Monthly Archives: May 2017

Purple Memories For April

Purple Memories is the colorway for April in the Bam Huey 2017 Year of Color fiber club.  The theme for the Spinning Box for April is Memories.  We were asked to dye fiber in a colorway based on a memory.  I couldn’t single out a memory, but one thing in common was that all memories involved the color Purple.  I am a Purple Girl through and through.  From the time I could identify color, all I ever wanted was Purple!  It was never hard for people to choose things for me, as long as it was purple I would like it.  I decided to use as many shades of purple this month as I could fit on the fiber.  I split the 3 oz into 2 pieces.  One piece is gradient dyed dark purple-light and white purple-dark purple.  the second piece is layered with 4 purples.  By the way, I do give purple a wide definition….basically anything that is remotely close to any shade of purple 🙂

Dark to light to dark purple gradient
Dark to light/white purple, to dark purple gradient
Layered multiple purples 1/2 of Purple Memories
Layered multiple purples 1/2 of Purple Memories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started off with my usual spin.  I spun each roll end to end then did a  Navajo 3ply chain.  You can see in the picture that the Purple Memories yarn is thinner than last month’s.  I am intentionally using multiple thicknesses of yarn on the scarf to encourage spinners to combine their yarns, and not be afraid to use yarns of different  WPI  (wraps per inch) together in a project.

April Purple memories added on to the scarf.
April Purple memories added on to the scarf.

Besides the scarf addition this month I also spun the fiber four more ways.  First up is the 2 ply yarn.  I spun the multi purple fiber end to end, then spun the gradient end to end, and plied them together.

Purple Memories Bam Huey. Multi purple plied against purple gradient.
Purple Memories Bam Huey. Multi purple plied against purple gradient.

Next up is some 2 color work. I spun the multi purple fiber into a 2 ply and spun the gradient into a 2 ply dark to light.  I started off using each color for a few rows and did a slip stitch for some visual interest.  I then switched over to using both colors at once and got some good practice in making even floats.  I didn’t follow a pattern, just did what I felt like at the time.

color work with Bam Huey Purple Memories
color work with Bam Huey Purple Memories

I’m still enjoying and experimenting with a cable yarn.  I’m pretty sure I will be making a coat with a nice thick 4 ply one of these days! I did this cable a bit thicker than last time.  I spun the multi purple into a 2 ply, spun the gradient into a 2 ply, (light to dark) then plied the two yarns together for the cable yarn.

Purple Memories in 4 ply cable.
Purple Memories in 4 ply cable.

April video is up on YouTube HERE There are some sound problems and I am still learning how to deal with the changing light…..BUT I think you might enjoy seeing a bit more of the fiber and knit samples.

Until next time, Happy Knitting and Spinning,

Cheryl