by Ashley Weber
Fractal Rainbow
by Ashley Weber
I came across these rainbow merino braids at a farmers market in North Carolina while visiting friends for the weekend. I loved how vibrant they were, and I knew I wanted to get two braids so I’d have enough for a generous woven shawl. I decided to go with a fractal technique because I love the variety and rhythm it creates in the color repeats.
Specs
DK weight
I came across these rainbow merino braids at a farmers market in North Carolina while visiting friends for the weekend. I loved how vibrant they were, and I knew I wanted to get two braids so I’d have enough for a generous woven shawl. I decided to go with a fractal technique because I love the variety and rhythm it creates in the color repeats.
Specs
DK weight
What You'll Need
Materials and Equipment
- 8 ounces of merino: two 4 ounce rainbow braids dyed by Chatham Fibers
- Schacht Matchless, set up in double drive tension system
- Medium speed whorl—I used the smallest groove
- Schacht Tensioned Lazy Kate
- 4 bobbins total, 2 for singles and 2 for plying
Directions
- To prepare my fiber, I split the first braid in half lengthwise, into two 2 ounce lengths that maintained all the rainbow color changes. The second braid, I split into lengthwise into four 1 ounce lengths. One bobbin was spun with the two 2 ounce portions and the second bobbin was spun with the four 1 ounce portions. I maintained the same order of rainbow colors for both bobbins.
- My spinning technique with merino tends to be continuous backward worsted draw. The movement keeps me from locking my body too tightly so I can spin for longer periods, and I find it gives me a good balance of consistency and speed in my spinning.
- After spinning both braids as singles, I plied them so that each skein has one full rainbow repeat from the first bobbin, and two full rainbow repeats of the second bobbin. Both were wet-finished to set the twist.
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