A "soup to nuts" project!
It was back in March at the last Uniquities Fiber Farmer's Market that a lovely customer of mine, Suzanne, came up and said "Hi Karen, look I am wearing Avalon Springs Farm today!" I said, "Do tell." And, I was so inspired and complimented by her creativity and work, that now I must tell you.
So Suzanne started out with a roving she liked; a color way called The Vineyard. This roving was mostly different shades of purple, a little natural chocolate alpaca and a hint of blue. She spun that up as a single. In order to recreate it I would try a twist ratio of 6:1, remembering that you will eventually ply this. So, I think the wraps per inch for the finished two ply will be about two thirds of the single. In other words if the finished two ply is a worsted around 11 or 12 WPI, then the single will be perhaps 17 or 18 WPI.
Then she bought a similarly colored package of Camelot silk roving. She then spun the silk roving and plied the two together. The resulting yarn is what makes the multi-colored and multi-textured middle section of the sweater.
The darker blue is some pure Alpaca spun as thicker (Aran) single. It really adds to the entire garment as an artful piece. I love the different visual effects of the different fibers, tied together by their color connection, and then spun in different ways for texture variety too.
If you are local I would check out the classes at Uniquities Yarn Shop, Vienna VA.
http://uniquitiesyarnshop.com/
The spinning techniques for this project came from a class that Suzanne took at the shop.
Caroline Hockenberry is the fiber art educator there. The class is called Bubble Crepe.
Check out some of Caroline's work on Ravelry at: DailyFiber.
And a little more about the entire project on Ravelry from Suzanne at:
the-road-to-gimmerton
Thank you Suzanne! You are a most awesome fiber artist!
