Saturday, November 06, 2010

Bouclé singles in Cotswold


In The Intentional Spinner, Judith MacKenzie McCuin states that yarn made with this Bouclé draw is very strong, "structurally sound and fun to work with." She even uses it for warp! Gasp!


Even so, I have to say that spinning this Boucle is very different from my preferred spinning.

I'm the kind of person who takes great joy in spinning hours upon hours, days upon days, and weeks upon weeks of the same, fine, consistent yarn.

This yarn is anything but consistent. But it does have it's own certain joy.


To make a light, fluffy cloud of a yarn, I begin with a light fluffy cloud of fibre:



This is Cotswold that I teased apart with my fingers before spinning.

To spin Boucle singles is... well... challenging. Judith MacKenzie McCuin says it's like spinning two yarns at once. I say, it's like spinning one very fine yarn and at the exact same time, spinning another light, fluffy yarn, and at the exact same time, plying them together in a non-standard way.

The resulting yarn is gorgeous!



This Cotswold is much softer than the colourful English Leicester I was working with earlier. I've worked with Cotswold before and have never managed to make such a soft yarn. It must be the bouclé spinning technique.

Like the other yarn, once it's finished, I'll put it for sale at Knotty by Nature.

1 comment:

Josiane said...

It must be a pretty challenging technique, especially when you enjoy spinning a fine consistent yarn. It looks like you're doing a fabulous job of it, though: your yarn looks lovely!