Thin thread with subtle but definite impact

One of the pleasures of painting with yarn and a crochet hook is to explore the subtleties of blending colors by combining yarns with threads.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

Oops…

this yarn isn’t

crocheted, it’s

spool knitted.

I spun it from

a variegated roving,

but found the color breaks

to be too sharp.

So, I plied it with a thin

slubby strand of brown silk thread.

This toned down the color breaks and made the yarn more visually cohesive.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

This golden

yarn was just a little

bit flat looking.

Combining it with a

strand of very thin

variegated thread gives

it depth and more

life- it’s a far more interesting

fabric than when the gold

yarn is used on it’s own.

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

I crocheted these two

Shadow Scarves

using  red merino/possum

lace weight yarn from New Zealand.

The shadow scarf on the left

was crocheted with just the red yarn

and a size ‘H’ (5 mm) hook and is

delightful.

I wanted to see what would happen if

I combined a strand of the variegated thread

with the red yarn. I also wanted to try taking

the laciness factor up a notch, so I went up

one size of hook, to an ‘I’ (5.5 mm).

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

The variegated thread

really punches up the

impact of the plain red yarn.

Even though the variegated thread

is very thin, it has tiny slubs,

so it dramatically increases the

texture of the finished fabric.

Wonderful!

Oh…. I just realized that the one

thing that I haven’t done (doh) is

to crochet or knit the variegated thread completely on it’s own.

I’ve been so caught up in combining it with other yarns, that I forgot to try it on it’s own.

This particular thread came from Salt Spring Saori, and is kind of one of a kind, I think, as Terri brings in unique yarns from Japan.

Watch second hand stores for interesting threads and yarns- and garage and yard sales, too! Also, don’t be afraid to combine serger threads and sewing threads with your yarns to create interesting crocheted, knitted, spool knitted or woven fabrics.

You never know where you’ll find fun threads and yarns. And, when you put them together with other yarns, you might just be surprised by the fascinating textiles that you can create!