I just spent an incredible weekend in a workshop with Patsy Zawistoski. She was a guest of the Clothos Guild and presented a 2 day intensive class about using color dyed and painted roving to their best advantage. In the course of the 2 days, we made nine different type of yarn, using only one colorway. Naturally, they all blend beautifully, but each has it own special character. To see these done by such a wonderful spinner and teacher was very exciting for me. We made the following yarns: a random candy stripe (very basic), a solid Navaho ply, a tri color, a spiral slub, a neutral, a cable, a 2 color transition 2 ply, a faux cable tweed, and a faux boucle. Then using fibers other than our Targhee wool, we did a boucle with mohair, a slub with soy and wool, and a stretched Merino cable. We have wonderful sample cards with our control and finished product and of course, class notes. I wished I could have taped the entire process. If there had been two of me, I could have made short movies of each technique. She made it all look so easy! I'll try to work up a bit of a photo mosaic of what we did to post later this week.
I had borrowed a wheel for the occasion, and don't know how I could have possibly done without it. Sunday morning before I left for class, I checked eBay and saw an Ashford Traditional Wheel offered. When I got home, I made 2 bids and surprisingly won the auction. I don't know if the other bids were just friends and neighbors trying to get bids or what, but I paid just over the reserve and got it for a very nice price. Until it gets here, I am going to practice all the techniques again as soon as possible, so I don't forget how.
