Yikes… spinning and posting of club has become a little bit of a challenge for me as of late. There’s been so much happening and I do honestly feel like I’m constantly running from behind. I’m thrilled that for 2019, some of the club spinning will be done by Rachel of Wool N Spinning
My hope is that this will mean club reveals will be back to being posted at the end of the month. I’ll still share the photo that inspired me for the month and talk a little about colour and then have Rachel talk about the spinning of the fibre!
So without further ado… let’s talk about December club. This month, I decided to do things slightly differently. My original intent was to use the first photo as my inspiration. The snow scene from a cross-country skiing outing I had with my husband years ago seemed like the perfect option, I LOVED the colour of the water and it would work well with my thought of a winter theme. However, when I went to dye it, I felt slightly underwhelmed by it. There just weren’t enough colours to choose from.
Enter this photo, which was taken by my mom/business partner, Judi, on our family trip last May. The yellow gold tones of the sunrise and the hit of red from the canoe just spoke to me… so I decided to combine the photos and use both of them for my inspiration this month.
The result was these little battlings. I tried a couple of different combinations for the battlings…some with the blue green and hits of the gold and then some with the blue green and hits of red and finally some of the blue green with hits of red and gold. I decided that I liked the last combination the best, so that is what was carded up for club, but I didn’t want any of the bumps to go to waste, so I ended up spinning the tests, as well as what the club subscribers received.
Basic club this month, which is what is pictured above, was 100% South African Fine and Luxury was a base the South African Fine with silk and bamboo blended in. The research I’ve done on South African Fine points to it being primarily Merino based, which definitely comes through in the softness. Overall it was lovely to spin.
I need a “mindless” spin in December, so I opted to spin all my fibre to one bobbin and then ply from a centre pull ball. When I caked up my singles, I decided to use my ball winder, as opposed to using a nostepinne. Either method works well. Keep in mind that you want to have your bobbin in a straight line to your ball winder, so as to minimize any effects to the twist of your singles.
I’ve always been fascinated by the effects of washing your plyed yarn. Can you see the difference between the next two photos?
The first photo is before giving the skein a soak in hot water and a gentle snap and the second photo is after. Do you see how much the yarn has plumped up?
The yarn has a slight gradient effect to it, because I opted to spin my bumps in the following order. A bump with just red, followed by a bump with red and yellow, then my bump with just yellow in the middle, and working back with a bump of red and yellow and then the second bump with just red in it.
I’m pleased with how it turned out and I would love to see what you do with club! Please feel free to share it over on this thread in the Wool N Spinning Ravelry Group or tag me on Instagram with the hashtags #craftyjaksboutique or #craftyjaksclub If you haven’t signed up for club and you’d like to, please follow this link to my Etsy shop.
For 2019, I’m excited to share that we’ll be exploring a different breed every single month and I won’t be repeating any of the fibres I’ve used previously for club. It’s 100% new! Sign up closes for February club on January 20th, so you still have a couple of days to sign up!
Till next time… Happy Spinning!
~Katrina
