You’ll Need:
Fiber
Faux Flowers
Crochet Hook or Knitting Needle
A Spinning Wheel or a Drop Spindle
Patience

Step 1: Pre draft your Fiber. I took all 4 oz. and separated it into 6 smaller, equally sized, bumps of fiber.

Step 2: Split each bump lengthwise to make smaller “pencil rovings”. This makes the spinning part go much quicker, requiring you to do less drafting as you spin! It’s also a fantastic way to keep the colors from blending too much together as you spin. Try separating all 8 colors out of the blend! If you get a bit of another color with the color you’re pulling out, you’ll notice a unique effect as the two colors twist and make stripes in the yarn!

Step 3: Disassemble your silk flowers so you have several petals to work with. Pull the green plastic backing off the base of the flower, and pull the center bud of the flower out. You should end up with 5 petals per flower, depending on which faux flowers you use.

Step 4: Split each little bump of fiber you made lengthwise, halfway up the strand of roving, creating “legs”. On one leg, use a crochet hook to pull the leg through the center of the flower. If you do not own a crochet hook you can use a knitting needle to poke the fiber through the hole of the flower. You’ll want a small enough size to fit through the hole in the flowers. See our collection of crochet hooks here. Once you’ve pre strand all of your petals onto pieces of thin roving, you’re ready to spin!

Step 5: Incorporate your flower strands as you spin. Spin 8 or so strands without flowers on them, then incorporate a strand with flowers, and repeat. The second “leg” of fiber will trap the flower as you introduce twist into your yarn.

You’ll want to use a Bulky Flyer so the flowers don’t get stuck in your wheel as you spin. If you don’t own a bulky flyer you can purchase one for your wheel here. I found that you can help the flower through the orifice simply by stopping your treading, pulling the flower through, and winding it onto your bobbin. Using a drop spindle is also an option to create this art yarn. You’ll want a big enough spindle to fit your finished skein of yarn. One intended for bulky yarn spinning with a bigger whorl might be best.

Step 6: Once you’ve used up all your fiber, wind the yarn from the bobbin onto a Niddy Noddy, I used the Paradise Fibers Niddy Noddy with it set at the 2 yard mark. I ended up with Approx 296 yards in a bulky weight. I plan to knit an open knit Cowl, for my Niece.

Step 7: Soak your yarn in your favorite wool wash, I used SOAK in the Celebration scent. I let my skein soak overnight in warm water, in order to set the twist. Rinse your skein until all the soap is out, be careful not to agitate the skein too much in order to prevent felting. Give your skein a good THWACK and let sit on a towel to dry.

Congratulations! You’ve made a fun and funky art yarn complete with flowers! What else are you dreaming to spin into your yarn? Let us know in the comment section below.

THERE’S NO WRONG WAY TO DO ART YARN!
Making Rolags on a Blending Board.

Story Continued…..

“First, let’s blend the fibers together a little bit,” the bumblebee suggested.

“How do you do that?” asked the silkworm.

“You use a blending board! I have one of those in my pocket too!” Once again from his pocket, the bumblebee pulled out a flat board with many teeth. “You pull the fiber down across the teeth from top to bottom, catching it in layers. First, we will put down a base of the Petals blend, then add strips of the Stem, and create a little rolag by rolling the fiber off the boards using two wooden dowels!”

“You can pull the fiber out of the center of the rolag to make spinning the yarn much easier! It also results in beautiful color gradients!” 

“Wow, that is beautiful! But couldn’t we spin them separately?” asked Thumbelina.

“Of course! Your imagination is the limit when it comes to spinning!”

“Then, will you show me?”

“I will.” And the bumblebee carefully taught Thumbelina how to strip the roving lengthwise to keep the color integrity of the blend. The bumblebee showed Thumbelina how to draft and create the twist in her yarn.

“So this is how you spin,” said Thumbelina as she drafted the multicolored Merino.

“Yes!” said the bumblebee, sitting next to her and spinning the rose and silk blend.
“But spinning silk and rose fiber can be trickier than spinning wool! Silk and rose fiber has a long staple length and the fibers don’t have scales, so they tend to be slippery. Did you know wool fibers have scales?! That’s what makes it so fun to spin, and what makes wool felt so easily! You can hold your hands further apart when spinning silk and draft up to 5 inches apart before the fibers separate and the wheel gobbles up your yarn. You’ll want to introduce more twist into you silk/rose blend to keep it from untwisting and falling apart. You can set your drive band on a smaller whorl so you don’t have to treadle as much. The smaller (drive) whorl makes the wheel spin more times around with less peddling! If you’re using a drop spindle you’d simply just add more twist before you wind the yarn onto the cob”

“And then we will ply them together.”

“Oh, let’s ply them together! That way I can make a dress that looks like a flower!”

“Alright, we can do that! To ply, we spin the two strands together, in the opposite direction than we spun them the first time. We can use this handy Paradise Fibers Lazy Kate to set the bobbins on in order to ply them. When plying we need to make sure we introduce more twist than we need, That way the yarn doesn’t fall apart. Any extra twist will even out once we soak and THWAK the yarn later.”

“I see,” said Thumbelina. “Now, can I knit it?”

“Absolutely! And then we will go to the faerie court and we will win the heart of the king!”

In no time at all, Thumbelina had knit herself a beautiful dress, with a skirt that had so many layers, it looked like the petals of a rose.

“It’s wonderful,” the silkworm sighed. “Now, go to the King of the Faeries and show him that you should be queen.”

Thumbelina crawled onto the bumblebee’s back and they flew to an enormous, hollow tree in the middle of a secret meadow. Inside, on a glittering throne, sat the King of the Faeries, handsome and regal in his black clothes and silver crown.

“Who dares enter the Faerie Realm when they do not have wings?” He demanded. But then, as Thumbelina stepped off the bumblebee’s back, he gasped. “Who… Who are you?”

“I’m Thumbelina,” she replied shyly.

“You’re… Beautiful. Stunning. Amazing. Please, will you be my queen?”

“Yes,” replied Thumbelina happily. As she said it, she felt a tingling in her back, a ticklish, warm feeling. Suddenly, she sprouted wings!

“There,” the king said, “You truly are Queen of the Faeries.”

Thumbelina, the bumblebee, and the silkworm all came to live in the Faerie Realm, and lived happily ever after.

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