Minnies plied together, L. Minnies drafted together, then plied, R.
How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is healthy and able to find some peace, and even little spots of joy in their days.
We’re starting #samplealong2 with two yarns spun with just minnies.
Divide your minnies
Before you start spinning make sure you have your minnies divided and set aside for four yarns. I know when I start spinning minnies, it’s like eating straight out of a bag of Doritos, blink and they’re gone. I have to portion out my minnies (and hide them) before I start. Sometimes I forget.
How you portion your minnies is up to you. If you use 4 minnies for each of your yarns, your minnies+painted braid skeins will be bigger. If you use 6 minnies for each of your minnies+minnies yarns and 2 minnies for each of your minnies+painted braid yarns, your minnies+minnies skeins will be bigger.
My 12 minnies for my first yarn.
I been gathering a stash of Into the Whirled Odds and Ends since I started using their fiber to teach. I also make more minnies with braids leftover from teaching. I have a bunch.
For these two yarns I’m using 12 minnies each. This is to explain why my skeins will look bigger and have more colors than yours might. I was originally going to use only 6 minnies per yarn, but I forgot to hide my minnies and just kept spinning.
Spinning minnies is a exercise in randomness, which I found surprisingly hard at first. I kept trying to make colors go together, and match in the ply. It took me a bit to get used to just grabbing and spinning.
Yarn number 1: minnies plied with minnies
Minnies plied with minnies
Our first yarn is minnies plied with minnies. Divide your first ounce of minnies into two, spin each group onto it’s own bobbin and ply them together. Try to grab your minnies randomly for good color mixing. The idea is for colors not to match up in the ply, though some inevitably will.
Mixing colors more
If you want to mix your colors more, you can split your minnies vertically before you even divide them for your two yarns. There is quite a bit of fiber in each minnie and sometimes they get compacted in the process of dividing and winding. I take some time to fluff out my minnies, and they are usually two fingers (or more wide), enough fiber to divide in two.
L to R: Two minnies, minnies open, and minnies after being split vertically (see, there’s plenty of fiber)
An ounce of minnies is usually 4 minnies, 2 minnies per ply for a 2-ply, which will get you a good amount of color mixing. But if you divide all of your minnies in half the long way you can choose 8 differnt half-minnies, 4 per ply for a 2-ply, and that gets you a lot more colors mixing. How you do it is 100% up to you, but I always like to give options.
Splitting minnies gives more color options
Yarn number 2: Drafting together minnies
Minnies drafted together and then plied
Minnies divided and recombined into nests for drafting.
Our second yarn is minnies combo drafted (drafted together) then plied together. Split each mini vertically (the long way). Divide your fiber into two groups, one for each ply. As you spin each ply, choose two half-mini strips of fiber that aren’t the same colorway, hold them side by side and draft them together like they are one fiber. Ply your bobbins together. I talk about drafting together more in this post from our last #samplealong.
You can also set up your drafting-together bundles ahead of time, that’s what I do, so I can just spin.
Drafting together then plying minnies really combines colors, it does give a little less crisp look to color than just plying together. Usually, everyone has a favorite look.
If you look closely you can see the colors combined in the single and ply with combo drafted minnies.
Next week, I’m going to show some yarns made from minnies I made from naturals and solids, spun in the same ways as these two yarns. Spoiler alert: the colors are bigger blocks. These yarns are for the folks, who don’t have painted braids or minnies.
The week after will be our last two yarns, combining minnies and a painted braid.
If you have any questions leave them in the comments, or email me. Please post your fiber and yarn photos on Instagram with #samplealong2.
I hope everyone is well in every way!