Fledgling Spinner

The Tour de Fleece is over and baby stayed on the inside, so the only newness in our house is 318.5 yards of worsted weight yarn! I spun most days, although I may have missed one or two official ones – don’t tell anyone! The singles were amazing to look at but it was hard to predict where some of the more unique shots of bright magenta or turquoise might land. I was completed winging it as I matched first single to final single bobbin, but I think it turned out to be a nice two ply, 10 wraps per inch (WPI). Click pictures to see details!

I am thinking the perfect destination for this yarn is a simple garter stitch project, something that will really show all the colors without competing like lace or cables might.

While baby continues to make himself comfortable, I am thinking of tackling another part of the stash, maybe the soy/silk I started on a drop spindle so many months ago. I might also dive into a secret fiber surprise I received yesterday – I will have pictures of that as well, but bit of fiber porn will have to wait; the fall Interweave is sitting here, begging to be read.

The Tour de Fleece is well underway, and I have been diligently trying to spin a little as required, despite misgivings about reaching the end of the tour. With the little man due a mere three days after the tour, it is quite possible that this is an exercise in futility. However, I am willing, at this stage, to chance it since it is fun to try something new – spinning with sparkly batts.

I have spun from batts one other time, the butterscotchy amber colored Cappuccino batts from my mom. The rest of my spinning has been mainly from rovings and my own rolags and hand carded fiber. These batts I am tackling are also from my mom, a surprise she purchased me from BohemiaFibers, and the colorway is Scottish Highlands (click on pictures to see larger size).

All at once I was overwhelmed with how many colors are in each batt. The variation and layers are what I imagine geologists and botanists would find in the highlands themselves. A gentle blend of corriedale, silk, and firestar, I wasn’t sure where to start, but settled on making a two ply, since barber poles, where two colors swirl around each other when you ply, seems unlikely to matter with so much variation.

My prep was simple:

I decided to lay out all of the batts, to get a sense of the overall colors. In this case, the variations in the wool weren’t significant, but the silks varied from batt to batt, so I tried to picture how it would be best to distribute them as singles. I decided I would just pull each batt apart, ripping them into quarters, and then drafting them and making little piles I could pick from randomly.

A far more clever planner and spinner could determine how many bobbins of singles they might spin, let’s say four, tear batts into the same number of sections, and then use one part of each batt on each bobbin in order.

I took the lazy way.

I drafted into balls of soft fiber, ready to spin up. The fibers were meticuously prepared, so there were not a lot of chunks to contend with, as I have observed in some smaller carded prep samples.  Any thick/thin issues I had were my own shortcomings while drafting the fiber between my hands.

For a great tutorial on drafting to prep to spin, check this video out or this one for drop spindle.

Into the second bobbin, the colors are just delightful shifts and highlights with sparkle throughout. Can’t wait to see how it plies up, but I need to wait because I WILL be following the rules I read somewhere that say you match your last bobbin with your first bobbin, second with the second to last, etc. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out ok!

When I first set out to make the fiery red yarn, my intent was to spin up the 4 ounces of wool I had and Navajo ply it. I figured that a three ply any other way would be a pain in the behind and a tangled mess to make without a fancy, tensioned lazy kate. Most of those are horizontal (as opposed to my vertical three bobbin holder) and have a strip of something that keeps them from spinning out of control when you pull yarn off of them (like the line and springs and hooks on the scotch-tension wheel). I thoughts without one of these, I would have three singles coming off the kate, dragging, twisting, and tangling. In the end, I was completely mistaken.

I had already started spinning one bobbin full of the wool, not really paying attention to how the two were divided when I took those stash pictures. I knew that the original kit, a gift from my mom, was for socks and included 4 ounces of superwash wool and 2 ounces of silk. They were all dyed in a colorway called ‘Fall Maple’, perfect reds & oranges with small sections of magenta. They were Blue Ridge Silk Works from the Dye Pot. Somewhere halfway through the second bobbin, I started to feel guilty for not using the silk. Most of my silk spinning experience has been with little clumps in batts or roving – how the heck was I supposed to fit 2 ounces of silk in with 4 ounces of wool? Sometimes I am not very clever.

Once it dawned on me that a 3-ply made the most sense, I tried to eyeball-portion out the remaining wool onto the two bobbins, then tackled the silk. If you have never spun with silk at a wheel, you probably know more than I did when I started. I changed to one of the smaller settings on the wheel so it would make more rotations for every treadle-push I made. It was slippery, but almost in a fun way…..I can imagine how someone with more control could spin whisper-fine singles to make lace-weight wool. I just tended to lose the end of the single as it got whisked into the flyer. In the end, I had three respectable singles of spun stuff.

Plying them together was much easier. Stacked on the lazy kate, I just tied the ends of all three together with the leader and spaced each of them between my fingers. No fancy kate or diz or tool required; just my hands. The close up show you how my three wobbly singles come together. The silk was obviously milkier in color, even though I am sure these are the same colors of dye. It gave such a neat shimmer to the final wool.

I should note that my estate sale find also helped make this possible. The wheel originally came with this kate and four bobbins. Since you need to have one bobbin on the wheel, this can make things kind of tedious (especially when bobbin #4 is still full of black alpaca singles). Since I have the spare kate (which was missing the fourth bobbin) I was able to just change things out without stopping to wind off the bobbin to make room for more yarn. Here they are! All 93 and 115 yards, respectively.

Thing is, I have more yardage and a slightly smoother-looking yarn than if I had defaulted to the Navajo ply. Don’t get me wrong – that technique seems perfect to me for painted rovings with large blocks of distinct color. This just seems more practical and now I have less silk abandoning guilt. Score one for the stash-busting!

So I know this batt was called cappuccino something, but it keeps making me think of warm amber, more so than it makes me imagine a frothy beverage.  All told, it delivered nearly 140 yards of a scrumptious two-ply that was nearing even in some areas and seems fairly balanced:

When it was all said and done, I cast on to make the ribbed edge of a sweater (which ended up in the frog pond for size related reasons). My intent was to fill the body of the sweater, actually a vest, with this Arctic Blue heathered wool I got from KnitPicks. The two colors looked amazing next to each other, so all was not lost. I proceeded to use it again to make a hat….also ending up with size issues, which I think was still pattern related.

On the handspinning front though, knitting with this two-ply brought home an interesting point to me. First of all, I do not “set the twist”. I am not really sure what that means or why I should do it, but I haven’t had any issues with my handspun yarn, so I don’t do it. Maybe it’s like gauge, where you regret it only on occasion. What I did notice was random splitting….which ties in with a video I saw on Interweave’s previews which suggested that if you spin the singles clockwise, and ply counter-clockwise, sometimes the resulting “twist” of the yarn may not suit your final purposes. I never gave it much credence, but apparently as an English style knitter (sometimes called throwing in that I tension and move my working yarn with my right hand), counter-clockwise plying may be best for me….while someone knitting continental-style (where tension and such for the working yarn is done with the left hand) might prefer a clockwise spun ply…..Crazy the things I still have to learn!

Anyways, my knitting is growing along with my belly as I work towards more baby related knitting projects. I have a hat in mind for the wee guy that has horns and needed a red yarn. I only have red roving handy, but the fiery colors in it will hopefully make the perfect yard for a Lil Devil Hat. I’ll try to keep you posted.

This month being my first Phat Fiber contribution, I have been enjoying the excitement that surrounds release and capture of said Phat boxes. My own arrived today, quickly opened and poured over by yours truly and a visiting Mom. But before I sit down to plan the inevitable smallish projects with all these wooly wonders, I wanted to take a bit of time to share photos of the blessed event. Video of contributions can be seen in the link on the prior post while following the boxes happens on the Rav group and the Phat Fiber Blog.

Since the December theme was space-y, I plucked some starry fabric from the stash to protect against pine needles in the yard while I tried to take advantage of fading winter sunlight:

This is a shot of everything from a distance……fleece in the back, coupons and stitch markers in the middle, and yarns up front. I also received two great patterns hiding in the wings there.

The yarns were lovely and I have to admit that “Pigs in Space” moniker that a couple of people used brought a smiley memory for me. I also love how creative some of the tags and cards are – everyone has wonderful designs AND colors for yarn. There was a great blue combo from Alaskan Nancy, Pigs in Space pink dominated blend from Gale’s Art, a great fingering called Moon Beam from Dame Emi that I keep trying to guess content on, a surprising and soft lovely from Anzula luxury fibers, almost earthy “Meteor” from By Rebekah with Love, and great greens from Wabi Sabi.

Here’s the two patterns, mostly covered up to not infringe on anyone’s pattern-y rights – one from Michelle Miller and another from Kira K. Also the clever wee WC Mercantile package, a rich, green merino hiding from FromEwetoYou, and a couple of the great stitch markers from winemakerssister and My Fair Bag Lady.

More fluffs – totally in love with the natural dyes from Vibrant Fibers and the feel of the BFL from Vivid Creations…also, can’t help but love the almost ethereal Natchwoolie sample. There are two hidden stitch markers – one fantastic big snagless from Dawning Dreams and a cute beaded one from Lampyridae.

On the other side, the large batt from Lampyridae is a delightful combo of fibers and Color Bug Yarns’ Pigs in Space is a fun wee sample plus what I think is a lamp work bead. Even though I have the wrong side facing, there is some recycled yarn from Jags Funky Fibers hiding in there, too.I still haven’t opened the Woolen Mill St. Yarns bag of bamboo cause I fear that I won’t stop touching it and it will get in the gingerbread I have to make later. Still a sucker for the cuteness of wee braids in the Unwind Yarn and Gems sample.

Overall, many , many hours of fiber feely lay ahead for me.

With Swatches!

So the Knit Witch roving in Vatican that I was spinning is now all done. I got a couple of 100+ yards of squishy two ply. It is a funny thing with two ply: two bobbins full of singles equal one bobbin with two ply and one with the end of whichever length of single was shorter. The math never makes sense to me….I mean it does. I get that I am stretching one of them a little more or when I predrafted one might have been thicker and ended up longer. I think it is the reason I favor Navajo ply though since that uses exactly that you have on the bobbin as it chains back on itself.

When I looked at the first bobbin with the sad leavings of the first skein of two ply, I figured I would save it for sampling. I would knit a swatch with the single, knit another with the finished two ply yarn, and a third swatch would come from a Navajo ply piece chained up from the other left-behind single.

My results were a fun, albeit kinda obvious now that I think on it, exploration into how the color play across the swatches for each:

The largest is the single ply, the so-called “energized” knitting that some books show. I am not a big fan of how the singles knit up, but it could just be me. The colors on that one obviously had the longest runs.

Looking at the two ply on the left and the Navajo on the right, I have to say I am glad at the way the two ply turned out. It seems to have softer borders or transitions between the colors (I am not sure what the technical term is). The same colors seem more distinct on the three ply and, with the “chain” in the Navajo, the color runs are more pronounced or concentrated to me. I can understand why the fingerless gloves with the Tuscany turned out the way they did. (Still love these colors).

In other news, I am being a button procrastinator. I don’t have  a large vat of buttons and these two seemed the best choices for the Sideways Spencer. I am kinda leaning towards the purple-y shell looking ones.

When I first started researching online to learn about hand spinning, I watched a few videos on YouTube. There was one by chicksinrubber that was a favorite – it made spinning on a wheel seem delightfully accessible. She has this sweetly honest part where she talks about how spinning keeps you from eating sweets, since you don’t want to get your spun yarns all sticky, it does make delightful sense.

Post Halloween, I could take it a step further and suggest my recent bout of wanting to start new projects (even though I have some lingering old ones) could be a good preventative for eating more lil’ chocolate bars and candy.

So far, I do have one knitted finished object to show the world – my first hand spun wool meets hand knit object. In fairness to the huge amount of pride I feel for this, it was a quick knit. And one of them is slightly larger than the other due to smaller spun product. Still – I have touched them and gushed over them a lot.

They are knit from the “Tuscany” roving from the Knit Witch. An Italian named roving becomes Merletto Mitts – Italian for lace according to the Ravelry description of the pattern – for a friend who is Italian. Hope she likes them!

In other start-itis news, I received some sock yarn from TurtlePurl – gorgeous and squishy and soon to be cast on for socks of some kind or another. I cast on a pair of Very Tall Socks for my friend in Toronto, I have gone a couple of repeats into a Sideways Spencer, and now I want a shawl. Oh, and I pre-drafted the “Vatican”. That is it though. Til I finish something else. Promise.

Halloween knitting somehow feels more appropriate with the yarn I spun from the Knit Witch roving. I am embarking on a small lace project and loving that the colors in the yarn worked out just like my handspun sample. Here’s to hoping I can draft the next one just as well. For now, I am trying to put aside that strong desire to see what “Vatican” roving looks like spun up. I might finish one half of this project and then reward myself…..a wee treat with a spinning trick or two.

I still haven’t wrapped my head around how much yarn is a good amount from roving. I would imagine it depends on how consistent and large around your singles are….then the number of ply can eat up a goodly amount of yardage. I have never wrapped my finished yarns around a ruler and am not sure what that would show me anyways…..but I was pretty thrilled by my progress with the first braid of Tuscany.

One of these babies is 83 yards and the other is 64 yards, based on the careful, albeit primative, counting done while wrapping them on a niddy noddy off the bobbin. Now I just need to find the right pattern to make what I want out of them, when I am done petting, photographing, and admiring them of course.

…or a week. It has now been seven days – give or take a couple of hours – since I started down this road. It is an incredible thing to see what changes as you learn and also how restrained you can be when it comes to the urge to pet and/or cuddle the first two ply skein that looks so fluffy and soft and inviting.

I give you the yarn bounty:They are organized from right to left in order of completion with a sock stuck in for the day where I began to worry about wobbly spinner’s knee and the funny click my ankle was making. I told my husband that I will have a new rule so as not to overdose on spinning – knit one day, spin the next. Barring work interruptions, I figure that will allow me to process all the alpaca goodies sometime before mid-winter when I hope to present a multi-coloured shawl to the gifter of fleece.

I hope that it will seem interesting to her; a shawl with all the natural colors from cream to black to brown of her alpaca flock (are they a flock?). That is my beginner spinning goal. I also had my first fleece coveting experience today. Never having spun before and then being chock full of fleece, I have never looked on fleece sites to shop.

A quick peek at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair website led me to a woman – Miss Babs – website which has all manner of beautiful colorways and dyed roving & top for spinners. These things will, of course, come later, when my singles lack the slubs (wee patches of thickness along my attempts at thin, even spinning).

I can still look though.