Spinning Self-Striping Yarns

While I was at Blacksheep this year, I watched a demo by Diane Cutler. She drumcarded for self-striping yarns. And I thought I could applied it to some of my batts. So finally I've got around to experiment and it turned out great.


I chose Grasshopper, Happy Valley, and Jewel batts from Fiber Monster Etsy shop. To prepare fiber, I split each batt in half widthwise, roll them widthwise into a small puni, set aside half of each batt for bobbin#1 and #2 respectively. The plan is to spin two-ply yarn. Here's the fun part. Begin at one end of the puni (and you have to keep track of color), draft the fiber to your desired width you want to spin. Try to pull each section of one color so that you get as much of its color without pulling the next color. There will be the blend section where the two color meets. And I like it this way because it creates a nice transitions. Once you are done with drafting, start spinning on to a separate bobbin. Remember to keep the colors in order.


The finished yarn has a long color band. I plan to knit a vest :)

And Lucky want to say he is very happy with my experiment too. Have fun spinning!