sweetgeorgia

So handspun it hurts

Use your handspun. It’s the only way you can determine if your spinning is any good. I read that somewhere and it’s stuck in the back of my mind all the time now.

Last May, I bought 1/2 lb of Ashland Bay merino roving from Penelope Fibre. It sat in the stash for a few weeks because I was intimidated by it and worried that I might ruin it. I sucked up the courage to start spinning it laceweight. Finally, in January, I finished all the spinning and started knitting the Lotus Blossom Shawl.

This is my real first, large-scale handspun and handknit project… and here it is off the needles:

Lotus Blossom Shawl

• Pattern: from Fiddlesticks Knitting, designed by Dorothy Siemens
• Yarn: Handspun Laceweight Merino (I have about half of my spinning leftover! So I must have used about 100 g)
• Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm Addi Turbos
• Changes: I used a smaller needle size just because I didn’t have any other needles handy, so I had to knit chart 2 twice to give the shawl extra length
• Finished Measurements: 70″ x 35″ (definitely smaller than the pattern specs, just slightly bigger than my blocking board).

What are things that people always say about spinning laceweight… the singles need lots of twist to hold the finer diameter, take all the tension off so that you can get lots of twist in, blah blah blah. This handspun is irregular in grist because I spun it over such a long period of time, was still getting a hang of spinning fine and also because I switched wheels part way through! But in some places, I think the yarn had so much twist that it became wirey and dense. If I were to do it again, I would spin it all a little softer.

This leads me to sampling. What a good idea. It’s like knitting a gauge swatch (which we always do, right?!). How does the fabric feel knit at that tension with those needles. How about going up a needle size, going down a size? Is the fabric too dense? Too drapey? When your knitting with commercial yarns, the yarn itself is taken out of the equation — it’s your job to just pick the most appropriate needle size for that yarn (ok, I’m oversimplifying). But when you are making the yarn, you need to look at how your yarn works up as fabric and if it is appropriate — will it be hardwearing? Will it pill or fuzz? All those variables are under your control now. So, spin a little bit, knit a little bit. See if you like it.

That’s what I’ve done with this new project:

There’s about 2 oz of Cashmere/Silk 50/50 top that I bought from Deep Color Studio this past November… Again, nervous about spinning it up and ruining it. So I tore off a little piece and spun it up laceweight using my new highspeed bobbins and whorl (I’m using 19.5:1 for spinning singles “from the fold” and 17.5:1 for plying). I washed the yarn and have started knitting it up in Evelyn Clark’s “Trellis Scarf” pattern from the Spring IK magazine. I figured if I liked it, I could keep going. If I didn’t like it, I could just go back and modify how I’m spinning it. As it turns out, I like it.

Dyeing for June

For the past few weeks, I’ve been planning to title this post “Cold Sweat”. Maybe because I remember that David Carson-esque magazine spread from a surf magazine featured in Riding Giants. More likely it was because dyeing for June was one of the most intimidating, yet exciting, experiences so far in my fibery adventures…

June was one of the very first people to respond when this flailing beginning spinner posted about her first yarn. Her writing made learning about spinning so accessible — her discussions on the use of storage bobbins, fleece washing, and that amazing handspun wedding shawl — well, inspiring to say the least. So when she asked me to dye some of her first handspun, well, it freaked me out.

All that dyeing of silk and wool/silk that I did recently? That was all to practice for dyeing June’s handspun. I had nightmares before dye day and was actually shaking a little during the dye process (or maybe that was just coffee). But it was so worth it. Go take a look at her close-ups… yeah, that’s her “beginner” handspun. And super soft and squishy too. Absolutely beautiful handspun yarn.

And here it is with my not-so-scary dye job:

Thanks June!

Spinning New Fibres

What is it about new fibres that is intimidating? I bought little bags of ingeo, firestar, bamboo and soy silk last year on Salt Spring Island — did I spin it? Nope, not really. I dyed up a bunch of soy silk and started spinning it, but didn’t really like the feel… until…

Last Wednesday, through the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild, I attended the “Spinning New Fibres” workshop led by Kim McKenna (who designed the Salt Spring Island colourways for Treenway Silks). From 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, we spun everything from Viscose Rayon, Tencel and Bamboo to Ingeo, Soy Silk and Silk Latte. Most of the day was spent spinning samples of white/cream coloured fibres, making blends with merino and comparing samples. By the end of the day, we started playing with the coloured fibres in our goody bags and were mixing different coloured merino wools with various kinds of Firestar, Flash and Angelina. My blends were all made with my little Forsyth mini-combs and spun, worsted, directly from the comb.

Each of these “new” fibres has some interesting or beneficial feature. Although 100% handspun “Blending Nylon” or 100% “Fake Cashmere” might not be appealing, blending a bit of it with wool makes the final yarn stronger. Soy Silk on it’s own isn’t really fun to spin, but blending it up with wool makes it easier to spin and produces a loftier yarn. Even adding a bit of Viscose to a blend gives the yarn a slight glittery, shimmery look.

One interesting point though — for the same weight of fibre, natural silk is still less expensive than Silk Latte, Ingeo and Bamboo.

And speaking of new fibres, my Gotland fleece arrived already! I washed a little lock of it last night with some Dawn and hot water and it’s super clean and shiny. The fleece isn’t really smelly at all — I checked several times! Yum.

Edited to add: I was so excited about uploading these photos that I forgot to mention my favourite blends! One of my favourites was Ingeo — it seemed to give loft and structure. Good for blending with wimpy fibres (like adding crispness to alpaca). I liked the merino/Silk Latte blend — smooth, drapey, shiny — but expensive compared to real silk. And my absolute favourite — the deep chocolate coloured merino plus auburn alpaca plus copper flash. Yummy like dessert!

Keeping Warm. Keeping it Simple.

It’s getting cold in Vancouver. I know, I know, “cold” is relative since it’s not cold like Vermont… but hey, I just got back from sunny California. My hands and feet freeze up in my office because I’m mostly sitting at my computer, moving at the absolute minimum, typing away. Last week, the handspun yarn that was sitting in my office with me was taunting me, “I’m warm, you know? You could knit something from me and you’d be warm…” So I pulled the Blueface Leceister handspun from the shop and knit this:

It’s basically 56 sts on 10.5 mm needles, knit for 6 inches, then decrease every other row (i.e. Row 1: *k6 k2tog, repeat from *. Row 3: *k5 k2tog, repeat from *. etc.). The ultimate no-brain knitting (NBK). I knit the entire hat in about two episodes of “House MD”. And I love this hat. So warm. I wore it out grocery shopping and looked at every person on the street not wearing a hat and thought “You don’t know what you’re missing!”

Here’s the start of Ron’s Animal Cracker Hat:

Again, super simple. 56 sts on 10.5 mm needles, 4 rows of 1×1 ribbing in dark green, 2 rows of stockinette in lighter green, 2 rows of white and then a little zig zag pattern in fair isle. Knit for 6 inches and then decrease as above. I’m wondering if I should do the ear flaps and make it more “authentic” a la movie costume. I kind of like it without the ear flaps. Simple.

And oh, BTW, has everybody rushed out to see the new Harry Potter movie yet? The DH and I saw it at the Metreon on San Francisco on Saturday night — waited in line for 1 1/2 hours for the 9 pm show and got out at 12 midnight. Love love loved it and I’m going to see it again this weekend!

Fondant Hat!

Lookie, lookie! Mari designed an earflap hat and knit it up in my handspun yarn! See it here: http://marirob.blogspot.com/2005/10/fondant-hat.html So fun!

I’d love to see anything you guys make with my yarns (so curious!)… and if it’s ok with you, let me know if I can post a photo of it in the new “The Sweet Shop Gallery” here: http://blog.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/photos/the-sweet-shop-gallery/gallery/