Blending fibers through plying

Preparing for a guild presentation themed on spinning pet fiber, I had a lot of time to play around with different ways to spin the soft, downy fibers from bunnies and my own Samoyed friend Baxter. One of the challenges of dog down and angora is they usually need to be blended with some nice soft wool, like Rambouillet or Corriedale, if you want to knit a garment that has any spring. The pure yarn knits up to be pretty limp and the white hat pictured here, made of pure Samoyed fluff,

doesn’t stay put on my head. To meet this challenge, I started looking for ways to get the luxury and beauty of angora or quality dog down while still having a springy yarn—all of this without having to blend a thing!

    One solution is Bunny in a Twist—a blend which is created through plying. I had bobbins of gray merino singles from one of Floya’s fleeces. I lightly carded some lovely angora which I bought from Hopp Along Hoppitry while at the fair in Greencastle. As shown in the photo to the right, as I plied the merino, I allowed the angora to be spun between the plies. You can see the angora being spun into a single while it is being plied(above). This created a gray rustic lumpy and bumby yarn, shown below. It does have one of the most luxurious, silky, soft textures I've ever run across. With this in mind, I think it is possible this technique could be perfected to make an elegant and even yarn, however I only spun the one skein and haven't had a chance to try it again. One of the

drawbacks with this techniques is I suspect the angora might shed a bit. I wouldn’t recommend it for something that needs to be sturdy or be subject to lots of wear. Though I do wonder what it would be like to knit it for felted slippers. Perhaps I’ll try that someday.

The essential thing is for the dog down or angora single to be spun in the same direction as the ply of the two ply so they can be plied again in the opposite direction. With all this plying going on, you will need to remember to add extra twist on everything that will be plied again. (So slightly overply your two ply!). Above, you can see a hat I knit from the Crepe de Chien. I had dyed it blue to demonstrate the subtle difference in dye take up between the dog down and the wool. It doesn’t show up very well here. This hat is extremely warm and I wear it when the temperatures dip below zero. You can do the exact same technique with angora bunny fluff, but in this case it would be Crepe aux Lapin or something as “chien” is French for dog, hence the pun on crepe de chine.

I know a lot of people spin and knit with singles, but I heartily recommend plying your knitting yarns. There is something very pleasant about knitting with plies and recently I’ve begun to spin three ply yarns for knitting. I especially love a three ply for socks and have done a lot of experimenting on creating the perfect soft yet sturdy yarn. But this I will share with you another day, after I have finished some more experimenting with these techniques.

If you are interested in spinning novelty yarns, I highly recommend Spinning Designer Yarns by Diane Varney, Interweave Press, 1987. This book is a classic and is a must have for every serious spinner’s bookshelf. I learned to spin a crepe yarn through her excellent directions. Bunny In A Twist, though, grew out of my inability to figure out one of the techniques.

Photos from top: In the first, I'm demonstrating the "Bunny In A Twist" technique. Next, is a picture of the pure Samoyed down hat that won't stay on my head. Next, is a picture of the grey and white Bunny in a Twist yarn, the blue Crepe De Chien artic survival hat and a pile of white Samoyed fluff. To the left is a toasty throw knit of pure Samoyed fluff. This throw is done in traditional knit purl textured patterns that don't show up well because of the hallow and the brightness of the fiber.

March 22, 2009