New dyeing experiments

Last week I've been dyeing again. Man, how I love messing around with dyes and colors...it feels like I'm back in preschool, legally creating a big colorful mass! Only this time I took it a step further. Instead of just pouring some nice colors over my fibers, I wanted to follow a plan. Don't get me wrong, spontaneity can be a very good thing when creating stuff (and you can always say: "that turned out just like I wanted to!", even if it didn't...because who knows? :P), but being able to actually work towards a result I imagined beforehand can be very usable sometimes.

I had been thinking about practicing my 'color skills', when I was going through the pictures of my weeks in the Dolomites. If you've ever been there, you might have seen the 'Enrosadira': the stunning sunset that sets the sky - just above the mountainous horizon - on fire in the most beautiful shades of reds and purples. I always take pictures of this phenomenon when I get the chance, so I have quite a lot of them (though they can in no way replace the real thing, you just gotta see it with your own eyes...). But the Dolomite mountains have more to offer! When the sky is clear and cloud free, it can be worth the effort to get up early, so you can observe the sunrise. The mountains slowly become visible, first in icy dark blue colors, while the sky above them turns soft pink until the sun peaks over them. Different colors, but just as stunning as the 'Enrosadira', this so-called 'Alpenglow'.

Suddenly an idea formed in my head: I should try to make two colorways out of these appearances! I opened Photoshop and got busy, ending up with two color schemes full of very challenging colors. I don't think I've got any of them ready to use in a pot, all the shades had to be prepared by mixing several dyes together. I wanted practice? Practice I got ;)

Alpenglow

Enrosadira

I imagined these colorways to work quite well for sock yarn (I can totally see a cozy pair of knitted up socks in these shades!), so I ordered two 100g undyed hanks and set up my dying materials in the garage a couple of days later (annoying my mom who constantly has to step over dye pots...sorry mom!). I started with 'Alpenglow', which turned out to be the easiest colorway. I'm pretty proud of the result!

Nice huh? I really love the different shades of blue! Although I mostly used acid dyes (Jacquard), I also added a touch of blueberry Koolaid, which came out surprisingly vibrant (and smelled lovely among the strong vinegar smell, heheh..).
Next up was 'Enrosadira', which gave me a bit more troubles. In 'Alpenglow', I didn't use any yellows, but in 'Enrosadira' I obviously did. I mean, the band of sky just above the mountains is deep, golden yellow in its purest form! The problem I didn't foresee (but should have, because it's quite logical), is that when you use blue and yellow next to each other, greens will appear. And thát's a color that doesn't appear in the Enrosadira-sky...
Unfortunately, I couldn't prevent some bits of green, unless some over dyeing. Lesson learned: next time be more careful about what colors to use next to each other.

Still, I'm also pretty happy with how the 'Enrosadira' sock yarn turned out. It's darker and deeper compared to 'Alpenglow', just like the actual skies. And I learned a couple of new things about mixing dyes! It's not as hard as I thought, I really expected a lot more 'muddy-ness': that ugly brown color that appears when the colors just flow over in each other, instead of forming nice gradients. I have to stay aware though of the fact that different fibers take up the dyes differently. For my last dyeing experiments I used alpaca, which definitely gives other results!

Both of the yarns went into my shop, because I already have way too much yarn anyway and simply can't knit up anything. (Besides, when it comes to socks, I'm the slowest knitter ever...).
If you're interested, check out 'Alpenglow' here, and 'Enrosadira' here!

So...already having made a mess in the garage (and annoying my mom) anyway, I thought: why not proceed with some roving? A little while ago I ordered a big bag of superwash roving from WorldofWool.com, which was just laying in a corner, pitiful and without any color, screaming to be taken out and join in the coloring fest. Who'd be able to resist? When I made the 'Alpenglow' and 'Enrosadira' colorways, I quickly found out how addicting it is to make these schemes. (Did you know there are also apps for your phone that can do this?! Check out RealColors, ColorView and ColorSchemer for example!). So I made some more, only this time instead of photographs, I decided to use artwork.

Growing older, I'm starting to appreciate artwork more and more. I can spend hours discovering artists, new ones ánd old ones, and marvel over their works. It's one of the great advantages of our digital age, having an endless art museum in my laptop! Sometimes I even feel a kind of hunger for art, like my creative soul is craving food in the form of illustrations and paintings and pretty handmade things. Not necessarily to buy, but just to look at and be inspired by. That probably sounds quite weird, but still I wonder if anyone else recognizes this hunger? It's simply a longing for beauty, that can be such a sweet and soothing thing in this (sometimes so harsh) world.

Okay, before I get too philosophical, I'll tell you what I did. I went to my Pinterest account (one of my favorite places to still the hunger) and picked out a couple of nice artworks, from different artists and in different styles. I made color schemes of the illustrations, just like I did with my photos, and used two of them to dye some roving. Besides having to study the illustrations and their colors more intensely than I would otherwise (which is good practice and feels like a good meal, when it comes to the hunger), I can also show yóu guys some works of my favorite artists and just simply spread the inspiration! My plan is to do this more often, not only with roving or yarn...I'd love to make some rolags and combed blends and maybe (mini) batts as well! And who knows...perhaps also a fiber mix, pre-dyed, ready for you to use for your next project?

For the first roving, I picked an illustration by Victo Ngai called 'Leap'. I was drawn to it in the first place because of the fox (foxes are just plain awesome, like everyone knows), but studying it longer I became impressed by the color use, the smooth curvy lines and the specific structure of the trees.
Victo has a very distinct style, I can totally imagine why she was honored with several medals and awards. Yes, 'she'. Victo sounds like a boy's name, but it's actually a nickname derived from 'Victoria'.  You can check her out at victongai.tumblr.com. Here are some more works by the talented miss Ngai:

The second roving was inspired by an illustration called 'Bike Rider', made by BukuBuku. That's a silly name huh? I tried to find out where it came from, but ended up only with the girl's real name: Silvia. Anyway, she's another talented illustrator who makes very cute and kawaii-y drawings. A completely different style, but one that makes me happy! (And: a fox, again!) If you're up for more, take a look at hellobuku.blogspot.com.

For 'Leap', I could partly use the same colors as I used for 'Alpenglow'. 'Bike Rider' demanded for something else though: yellows, reds, blacks and a bit of soft pink. I think the roving turned out just as happy and cheerful as the drawing itself!

Just like the sock yarns, I put these rovings in my shop. They're both superwash (no felting!) and around 4 ounce. Who's gonna spin up these lovelies into something pretty?!
Click here for 'Leap', and here for 'Bike Rider'.

If there are any artists or artworks you'd like to see processed into colorschemes, rovings or other fibers, please leave a comment! I'm open for suggestions, and always happy to find out about new illustrators and painters.

Oh, before I take off, one last warning: wear a mask when preparing your dyes. I normally do, but thought I could just pour over a teeny tiny bit of powder from one pot into another - I should've known better. I had a little accident (don't ask), and fuchsia colored powder was flowing around. Even though I quickly covered my face and ran away, when I wiped my nose at night, my snot was bright pink (sorry for grossing you out here, let it be a warning :P ).

To cozy crafternoons

This post will - in contrast to my usual posts :P - contain mainly pics and only little text. I want the pictures to speak for themselves, I hope I succeeded in capturing the pleasant atmosphere of the cozy afternoon I had with my best friend Eeffie last week.

I really enjoy those crafty meetings we regularly have, sharing our passion for fibers, dolls and a lot of other random stuff. I meant this post to be a little homage to 'crafternoons' (or mornings, evenings…nights?!) with likeminded people, celebrating creativity while inspiring and helping one another.

Our goal for this afternoon was to dye some fibers. After following an awesome workshop on wool dyeing some time ago, it was time to try it out by ourselves. We ordered acid dyes and un-dyed roving, bought vinegar, rubber gloves and sealable bags and started saving plastic bottles a couple of weeks earlier (preparations, preparations!).

Because we also celebrated Eeffie's birthday already (she would turn 36 some days later, which is still a very young age - really, it is!), I bought her some extra un-dyed fibers she could use for more dyeing practice. Eeffie's youngest cat Pebbles found all those different kinds of fiber very interesting!

Another great advantage of sharing a creative hobby is the ability to share tools and supplies. We divided all the bottles of acid dyes we ordered in two - still both having more than enough for what we aimed to do with it, while simultaneously saving money, yay!

Dyeing roving is such an exciting thing to do! It's like a blank piece of paper, ready to be painted on. We experimented a bit with mixing colors and leaving in blank spaces. I managed to kick over my bottle of fiery red(!) acid dye, I can be so clumsy…haha! Even though we made a great mess, luckily no permanent damage was done.

Okay, so the grown-ups are making a big mess with dyes, while the kids are obediently sitting on the couch, busy with the i-pad. There might be some role-inversion here…just saying!

Above is the roving cooling down after being heated for about 30-45 minutes. Pretty colors are already showing here! We almost couldn't wait to rinse them, to see if the colors had really set and wouldn't 'bleed' anymore...

…which it didn't! Check out Eeffie's beautiful shades of green! I think this can only be spun up into grass :)

No cozy afternoons without coffee and cookies. And a little piece of cake, for Eeffie's birthday!

Beside my roving, I also dyed some fibers that will be used/sold for Blythe reroots. It was my first 'professional' try at this, and I'm beyond happy with the results.

I also got to try out Eeffie's blending board, making my very first two rolags ever. It's amazing how you can make such an interesting blend out of otherwise dull, plain fibers. I'm very curious to see how this will spin up, with the fibers aligned in a different direction then usual (horizontally instead of vertically).

With 5 cats living in Eeffie's house, we had a constant company of those curious creatures. Here you can see the oldest (left, Casper) and the youngest (right, Pebbles).

Thank you Eef, for this cozy 'crafternoon' and all the others we had. May there be lots more to come!

Do you have regular crafternoons? With whom, and what do you do on these creative meetings? Let me know in the comments, to continue this celebration of crafting together!

It's dyeing day!

Last weekend it was time for another Wool Wench workshop! A little less then a year ago I visited Suzy's 'Find your inner yarn hero' day, which was pretty awesome and useful. This September she organized a new creative meet-up with some fellow fiber lovers, to focus on dyeing techniques this time. I did some experimenting with dyeing fibers myself before (mostly using Kool-Aid), but never worked with chemical dyes so far. I always drool over all kinds of pretty fibers, rovings and yarns in the yummiest color combinations you can imagine. Being able to actually create those mysélf would be a creative dream come true!

By the way...I've been thinking about how crazy it sounds when you say 'I'm going to a dyeing workshop today'. C'mon, say it out loud. Get it? There might be plenty of odd sayings that only make sense to fiber lovers, but this must surely be the most macabre one. No worries though, we had a wonderful and 'lively' day together!

Suzy's collection of dyes, ready to be used by us.

Arriving at Suzy's home I was greeted by her 5 year old son, who immediately started showing me his complete collection of superhero lego figures. I was a complete noob when it comes to superheroes, but I'm totally updated now. Chima-characters, Iron man, every possible villain...you name it, I met them all! Actually this little fella entrusted me with the fact that he is turning into the Hulk himself. He already spotted some green patches on the skin of his hands... Good luck with that Suzy!

Soon my bestie Eef and the two other participants arrived as well, and after providing everyone of big cups of coffee, we took place at the kitchen table and Suzy started explaining some stuff about mixing colors, color wheels and color schemes. We all got a big empty piece of paper ahead of us, ready to be practiced on. Everyone took a pencil and started working...we were all super concentrated, it's funny how all color wheels turned out so differently from each other even though we got the same assignment! We could also already experiment a bit with the colors we might want to use later on the roving. This 'try out' beforehand can be quite useful to get a good idea of how specific colors mix up, blend and work together.

The 'easy peasy' dyeing method in sealable plastic bags.

After working on our paper 'inspiration boards' for a little while, it was time to start with the actual dyeing. Suzy had 100 grams of superwash merino roving ready for each one of us, and showed us the easiest way to dye such a piece of fiber: a quick and not-so-messy method using a sealable plastic bag, in which you gently pour your dye. Still a bit scared most of us used some 'safe' color combinations, carefully trying to do exactly as Suzy was telling us. The plastic bags were sealed and put in a pot with hot (but not boiling) water, for the color to set in.

Meanwhile Suzy proceeded to teach us more hand dyeing techniques, in which we also gained a bit more control over the actual process. Slowly we became braver, using more contrasting colors and going a bit more crazy every time. This is actually the fun part of dyeing: going wild, experimenting and trying out new things. You'll almost never really know how it'll turn out! It depends on the dye, the fiber, the heat, the amount of water and vinegar and probably even more things I don't know about (when you think about it, dyeing fibers is totally about chemistry! Chemical reactions happening all over the place...) When dyeing roving, it will be a surprise how it will look when it comes out pot, and then it will be a surprise agáin what it will look like when spun up!

In the pot...keeping it hot!

Most of the participants also took some undyed (homespun) yarn with them. Dyeing finished yarn is in one way pretty much the same as dyeing roving...but on the other hand, the final look is completely different. It just depends on what you're going for! I really liked this part of the day, because I love the look of hand dyed yarns a lot, especially the beautiful gradients they often show. For one of my yarns I really had a 'plan', I even pre-made the color scheme I wanted to use on my inspiration paper. The scheme was based on the beach: sandy colors combined with the different tones of the ocean. Suzy happened to have the perfect colors for this idea and the final result came out just as I hoped. For the other two yarns I just tried things out (although I actually hoped to make a yarn with lots of blank spots in it, I love those! It was way harder than I thought to back down on the dyeing :P). For my 2-ply merino I picked colors I normally wouldn't choose, and this specific yarn was quite a favorite among the final results! Never stick to your safe habits ;)

A basket of rainbows!

Somewhere halfway the day Suzy served us a nice lunch with delightful quiches, while her little 'Hulk' kept on showing us his very best superhero moves, kicks and jumps and told a silly story about a guy who's bum cracked up and who had to pick a new one (huh?!). Plenty of extra amusement for sure!
When the yarns and rovings stayed in the pot long enough, the most fun part of the day began: getting them out of the pot (hot hot hot!), rinse, wash and dry them, and...hang them al together on the drying rack. This rack slowly became a rainbow of colors in Suzy's kitchen, while we were all standing around it, awing like we were looking at a holy grail. One 'ooooh' followed the other 'aaaah', when another finished yarn or roving was added to the rack. Wow!

The drying rack, filled with our results of the day.

I surely learnt a lot about dyeing this day, although I also realize we only focused on one way of coloring yarn and roving, which Suzy simply called 'hand dyeing'. Other methods are for example dip dyeing, kettle dyeing, tie dyeing, etc. There are so many more possibilities to explore! But, today's method is a good basis, it gives the dyer a lot of control over the final results and is not too difficult to execute. Eef and I already made plans on buying ourselves some chemical dyes and organizing some experimental afternoons. I can't wait to try out more color combinations! I had fun naming the yarns I dyed during the workshop, heheh! Glacier Tales, Strawberry Lemonade and A Day at the Beach...you think they're suitable?! I decided to put them in my shop (I'm not able to knit/crochet évery yarn I make...even though I wish I could!). Go take a look if you're interested!

My own results! The 3 yarns on the left are available at my Etsy shop :)

Thank you Suzy for this nice day and for sharing your knowledge with us. I am inspired by al the pretty yarns that are hanging around in your house...it's like walking in a fiber enthusiastic's museum :) Keep up the good work!

Handspun for me!

Lately I realized I never really made something for mé with a yarn I spun myself. Most times I put them in my Etsy shop, while scraps and leftovers are used for dolly hats and beanies. So...wasn't it time to try out some of my handspun for myself? Actually, putting it that way...using my own yarn might even give me some useful information on how I can improve their usability!

Being a real lover of scarves and cowls, the decision for a neckwear piece was quickly made. A little while ago I already made a little girl's cowl with super bulky thick-and-thin thread, so this time I wanted to go for a thinner yarn to work with. It would again be a knitting project though, just so I'd get more practice (my crochet skills are way better!). I am really fond of the look of single yarns for projects like these, but I knew that wasn't the easiest way to go. Every spinner knows that it's not easy to get a single, non-plied yarn balanced (for non-spinners: this means that the yarn doesn't twist around itself anymore). And working with an unbalanced yarn means trouble! Your final work will crook and twist, it's impossible to make it equal and straight if your thread is not balanced. But, again...creating a balanced single yarn is quite a challenge!

To make a long story short: this project was an excellent chance for me to get more experienced with single yarns and setting their twist. I learnt new techniques like using steam and even smacking! (Imagine a girl smacking a hank of yarn against the floor like crazy and now try to convince yourself she's not a lunatic...even my cats looked quite astonished :P). Since my plan was to make a loose cowl that could also be worn during the colder summer days, I wanted to go with a bright color. I ended up with Bonfiber's "Pretty in Peach", it actually was exactly what I was looking for! I ordered 6.5 oz and used all of that for this project. 

I also ordered new circular needles, since I grew sick of my old cheap ones and also needed a longer string. I picked the KnitPro Nova needles (4.50mm), and did not regret my choice. In fact, I even already ordered more of this series...they knit so smoothly! Finally, I also used some blank, undyed merino roving, I think about 0.5 oz. So...for anyone who feels inspired by this project and would like to make something similar, here's a little necessities list:

- 6.5 oz (superwash) merino roving in any color you'd like
- 0.5 oz (superwash) merino roving, undyed
- circular knitting needles, about 4.50mm (depending on your preferences), at least 80 cm string
- spinning wheel (duh!)

I spun quite an even single, though I did intentionally put in some thinner and thicker parts to get a nice structure in my final project. I set the twist using different methods. I'm not gonna describe them extensively here now, I still have way too much to learn on this area! Maybe one day I'll feel experienced enough to write a blogpost about balancing yarns...in, like, a hundred years or so :P Anyway, there are plenty of good advices, video's and tutorials on the Internet, so just google ahead!

I wound my newspun yarn in two balls: a big peachy ball and a small blank ball. I casted on the amount of stitches I thought I would need for a loose cowl, and knitted one row with the undyed yarn. Then I switched to the peachy yarn and knitted 10 rows. After every 10 rows, I'd do a blank row again, until my cowl was big enough and my yarn was all used up. Simple as that! Of course you don't have to do a blank row after every 10 colored rows...it's whatever you prefer, I just thought it would make a nice variation!

Since this project was so super easy (only knits, round after round after round), I think every amateur knitter can make it. Even if you don't spin your own yarn, you can order a similar thread (go support all the indie spinners on Etsy and buy one of their special handspun yarns to show off in your project!) and work on this cowl while watching tv, sitting in the car, or on the train...it needs no counting or extreme attention, it'll just give your hands something to do!

After finishing my cowl, I noticed it had become a bit fuzzed. This was probably the result of often bringing the work-in-progress with me in my bag and having it in my hands over and over again. To solve this, I asked my mom to bring her fabric shaver over. It was the first time I used this thing, and I was actually pretty careful at the beginning, not sure if I would harm the yarn. But, it worked like a charm! Those fabric shavers are also known as lint/fuzz/pill removers. I'm afraid my mom won't get hers back soon, I've used it a lot after discovering it's usefulness!

My cowl ended up loose enough to be worn during Spring or cold Summer days. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I think it makes a colorful and comfy accessory, and having made it myself gives it an extra special feeling. Feel inspired? Go ahead and use this post as a guideline for your own next knitting project, if you like! I'd love it if you'd let me know...any thoughts, comments and advices are welcome!

Amigurumi Tree

I crocheted a tree! Thought it might make a nice little decorative item for in my room. I used earthy tones, nothing flashy. Maybe in Autumn, I can replace the green leaves by orange, yellow and red ones :)

The original pattern is by Ana Paula Rimoli, it can be found in her book Aumigurumi Toy Box.

Her Etsy-shop can be found here.

Stay tuned, cause my first tutorial is in progress! I hope to post it tomorrow, or at least at the beginning of next week. 

On the spindle...

As I mentioned in my earlier message about spinning: I'm in love! Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a beautiful, colorful yarn being created, by such a simple and natural power as twist.

In the last two weeks I finished three new skeins. The first one is this rainbow-coloured 2-ply merino yarn (about 18-24 WPI)... I called it 'Hot Air Balloons', 'cause that's what it reminded me of!

I really love how the many colors in this one plied together into al kinds of different combinations. 

For the second skein, I went a bit crazy. I created coils! Now tell me, can I call this my first (kind-of) art-yarn?! I called it 'Pastel Mermaids'... For anyone who's interested, both the roving for this yarn as well as for the 'Hot Air Balloons' were bought at Meervilt.

Making coils is pretty easy, I first spun a thick-and-thin thread of the pastel-colored merino, and then I plied it with a thin silk sewing thread. By keeping the sewing thread straight and slowly feeding the merino single thread, the merino coils itself around the sewing thread. When you shove this up, the sewing thread disappears completely inside the merino single. Hmmm...this sounds pretty confusing, probably. There are good tutorials on youtube with way better explanations than mine ;)

One big disadvantage of the coils is that they (logically) make your yarn shrink incredibly in length. This yarn turned out to be only 15 meters, while the 'Hot Air Balloons' (made of exactly the same amount of roving) was 100 meters! But, on the other hand...I think coiled yarn is often used for special finishing touches, like borders and such, and not to knit/crochet a complete project. So it's okay, I guess!

I crocheted a little hat for my Secretdoll Person with some leftover of the (unplied) thick-and-thin spun merino.

Okay, now to the third skein... Again made of merino fibers. I recently bought these 5 rovings at the Dutch webshop Bodyflower (not my picture):

I used the roving on the left (purple-pink) to make my third skein: a single thick-and-thin yarn. 

Now I'm not super happy with how this one turned out... I love the colors (and the fact that this roving was dyed in the length, which gives a candy cane-like effect), but somehow it looks so fuzzy! Anyone an idea of the reason for this? Maybe it's because it's a single yarn (plying makes it look more equal and less fuzzy)? I had some troubles with setting the twist in the thinner parts of the yarn, it holds way more of the twist than the thicker regions. 

Oh well, I think I'll just keep this one for myself. It's a learning process, after all this is only my fourth official handspun yarn ever! But if someone has some helpful advice, please leave a comment! I would greatly appreciate it :)

Okido, now one last picture, of what is currently on my spindle.

I'm using the purple roving of the Bodyflower collection for this one, and I'm spinning a silver thread directly with it (so no plying!). I'm very excited about how this is turning out! I hope the silver thread will make the yarn less fuzzy (holding it a bit more together). At this very moment I'm done spinning and setting the twist. It's not much (each Bodyflower roving was only 50 grams), so I'm probably keeping this one myself too. Maybe I can crochet a cute Blythe beret of it?!

Spinning!

Last Christmas I learnt myself how to spin, using a drop spindle. It's something I've been wanting to try for a long time, so at the end of december I finally took the challenge and ordered a drop spindle, with some wool roving to practice. 

I must say...I really enjoyed spinning my own yarn for the first time! Feeling the fibers flow through your fingers and seeing a beautiful thread slowly growing on your spindle has something calming. It's easy to do something else in the meantime, like making small talk, watching a movie or listening to an audiobook. 

Another aspect that excites me about it, is the surprise of what the final yarn will look like. You never know beforehand, and you have endless possibilities! You can ply, spin thick-and-thin, use different kinds of fibers, etc. I'm sure I haven't discovered even half of what's possible!

So...here's a little photo story of the making of my first 'official' (non-practice) yarn. 

It al started with the choosing of a roving. One fine place to start for that is Etsy, my favorite virtual shopping mall. There's so much choice! All varieties are available, in both fibers, colors and price. It actually feels like visiting the candy store. Be warned, your hands will get grabby!

My final choice was the soft wool top roving in the next pic, from jstforewe (www.jstforewe.etsy.com). I simply fell in love with this adorable hand dyed 'Koi Pond' roving, plus it wasn't too expensive. Another plus was that I already had a little experience with wool fibers and their behavior during spinning.

The roving arrived pretty quickly! It was well packaged, smelled lovely and had a little handwritten note attached to it. Thank you Jennifer, for such excellent service!

First thing I did (after just admiring my pretty roving for a little while, heheh!) was predraft the wool. This means you pull the fibers softly between your fingers, to acquire some looseness and lengthening. Because I was aiming for a two-ply yarn, I made two balls of predrafted roving (the pic shows just one).

Now the spinning begins! I use a top whorl spindle, simply because most instruction video's on youtube were made with this kind of drop spindle. I'm still a newbie, so let's not make things too difficult at once!

After spinning for quite a while, this is what my drop spindle looked like. Yummy yarn winded up on it!

Spinning takes quite some time, I think it took me about three evenings to finish spinning the two balls of predrafted roving (both from about 150 meters).  I winded the single yarn up to two balls. There's a lot of twist in it, so if you don't wind it up it will curl up on itself and become a big knotted mess. Also, it's easier to ply from a ball! I saw a tutorial somewhere that described how to make one ball out of two single yarns, to ply from. I haven't read it yet though, so I simply went for two balls.

Plying time! Plying is fun, it goes pretty fast (you don't have to draft anymore, just let your spindle spin and feed the two single yarns to it). It's exciting to see the resulting yarn growing slowly, and to watch how the colors of the two single yarns combine together.

After I finished plying, I wound the final yarn off my spindle directly around the back of one of our kitchen chairs. Excuses for the bad picture, it was dark already, but I really didn't feel like waiting 'till the next morning to proceed!

I wound about 5 little threads around the yarn. This will prevent the yarn from curling up and knot when it's taken off the chair. 

Tadaah! Looks like my plied yarn is already pretty balanced. This means it doesn't curl up easily on itself... Still, I decided to set the twist, just to be sure and finish it decently.

To set the twist, I filled our sink with warm-hot water, and carefully put the yarn in it, gently dipping al of it under water. I left it for about 15 minutes, then I took it out (again carefully, I don't want my yarn to felt!) and gently wrenched out excess water. After that I hanged it, and left it to dry! I don't know the exact science behind al this, but somehow the hot water and the hanging/drying makes the yarn balance out. When it's al dried up, it won't curl up on itself anymore...yay!

Now this is the final yarn:

A nice skein of 145 m of DK soft wool yarn, 2-ply. Isn't it lovely?

I decided to call it 'Azure Home', 'cause it reminds me of the little multicolor houses you can find on the Azure coast. 

If you're interested in it, I decided to put it in my Etsy shop (I can't keep al my babies, I already have more yarn then I will ever be able to use!), for a nice price of course, 'cause I still feel like newbie.

You can find it here!

This is how I made my first official yarn. It might not be the best or most scientific method, it's just how I figured it out by reading tutorials and watching video's. I'm still discovering a lot about it! If you have any tips or advice, please let me know by leaving a comment. I would greatly appreciate it!