Skill Guide: Blending Colors at the Wheel

Get Started: The Basics

There are so many ways to blend color. We often think of this as a preparatory step that’s achieved during fiber preparation, whether it’s with dyeing, combing, carding, or mixing on a blending board. These are all great ways to blend, but there’s a simpler way that’s a lot of fun and has stunning results—blending colors at the wheel, as you draft. When you hold multiple colors or fibers together as you draft your fiber, you create a unique yarn. The colors swirl around each other in a single ply. If you ply this single back on itself, the colors mix even more. Often called marled or barberpoled, these yarns can be striking or subtle, depending on the color and value contrast of the fibers you blend.

As a spinner, you’re bound to wind up with little bits of unspun fiber. Maybe you edited out a particular color from a hand-dyed braid or brought home a bag of minis from a festival. These bits and pieces are great for this technique, but you can use any fiber you like. As you’ll see, any fiber—from coarse wool to fine silk—can be blended at the wheel. You can use this technique with color, too, toning down a rambunctious braid, or livening up a colorway until it makes your heart sing.

Enjoy this collection of three different approaches to blending at the wheel. Try them all and discover your favorite!

Cheers!

—Spin Off editors

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Using Up Odds and Ends with Jacqueline Harp

Adapted from an article by Jacqueline Harp

Can solid tops be used to create variegated color effects without blending tools or a dyepot? Yes! In fact, even those “too-good-to-toss” odds and ends of solid-colored top lurking in the back of your stash can be spun into eye-catching yarns with swirling stripes and bright pops of color. All you have to do is select your colors, split the fibers, spin, and repeat.

Jacqueline likes to make small nests of fiber for ease of handling.

While this toolless fiber preparation method can be used to combine