illustrations. But honestly, the color in my mind now, is the memory of a little silk scarf, which I put on my niece to wear for the design’s photo session, which I inadvertently gave to her as I forgot to ask for it back, and it is lost to a wonderful memory now. Yes, the sentiment of that exact color is what I have long been looking for.  I’ve arrived at the dye recipe which I’ve left in the Blending Notes below.  

Can either be spun up in a solid, or made into a tweed blend, which involves more than one color, so I am refining my recipe techniques.  I think in my personal color palette, I will name this color recipe “Damask”.  These three are my final experiments  to arrive at the color, testing a blending format that I will apply to the rest of my tweed palette, of colors I love most. The spun tweed results are in the same order in photos above as described in the notes below: #1 Double Tweed, #2 Analogous Tweed, and #3 Simple Tweed.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

1. Damask solid color recipe: Blended from 1% dye solutions of: 33.3% Jacquard Hot Fuchsia, 33.3% Jacquard Golden Ochre, and 33.3% Dharma Antique Mauve (see below notes). 
2. Double Tweed Blend (above 1st of 3): 50% color “damask” solid color wool, and 16.6% each of solid dyed wool in Golden Ochre, Hot Fuchsia, and Antique Mauve. I think I like this the best because the overall effect is truer to my solid dye recipe for the color Damask.
3. Analogous Tweed Blend (2nd of 3): 33.3% each of three damask shades very similar (I used tests #1, #3, and #4 )  The result does not have enough definition to make it worth the fuss of dyeing three similar colors just to blend them all together.  As it is so close to a completely homogenized color, if I want a solid dyed color, I would just dye a solid Damask from my color recipe. 
4. Simple Tweed Blend (3rd of 3): 33.3% each of solid dyed Golden Ochre, Hot Fuchsia, and Antique Mauve. This is the easiest by far, and very festive with the most contrasts, and I use this method for an informal and quick tweed blend if I’m not attempting a reliable color match. 

• • All dyes are dyed with depth-of-shade 1ml of 1% dye solution to 1g of wool. 
  • The actual dye brands are Jacquard Acid Dye in Golden Ochre and Hot Fuchsia, and Dharma Acid Dye in Antique Mauve. 

♣ Final Results ♣ 

I have decided upon the final solid color of Damask, just did not spin it up solid, instead I used the amount I dyed in the tweed experiments. From this color I arrived at final tweed preparation, what I am calling Double Tweed. The Double Tweed is compound — comprised of the two parts; a minimum of 50% of the blend is the main color which is its namesake, in this case Damask.  The other “half” is equal amounts of solid dyed wools that are the same three dye colors used to get Damask. The end result I am naming is Damask Double Tweed. Of the three in the Blending Notes above, I like the Double Tweed results best because the spun yarn stays closest to the main color while still having the contrasts of the different colors of wool, which I describe in the notes.

Utterly fascinated with Eri silk cocoon cakes, they are so easy to fluff up into a generous handful of spinnable fiber, or can be pulled into a circle shape, broke through the center and stretched into a hoop of continual strands to be spun from or cut into lengths (I learned this from some instructional Longthread Media spinning videos using silk hankies). Even more I love how the cocoons are harvested after the moth emerges, therefore known as Ahimsa Silk, also as Peace Silk. One thing I want to note; the processed silk roving is radically different than spinning the silk strands from cocoons. The silk cocoons have the strands all wound around and hold together, even “stick” together in spinning far more than the silk that is processed into roving, as well as shorter fibers. It is raw silk which is not as smooth and has little slubs, the finished spinning has a more matte finish, and therefore in blending adds much more texture than the processed silk roving would.

As combed cotton roving is something I just do not feel committed to learn to spin by itself, because it takes specialized skill, if not equipment, but mostly because pure cotton handspun yarn is not something I knit with, and I can’t imagine weaving with it, yet like silk, I am learning the benefits of adding it to blends.

Of course, downy soft alpaca, one of my favorites, giving a fuzzy soft halo to the finished yarn, and exquisite warmth, and added to the others for a more complex blend in this sample checks all the boxes for me.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Alpaca: Alpaca roving, in color fawn, approx 1/3.
• Silk: Eri Silk cocoon cakes, approx 1/3.
• Cotton: Combed cotton roving, in color mauve, approx 1/3.

Bamboo top fiber is extremely silky, and in my opinion even more than actual silk, which is to say that it is even slicker, even more delicate, softer, glossier, and truth be told, I could not even attempt to spin it by itself. Flax short fiber (tow) roving is really rough, really tough, stiff, woody, and the fibers do not stick to each other, so again, I have not had much success in trying to spin flax either. Combed cotton top is… well, cottony, but insanely short fibers which do not stick together when dry, and just like the other two, I really couldn’t even try to spin it. However, with the three together I am striving to find a balance, a spinnable fluff that can be made into a beautiful practical yarn, that brings texture and color depth into the yarn. I do believe that blending fibers such like these three plant fibers make a very beautiful blend which brings together the best in all three, even though I personally could not even attempt to spin the individual fibers. Believe me, this particular combination proves to me that blending really has its virtues!

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Flax: Flax roving from Laughing Lamb Fibers , natural undyed, approx 33%
• Cotton: Combed Cotton Roving Top from Living Dreams Yarn, in color Curry, approx 33%
• Bamboo: Bamboo top from Paradise Fibers, in color Topaz, approx 33%

I just opened a drawer and it was there, 600 grams of fluffy washed handspun wool, tucked in the back of a drawer of other unaccounted for handspun skeins, and completely forgotten. When did I spin this? Sometime last winter I think. Right, I checked my photo files and apparently, I was a carding maniac last January blending up huge batts of different wools from my bins, in vain hope to downsize, but more honestly attempting to rid myself of the evidence of a long spell of wool gathering. I was making big random batts, not concerned about the results. What is so interesting is how this yarn looks different in varied light, sometimes denim blue, sometimes sea foam blue; a lot of white, different tones of greens and blues; turquoise, mallard green, grass green sky blue, but I think it is the navy blue which greys it down, and the amount is enough wool for a big wool sweater. This is what life looks like when one is a process spinner; one spins the yarn, and then forgets about it.

Wool and silk are winners . . . cotton and wool are winners . . . and cotton and silk are winners . . . so wouldn’t it go without saying that wool, silk, and cotton would be amazing? Ever since studying the Longthread Media instruction video Spinning Wild & Unusual Silk I’ve just been unleashed into new territory.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Wool: Merino Top Wool from Paradise Fibers, color Terracotta, approx 33%
• Cotton: Combed Cotton Roving Top from Living Dreams Yarn, color Mauve, approx 33%
• Silk: Eri Silk roving from Living Dreams , color natural yellow, approx 33%

Moving swiftly over the calendar days of Summer, one by one I have been pairing up combinations, and have settled on some favorites, but now I’m on to blends of three different fibers & colors. As for the blends with the flax short fibers, I will have to further experiment, because although they create a rustic feel, there is a scratchiness, almost like guard hairs, occasionally a stray stiff flax fiber will not spin into the single but stick out and assert itself. The question is; how will this be after washing, and maybe it is fine for some things, which of course, I will have to explore. The other question is; how is it with all of the different colors I’m using (which the camera is just not picking up) the allover effect that I keep creating is variations of terracotta color in the finish?

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Wool: Merino Top from The Spinnery , color Olive, approx 33%
• Silk: Mulberry silk roving from The Woolery, color Orchid Pink, approx 33%
• Flax: Flax roving from Etsy, in color Rust, approx 33%

Would never have guessed it, but here I am suddenly a cotton and silk spinning fanatic, and now that I’ve discovered great sources for both dyed cotton roving and Eri (peace) silk. I learned from a Long Thread Media instructional video Spinning Exotic Blends that spinning silk sometimes is easier to spin and gives uniformity to the single, when the silk fibers are cut to the length of the other fibers in the blend, so I tried again snipping off the silk into pieces the same length as the cotton, then blended the two together on the carders. This plied yarn was extremely soft but has no spring, completely slack, bringing out the best of both fibers.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Silk: Eri Silk roving from Living Dreams , color natural yellow, approx 50%
• Cotton: Dyed Combed Cotton Roving Top from Living Dreams Yarn, color Azure, approx 50%

In June I explored colorful wool tweeds and now sampling an array of non-wool spinning fibers … carding a few grams, spinning, plying, photographing, with more yet to come. I am already narrowing, already thinking about what is coming next; spinning whole skeins instead of a few grams, writing the recipes carefully so that I can replicate, then at last, knitting the yarn into something to showcase the best of the best.

Cotton is one of those things that I’ve put off learning to spin, for it is such a short staple, and in my experience extremely difficult to spin with a suspended spindle. I did try before and gave up, and so I’m trying it in a blend and am feeling encouraged that this time it will work. This sample is dyed cotton roving blended with mulberry silk, a little difficult to spin with a suspended spindle, but what a great pairing, and so soft.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Silk: Mulberry silk roving from Paradise Fibers, color Malabo Green, approx 50%
• Cotton: Dyed Cotton Roving from Living Dreams Yarn, color Curry, approx 50%