Now that Spinzilla is over you probably(hopefully) have a pile of new yarn, but what to do with all of it! If you’re like me you’ve amassed quite a pile of handspun this year between Spinzilla and Tour de Fleece back in July.

When I hand-carded this fiber and Navajo plied to create a gradient yarn I already knew what I wanted to make, a smaller version of my Matsumoto Shawl. Since gauge isn’t really an issue with this pattern I let the yarn decide what it wanted to be without fussing too much over how thin my single was. I ended up with a nice, bouncy worsted weight yarn and I love my little shawlette! My finished yarn was 280 yds so the shawlette is about half the size of the sample in the pattern, about 13″ deep at the center back, but it’s perfect just around my neck.

How do you decide what projects to make with your handspun, and what are you making with your Spinzilla yarns?

This month we’ll be offering a few tips and tricks to make your spinning for Spinzilla, and the rest of the year, even more fun and interesting. First up, rearranging the colors in a pre-dyed fiber braid. You will need a braid of fiber with distinct colors and a set of hand cards for this.

I love the colors in this Gaston colorway on Targhee from Abstract Fiber but I wish they were more gradual, like an ombre, so I decided to make that happen. I unwound the braid and then fluffed the fibers at each color change before gently pulling them apart, don’t worry if you don’t get a clean color separation you can blend that out. Then I made piles with each major color. Once I had the whole braid separated I began laying fiber on one hand carder until it was full, but not so full that I couldn’t see the tines anymore, and used the other card to blend with a few strokes. Remove the fiber from the carder (pay attention to how the tines are bent and roll with that bend to get the fiber off the carders) and roll up your fiber into a rolag for spinning. If your fiber isn’t blended enough for you, or feels a bit rough, you can re-card it until you’re happy. Once I got halfway through carding and rolling I was able to layout all my little rolags in a clear gradient!

Now I just have to finish carding so I can get to spinning! I’m going to want to preserve the gradient that I worked so hard to make, so I’ll navajo ply the single into my finished yarn. Keep an eye on the blog later in the month and I’ll show you how it’s done! You can now see the finished yarn here!

Are you planning on any special preparations or different spinning techniques to try out during this year’s Spinzilla?