A Wave of Fall Colors

Autumn is upon us at last!

Celebrate the colors of Fall with a hand blended mix of Kromski Polish Merino.

I’m using some of the beautiful Kromski Polish Merino colors to make a skein of yarn reminiscent of  fallen Autumn leaves and foliage.

 

We’ve used  a 72TPI set of Kromski Hand Carders, to lightly blend together Medium Red, Dark Orange, Lime, Bright Green, Gold and Bronze.

 

I loaded one of the carders with a fair amount of each color, more than I normally would to blend.

Typically when carding fiber, one would gently comb the wool beginning at the base of the loaded carder and then transfer it to the second carder and repeat the process. This would however, overlap the colors and cause them to grow muddy from over mixing.

Below is a small sample of how it looks when blended more. It’s still pretty, it’s just not what I was going for this time. The larger sample is how I chose to do this project.

 

 

In order to retain the colors more individually, simply brush the 2 carders together using a slight rocking motion. Remove the wool from both carders after just several passes of the teeth. This will keep the colors distinct and allow them to emulate the rich array of Autumn colors.

 

 

Make a pile of batts with the colors placed in a random order on the carders. Spin the singles from each batt while maintaining the individual colors.

 

Create a 2 ply yarn using your favorite method. For this project, I chose to ply from a center pull ball. I’ll show you how to do that in another post!

 

I made some cozy Fingerless Mitts using the Christmas Flower Mitt pattern. I modified it to be a very basic mitt by replacing the flower pattern with a 2×2 rib on the cuff and a 1×1 rib on the fingers and thumb.

Just in time for Fall!