Add-ins Pop!

 It's my frenzied style of learning. I decide a few weeks earlier what the workshop schedule will be for the little guild that I run. Then I have to get down to it and if there's something I haven't tried, or haven't done much of, I have to practise. Odd I know, but this method seems to be working for me. Hey I never professed to be an expert at spinning. I think everyone knows I am just learning.

Next week the class is about spinning art yarns; in particular the kind with add-ins. Those can be a wide variety of objects. Things with a hole in them are easier, like beads, buttons, sequins. I have only tried the kind with beads before.

So first up is the pink wool singles with the flower petals. I believe this wool was corriedale. Today I took the ripped up fabric flowers, and threaded the clusters of petals onto sewing thread. I added a few clear beads. As I tore up the dollar store flowers I saw they had a perfect little hole in the center already. This was easy to prepare and very easy to spin.








Yesterday I made this bold pom pom yarn. Again the starting material was from the dollar store. Well I had the turquoise wool single (polwarth I think) just sitting around on a spare bobbin. The playful pom poms wanted to be paired up with a bright base yarn. For these I had to poke the needle through the center of the pom pom.

The pom pom yarn was harder to make, because the largest size of pom pom did not fly easily through the orifice. I am using the jumbo flyer with huge orifice on my Lendrum wheel. But still the suckers were getting caught on the orifice and then two different rings. So each large pom pom forced me to stop treadling to push it through. Definitely a labour-intensive project. 

Right now these yarns will be used for demonstration purposes but I can see them being used up in some lively project in the future.