This is definitely a very bittersweet post to be writing. When I started club in February of 2017, I thought it would just keep going forever. I was constantly taking photographs that would serve as future inspiration and I loved creating something special each month. However, there comes a time when we need to examine our passion projects and determine if they continue to be worth the effort and time. So while I’m sad to see club finish, I am looking forward to the time this will free up to pursue other fun adventures within the fibre world!
This month’s club was inspired by this image I took at the aquarium of tropical fish. It seemed fitting to end club with something bright and fun, so the rainbow of colours held within this image appealed to me. It was merely a very happy coincidence that it coincided with pride, but I loved that it did. For me, this image is a reminder that diversity and finding a way to live in harmony, where everyone is valued and cherished for who they are is critical to our survival.
This month, I created a gradient set for everyone. With a 50 gram club, like the one Rachel would spin for me, there isn’t enough to do the in between steps of blending, so this one is just the basic colours that I dyed. However, with the larger clubs, there were intermediate steps between the main colours I dyed, to create a smoother transition. This month, I dyed up Welsh for the basic club and used it for the base of Luxury club, which I blended with Mohair and silk.
How to hear from Rachel about what club was like to spin:
I was so excited to spin this month’s club fibre that I had to put it away, out of sight to be spun after some other time-sensitive projects were finished first. Then … I forgot about it. Can you believe it? Sometimes life just happens around you and in the daily grind, you get caught up in it all. As we neared the middle of the month, I remembered that I should probably work on this month’s fibre. Then I remembered that it was the last one and I decided to savour the spin, take my time and just enjoy the process.
The singles spun up really quickly and I spent a lot of several mornings just spinning on my Majacraft Suzie, enjoying the process. Each nest worked its way around the rainbow and I thought of this spin as a ‘circle’ because the pink nicely begins the spin but the purple could have easily started … or the blue or the orange or any of them. I’d like to find a way to showcase that in a finished item – probably in a brioche cowl like this one.
As I finally began spinning, I noticed a lot of kemp in the Welsh. This isn’t uncommon in Welsh Mountain – they tend to be kempy but this doesn’t bother me because even through the spinning, washing and finishing, the kemp is steadily falling out. The nice thing about kemp is that as it falls out, it will lessen over time and leave you with an amazing yarn in the end. While Welsh isn’t a particularly ‘soft’ yarn, I like the variety of spinning many different fibres and having a handspun stash rich in variety to fulfill different needs. I am quite intrigued with the idea of adapting that cowl pattern into a knitted pillow pattern. It’s important to think outside the box!
In the end, I chain-plied this yarn and shared doing so on the most recent podcast episode. If you’d like to see, you can find the episode here and the time stamp is 51:44. I hope you enjoy just watching me work through the process and plying.
Happy Spinning! ~Rachel
For those of you who followed along with club and supported me through the process, thank you. It has been a sincere pleasure and honour to create these for you. If you want to talk about this or past clubs, please feel free to chime in on this thread in the Wool N Spinning Ravelry group. Till next time, happy spinning! Katrina
