I took a dozen colors or so of wool/silk blend roving, split the roving down the middle to make it a little thinner (compressed it would have been as big around as my thumb, or a finger? maybe), then broke those halves into pieces about 3-4" long. Then I laid out all these little "cat tails" on the floor and moved the colors around to make a semi-random order (I guess Noro repeats ... so I wasn't truly Noro'ing, but hey, it looks good!). Then, I started at one end, and pre-drafted it into about 3-times the length and wound the pieces into a big ball, laying a new piece over the end of an old one. Once the ball got too big, I started another ball. Then, when I was spinning, I took the outermost piece off, (*) spun it into a loosely twisted "just barely yarn" single, took the next piece, joined it onto the spinning, and repeated from (*) until I was out of fiber.
Here are my "faux-Noro balls" and the arm sleeve being knit from them.Those of you who aren't color blind will realize that the top photo is reds, browns, and a touch of blue -- and the arm sleeve is greens and tans. Yes, they are from two different color experiments. I didn't think to photo the cat tails until the cat walked into the picture and so modeled the fiber size perfectly!
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Oh, and if you don't have a dozen or so odds and ends of colors laying around? Let me recommend the Totally Tubular Spinning Kit -- both of these were done from kits, Mountains and Rivers above and Spring Crocus (I think...) below.
See the topic SinglesYarn for more tips on spinning Singles Yarn. See the topic Color for ideas on color in spinning, dyeing and more.
Do you have some color ideas or Noro-spinning tips to share or questions to ask? Add a comment here or contact me. Thanks!