Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update
Recently I was at Value Village and I spotted this super bulky yarn. I didn’t have a use for it as yarn, but thought it would be nice to spin. I have a fondness for blues and purples.
Lion Brand Rapido is a Super Bulky yarn. This colour is called Tangy and it is 74% acrylic, 22% wool and 4% other fibres.
The yarn has a thin black binder or ply thread. That black thread needed to be removed before I could spin it. So I sat down and slowly pulled and then cut the black thread away. I was left with three balls of roving. I then started spinning. After a few days work I had two bobbins of singles. As you can see, one bobbin is much fuller than the other.
Next I started plying. Initially I did a simple 2 ply yarn, using both bobbins. When the smaller bobbin of singles ran out I was finished with the 2 ply. With the remaining singles I made a 3 ply yarn by chain plying the singles.
The completed yarns look nice and I love both the 2 ply and 3 ply yarns.
In other news…. I have been continuing to monitor the Bird Nesting Balls (see Bird Nesting Balls 2024 for more info). We have many American Goldfinches in the yard. The Goldfinches diet is 100% seeds. As a result, they time their nesting to coincide with seed availability which means they nest later than most of the other birds. Recently I have seen the Goldfinches collecting wool, alpaca, bear and dog fur from my nesting balls. Yeah! (Getting photos of them collecting the fibre is much harder.)
Our yard has also seen a number of other visitors. In addition to the steady stream of birds and Raccoons, we have had a fox visiting us quite regularly and last week this bear popped in looking for food. I was sitting at my desk about 3 m from the bird feeder and their appearance was quite the surprise. Luckily we were able to convince it move along by making a bit of noise and the feeders were undamaged. I am waiting a while before putting out more attractive smelling suet or peanuts though.
12 thoughts on “Rapido Yarn and a Bird Fibre Update”
Love the way you transformed the Rapido! The finches are pretty – yours are more golden than those we see in europe. I’ll bet you’re glad there was glass between you and the bear 🙂
The Goldfinches are neat. They change their feathers twice a year. In the winter they are dark and in the spring they slowly brighten. Then one day you look out the window and they are blazing Yellow again.
And yes, I was very glad there was a window between me and the bear.
Your yarn has turned out well….what will you create with it?
And many thanks….you’ve given me an idea (hopefully I don’t forget before I can get around to it. I will try carding some similar-ish thick golden yellow yarn that I bought a few years ago, now lingering in my stash patiently awaiting its debut!
Oh boy, what an incredible collection of wild life. You have your own zoo, but as already mentioned, I’m glad you had a safety barrier! The largest critters we might see roaming around other than a fox, is an escaped cow or rampaging herd of cows!
I look forward to seeing what you do with your golden yellow yarn.
A great read!:)
That yarn looks gorgeous Carlene, and looks completely different but just as gorgeous when properly spun. What will you do with it do you think?
When I was spinning (before I discovered felting) I quite often used to wind my singles off using a ball winder, which gave me the option of plying from that ball using the centre pull thread and the outside thread so that I never ended up with some singles left unplied. That was usually because I’d no idea how much yarn I’d got on the bobbin in the first place, not being a “proper” spinner as you obviously are.
What a beautiful bird the American goldfinch is. Ours in the UK is pretty but has very little gold on it. Just a flash on the edge of its wing. Yours do seem to like bear fibre. I was wondering if they ever get any of it direct from the donor in the wild when up popped your bear!
What a great post.
Ann
Most of the time I ply from a center pull ball. This time around I decided to ply from the 2 bobbins because the second bobbin seemed pretty full. (I would not describe myself as a proper spinner. I am enthusiastic and can do a few types of yarn really well. But there is lots to learn still. Like long draw… one of these days I’ll try to master that.)
I have seen videos of birds harvesting fiber directly from dogs that were shedding. But I have never witnessed such a thing in person. I imagine that in the wild animals shed and leave clumps of fur stuck on trees, branches, etc and the birds can pick it up for use.
I would have never thought to take a yarn and spin it into something else. I like your results. What fun to watch all the bird action as well as the other animals. We had a bear a couple of summers ago but haven’t seen him for a while. It’s nice to be able to photograph him through the window for sure.
I am amazed at how great your yarn looks. I would have walked right on by a yarn that had that much acrylic! Of course, I am not a spinner, so maybe I just can’t see the possibilities!
I am glad the birds are enjoying the fibre. So far this year our bear has not made an appearance. He must have found enough blackberries before he got to our place. The yarn does look good. I never look at the yarn. It would probably make great socks.
Wow, what a transformation in that yarn! Love the final version (much, much more than I did the original).
A few of my knitting friends and I play a game entitled How Will I Die? in which (unsurprisingly) we entertain notions of how our deaths might encroach upon us in the future. Now, why is this relevant, you ask? My friends are pretty sure I’ll die trying to make friends with a wild animal, and the latest version involves me trying to say hello to a bear – they might be right, I squeed with delight at your photos! 😅
LOL! I do like seeing the wild animals, from a distance. We love our yard because we share it with so many critters. As long as they don’t try to come into the house we are happy to share with them. Squirrels in the attic had to be evicted and the mice that come in have to be caught. But so far that is all we have had to deal with.