Spinning Beaded Yarn - Into the Whirled Collaboration

By Benjamin Krudwig


For our fiber collaboration this month, I had the pleasure of working with Into the Whirled. This month, I wanted to try my hand at spinning beaded yarn. There are a few ways to spin beads into yarn, but I think I might have chosen the most involved (but most secure) method.


The inspiration for my skein came from the name of the colorway; "Cripple Creek." As many Coloradans know, Cripple Creek was a hotspot during the gold rush of 1890 founded by Bobby Womack. When I was a child, my grandfather and my uncle wrote a musical called "Bobby Womack and the City of Gold" so the link between Cripple Creek and gold has stuck with me ever since. I chose gold beads for this reason.

What You'll Need

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    • Fiber: I used 2 four-ounce braids of Into the Whirled 50/50 Bombyx Silk/Merino Blend. Alternatively you can use 1 braid split in half.

    • one 24g tube of glass beads, with 1mm hole or slightly larger

    • needle threader

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    Directions

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      1. Divide the fiber: you’ll spin half of it without beads. For the remaining half, split it into 1/4" (or smaller) slivers, then pull these slivers into lengths about 6” to 10” long.

        Now you’ll add beads to half of the sections (one-quarter of the total amount).

      2. Grab a fiber section and thread the tip of the fiber through the needle threader loop.

      3. Using the needle threader, slip the fiber through the hole of the bead.

      4. Repeat until you’ve beaded half the split fiber.

        It helps to do all of the fiber prep at one time, so the spinning process isn't interrupted.

        If you are using just one 4-oz braid split in half, you may not have extra unbeaded fiber sections, and you may not use all of your beads. If you do have extra fiber, use it intermittently as you spin the beaded singles.

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      1. Join some of your non-beaded fiber sections to your leader and start spinning as normal. I found that a short forward draw was best with my fiber prep and with the beads.

      2. When you have some yarn on your bobbin, grab a beaded section of fiber and join to the single.

      3. As you get closer to the bead (Fig. 1), take a few fibers from just in front of the bead and fold them back to behind the bead (Fig. 2 and 3). Allow the twist to travel through/around the bead (Fig. 4.). Continue this process with all of your beaded fiber sections while interspersing any extra fiber sections here and there until you have spun all of your fiber.

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      1. Spin the remaining half of the fiber without beads. 

      2. Ply the two singles together. Though the beads are secure in the singles, plying the yarn adds strength to the overall yarn and added security to the beaded portions.

      3. After plying, I was left with an 8 oz skein of yarn (not counting the weight of the beads) that measured 470 yards of approximately worsted weight yarn. This skein of yarn is destined to become a woven wrap, using the yarn in both the warp and the weft.

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