Another Mix-Up

As you may have guessed, I absolutely love combo-spins.

They are a wonderful way to shop from your stash and create new colours.

These two braids have been in my stash for over a year and since Ancient Arts Yarns isn’t doing much dyeing on fibre anymore, I have been coveting the fibre. I kept coming back to the idea of combining to two for a number of reasons: The colours of each braid are included in both and side-by-side, they illuminate each other because they are complements (yellow-green’s complement is red-purple). The soft teal creates a more vibrant purple rather than muting one another. While barber-poling in a skein is far from my favourite thing, once the yarn is knit up, it can create an amazingly dynamic fabric. I achieved this with my recent Vanilla Shawl that I have worn an unbelievable amount.

After I plied my recent combo spin that was inspired by Grace Shalom Hopkin’s Mason’s Medley, in which she combined roving with combed top, I just loved the light, airy yarn. Why not do that again? So I decided to card up the Purple. The sample yarn was light and airy, just as I’d hoped but there was more barber-poling than I had hoped.

Overall, the yarn is really lovely. I enjoyed spinning this combo. Combination drafting definitely takes a lot of practice to keep it consistent because one ultimately always wants to take over in the drafting zone.

To create more harmony between the two braids, I added some royal blue to my batts of the purple Mixed BFL. Before I commit to spinning more of this combination spin, I’m going to spin a larger sample and knit it up. I want to be sure about this particular combination before I commit to an 8-10 ounce spin! My initial sample was very barber-poled and high contrast. There were areas that I absolutely loved but overall, I wanted more harmony and depth. Adding the royal blue, I’m hoping, will help with that harmony. Here are the first two that I’m going to do a bit of sampling with before I continue on!

Wish me luck!

Happy Spinning,

-r.