I’ve had this idea for a while: dyeing wool nepps that I bought years ago in a wide variety of colors, and then spinning white wool with these colorful nepps tucked inside.
And then it hit me: is this how tweed is made?! And the answer is… YES!
So, it turns out I didn’t actually invent the process for making tweed… because it was already a thing. 😛
Oh well… I finally gave it a try! My main concern was: would the nepps actually stay inside the wool?
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To be fair, I haven’t dyed a skein of yarn in years, and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until now. While digging through the back of my yarn closet, I struck gold: a full kilogram of natural alpaca yarn. I originally bought it for a project that never happened, but seeing it there, I knew exactly what I had to do…
Or so I thought!
My heart was set on those tiny, intense speckles. In the past, I’ve always used the dry method: sprinkling dye powder directly onto the fiber. It’s the most effective way to get those tiny, intense “pops” of color, but I didn’t want to deal with the mess of powder dyes this time.
I decided to challenge myself: Can you get perfect speckles using liquid acid dyes?
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After my last attempt at “boring yarn” didn’t quite hit the mark, I decided to lean into the chaos. If I couldn’t make it subtle, I was going to make it loud. Enter: the high-voltage purple and yellow 2-ply with, not one, but two different angelina colors!
This might be a hugely unpopular opinion, but please hear me out.
I LOVE yarn. I love art yarn. I love the pure luxury of it. Give me all the precious wools, the silk shimmer, the hand-dyed speckles, and the sparkling Angelina. I am a sucker for a perfectly blended gradient—those tropical sunsets, deep purples meeting light peach, or moody teals and golds. I buy it, I spin it, and I admire it… in the skein.
But then… I KNIT IT.
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