XL-ZL feature idea: extensible antenna array stored in his back, unfolds into the shape of angel wings for extra-specialized or long-distance communication
over the past month or so, I've been working on an incredibly niche fanart piece for Silksong, and here it is- Widow-themed art yarn!
in spinner's terms, i would call this a three-ply semi-Hawser beaded art yarn! it's made of mostly silk & wool, with glass & metal seed beads and some scrappy mix-ins in the beige ply.
enormous process breakdown & more pics under the cut ->
HELLO. THIS WAS SUCH A PROCESS. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN.
this yarn was an adventure in loosening up and trying weird shit- i wanted to do my best to channel Widow's gleeful and neurotic, strained but unhinged, dignified yet yucky vibe.
Soundtrack
while working on this project, I mostly just listened to the silksong OST, which was wonderful! for stringing the beads onto the thread ply, though, i was listening to this on loop.
Blending
the black was pretty much ready to go from my stash, but i wanted to blend a bespoke raggedy beige for this project. it's built from a base of tussah silk and a natural light gray/beige BFL (these guys actually), with, just, a BUNCH of other scraps of things carded in. scraps include:
golden eri silk (from silkworms that left their cocoons)
peduncle silk (dark gray, kind of crinkly; from where the cocoon attaches to the branch)
bits of dyed corriedale wool in tan, cream, yellow, and black with rainbow
core wool (low-quality undyed wool usually used for bulk/shaping in needle felting)
random blended medium brown wool remnant from my stash
"walking pink" corriedale wool (my fave for spindle spinning while walking around)
dark gray, slightly smelly local romney cross wool i got from the farmer's market
brown alpaca fiber from the same farmer's market person
my favorite remnant i got from a mill ends bag years ago, a wool/silk/angelina/??? blend with bits of very light gray, white, dark brown, and gold
firestar/nylon mill ends in pale gold, peach, and a weird greenish blend
deckle cut silver angelina (wiggly, kind of thick and obtrusive- to evoke widow's spine pins!)
i blended the base first, then started throwing in mix-ins haphazardly, adding color and texture just based on vibes, and definitely overloading my carders, to get four frizzy, weird, beautiful beige batts.
Singles
the black single is a worsted prep, dyed merino wool & mulberry silk top stripped and held together. this was the easier single to spin- i spun it worsted with my usual short backward draw for a smooth, dark, and dense single.
the beige, however, was WAY different. i spun it woolen, long draw, just ripping handfuls off the batt and spinning them up one after the other. i had to be careful not to fall into my usual tight & uniform routine- i wanted this one to be loose and slubby and uneven to really capture that "old rag" vibe.
the white single is commercial silk thread from my local fabric store! it's a nice and shiny 3-ply. for Widow who can't spin her own silk, only manipulate existing threads, it felt right to use a premade commercial thread here.
Plying
i up-plied the black and beige together first (Z + Z -> Z), making a VERY energetic and rowdy intermediate yarn. i mostly held the black steady and let the beige squiggle around it, coiling over itself in a tense, uneven dance. i let this one sit on the bobbin for like two weeks to settle into its tension.
after that, time for the beading!!! the beads are for the bells that she throws at you, so i got a variety of metallic beads at the craft store: a bronze-colored glass seed bead, a sterling silver-plated metal seed bead, and a string of gold, silver, and bronze-colored metal 2mm round beads. i used a needle to thread a few dozen of them at a time onto the white silk thread, with just a vibes-based approach to which bead goes next.
for the final plying, i put both the bobbin of black & beige yarn and the spool of silk thread onto my lazy kate, grabbed a few beads in my hand, and fed them onto the yarn every few inches as i plied the silk and the black & beige together. i tried doing one ply in each hand at first, but ended up with a one-hand approach that freed up my other hand to control the twist coming in from the wheel.
going back and forth between which ply i was using as the core and which was the wrap made for some really cool effects! when i use the beige & black as the core and let the silk and beads wrap tightly around it, it gives a sort of strangled look; when i hold the silk as the core and let the beige & black untwist around it, it gives a flailing, dramatic vibe to the yarn.
Finishing
moving the yarn from the bobbin to the niddy was delightful- each bead did a little plink! plonk! as it came through the eye on the lazy kate. it sounded like a spider throwing bells at me.
i washed it to set the twist and so that i could snap it while it was wet and make the beige ply frizz out. i was a little worried that the silk strangles would come undone with the snapping, but they held together pretty well! it ended up fairly balanced, but i dried it under tension anyway just for the restlessness of it all.
Silksong is such an incredibly cool game, and i have a lot of spinning- and weaving-related feelings about it! hooray for silksong yarn!!! :^)
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