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Can you re-spin wool yarn?

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Hey folks.

So I recently got into nalbinding. I picked up a big bag of wool yarn second hand and it has a smaller bag in it with a bunch of small pieces.

Can this be re-spun?

If so where can I find instructions on how to get this done?

Thanks!
 
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Hello.

There are lot of wonderful things that can be done with yarn.

Can you tell me more what you mean by re-spun?  

Would you like to ply two or more together?  Or maybe add more twist to existing?  Are you looking to break it down to the individual fibres then card it and spin it into new yarn?  Or are you thinking to blend the small bits of yarn with some fibre and create a new art yarn?

What do you envision the final yarn looking like?
 
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r ranson wrote:Hello.

There are lot of wonderful things that can be done with yarn.

Can you tell me more what you mean by re-spun?  

Would you like to ply two or more together?  Or maybe add more twist to existing?  Are you looking to break it down to the individual fibres then card it and spin it into new yarn?  Or are you thinking to blend the small bits of yarn with some fibre and create a new art yarn?

What do you envision the final yarn looking like?



There's a bunch of pieces of yarn that are a few inches long. Not quite long enough to do anything with for nalbinding. So i'm wondering if i can somehow re spin them to combine them?
It's probably a silly question.
 
r ranson
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Not a silly question at all.

One way to do it is to break down the yarn to the individual fibres, re-card them, then spin them.  This process is called shoddy and used to be a very popular method for recycling cloth in the 19th Century.  After the fifth or sixth time as shoddy, the fibres are too small to remake cloth, they were added to paper slurry for rag-paper (most often used for money).  It's a bit labour intensive without the equipment, but fun to pick apart the yarn bits while sitting in front of the TV.

Another way is to blend the yarn bits with fibre then spin them into yarn.  These are called trash batts (although there is nothing trashy about them) and are loads of fun to make and create deliciously fun yarn.  Much easier than shoddy but a less durable finished cloth.
 
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I had no idea! Can't wait to share this info with daughter. She loves yard projects.
 
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If your yarn is all non-acrylic then another crafting or fabric creation option might also be Needle Felting, which you can do in your sink or a large tub. If you have fun or interesting colors in this scraps collection, and an artistic/creative streak, you might enjoy "painting with yarn" by needle felting the scraps onto/into a felted base fabric that you treat as your "canvas". This could make an interesting wall-hanging/drape that could serve double duty, beyond being decorative, hung as an added insulation barrier just as castle tapestries were hung to cut down on drafts.

Smaller fun needle felting projects might be children's toys or ornaments. Starting by felting a base body of a bird or animal in a neutral or uniform body-color, then with needle felting method you can use your orts to add details. A little googling will provide loads of inspirations and if you think you'd enjoy those types of small projects you may end-up with a whole stash of creations for next year's holiday gifts. You can also see examples of some pretty interesting needle felted "jewelry" on Etsy. There's a whole technique for making small felted balls that essentially take on the role of beads and can be very easily then strung together as a necklace, etc.

If your orts offer a less than inspiring color collection, or perhaps you're not feeling quite so artistically inclined, remember that orts are also great for stuffing toys and pillows. Sew a muslin "skin" for the toy or pillow, then stuff away. Good for disposing of small qualities of clip ends from all your other yarn projects. And if they end up too ugly, or too small, to be appreciated as toys for kids... stitch a braided tail on any ole shape and cats will love to swat it under the sofa (if you stuff some nip inside it then it will even be worth retrieving from under the sofa too).

If you come up with quite a large supply of scrap ends, you might consider making a wool alternative to a down coverlet (anywhere from bed sized or lap sized) by sewing a muslin skin stitched down in rows of "tubes" that you stuff with all your collected wool orts.

Like so many things in permaculture, once orts breakthrough the mental firewall that trains us to think of scraps as useless disposable waste ... we find ourselves swimming in a sea of possibilities... as there are always lots of ideas for what we ort to do with our orts. And, when all other uses seem exhausted, we're still left with a great underutilized Scrabble word that is remarkably stackable and an easy bridge to the hard to reach triple word score squares! ...plus useful when you're down to using up those end-of-game leftover letters... which, as "small leftovers" are themselves orts of a sort too.

Here's to a Permie celebration of the whole notion of making all Sorts of Use of Orts of all Sorts... be they wooly or otherwise.
 
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