INTRODUCTION

Knittyspin

Ideas for Sampling Color: Drafting Together Edition

The most frequent question I get in my classes is, “How do I know what a braid will look like spun?” The joke is always, “it depends.” That’s the answer that almost every spinning teacher gives to most questions.

In spinning, there is little absolute certainty, but by sampling I've gotten really good at the educated guess. Now even though I’m pretty good at an intuitive guess, I still sample. Why? Because there is always a new idea, a new dye pattern. I want to make samples to show in class, and of course, because I second-guess myself.

My braids. L to R: Northern Lights, Frabjous Fibers, and Into the Whirled

I’m going to walk through some recent braid-spinning samples to show you how easy and fun it is, and maybe you can see how useful these samples are for future spinning.

I chose three braids to work with: Into the Whirled's Falkland, in Scissors, Lizard, Spock; Frabjous Fibers BFL in Ostara, and Northern Lights Corriedale in Popsicle.

And I chose three things to mix with the braids: DM Fibers Shetland in grey; DM Fibers Corriedale in orange, and Frabjous Fibers BFL in Cottage Garden. I’m using the same mix-ins for the samples to keep some consistency. I’m also using the same techniques.

My mix-ins, Lto R: grey Shetland, orange Corriedale, and Frabjous Fibers BFL, Cathedral

Something that excites my students in class is drafting braids together with something. They can be drafted against themselves, a natural color, a solid/semi solid, or another braid. I then ply two blended singles together.

This is the technique I focused on for these samples. All of my samples are 2-ply, woolen drafted on a worsted prep, and approximately worsted in size.

Drafting together is also called combo drafting. To do it, hold two strips of well-fluffed fiber side-by-side (or stacked) and draft them together like they are one fiber.

To make it easier, I use a total amount of fiber as wide as two fingers – that’s the post-fluffed width. The amount of each type of fiber is different depending on the combination. When I combine a painted braid with a natural or a solid/semi-soilid, I use 70-75% painted braid and 30-25% natural or solid/semi-solid. A solid block of color will take over a variegated braid visually pretty quickly. When I combine two painted braids, I use 50% (or one finger’s width) of each.

Northern Lights Popsicle and mix-ins. Spun and knitted samples, from the bottom up: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself, drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers, Cathedral

The finer spun, the more the colors combine. Fine yarns look more heathered than speckled. I like the speckled look, so I spin heavy fingering and up.

After deciding what my fibers and colors are going to be, I decide on my yarn structure(s), then I decide what my spins will be. I have my braids, my three add-ins, my structure: 2-ply, woolen draft, worsted prep, worsted-ish weight.

Sampling is one of those infinite things, and each sample I do causes me to write down five more samples I want to do. For me it’s best to have a plan to follow where I don’t change too many variables, or I won’t have much to compare.

You may decide to use a single colorway and see how many ways you can manipulate it, or sample the effect of ply or yarn size when working with a braid. All of those are fantastic, but sticking to one overarching idea has always helped me learn the most.

Frabjous Fibers in Ostara and mix-ins. Spun and knitted samples, from the bottom up: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself, drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers in Cathedral

Right here is where I implore you to write your sample plan down. Use any method that works for you. I write my plans in my book that holds all of my brain. I separate my individual spins into baggies with a note of what I’m going to do, since I almost never work on one project from start to finish. I make sure to tag yarn while it’s still on the niddy with a tyvex wristband. I then add a big hangtag to my sample when I start knitting, detailing the order and spin method.

My spins for these samples are mostly drafting together, but I always like to have some basics spins for comparison. My spins for these samples are, singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself, drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with another dyed braid.

Into the Whirled in Scissors, Lizard, Spock and mix-ins. Spun and knitted samples, from the bottom up: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself, drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers in Cathedral

I spin the singles because, even though I try as hard as I can, I almost always misplace the strip of unspun fiber I save to refer to the original colors. The plied randomly is the way I spin a lot of the time, split a fiber in half, spin each half on separate bobbins and let it ply together randomly or as it comes off of the bobbins.

I never really think of samples as successful or not. They are samples to learn from. I get all Spock, and say, “Interesting” about fifty times while looking at the samples. I don’t study my samples much as yarn, though I keep labeled yarns in the same container as the knitted samples.

Here are close ups of my three samples and which sample was the most interesting to me.

Northern Lights in Popsicle (left) from bottom: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself
(right) from bottom: drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers in Cathedral

Looking at the Northern Light fiber, I see very short repeating colors with clear definition between the color. The colors are bright with much the same value (light or darkness of the color).

Because the color runs are short, they match up more frequently, no matter the way they are mixed. These samples have the strongest element of striping as a result. Of all of the samples, the one I like the most is the drafting with orange. I like how the orange and the red of the colorway blend and make a great background for the eclectic blue and grass green.

Frabjous Fibers in Ostara (left) from bottom: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself
(right) from bottom: drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers in Cathedral

The colors are longer in the Frabjous Fiber with intentional blending in the transitions between the colors, and the colors are softer with more of difference in value (light or darkness of a color). I like how this colorway softens as soon as it’s plied. Even plied without any drafting together, the colors blend together. I like the moodiness of the drafted with the dark Frabjous braid. The purples and pinks are close in the two colorways and it makes for a really rich blend.

Into the Whirled in Scissors, Lizard, Spock: (left) from bottom: singles, plied together randomly, drafted on itself
(right) from bottom: drafted with light grey, drafted with orange, and drafted with Frabjous Fibers in Cathedral

Many of Into the Whirled's colorways change from one end of the braid to the other but share some colors. The shifting colors, the variety of value, variety of color lengths and the interesting shades make Into the Whirled fiber beautiful. At first I was really reluctant to mix and blend ITW’s braids, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I like this colorway drafted on itself and drafted with the light grey. The varying length of the colors and the mixture of colors allow the stripes to all but disappear when blended. The drafted together sample is fantastically speckled, and drafting with the grey lightens the palette over all, both have just a suggestion of striping.
These are two I’d really like to work with together. How convenient that they are next to each other in the sample so I can stare at them together.

Biggest takeaway from these type of color samples, other than the practicality of stretching braids into more yardage, is how all of the samples for each braid go together. I never get tired of working with braids, but I do get tired of an all-the-same look in projects. Using any amount, even a two inch square randomly placed, of a different manipulation against the main spin for a project is great, and makes a wonderfully creative and original yarn.

Happy sampling!