Many of us have odd bits of yarns and fibers around. They might be the small, pretty piles of snips from weaving in ends on a sweater, or they might be bundles of loom waste too nice to toss. Garneting is the process of turning yarn back into fiber. On an industrial scale, large machines can shred fabrics into fluff, but we can use typical spinning equipment for a gentler approach.
All those little scraps of fiber and yarn in your stash work wonderfully for this technique, which Spin Off’s project editor, Angela Schneider, shares in her new video course, Spinning Garneted Fibers. By transforming scrap yarns back into spinnable fibers using handcards, and blending those with silk and other fiber scraps from your stash, you can add bursts of color and texture to your handspun yarns for weaving, knitting, or crocheting.
Yarn Design
Spinning textured yarns using recycled, garneted fibers results in little flecks of texture and color in your yarns. It's a technique that's great for experimentation.
Try cutting up several yarns from your stash, even those you aren't sure about, to discover what types shred nicely. You might also try a solid-color base fiber and one with colors mixed in and see which results you like the best. And, don't forget to play with different garneted add-ins, incorporating colors that pop or using a monochromatic color scheme.
Here are a few of the nearly unlimited types of yarn you can create using garneted fibers.
Colorful singles for a woven scarf.
Unapologetic pops of color and texture spun into a soft single are perfect as the weft for a cozy scarf. Angela shows the finished project in the video.
The white singles yarn in the center with bold flecks makes a great weft yarn or could be knitted or crocheted into a squishy cowl.
Explore beyond wool.
Short-staple fibers such as cotton blend beautifully with sari silk scraps to create a unique yarn for knitting, weaving, crochet, and more.
Cotton and sari silk.
Explore beyond handcards
Garneting isn't just limited to handcards! Once you learn the techniques of garneting, try it on the blending board to make rolags and batts in your custom colorways.
Angela later used a blending board to create rolags in a colorway with overlapping gradients between the wool base and shredded rayon thrums for garnetting. Photo by Angela K. Schneider
Quiet palettes can highlight textures.
You can always go subtle, too, and combine one or more plies of garneted yarn with a solid base as Angela did in this sample exploring browns.
You can also blend garneted add-ins and base fibers in subtle color combinations.
Colorway explorations.
Angela discusses weaving with different blends and shows a scarf that also serves as a color and texture study.
Angela shows a color-block scarf with a range of palette explorations.
Learn this Technique
The Spinning Garneted Fibers video is designed for spinners who want to learn how to create texture in their handspun yarn and are ready to explore new color combinations, from bright pops to subtle blends. Expert spinning and weaving instructor Angela K. Schneider is here to help you learn this clever and easy technique for adding texture using garneted fibers. She’ll walk you through fiber options, preparation, and spinning and give you plenty of ideas so you can start playing with your own garneted-fiber yarns.
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Spend some time learning a new fiber prep with Angela.
View the Full Video
Angela’s mini-course will help you learn this clever and easy technique for adding texture using garneted fibers. With five easy-to-follow video chapters, you can learn this technique and spin your first garneted fiber yarns in an evening!
Use these timecodes to jump to a specific chapter:
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:49 Materials, Fiber Options, and Tools
- 5:45 Preparing and Blending Your Fibers
- 12:25 Spinning and Finishing Garneted Yarns