First let me say thank you to everyone that spun and knit along in our Sample Along! I hope you found it fun, interesting and a mellow way to get into the spin of 2020.
This is my last post for this Sample Along, unless you have specific questions for me.
So, what happened with our colors when we divided and spun our braid in different ways, and how can we use what we see to help predict futire braid spinning?
First look back at your original braid opened and lined up with the colors matching. Do they match up? If they do then your braid was dyed in a pattern. For this Sample Along, it doesn't matter what type of a pattern (there are several, but that's for a deeper dig into braid spinning), if there is a pattern you can do some predicting. If the dye is put on the braid randomly, the color on your yarn and knitting will come out randomly.
Now look at your colors. When I look at mine I see that there is a lot more blue and gold than red and green, and there is more gold than blue, so those colors will dominate my yarn. There is a vareity of colors, rather than just a braid dyed lighter or darker versions of one color, say shades of purple from lavender to violet. When your colors are shades of the same color, a range of purples, your yarn and knitting will look more semi solid.
When we divide our braids in different ways and ply them together we’re rearranging how the colors line up. That’s all. But you can predict generally what will happen, if you start noticing what happens in your spinning (and swatching!).
Look at my swatches, top to bottom, As It Comes, Flipped, Fractal, and Drafted Together.
I know my As It Comes will be the most matched up color-wise of my samples. Sometimes I make this one match all the way, by breaking out colors that are going on too long. The matching depends on how evenly you split your fiber and how consistently you spin. I am neither even, nor consistent, so I break and splice my colors when they are uneven, if I want a match.
My Flipped lines up my colors so they marl (barber pole) throughout. Usually I get some solid striping thrown in too, but not this time.
Fractal is a gem of a spin. One ply keeps the size of each color in the pattern long, and the second ply with stripped fiber has short runs of color. When plied together the colors match up occasionally, and more narrowly than if you were matching.
The knitted fabric looks like stripes within stripes. I think it’s exciting and a more sophisticated (for lack of a better word) look than matched striping.
Drafted Together creates a double marl. The colors are marled in the single as you draft them together, and then again when you ply them. The effect is tweedy, speckled. Because my fiber is heavy on two colors, it is tweedy, but still striped. When the colors are more evenly weighted the striping can all but disappear like in this red, pink, green sample.
Notice a couple of things in these samples and yours. The more different colors touch, the more the overall color brightness gets turned down. Your eyes are trying to make new colors where colors touch.
The other thing to notice is all of these samples look different, but similar, and would go together marvelously in a single project. That is something I really want to explore this year.
Did any of your feel like swatching was fun? If not fun, useful? There’s no real way to see how a yarn will look knitted, unless you knit it.
These four yarns are just scratching the surface of what can be done with a braid, we haven’t even talked about more than two plies or combining a braid with other colors or other braids.
Let me know what you learned from the Sample Along, and which yarn was your favorite spin.
Do you want to do this again later in the year? Shoot me your ideas for topics.
Happy spinning!