FF: Thrive

One of the wonderful things about Ravelry is the ability to see what other people do with the same materials you have, and draw inspiration from that. The Hello Yarn Fiber Club - Finished Yarns thread made me realize that this fiber (which I somehow neglected to ever photograph - woops!) needed to be a two ply. And soon!

I started spinning the week before we left for France, and managed to fill up one bobbin and get through half of the second before we had to leave. Finished up the last of it the two days after we got back and immediately plied.

Despite what it looks like in that picture, the bobbins did not end up matching all that well when I was done. Plying took a couple of nights, and it was done.

I split the 4 oz in half and spun/plied at 12:1, double drafting from the fold. No attempt was made to match up the colors but they ended up melding really nicely.

For whatever reason I was bound and determined to get the entire 4+ oz on to one bobbin. And I had dramatic evidence of the difference between woolen and worsted spinning styles.

Worsted:

Woolen:

That's approximately the same amount of fiber (~4 oz), one spun worsted and navajo plied, one spun semi-woolen and 2-plied. I'm amazed my wheel didn't give me the finger and go on strike.

Final stats: 4.3 ox/121 gr, 500 yds, 14-18 wpi. Somewhat overplied (or underspun - I had trouble with singles drifting apart) in spots but not too bad. Finished with a hot/cold fulling wash.

And almost enough for a large Aestlight. The problem with that however will be addressed next week (otherwise known as bribing myself to finish some UFOs before I cast on anything new!).

FF: Inspiration

The May-June project for the Ply by Night Ravelry group was to spin something from stash and knit either the Lace Ribbon scarf or the Rivulet scarf. What with moving and parenting and all, I wasn't feeling terribly inspired to do either of these projects.

However, a couple weeks ago I remembered a phenomenal project from the first round of Ply by Night, where the spinner separated out the component colors from the top, spun them in order and created an ombre yarn that went from yellow to orange to purple. It was stunning. And I thought that I might try something similar with a recent Fiber Club shipement.

"Air", Hello Yarn Fiber Club April 2009, 50/50 superfine merino and tencel

I split the fiber into four main colors: dark purple/wine, grey, green, and a bunch of sections that went from dark blue to teal. I started with the purple sections, split each one in half and spun each half on to separate bobbins. I switched from bobbin to bobbin with each color to try and keep the singles the same thickness/twist.

I've been catching up on episodes of Yarnspinners Tales and was entertained to find that one of the recent ones was about spinning bamboo and tencel. I experienced many of the things they talked about - tencel wants to be spun fine, and it tends to clump on itself, requiring that you stop, untwist and declump before going on. It also needs quite a bit of twist, but I think that since I've been spinning merino in one form or another for the last two months, that didn't stand out as much for me as it might have otherwise.

The yarn ended up absolutely gorgeous - soft, shiny, drapey. The colors worked out really well - purple to dark blue to turquoise to teal to grey to green. I spun the singles at 15:1 and plied at 12:1. 4.1 oz/117 gr, 28-18 wpi (mostly 20-22 wpi). Finished with a cool soak, thwack against the side of the house and spinning overhead in the back garden before hanging to dry.

I ended up with 406 yds, so plenty for Rivulet. The pattern calls for sport weight, so I'll go down a couple of needle sizes and see how it looks. I'm planning to start at the purple end and see how far I get through the color progression before I get tired of the pattern.

FF: Grab your sunglasses

Because this stuff is retina searing:

Devil's merino handspun, 8.1 oz/229 gr, about 575 yds, 13-14 wpi (fingering weight).
Spun/plied at 12:1 on ST Lendrum.

Fiber from Yarn School, dyeing by me and Dev, spinning by me (with much "Are you done with my yarn yet?" from Herself). Dev has requested a blanket made from this stuff, so I chain plied to keep the stripes intact. I'm envisioning a garter stitch edged triangular shawl type thingie, with a central column of double YOs and YOs on each edge just inside the garter stitch border. That will give me lots of stripes and a non-curling edge. And make it something she can wrap up in as needed.

I've also finished the body of her sweater. It's quite gratifying to find that she is rather excited about it. Or at least marginally enthusiastic. I even interrupted her viewing of 101 Dalmatians to ask for input on the buttons and didn't get my head ripped off and stuffed down the stump of my neck. So she must like it!

I got the flower buttons specifically with her in mind, but to my surprise she picked the pinky red ones. Which is great because I can do the same ribbing that's on the bottom as a button band and not have to worry about buttonholes.

Here's hoping that a good blocking takes care of the wobbly stitches. Damn cotton will get me every time!

Fiber Friday: Corriedale Handspun

My main spinning goal before we left Houston was to finish up all the singles (2 lbs worth) of the Corriedale I dyed last fall at Yarn School. That accomplished, when the wheel arrived in the UK a few days after we did, my next step was to ply all seven bobbins of singles.

Yes, that's right. Seven bobbins. In keeping with a multitude of wiser and more experienced spinners out there, I choose to spin all the singles and mix up the bobbins in the plying. So I plied the last bobbin (#7) with the first one. #6 with #2, #5 with #3, etc. Of course, there wasn't an even amount of singles on each bobbin, so it didn't line up exactly, but I ended up with only a small amount to Andean ply when all was said and done.

I ended up with 4 skeins, 1 lb (plus or minus a bit), of 2-ply, looks to be about sport weight, but probably ranges from fingering to light worsted. The singles were spun long-draw from the fold from commercial top at 10:1, and plied at the same ratio. Soaked in hot hot hot water (the hot water from my tap is over 120 degrees F), and got a fair bit of purple dye coming off, but no noticeable fading of the yarn.

The fiber was not terribly soft in the top, but the finished yarn is nice and cushy. It was dyed in a crock pot with purple, violet, brilliant blue and orange Jacquard Acid dyes, and I didn't do anything to try and match up the colors when plying - I wanted them to blend together pretty well.

I ended up with ~1000 yds, which is kind of disappointing - I'd been wanting to make Tempest with this stuff, without the stripes. But my size calls for about 1200 yds. I might be able to make it anyway. Guess I'll have to swatch and see!

The crickets are getting loud out here

Just a brief update to prove that I am not dead or disappeared (although I am stuck under a load of unpacking/SAHM-ing/generally trying to pull my self together-ing). There has been some knitting (SYB, TdF socks), more spinning (I've finished plying all the Yarn School Corriedale and hope to wash it tonight) (and I've started on Devil's merino, which she has requested be made into a blanket), and some LYS stalking (I've discovered this one around the corner from the girls' new school, but I have not yet made it in to check it out).

Our sea freight is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, which makes it just about 4 weeks from packing up to arrival. I'm just glad it all made it hear without falling off the side of the ship! We do now have a landline, so broadband should be just around the corner, along with expanded posting soon. Thanks for all your patience, and stay tuned!