Hand Spun art yarn

 Last week when browsing Pinterest I found myself lusting after some art yarn to include in my felts. It had merino, silk, Wensleydale locks and all manner of good things in it ( a bit like chocolate cake really).  I was trying to persuade myself that this very expensive yarn would be worth the money when I realised that I already had all of the raw ingredients. I also have a spinning wheel and know how to use it!

I dug my spinning wheel out of the barn where it has been for about six years and found my Wensleydale locks.

The spinning wheel was a bit grumpy and needed a little TLC before it would work and the locks were very dirty. I coaxed the wheel in to life and washed, degreased and dyed the locks.

I  then rooted around my studio and found silks, soy bean fibres and some other goodies which I had already dyed. When I put them all together and spun them with some dyed merino this is what I ended up with 

Since then I have also dyed and spun some green yarn and here is my first felt containing it. I used the green yarn to represent the grasses and it felted in beautifully. No stitching was needed.