Tweed Chronicles

Nine Years

Published on October 26, 2026October 26, 2026 by Jen6 Comments

It was nine years ago this last week of October that we landed in a temporary holding place, shortly after losing our home to the wildfire. And it was shortly thereafter that I was given a beautiful vintage Ashford Traditional spinning wheel by “L” who heard of my situation from a very kind spinning group on Ravelry. Out of nowhere, L notified me that she had a wheel for me, hearing that I had just lost my previous wheel– and that she would bring it to me from San Francisco Bay Area where she was from, to say the least, I was stunned by her kindness, and accepted with massive gratitude. (See that Autumn in this post from 2017)

Recently, I lent this precious wheel to help another spinner learn the craft on a traditional setup, it was gone for many months, and I missed it dearly. Now it is finally back home in the studio, and I have decided to give it a deep, restorative treatment to celebrate our reunion, and even put a new, clear poly cord drive band on it—just like my old Peacock wheel used to have.

Yesterday and this morning, in order to celebrate its homecoming, I’ve been down in the Tiny House, blending a special batch of pastel autumn colors to spin on my refurbished wheel. The reason I say pastel, is because I only have two hand-dyed braids I want to put into the batch, and many beautiful Wool Of The Andes Bare (undyed) bundles. So I’ve improvised a method of layering all the colors in batts made on the drum carder, as I prepare to spin the yarn for a celebratory cardigan. I can’t decide if I should spin the whole batch like sample 1 or sample 2 — what do you think?

♣ Blending Notes ♣

To achieve an even, homogeneous dispersion across the entire 500g lot, I am using a layered batt method rather than simply splitting the braids. This keeps the colors from flashing or striping harshly, allowing them to mist softly into the neutral base.

The Fiber Base: 300g Knit Picks Wool of the Andes roving (Bare)
The Color: Two distinct 100g dyed top roving braids in colors “Nube Zinnias” and another I don’t have the label for (200g total)
Total Lot Weight: 500g
Layer the Carder, in one batt per 100g lot;
- Bare roving
- hand-dyed top braid #1
- Bare roving
- hand-dyed top braid #2
- Bare roving
Spread out thinly each batt in this order, and compress into one fluffy batt.
Pull fat strips evenly off the side of big compressed batt, and attenuate into continuous longer strips, lightly wound into lofty little nests.
Spun a short length, plied on itself, and that is sample 1.
Then to get a less contrast effect, I then took one of the attenuated balls and broke into several smaller strips, held them together , and ran through the drum carder again. Again I spun, plied, and made sample 2.

Tweed Chronicles: Attenuated Combed Top

Published on October 18, 2025August 2, 2026 by Jen2 Comments

This is the first time, in all the years spinning from combed top, did it occur to me to simply try blending many colors of combed top together into one drafted ribbon of wool to spin. After watching all of Jillian Moreno’s videos on LongThread Media, I am now practicing her “attenuating” method, which this post is about (see my Blending Notes below if you care to read the tech stuff.) This Autumn I am busy spinning a lot of handspun, hoping to greatly downsize my accumulated fiber stash, while practicing spinning techniques, and speeding up the process quite a lot by learning to spin well on my Ashford e-spinner.

♣ Blending & Spinning Notes ♣

Solid merino wool dyed top from Paradise Fibers in Antique, Terracotta, Rust, Salmon, and Damask.
From each color I pulled off sections of top all approx the same length , then each one of the lengths I split lengthwise into half, then half again, equally 4 thinner lengths of each color in the same length.
Each of the 4 split lengths of 5 colors gets grouped together, and with tips together, I slowly begin to pull the colors together (Jillian calls it “attenuating”) incrementally stretching, or drafting. I do this a couple times for each grouping, then lightly wrap into a nest of fiber ready to spin.
As I did not card this top , I wanted to make the drafting as easy as possible without misaligned fibers, I wanted to try the attenuated top method. I see the point in this; it is not just blending colors, it is doing so while keeping the integrity and direction of the combed top, where if I put on the drum carder, would be lessening the integrity of the direction, no longer would be combed top, but carded roving from batts.
Spun singles, in “Z” direction, with low twist on my Ashford e-spinner. I’ve learned that with my method of knitting, the Z-spun singles would tighten twist in the knitting, whereas if it is S-spun, would loosen.
Trying a technique of using a button to run the drafting through to help reduce gripping motion on my hands as arthritis is to be avoided at all costs. I suppose technically this is drafting through a “diz”.
I do think the attenuated method of color blending makes a very crisp marl in the spun single, more so than carded blending would.

Naming a Color: Damask

Published on August 8, 2025August 2, 2026 by JenLeave a comment

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 ♣

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).
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.
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.
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.

Alpaca, silk, cotton.

Published on July 30, 2025August 2, 2026 by Jen2 Comments

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.

Flax, cotton, and bamboo.

Published on July 29, 2025August 2, 2026 by Jen2 Comments

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 ♣