This month’s club seemed almost to be dyed for me – I love these deeply autumnal colours and immediately wanted to spin the fibre. I lucked out because I had the pleasure of spinning in the SweetGeorgia Yarns booth all weekend at Knit City 2016. It was an amazing experience and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone who came over to chat. Many had questions about the wheel I was spinning on and others wanted to know about classes. I particularly enjoyed one group of ladies who asked about consistency in their singles and we chatted about how to draft within a certain distance to ensure one is not pulling too far outside that distance and creating thin spots. The energy of the weekend made me especially thankful for Felicia’s recommendation to spin our default yarns and enjoy the Fall days. I sat and spun short backward draw, chatting while whizzing through fibre as if it was spinning itself! I had more than a few comments about how fast I was spinning but this was because I was spinning the yarn I can create in my sleep: My favourite default yarn.
© Rachel Smith /
SweetGeorgia Yarns 2016
What is default yarn? For many, default yarn is medium weight yarn with a medium amount of twist. It can be a 2-ply or 3-ply, although usually a 2-ply, and if often spun without much effort or forethought. My default yarn is usually a 3-ply that has a moderate to high amount of twist. I tend to like spinning on higher ratios, here 18:1, and love creating optical mixing of colours in contrasting plies. I know many wouldn’t like green and purple or green and red next to each other and may choose instead to Navajo-ply this braid but for me, I love experimenting with what that might look like in a knitted piece. Will it muddy? Create a confetti effect? Or something else?
© Rachel Smith /
SweetGeorgia Yarns 2016
After spinning this month’s fibre, I think the most interesting aspect of the finished yarn is that it seems quite a bit darker than the original fibre. The purple seems muted in the yarn compared to the fibre and yet there is a playfulness in the yarn that wasn’t present in the fibre. The marling (or barber-poling) in places creates a lot of interest. I was surprised at how many times the red matched up together. This yarn will knit up in a slightly stripey way and due to the Merino + Tussah silk content, I’m tempted to knit some socks!
© Rachel Smith /
SweetGeorgia Yarns 2016
Have you delved into October’s club yet? How are you spinning it? Please share over on the Ravelry group or Instagram, and tag your projects with #sgyclub and #sweetgeorgiayarns.
Until next month – Happy spinning!
