Colour Collab // Debbie Held: Winter Skies
At the beginning of the year, we invited our spinning instructors to help us create a collection of colourways that inspire them during the winter season. What they shared was thoughtful, personal, and deeply beautiful, and our dye team brought those ideas to life in what we call the Colour Collab Collection: Winter Inspirations. Now, each instructor has spun their custom colourway, and we’re honoured to share their work with you. Whether inspiration comes from a photograph, a colourway, or a finished yarn, we love sharing that creative spark with our fibre arts community. Debbie Held: Winter Skies is the fourth post in the series.
Please check back to see all five posts as they are released:
- Kim McKenna- River Walk
- Diana Twiss- Shadows on Snow
- Rachel Smith- Wesley’s Field
- Debbie Held- Winter Skies
- Katrina Stewart- Sprinkles of Joy
Fibre is SweetGeorgia Polwarth+Silk, and the skein was spun in SweetGeorgia Corriedale.
Winter Skies
The Inspirational Photograph
“I recently snapped some early-morning photos of the sunrise as I was walking. I was marvelling at how changes in cloud coverage gift us bright, clear colours in cooler months, even all the way down here in the Deep South.“
The Fibre: Polwarth+Silk & Corriedale
Polwarth+Silk: Polwarth wool is exceptionally soft, with a low micron count that often leads it to be mistaken for Merino. The difference lies in its longer staple length, which makes it easier to spin while still offering that luxurious softness we love in fine wools. We’ve added silk for sheen and strength, creating a fibre blend that feels beautiful next to the skin. It’s perfect for garments, scarves, and anything you’ll want to wrap yourself in.
Corriedale: Corriedale is a favourite among many spinners, and for good reason. It’s easy to manage while spinning, takes colour beautifully, and is durable and soft enough for next-to-skin use. Many beginners start with Corriedale because it leads to satisfying results right from the start.
The Handspun Yarn
Whether she’s jumping between wheels, e-spinners, and spindles or experimenting with fibre prep, Debbie is always discovering fresh and creative ways to make yarn. You’ll find her full step-by-step process just a little further down in this post.
Crepe-Spun Sock Yarn
Debbie: “My goal was a crepe-spun sock yarn, which I achieved, but the yarn is slightly under-plied.
I went way out of my comfort zone by breaking up the colours of an otherwise perfectly dyed representation of my Winter Skies inspiration photo(s). Why? Because I wanted to showcase the colour to the maximum in the knitted fabric, and controlling the colour runs and plying them against the darkest colour (my favourite part of this colourway) allowed for a more contrasted marling in the finished yarn.”
Debbie Held
Debbie Held is a freelance writer, a contented real-life spinster, and an international fibre-arts educator. She writes recurring spinning-related content for Spin Off magazine, in print and on the web, as well as for PLY magazine, SweetGeorgia Yarns, and more.
Debbie and her Persian cat, Marty, live on an urban farm in Atlanta, Georgia, where both enjoy watching the Shetland sheep that roam beneath their windows. Debbie’s new book, The Spinner’s Blending Board Bible, is available from Stackpole Books.
Debbie’s Courses
Spinning with e-Spinners
How different is it to spin on an e-spinner? What stays the same, and what changes? With so many models on the market, how do you know which one is right for you? In this course, Debbie walks us through what to consider when choosing an e-spinner and how to get started using these amazing electrically powered spinning machines.
Spinning with Supported Spindles
Spinning doesn’t have to be expensive or take up much space. With something as simple and compact as a supported spindle, you can get started easily. Best of all, it’s incredibly portable, so you can spin throughout your day, wherever you are. Join Debbie in this course as she guides you through the essentials of spinning on a supported spindle.
Blending Boards: From Rolags to Roving
A blending board can be one of the most versatile tools in your spinning toolkit, which is exactly why Debbie wrote an entire book about it. In this colour-filled fibre prep course, she shares her love for the blending board while guiding you through techniques like managing colour blending, working with add-ins, and creating rolags, batts, and more.
Spinning Textured Yarns
Spinning yarn isn’t always about making the most consistent or smooth skeins. There’s so much more room for creativity. From playful techniques to core spinning and beyond, you can turn your yarn into a true expression of art. In this course, you’ll learn how to let go of perfection and have fun with your fibre.
Not yet a member of the School? We invite you to come and see what it is all about! Use the code: EXPLORETHESCHOOL to save 15% on an All-Access monthly membership! All-Access gets you access to knitting, crochet, dyeing, spinning, weaving, tapestry, punch needle, and more! Or, choose to sign up for just the Spinning membership. Come take a look, we have something for everyone!
More About Debbie Held
Debbie also creates content on the SweetGeorgia site. Browse Debbie’s articles to discover techniques, refine your skills, and spark creativity.
Colour Collab // Debbie Held: Winter Skies
Equipment
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1 Spinning Tool of Choice
Materials
- 1 Braid SweetGeorgia Corriedale Fibre in the Winter Skies colourway
Instructions
Splitting the Braid
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After unchaining the fibre and examining the colour runs, split the braid horizontally, in half, at the fold point. Now, pull out the grey-blue fibres, it's ok to allow a bit of the nearby red-grey to come along too. Keep the remaining fibre in sequence order. Weigh the fibre to confirm you have around 1 oz of grey-blue fibre for a contrasting bobbin.
Spinning the Fibre
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Now, we need to spin the fibre, each to their own bobbins: Bobbin 1 (spun S): ochre to orange-rust to red Bobbin 2 (spun S): red to orange-rust to ochre, this will reverse the direction of this colour sequence Bobbin 3 (spun Z): grey-blue
Plying
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Ply bobbins 1 & 2 together to the right, Z-Twist, and double the usual twist amount.
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Take the newly formed 2-ply yarn, and ply it to the left, S-Twist, with bobbin 3.
Notes
Debbie’s Spinning Notes
Where I Went Awry and How I Fixed the Problem Adhering to and understanding your ply twist is vital to a successful crepe spin, as is a consistent all-around twist per inch (TPI) for all of your strands. Most misses that I’ve seen are from an under-plied initial 2-ply setup. Knowing this, I still wasn’t as careful as I should have been in maintaining speed and twist amount in my initial S-spun strands, so plying them was already a chore. Plus, my Majacraft Gem needed some routine maintenance, and I thought (incorrectly) that I could get one more spin out of it beforehand. I hated my initial result, which was ropey and slightly over-twisted anticlockwise (aka the spin direction of my two starting strands), instead of showing as the intended rounded outcome. To fix the yarn, I spun it very quickly back through in the “Z” direction, which pushed the inner 2-ply core out toward the opposing dark grey “Z” strand, softening the hand of the yarn and creating a much better-looking crepe yarn. It’s still a bit under-spun, but a lovely result nonetheless. Miscellaneous Spinning Notes I used the super-fast whorl and accompanying flyer; I wound off all singles prior to plying. Final Stats- 200 yds
- 3 oz (I lost .5 oz in the final fix)
- 14 wraps per inch (WPI)
- 1,066 yards per pound (YPP); heavy-fingering weight
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