What to do with fractal spinning

I'm in the middle of an experiment with fractal spinning.  Check out this post for what that means, in case you missed it.  I finished the spinning last night and got the skein washed so it now looks like this:

Pretty but to me it's hard to tell any difference between this and any other plied yarn spun any other way.  Maybe after it's knitted, I'll be able to tell the difference.

So I started knitting.  Again, it's kind of hard to tell the difference but I like it nevertheless.

The scarf I started with it is 43 stitches wide and worked in a basket weave pattern.  Because knit stitches are wider than they are tall, I made the stitch pattern 5 stitches wide and 6 rows long.  In case you'd like to knit yourself (or someone else) an interesting scarf, you don't need fractal spun yarn, any good sport to DK weight will do.  I'm using US size 4 needles because my yarn has thicker sections and thinner sections.  For my yarn, these create a nice fabric.

I casted on 40 stitches and worked knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for about 8 rows before I started the pattern.  On the first row of the pattern stitch, I increased 3 stitches across to end up with 43 stitches.

Pattern stitch
Row 1: K2, P2, (K5, P5) repeat bracketed stitches to last 4 stitches, P2, K2
Row 2: P2, K2, (P5, K5) repeat bracket stitches to last 4 stitches, K2, P2

Repeat Rows 1 & 2 twice more

Row 7: P2, K2, (P5, K5) repeat bracket stitches to last 4 stitches, K2, P2
Row 8: K2, P2, (K5, P5) repeat bracketed stitches to last 4 stitches, P2, K2

Repeat Rows 7 & 8 twice more

Repeat these 2 sections until your scarf is the length you desire (or your yarn is almost finished) and end with 8 rows of K2/P2 ribbing.  You'll need to decrease 3 stitches on your last pattern row.

Once its washed and blocked, you'll be able to see the basket weave pattern much more clearly but even if you don't block it, I think it's still got an interesting light texture.

I'm not sure how much yarn I ended up with so I'm not sure how long the scarf will be but I don't think it will be very long.  I think this pattern would work really at any length but I think it would be best as a short or medium length.

Spinning Fractally

I've had a fascination with fractal spinning since I first heard about it.  The idea is that you can prepare your dyed fiber in such a way as to create different lengths of color repeats that create interesting effects when plied together.  The fascination is in the mystery of the math, I suppose, in the way a mathematical idiot is drawn in by the magic of the unknowable.

What??!

Let me 'splain.

If you have a length of dyed roving, you can split it in half.

 

Half will be spun in one long piece, making the section of each color very, very long indeed.

 

The other half can be done in different ways from what I've seen.  The way I did it is to split the second half in half and then half of that in half again.  I started spinning with the smallest strips and then the wider strip and then the wider strip.  So there was a 1/2, a 1/4, a 1/8 and 2 - 1/16 size strips.  I started with the 1/16 strips and worked my way up.

My first bobbin was the many strips with longer and longer color repeats.  The second bobbin will be the first half strip with its long repeats and then I'll ply the 2 bobbins together. 

I have no idea how it will turn out but we'll find out soon.

If you want more information about fractal spinning, see the blog post from Roving Crafters here.