A Little Legacy Handspun Yarn Porn
Yes, bit by bit I will be getting pictures up here, though at present I've no plans to eliminate my longstanding photo gallery. Due to diminishing net reliability for me of late, though, I want to move some of the higher traffic stuff elsewhere bit by bit, and this blog is a step in that direction.
For those not familiar with my use of "legacy" in this context, well... if you work in the computer world, eventually you run across something that someone refers to as a legacy system. What this actually means, in plain terms, is "old, and we're not really doing anything about making it newer, and maybe it's not really supported, upgrades aren't exactly planned, but yeah, we still use that... it's a legacy system!" Or maybe it's more like "Yeah... so we have this pile of old documents, we wrote 'em on a computer you can't find anymore using software that won't run on a new computer, and it's all in formats that we don't really use anymore, so um... legacy data." In other words, what I'm getting at here is that these are old pictures I've had lying around.
Without further ado, let me introduce this selection of yarn photos! At left we have a novelty yarn that I like in spite of myself, and am liable to actually produce again and do something with. The darker brown is adult camel top, and the pale tan colour is natural tussah silk. I spun this some time ago, picking up a bit of one fiber and spinning it, and then switching to the other. When I had two bobbins reasonably full enough, I plied them together, resulting in the skein at left. What you see on the right is one partial bobbin.
Next up, a 2-ply alpaca yarn spun from commercial top. It's a knitting yarn. I have dithered for some time now as to whether or not I should overdye this, or do something with it in the existing deep gray colour. There's about a sweater's worth. Of course, I'm already well stocked with alpaca sweaters, and I'm really not much of a sweater knitter... so there the yarn sits, in my stash. Mothballed, literally!
Ah yes, this fella. I named it "Zoot Suit" apparently, but I can't quite recall why. In person and up close, it does have a nifty sheen to it, and a vaguely sharkskin kind of look, so perhaps that's why. I think it was a commercial top -- there's a fine wool, merino most likely, and some nicer mohair, leading me to suspect it must have been that Ashland Bay blend. Honestly, I can't be sure. It's a huge skein, probably around a thousand yards, about 8 ounces. It is destined, perhaps, for a small sweater of some kind. Or socks. It would be a good sock yarn, but there's a lot of it.
Oh, now this guy I really liked a lot. I designed this yarn specifically for Sandy, using silver alpaca from one of her much-doted-on herd. She was kind enough to give me bags and bags of alpaca, and let me borrow her drum carder when I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to buy my own, and I felt like she deserved something really nifty made from her own beloved animals... but something she could use herself, to make what she wanted. Although I will admit I suggested a hat. So here we have it: a 3-ply yarn, 70% alpaca and 30% natural coloured tussah silk, a good 5 ounces if memory serves. Soft, shiny, strong, warm.
And last up for this entry, we have a 2-ply alpaca/coopworth blend that I spun up from a roving I bought on eBay, from Jehovah Jireh Farm, where they do some great colour work. Even though I loathe pink, and this has pink in it, I have to admit that I like it. It's a bit scratchy, so it's a likely sweater. You know, because I knit so many sweaters! Okay, so it's a stash queen. Like a garage queen, except... in my stash.
For those not familiar with my use of "legacy" in this context, well... if you work in the computer world, eventually you run across something that someone refers to as a legacy system. What this actually means, in plain terms, is "old, and we're not really doing anything about making it newer, and maybe it's not really supported, upgrades aren't exactly planned, but yeah, we still use that... it's a legacy system!" Or maybe it's more like "Yeah... so we have this pile of old documents, we wrote 'em on a computer you can't find anymore using software that won't run on a new computer, and it's all in formats that we don't really use anymore, so um... legacy data." In other words, what I'm getting at here is that these are old pictures I've had lying around.
Without further ado, let me introduce this selection of yarn photos! At left we have a novelty yarn that I like in spite of myself, and am liable to actually produce again and do something with. The darker brown is adult camel top, and the pale tan colour is natural tussah silk. I spun this some time ago, picking up a bit of one fiber and spinning it, and then switching to the other. When I had two bobbins reasonably full enough, I plied them together, resulting in the skein at left. What you see on the right is one partial bobbin.
Next up, a 2-ply alpaca yarn spun from commercial top. It's a knitting yarn. I have dithered for some time now as to whether or not I should overdye this, or do something with it in the existing deep gray colour. There's about a sweater's worth. Of course, I'm already well stocked with alpaca sweaters, and I'm really not much of a sweater knitter... so there the yarn sits, in my stash. Mothballed, literally!
Ah yes, this fella. I named it "Zoot Suit" apparently, but I can't quite recall why. In person and up close, it does have a nifty sheen to it, and a vaguely sharkskin kind of look, so perhaps that's why. I think it was a commercial top -- there's a fine wool, merino most likely, and some nicer mohair, leading me to suspect it must have been that Ashland Bay blend. Honestly, I can't be sure. It's a huge skein, probably around a thousand yards, about 8 ounces. It is destined, perhaps, for a small sweater of some kind. Or socks. It would be a good sock yarn, but there's a lot of it.
Oh, now this guy I really liked a lot. I designed this yarn specifically for Sandy, using silver alpaca from one of her much-doted-on herd. She was kind enough to give me bags and bags of alpaca, and let me borrow her drum carder when I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to buy my own, and I felt like she deserved something really nifty made from her own beloved animals... but something she could use herself, to make what she wanted. Although I will admit I suggested a hat. So here we have it: a 3-ply yarn, 70% alpaca and 30% natural coloured tussah silk, a good 5 ounces if memory serves. Soft, shiny, strong, warm.
And last up for this entry, we have a 2-ply alpaca/coopworth blend that I spun up from a roving I bought on eBay, from Jehovah Jireh Farm, where they do some great colour work. Even though I loathe pink, and this has pink in it, I have to admit that I like it. It's a bit scratchy, so it's a likely sweater. You know, because I knit so many sweaters! Okay, so it's a stash queen. Like a garage queen, except... in my stash.
posted by Abby Franquemont at 3/30/2005 05:16:00 PM
1 Comments:
First time on ur blog...nice collections
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