Last year, I had fun spinning and sharing my “Spinning into Focus” blog series.
I took a multicoloured blended top from John Arbon and spun it in 10 different ways to achieve varying levels of colour blending. I enjoyed it so much that I don’t think I will ever spin a multicoloured blend just one way again! It really held my attention and so I thought it would be fun to carry out a similar experiment, but with a lot of different blends this time. I’ll also be trying a few more fibre preparation techniques depending on the fibres in the blend, and how well-blended the combed tops are already.
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| Over the Rainbow by World of Wool |
Ever since I spun my first multicoloured blend back in 2015, and accidentally spun up 200g of a disappointingly sludgy green, I’ve been intrigued by colour management in multicoloured blends.
I’ve always found it incredibly frustrating that World of Wool, and the majority of other retailers of blended tops, don’t give examples or even a clue as to how some of their blends might spin up. Several of World of Wool’s more multicoloured blends will definitely spin up to be slightly muddy or grey if you don’t make an effort to keep the colours slightly separate. This is fine if you want a neutral or tonal colour, but it can be so disappointing, especially for new spinners, when you are lured in by a gorgeous, bold blend of colours, and then the finished yarn turns out to be a sludgier version of its former self.
I’ve been spinning for a very long time and I still find it difficult to predict how quite a few blends will turn out. I thought I would pick some of World of Wool’s more questionable blends and just have a play to see what I come up with. Hopefully, my results will help other spinners too when it comes to choosing multicoloured combed tops.
Understandably, a couple of people on Instagram picked me up on my use of the word questionable, assuming that I don’t like the blends that I have chosen. Far from it! I’m using the word questionable to describe any blend that would cast doubt in the mind of even the most experienced spinner. A blend that would cause you to pause before ordering it and question how it might turn out.
Over the coming year, I’ll be looking at each blend and showing how it looks when you spin it a few different ways.
I made an unbagging video of all of the blends and you can see a little more of the fibre and final spun yarn close-up.
In the following images, I’ve just drafted off and spun 8g of each blend and then chain-plied the singles. The resulting yarn would be what you might achieve if you paid no attention to colour management.
After I’d spun all 12 yarns I laid them out, almost in spectrum order. I think they look so beautiful altogether like this!
When you combine colours from more than half of the colour wheel you start to head towards browns and more neutral tones. I didn’t get as many browns as I thought I would, but what I did get was a beautiful, semi-neutral, autumnal colour palette.
Over the rest of the year, I’m hoping to spin through all 12 blends, using 3 or 4 different fibre preparations and I’ll share my results on my blog. I’d really like to knit them all up into one big, multicoloured, fabulous, mitred square blanket. I’m not sure how ambitious that is, but apparently, I do love a year-long project. Wish me luck!
If you've found any of this post interesting or useful, please pin this image to Pinterest. It makes a big difference to me and helps other spinners find it too.
At this point, I normally suggest similar related blog posts, however, my list of spinning-related content is becoming a little unmanageable... If you'd like to read more blog posts about spinning and fibre preparation, please take a look at this page here where you will find links to all of my spinning and fibre articles.
Thank you for reading, and happy spinning!
Related Blog Posts
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| Questionable Blend #5 - Loriini |
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| Questionable Blends Veined Mitred Square Knitting Pattern |
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| Questionable Blend #6 - Blaze |
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| Questionable Blend #7 - Libra |
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Questionable Blend #8 Hickory Dickory
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| Questionable Blend #10 Hawaiian Dreams |
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I'll gladly follow your journey with these yarns. I really enjoyed the previous series too. I learned so much!
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