Stripe experiment: pseudo-fractal striping

If you've ever tried to create a 2 ply self striping yarn, you know how hard it is to get the colors to align perfectly without breaking and joining your singles. Fractals spinning is a bit easier, but still involves some degree of measuring and aligning your singles. But no matter how much measuring you do, they never align just right. So what if you didn't need them to align "just so"? What if you wanted the variegated stripes of a fractal, but with a little less effort? Try this simple technique: Ply your self striping singles on themselves.

First, when we're talking about stripes let's make sure we're talking the same language. A stripe is a block of color(or color combination). Stripes can be even, meaning they are the same length, or they can be varied. In addition, stripes can be solid (meaning a solid color or color pattern) or they can be variegated (including multiple colors or color patterns). The technique I'm describing here creates a yarn that is both varied in the length of the stripes, as well as variegation within the stripes


So let's dive in!
Start by spinning a self striping singles in what ever colorway you like. For this example I've chosen two of my favorites this fall, from 2 merino batts: 1 painted in teal/lavendar/gold/maroon and the other a bright lime green. You can see the stripes in the spool, and they're fairly even throughout the skein, but they don't have to be. If I had varied them a little more, maybe had some more green in some spots, it would've just given more variation in the stripe repeats.

Self striping singles on the spool

same singles in a center pull ball

Next step, and I know this one may be a bit controversial, create a center pull ball with your (rested) singles. You're going to spin this singles back on itself starting with both ends of your center pull ball, so there's no waste with this technique! Check out the color patterns as you spin... see where the greens came together, where the same batts came together, and where that overlapped.

You should be able to predict the stripe effects that you'll get when you knit this up! My stripes are relatively short, so to maximize I'll likely make this skein into a scarf... But if you're not sure how your stripes will work up, a swatch is definitely the answer!

As I mentioned, I'm making mine into a scarf. Check out my progress on Ravelry ;D

Plied yarn on the spool 

Plied yarn in a loose skein

I spoiled myself at yarnparty 2011

How could I resist, it was my birthday after all ;D
It all started a few weeks ago when my awesome husband asked, "any special requests for your birthday?"... well since you asked! And off we drove to Savage, Maryland. When we got there I was a little concerned because parking was a challenge(the place was packed!), but once a got inside the Savage Mill building I was pleasantly surprised. It's a charming place filled with little shops including paper crafts, pet stuff, paintings, beads, quilts, and more. So we made our way over to the main hall where the yarn party was being held and walked on in (no fee to get in!). The floor was crowded but manageable, and I made my first sweep around the room in about 5 minutes. Then in the next 2 passes I picked up all the items I had my eyes on and well... I came home with a great big bag of fancy hand dyed, hand spun, hand sheared, and all around awesome fibers... so I thought I'd share my favorites with you here!