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Glorious color adds endless design opportunities for the handspinner.
Spin Off Editorial Staff3 min read
Welcome to the final gallery of cowls from this year’s spinalong. Last December, we asked spinners to join us and make a handspun cowl. Supportive spinalong members cheered each other on as they each crafted the cowl of their choice from their handspun yarn. Many cowls became gifts and a warm hug to faraway loved ones. One of the joys of spinning your own yarn is playing with color. From subtle blends to vibrant rainbows, color delights and offers endless design opportunities. Enjoy part three of our three-part gallery series. —Editor
Photo courtesy of Sharon Barnes
“The cowl-along was a great excuse to go through my stash of braids from a Hilltop Cloud fiber club. I chose a blue-green Merino/Bluefaced Leicester/Swaledale blend and paired it with a creamy Merino/Polwarth/tussah silk braid that subtly echoes those colors. I spun both as semi-woolen, two-ply yarns. I selected the Versa Cowl pattern by Aimee Pelletier because its textured and striped sections would showcase those yarns. The pattern was forgiving of a slight difference in grist between the yarns, and my only modification was to use the traveling jogless stripe technique, which worked beautifully. The finished cowl is really cushy and has several styling options. The easy stitch patterns made it an interesting, but quick, knit for a high satisfaction-to-effort ratio project.”
Photo courtesy of Melissa Weaver Dunning
“I started with a braid of Merino/silk from Inglenook Fibers in a color way called Renewal, spun my singles on a suspended spindle, and then chain plied on the same spindle. I spit spliced the yarn to keep the symmetrical color progression and knitted the Taproot Cowl by Beatrice Perron Dahlen. This project inspired me to start spinning again after a year with no spinning mojo!”
Photo courtesy of Päivi Eerola
“My idea was to make a winter fairytale with white horses and snowy scenery. The dark wool is a hand-dyed camel/silk/alpaca/Merino blend from Hedgehog Fibres, and the white wool is a Finnsheep/Angora blend from a small American Finnsheep farm. I used Elsebeth Lavoldʼs pattern Niella as a base, but I designed horse motifs, made different brimmings, shortened the hood, and adjusted the stitch count to go with my thinner yarn.”
Photo courtesy of Gina Geaudry
“The rainbow cowl was unknown wool that I dyed with Kool-Aid, carded, spun, and then chain plied on my Lendrum. Once I had the yarn made, I found a pattern that would work with it, the Dragon Wing Cowl by Jessie Rayot.”
Photo courtesy of Maureen McGuire
“My cowl was spun from SweetGeorgia Yarns’ superwash Blue Faced Leicester in the colorway Tea Party on my Schacht Matchless. The singles were Z-spun, using short forward draft, and plied S, using the 9:1 pulley. It is a two-ply yarn that measured about 310 yards from 110 grams of fiber. The pattern is Ikigai Cowl by Breean Elyse Miller. I cast on 148 sts with a size 7 needle and then switched to a size 3 needle to knit the cowl. I knit until I ran out of yarn. After washing and drying, it measured 11-1/2 inches, folded in half, by 13-3/4 inches tall.”
Photo courtesy of Kathlyn Smith
“The spin-aong has been a lovely, inspiring event, a great community, and has really kickstarted my spinning with the electric wheel! Iʼm hooked and have a second project well on the way, and even more fluff lined up for after that!”
Photo courtesy of Dee Suhr
“The Rainbow Fish Infinity Scarf [by Stefanie Johnson, Spin Off Fall 2019] was a joy to knit. I spun naturally colored Corriedale into a two-ply yarn. The multicolored yarn was the most fun. I had a 6-ounce grab bag with a variety of colors and a wide variety of fibers. I pulled the bits into even smaller pieces and grabbed and spun them at random. I chain plied the singles to get a chunky-weight yarn.”
Photo courtesy of Mary Waechter
“This was the first time that I had the pattern first and spun the yarn to meet the needed size. I am pleased that it came out as well as it did!”
Make sure to check out the first two galleries, Multicraft Cowls and Textured Cowls.
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