Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Yarn Pumpkin Follow-Up

Yarn Pumpkin Follow-Up

Higher-End Yarn Projects Often Start With Yarn Balls

While preparing for the Caron Cakes Yarn Pumpkin class I noted that what my students will be doing is not much more than making a ball of yarn — the same thing we do before working with a yarn that is sold in hanks rather than balls or skeins. Since Michaels only sells skeined yarns, I slipped a hank of Cascade 220 Fingering yarn into my project bag to show why making yarn balls is a useful skill. (As it turned out, the way the colors of Caron cakes separate out, you need to ball them as well in order to use them... or you could just make a whole patch of yarn-ball pumpkins...)
Also, I've had enough experience with soft sculpture that I don't trust using blunt yarn needles (much less the plastic needles we were supposed to use on Saturday!), so I tucked in a few of my smaller doll needles, a supply of cheap-but-useful thimbles I bought years ago at Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts from their Notions Wall, and some hemostats from my set of jewelry tools. (I chose not to take these along on Saturday because I was concerned about the presence of children.)

Can I Felt That For a Different Look?

Having hung around the historical costuming community (and having a friend who's an expert spinner), I looked for a yarn that might be easily felted or fulled in the washing machine and dryer. It's pretty difficult to felt or full acrylics — but a non-superwash wool should only need heat, moisture, and agitation in order to felt or full. (Felting happens when the fibers are randomly oriented and create a mat; fulling happens when the yarn fibers kink up and interlock in the direction they've been spun, woven, knitted, or crocheted. "Boiled wool" is generally fulled, not felted.)

I've wanted to play with Patons Classic Wool Roving for a while, and these pumpkins were the excuse to do so. I did up two pumpkins in "Yellow", and tossed one in the washing machine and dryer. (I left the other untouched for comparison.) Unfortunately, one trip through the wringer (so to speak) didn't do much for fulling the pumpkin; I had to take it through another cycle by hand.

While still damp, I used some old DMC Flower Floss (I would have used Six-Strand Embroidery Cotton, were it close to-hand) to create the sectioning we see on real pumpkins. I was also able to play with the pumpkin's shape, squishing it into the form I desired.

Unfulled and Fulled Pumpkins in Patons Classic Wool Roving

Adding More Color

I tried a couple of pumpkins using scraps of Lily Sugar 'n Cream. On one, I dribbled some leftover dye from a tie-dye project. While it kind of splotched (and didn't absorb well) over the dry yarn, it should work nicely over a wet yarn.


Grindle Pumpkins and Calabazas de Dios

If you're willing to spend an hour or two with the yarn needle, you can take your yarn to make the same sort of sections I made in floss (but don't pull them too tight!). These will serve as spokes for some yarn weaving. Starting from the bottom, work your yarn under two spokes, back around the spoke nearest the needle, and then around the next two spokes (the one you just went under, and the next one in line), bringing the needle under to the "top" of your previous stitch. Continue in this manner, keeping your yarn wraps close together, until you reach the top of the pumpkin. (This is the same technique people in the Renaissance through Victorian periods used to make a grindle button.) This will give you a pumpkin with "ribs" on the outside.
Grindle Pumpkin


You can also pass yarn over two spokes, and bring it back under the second spoke, and work over the whole pumpkin that way. The pumpkin below is a work in progress.


Note that is also the same technique used to make ojos de dios.)

And Back to the Yarn...

Getting More Colors With Fewer Skeins

Based on the color-sorting instructions for the Caron Cakes pumpkin, I realized that if I'm not worried about knots, I can split up regular ombré and striped yarns by color the same way. I'm using this method for working Bernat's Koala Basket, splitting up Red Heart Soft Essentials Stripes yarn in Cobblestone Stripe for the accents for a koala based in Soft Essentials Greyhound with a Peony basket. The koala's inner ears will be out of the lightest of the three shades of cobblestone grey, while I'll use the other colors for the eyes and snout.


And What About That Freebie?

It appears that the promotional Caron Cupcake is in a colorway that is not for retail sale
The way to get it was to be one of the first several people to arrive for yesterday's free yarn class. But if your store didn't have ten people attending yesterday's class, the remainder was to be put aside for that store's next free yarn class. So... depending on how badly you want that colorway, you can sign up for that free yarn class and, if you are lucky, you might just score yourself one of these cute little cupcakes.


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