TwistedLoops

Last March, I posted the fiber I got from Briar Rose Fibers for the Ply by Night Ravelry spin-along.  It was a mix of interesting colors, and I really had no idea how it would look spun into yarn.  The colors were misted throughout the top, not done in sections like most fiber I had worked with.  I decided to jump right in and see what would happen.  For me, the spin-along was all about the learning process, and I wasn’t concerned with what my finished yarn might look like.

By May, I had spun the four ounces into a single. After spinning, I was measured the length of the single and discovered that I had approximately 300 yards. I was worried that I wouldn’t have a good use for 150 yards of a bulky yarn.  I was also concerned that plying it would muddy the subtle color changes in the yarn, and I really wanted to preserve them.  So, I decided to leave it as a single, and try to find a pattern that would suit it.

Since I really liked the yarn I had spun, I wanted a project that would show the beauty of the yarn and not cause too much wear on the delicate single.  I settled on the idea of a small shawl.  That time last year predates the explosion of small shawl patterns that are now all over Ravelry, so it was a bit of work to find one that I thought would work.  I settled on the Little Arrowhead Shawl.  It had a simple pattern with basic edging, and could easily be adapted to the amount of yarn that I had.

This shawl sat unblocked in my closet until recently.  I blocked it and my Citron shawl at the same time.  This shawl was the first item I ever knit out of my handspun.  It is the project that really convinced me that continuing with spinning would allow me to create yarns that I would like to knit with.  Up until then, I enjoyed spinning, but wasn’t really sure where it fit into my overall crafting agenda.

I’m really pleased with the way the shawl highlights the color changes in the yarn.  I do think the two were a good match.  I wish that I had used a slightly larger needle to make it a bit more open and also a little larger, but it’s a nice, warm, small shawl. 

The pattern is available free online as one of the staff projects from the Interweave Knits, Summer 2006 issue.  It’s also in the Interweave Knits, Accessories 2009 issue.

Pattern: Little Arrowhead Shawl
Designer: Pam Allen
Source: Interweave Knits
Yarn: handspun
Fiber:  Briar Rose Fibers Blue Faced Leicester
Yardage: 310 yards
Needles: US7 (4.5mm)
Finished size:  22 inches tall x 48 inches wide

Started: May 3, 2009
Completed: May 10, 2009

I finally knit my first pair of handspun socks.  I finished knitting them in December, but I just finished up weaving in the ends and blocking them.

The yarn was spun from a Dicentra Designs 80% Merino / 20% Tussah Silk roving in the Margartiaville colorway that I received for my birthday.  I started spinning it on Labor Day and finished the spinning in early November.  The yarn is my first true 3-ply yarn.  I managed to spin about 350 yards from the four ounces of roving.

The yarn had a lot of color changes, so I decided to keep it simple with a simple 60-stitch stockinette pattern.  I used the Welsh Heel from Knitting Vintage Socks with an eye of partridge pattern on the heel flap.  For the toe, I use a variation on the Flat Toe from Knitting Vintage Socks.   The toe calls for decreasing four stitches every other row until there are 24 stitches remain and then finishing the toe.  I prefer to continue decreasing four stitches every round until eight stitches remain.  I then use kitchener stitch to finish the toe.

I haven’t worn the socks yet, but I’m excited about them because they are so soft.

Project: 60-stitch handspun socks
Designer: Me!
Yarn: Handspun Dicentra Designs Merino/Tussah Silk
Quantity: 350 yards
Color: Margaritaville
Needles: US1.5 (2.5mm)

Started: November 12, 2009
Completed: December 9, 2009

The thread plied yarn I posted about before is finally finished.

I began by winding it off the bobbin and on to my niddy-noddy.

You can see how much twist is still in the yarn as I took it off of the niddy-noddy.  I’m used to the yarn twisting on itself lightly, but this was a bit more than I usually see.

I soaked the yarn for about an hour in hot water in the sink. It then hung to dry for several days (it’s damp here in Oregon). I didn’t get a photo of it hanging after it soaked and dried, but the twist seen in the photo above was gone. It hangs straight in a nice loop.

Overall, I’m pleased with the yarn. There are areas that are still somewhat tightly spun and areas where the fiber is nearly unspun and looks as if it could come apart with the slightest tug.  I feel like it was a good attempt at a new technique, and I’ll definitely try it again.

I’ve been working on spinning yarn using some new-to-me techniques over the past week or so.  It all started when I decided to spin up one of the batts that I made back in July, when I borrowed Kate’s drumcarder.  I’d been photographing them to put into my Ravelry stash, and I thought I should start using them. The particular batt in question was yellow, blue and white.  However, when I pulled it apart to begin spinning, I was surprised to find a layer of green in the middle.  The green was definitely added as a color, and not just a blend of the yellow and blue.

I didn’t put much thought into what I wanted to spin, I just sat down with the batt and started spinning.  When I had spun all 2.25 ounces as a single one one bobbin, I realized that I would have to decide what to do with it.  I’d spun it tightly enough that I didn’t feel that it would make a suitable single.  It would be too wiry as a single, so it definitely needed to be plied to soften it (this is what I get for not thinking about what/how I want to spin).

So, I explored my plying options.  I could navajo ply it on itself.  But, the color repeats in the single were short and the colors often wrapped around each other, and I didn’t think that this was an optimal case for this type of plying.  I could spin a single in one of the colors from the batt and make a two-ply yarn.  But, I had wanted to just use this fiber by itself.  I’m not sure what I want to do with the coordinating solid colors, but I wasn’t prepared to use them yet.

All that left me with (that I know of) was plying with another yarn.  I’ve got Intertwined which is all about making art yarns.  It’s been used before when I attempted the supercoil yarn, which I was very pleased with.  I remembered that there was instructions for thread plying yarn in the book.  I have a huge cone of royal blue wool/mohair blend lace weight that I picked up for next to nothing at the thrift store.  This seemed like a perfect opportunity to use it.

The important technique to remember when thread-plying a yarn is that the thread should be held with tension and the single allowed to wrap around it at an angle (as seen above), with only a little tension applied.    I’ve attempted thread-plying once before, and I did it the other way, allowing the thread to wrap around the yarn.  That skein is a bit of a disaster.  The thread is loose and sticks out from the yarn all over, which is not the effect I had been going for.

Depending upon the angle at which you hold the yarn against the thread, and the thickness of the single you can achieve different effects with plying.  Above you can see that just the thickness of the single changed as I kept the angle of the yarn against the thread consistent.   For the most part, my single was fairly thin compared to the yarns I see in the book and the art yarns that I’ve seen other people spin.

After the plying was finished, the wrapped yarn filled a good portion of the bobbin.  I’m a little concerned about how much the yarn seems to stick out from the base thread.  If you look at the yellow towards the middle of the bobbin in the photo below, you can see what I mean.  The single seems to almost float around the thread.  That is very different than the relationship between the thread and yellow single at the left/back end of the bobbin.  There, the two seem to form a gentle wave.  I’m hoping that when the yarn is wound off the bobbin and then soaked, that the arrangement of the yarn and thread will even out a bit.

This yarn is still sitting on the bobbin and needs to be soaked, dried and measured.  Photos of the final yarn are coming soon.

Back in May on Fiber Fun Day, I made some watermelon colored batts.  I’d given these batts to my Mom as a Mother’s Day present with a promise that I would take them back, spin them and knit them into something for her.

I started spinning them back in July.  I decided to do a simple two-ply yarn.  I spun each batt as a single and plyed them together.  I wasn’t aiming for any particular weight, and I ended up with approximately 275 yards of mostly aran weight yarn.  Like all of my yarns so far, it suffers from some inconsistency in thickness.

After the yarn was spun and plied, I then faced the challenge of what to make.  Mom and I had discussed making a “modern lace” wrap for her.  She wasn’t into the idea of a traditional shawl.  I spent some time wandering through handspun lace projects in Ravelry and stumbled upon this project.  It was a heavier-weight Wisp modeled as a off-center wrap.  Mom loves ponchos and the like, so I knew this was perfect for her.

For my project, I originally cast on more stitches than the pattern called for and had a wide (top-to-bottom) Wisp, but not enough yarn to give it length to fit around an adult.  It would have fit like a glove instead of draping nicely.  So, I ripped out all of the knitting.  For the second attempt, I cast on fewer than the original a pattern and knit until I ran out of yarn.  When I finished, I had less than two or three yards of  yarn remaining.

The biggest challenge for this project was finding suitable buttons.  We don’t have a great button supply locally.  Since I didn’t shop for buttons until mid-December, and I wanted Mom to have this for Christmas, I had to settle for what I could find.  I ended up with these shell buttons.  I would have preferred to have 5 of them, but I could only find 4 in this size and color.  I may continue to look for buttons and send Mom some new ones.

I heard from Mom on Christmas day and she was excited about the present.  I don’t have any photos from her, so we’ll have to settle for a quick shot of me modeling it before shipping it off.  In the end, the project ended up to be what I was looking for.  It’s lace and open, but without the frilly, old-fashioned look that Mom was looking to avoid.  I think this will work perfect to keep her warm in those air-conditioned Arizona buildings.

Pattern:  Wisp
Designer:  Cheryl Niamath
Source:  Knitty, Summer 2007
Yarn: Handspun Wensleydale
Color:  Watermelon
Needles:  US 10 (6mm)

Started:  October 7, 2009
Completed:  October 24, 2009