Snow Outside, Creativity Inside

Over the past few days, we've gone from this:

to this:

We've shoveled snow (it doesn't look like it, since more came down) and endured two power failures.  So what does one do when there is no power?  Well, my knitting ran into a little snag, so I decided to spin some yarns for a project I'd like to start soon.

First, I finished plying this teal/ blue / white skein:

Next, I corespun (wool wrapped around a thin, premade yarn) a beautiful aqua and multicolor batt into this yarn:

Wanting to try something new, I spun a thick and thin single while letting multicolored thread autowrap around it.

That was fun, but I've seen beautiful yarns with beads, I had to try making one, so I spun up more fiber.  Left to right:  blue / violet / black batt, Ashford Damson Slyver, Ashford Woodland Slyver.

The first skein was multistranded.  I plyed the two blue-violet strands with three different quilting / embroidery threads, one being pre-strung with beads, which I skattered throughout the skein.  The metallic thread made it a bit scratchy, but added sparkle, along with the beads and it's beautiful!

I decided to try threading the beads directly onto the strand that was made from the batt, but only managed to ply a small sample skein before the yarn broke and beads flew everywhere!

Having more yarn to ply, I decided to blend the two blue-violet strands with a black lace-weight bamboo yarn and threaded the beads on it.  It worked well, with the black bamboo yarn darkening the skein, but only a little.

More experiments to come as I have time...