I couldn’t keep my mind and hands off of the marling this week. I doubled the number of naturals tried, I couldn’t help myself. That means this week we have yarn to look at; swatches will come next week.
I spun the other three fibers with four different naturals, instead of just the two I used for Briar Rose. Let’s see what they look like
First up Abstract Fibers. Here it is nestled in the circle of fiber.
That green is fantastic but will it contrast too much?
As plies I used (from left) oatmeal, light/dark brown stripe, middle brown and dark brown. I really love how it looks with the dark brown and light/dark stripe in the skein.
Now to Spunky Eclectic this color is called Diesel
I don’t want to stop with this color way. I used the same four naturals on the brown side, but I still want to try black gray and white with it. I loved them all.
I predict they will all look great as knitted swatches.
Now Fiber Story.
I’m not sure I have the right colors of naturals for this one.
I used the same four naturals as the others: oatmeal, light/dark brown stripe, middle brown and dark brown. To me they are all missing warmth. I wish I had some honey colored alpaca to ply with it.
Next week we’ll see how they look swatched.
For those of you who asked to see the Briar Rose fiber plied and swatched with the dark brown.
I couldn’t resist. I like it very much as yarn, but not as a swatch.
Really interesting color progressions. You have made me think about my fiber stash in a very different way. Thanks!
I think I’d like the briar rose swatch better at a much looser gauge.
Everyone has their tastes. I like the swatch, too. I like the abstract fibers marling the least, and the diesel the best.
that was a very interesting post.
These all look interesting, though the one I think I like the best (without the swatches) is the third of the Diesel skeins (from left to right). I think it is because the marling appears more muted in the skein, but who knows how it will work up!
i love these posts! they are so thought provoking and interesting for me.
Thanks for sharing! Once you get past the knitting of swatches and items, and the crocheting of the same…well, rather, once you get into the spinning of fiber, there’s a whole new world to explore and alter your perception of things…mainly texture and color.
I remember when I first started spinning, aside from some samples I awkwardly worked through out of a Phat Fiber box, I had no idea how to gauge the color outcome of fiber.
By looking at the spinning work of others (and thank goodness everyone loves to take photos of progress!), I picked up a Pigeonroof Studios braid that did not look too particularly pretty in a braid, but had a very vague idea how it would end up spun and knitted. The end result was so beautiful!
This one post is very helpful as a reference to how to “see” a yarn out of fibers. Lovely stuff!
These are great experiments. It’s just fascinating to see the progression from fiber to yarn, and (hopefully soon) to fabric.
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us.
Here’s a good way to figure out if colors work together: look at them as if they were a plate of food. Would you want to eat them?
I think they all turned out great. I especially love the greens because that is just me. Thank you for sharing all of this with us. There are somethings I wouldn’t have even thought to put together I can be a bit matchy, matchy at times.
I’m a huge fan of Amy’s(spunky eclectic)colorways. I don’t blame you for not wanting to stop with that one. Her use of negative space when she dyes really lends to the marling effect.
Wow, I have never spun a marled yarn, but now have done so for a warp, thanks to this exciting post. I also am gong to do the weft marled. It is amazing how the dyed yarn changes when plyed with the naturals. Thanks for opening my eyes!
I love it! What a great way to tone down a more aggressive color and create something truly stunning.
Oh, the Abstract Fibers plied with the dark brown — love! You’re inspiring me to do some mixing experiments with my own stash. 🙂
I love your use of color! You make wish I could spin!
Beautiful!
You could make some really lovely things with each little family of samples . . .
Every time I see these experiments of yours, I wish I was better at spinning. It all looks so gorgeously squishy.
What a great giveaway!
Whoops, had two blogs open that I wanted to comment on, and posted wrong comments on the wrong blogs- what I WANTED to say is that your yarn looks beautiful!
I am a big fan of the greens. I think they turned out great & will be a lot of fun knit up.
Thanks for your great exploration marling, a topic I hadn’t really considered before. It is really interesting to see how the different signles work together, both in the yarn and the swatches. Can’t wait to see next week’s swatches!
Thank you for sharing your spinning samples and swatches — it inspires me to open up my exploration in so many ways, and helps explain some of the curious results I’ve gotten in the past when the original fiber doesn’t predict the final yarn, much less the knitted item. Keep on going, and showing!
Neutral to go better might be navy and other blues with a reasonable amount of toning…