Today we have special guest Sammie Knight, aka Koke Me Designs, with us to help ecplain a tutorial on how to create an artistic yarn. Sammie has created, not just a simple tutorial, but a small and highly useful practical guide to hand spinning. This guide is very useful for beginners, but also for those who have already dabbled with this technique.
In addition, in this article you can also find indispensable tips and tricks to help you obtain the best possible results whilst avoiding costy errors. Sammie, being an expert in this field, will take you on a wonderful journey that begins with the creation of the blend and concludes with a ready-to-use single-thread yarn.
And what’s more, for this yarn Sammie has made use of our blending service called Mixology, with which multiple fibers can be mixed simultaneously. A truly personalized service with which you can also choose your favourite colours.
Now let's hand over to Sammie as she will reveal some basic tricks before starting the actual tutorial.
MATERIALS USED FOR THE BLEND
Extra fine merino wool tops col. Rouge (25%)
70% extra fine merino wool 30% tussah silk col. Milk (20%)
Viscose tops col. Flamingo (15%)
Viscose tops col. Rouge (10%)
A1 Grade Mulberry Silk Tops col. Marigold (10%)
Cashmere tops col. Natural White (10%)
Tencel lyocell tops col. Natural White (10%)
Once you have selected the fibers to spin your artisan yarn, you must proceed with the creation of the blend. To do this you will need a drum carder. below are all the steps you need to follow to create your first blend:
In my case, I didn't need to perform the blending process, this is because I used dhgshop's Mixology service, which did all the work and blending the fibers for me.
Now that you have created your blend we move on to the actual creation of the yarn. There are many different types of yarns: those with a single thread, those with two threads, those made by hand and those created by commercial means. Today we will focus on making the single-thread artistic yarn.
Split your batt into strips if desired. Predraft the carded fiber so that it is loose enough to allow the fibers to easily slip past one another.
Set up the leader cord on your spinning wheel. Pulling it through the rings & orifice on your particular wheel, I then draft out some of the fibre I’m about to spin with & thread through the leader on my bobbin and onto itself. Once this is complete you’re ready to spin!
Start peddling! (Treadling) - you want to make sure your wheel is going clockwise, this creates a ‘z’ twist in the single strand of yarn you are spinning.
Keep spinning! Try keeping your speed the same as this will help keep control & also keep the yarn even. Make sure that your drafting hand is between the fiber hand and orifice of your spinning wheel. You don't, however, have to keep your hands close to the orifice as you spin. Tip - Your non-dominant hand should be closest to the wheel and the dominant hand closer to your.
Once your bobbin on your spinning wheel is full, or you have spun the desired amount of yarn, start to wrap your yarn onto your niddynoddy.
Et voila! Your very first single-thread artistic yarn is finished!
And just like that, we have reached the conclusion of the first tutorial on how to create a single-thread artistic yarn. If you enjoyed learning and are interested in this technique, then we suggest you also read another article we have published on hand spinning and what's more, we have videos to assist you with the technique.
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