A while ago I promised some news on my respinning project. And lately I keep running across other "re-spinnings". So, have you ever re-spun yarn? And would you like some ideas for that?
Quite often, I ply with thread; that's a repurposing of a commercial strand with handspun. And, it's fairly common.
Recently (okay, about a year ago) I "re-purposed" some 3-year-old (bought for the purpose, though!) loosely plied, very fine 2-ply wool -- I added more ply twist while also letting it grab at some rainbow-dyed kid mohair locks. Then, I reverse-plied it with some metallic thread, to even out the additional ply twist and add a bit of glitter among the riot of color. It was a fun, short experiment -- the skein's not that big -- so I plan to use it as an accent in a larger project someday.
About 2 years ago I bought a lovely pile of purple merino 2-ply handspun -- I know, I keep buying handspun, and here I am a spinner. My excuse? I know the value of what I purchase. Anyhow, I decided to knit a sweater -- this yarn has been wanting to be a sweater since I got it! And there's a lovely backless halter (think -- add a shrug -- then it's a twinset/sweater) in Dominitrix. But it requires a thicker yarn. I love this purple merino. So, I tried cabling it. Too tight -- I got steel wool! and too fine -- no thicker than the original 2 ply. So, I've set about un-plying it. Once I have two bobbins full of un-plied 2-ply (two strands, no plying twist in them), I re-ply two bobbins together into a nice, bouncy, thick four ply. It knits up like a dream into the gauge needed. Aaaah. Besides, it'll take purple merino to get me past all that K1P1 ribbing with my sanity intact!
That (^^^) up there (^^^) is the re-spinning project: turning handspun 2-ply into re-spun 4 ply.
If you have really fine commercial yarn, there are a variety of repurposings you can use to make it thicker.
Ply it with some handspun -- you can make a nice gimp yarn, where you hold the commercial yarn taut and let the handspun go up-down-all-around.
If you have one of those automatic I-cord makers from whoever makes them now, zip a bunch of the really fine yarn through that to make "tube yarn" -- Noro came out with some tube yarn a few years back, it was great fun to knit up, and was about a heavy worsted yarn.
Aha -- they are called embellish-knits now. here's Joann Fabric's offering.
I once made yards and yards of i-cord on my i-corder, but it was worsted weight yarn to start with -- it was for the lettering on a sign for our guild's booth at the county fair.
If you have a handy child or just alot of time on your hands, another thing to do is make a whole skein of crocheted chain. This will thicken up the yarn considerably, as it will be about 3-4 strands thick along with the roundness of the chain stitches helping to keep it open.
Both I-cord and crochet chain "yarns" felt up nicely too, into interesting textures.
What respinnings or other re-formations of yarn have you done? Share your ideas in the comments too, and thanks!
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