Used hand spun beaded yarn to create top down beaded shawl. The yarn is wool and alpaca. The spinning process was described HERE and HERE in the blog. The beads are silver lined glass beads and antique Chec beads from an old lamp. I’d gotten an ounce of Momi fiber (wool, silk and glitter the color of sunset) from the Ashville fiber festival which I spun on the Trindle I’d purchased at the festival. Too little yarn for a project but worked great to provide an accent of colored lace.

I used the same pattern as the pink top down shawl

And, an interesting aside. Lacy, my mostly border collie … just learned she has no discernable border collie DNA. Had her DNA run through Wisdom DNA thinking I’d learn border collie and what. (No blood is taken, cheek swab.) Learned she has only two breeds discernable: Austrailian Shepard (that fits) and Cocker Spaniel (didn’t see that one coming). It was great fun and splendid painful anticipation while waiting for the DNA results.

Tropical Twister

The warp is a mix of that Wool/Soy blend that had been on sale at Michael’s for $1.50 a skein. I used the beaded yarn with a five inch border of unbeaded yarn. (All my scarves are beginning to look alike. I need to mix it up my next project.) I set up the warp at Fiber Space, and wove at the hospital. The beads all but disappeared in the multi-colored warp. The beads were opaque. In future, I would use opaque beads only against a single colored background. The glintening beads I used on the Koala Scarf worked well, even on the multicolored scarf as they captured and reflected the light.

Tropical Twister

I’ve been preparing yarn for sale … skeining, weighing and measuring. I’ll be continuing to add more.

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Tropical Twister

http://Seabreezespinners.com/

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Tropical Twister

I then skeined the plyed yarn on the PVC skiener my husband built for me.  I steamed the skeined yarn using a “shark” hand held steamer.  When the yarn is dry, I’ll skein it and post the finished yarn.  Project for this yarn? Haven’t decided, but it will be something special.

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This is a walk through of how I spin with beads. First, I spun a lace weight single of Louet Viola, a wool silk blend. Then, I selected commercial yarn to compliment the fiber I spun. (I selected Forsell 2 ply superwash wool weight 9/94 in the color Damson.)

I was introduced to the beader below by a friend.  You thread the special needle, spin the center pin and seed beads walk up the needle onto the yarn.  When she told me about it, it sounded like one of those gagets that sounds good but doesn’t really work, but it really works.  I loaded the yarn with seed beads size 6 from Fire Mountain Gems.

Once the yarn was loaded with beads, I began to ply the homespun to the beaded commercial yarn.  I am spinning on my new Spinolution, Mach 1 Spinning Wheel.  It has toe brakes that allow me to stop the wheel quickly without having to touch the wheel.   The photo below shows me applying the right toe brake.

I slide a few beads up the commerical yarn at a time.  I then can slide one at a time up to where it will be plyed with the handspun.

I continue slipping beads forward to be caught up in the twist at random intervals.  Notice that the Spinolution, Mach 1 Spinning Wheel has an open orifice.  No hole, just a hook so you can spin yarn as fat as you choose and don’t need a threading hook.

You can see the plyed yarn as it builds up on the bobbin.   Notice the Spinolution, Mach 1 Spinning Wheel does not have hooks on the flyer.   The straight ”fingers” guide the yarn, but the beads can’t get hung up.

After the yarn was spun, I used a niddy noddy to skein the yarn.  Then I fulled the yarn by soaking the finished yarn in a basin of cold water, lightly agitating the yarn.  I rolled the yarn in a towel to dry.  Then I hung the yarn to dry with a weight.  A can of soup works well, but today I used canned tamales.

UPDATE 8/12/2008: I’ve received a number of questions about the bead spinner shown above.  I don’t make or sell them.  I got mine from Michael’s locally but I see that they are also available on the Michael’s website.  They cost about $20 but with the weekly 40% off coupon, not too pricey.  The name:  Spin-N-Bead Jr.  (I guess that means there is a Senior).  It works great but only with seed beads.  It does not work with beads like pearls that have small holes.

To see more of the wheel I used in this post click on Mach 1 Spinning Wheel, or visit our Home Page for more spinning fun.