Handspun stash

Since I'm working on a large spinning project, I decided on the spur of the moment to pull out the handspun stash and take stock of what's been marinating in there.

It's not a bad pile actually.

That's everything right there from the past 2.5 years that hasn't been knitted up into something or given away (there are some scraps and leftover bits of skeins floating around that didn't make it into the picture).

Far and away the largest portion of my handspun stash was dyed by Adrian.

Click on the photo for notes including colorways.

I feel very lucky to have gotten in to the Hello Yarn club right at the beginning, but I feel like the pile should be bigger. May 2007 - Dec 2009 is a lot of months. But I guess I'm not showing you the fiber stash...there's a lot in there that hasn't been spun up yet.

Then there are my first skeins of hanspun, done on a Golding spindle.

And my first dyeing experiments with Wilton's dyes.

Then there's the stuff from Yarn School Fall 2009.

Click for notes and details

What's left of Devil's Merino and the mystery fiber from Diane that I spun recently.

And finally, the few skeins I've bought or been given.

All in all, somewhere north of 4100 yds of handspun yarn. Hmmm....might be time to get cracking, no? Although I seem to be in the process of adding to the handspun stash instead of reducing it. But that Buckland and the YS Corriedale are pretty tempting, not to mention Peat. And Hooray Sheep might make a nice Lacy Baktus... Where to start?

A big project

I'm embarking on my first, real-live "spin a specific yarn for a specific pattern" odyssey, using the two pounds of dyed purple "wool top" mentioned in this post, spinning a worsted weight yarn for this lovely pattern.

Here's what I need: ~1300 yds of worsted weight yarn, with a grist of 840 yds/pound. The good news is that since I have two pounds of fiber, I've got a bunch to sample with before I run up against the 1.5 pounds I'll need for actual yarn for the sweater.

Other things I "need": a yarn structure that will work well with garter stitch and the fancy stitch pattern in the yoke. To me this is crying out for at least a 3-ply yarn, just because lots of plies make for a rounder yarn that rocks the hell out of the garter stitch.

I also "need" a way to spin this that won't A) take forever and ever, amen and B) will give me a lofty, puffy, snuggly yarn that will result in a lovely snuggly sweater.

Sampling Plan A: the 3-ply versus the 4 strand cabled yarn. I took two 1 oz chunks of fiber, and spun them up using my version of long draw, from the fold. For one aliquot of fiber (that's not the right word and it sounds really funny to use it in this context, but it will work), I split it in three equal chunks, spun each chunk on to a separate bobbin at 7.5:1, and did a true 3-ply.

Before washing

After washing, and a more representative photo of the actual yarn color

The second fiber aliquot got split into 4 chunks, spun the same way. Two sets of two bobbins were plied together at 9.25:1, aiming for an overplied 2-ply. Then those two bobbins of 2-ply were plied back on each other at 7.5:1.

I checked the wpi of the two sample skeins before finishing: the 3-ply was about 14 wpi, and the cabled yarn was about 12 wpi. I was aiming for about 10 wpi in the finished yarn. Since both yarns were a bit on the fine side, I did a fulling wash: yarn was dunked in hot water with Soak with a bit of agitation, then put in cold water and agitated again. Repeated the hot/cold switch until the strands in the skeins started to stick together a bit, then squeezed out the excess water, thwacked against the side of the house, and hung to dry.

Here they are post-wash, 4 strand cable on the left, 3-ply on the right. I ended up with ~30 yds of the cabled yarn, and 60 yds of the 3-ply. As expected, the 3-ply ended up a bit on the light side, coming in with a grist of 1066 yds/pound. The cabled yarn was much closer - 800 yds/pound.

Now it's time to knit up some (gasp!) swatches. Thankfully, just in garter stitch. I also need to consult The Grist Bible and perhaps some of these technically inclined folks to see how close my grist needs to be for this scenario. Plan B, if these really don't work out, will be a true 4-ply with lots of plying twist, and maybe a 5-ply (!).

There has been spinning...

But the lingering presence of The World's Worst Cold (TM)* has made documentation a bit of a struggle. However, over the weekend I finally managed some photos.

When previously spotted, this fiber looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

Mystery top, which I think contains some silk along with maybe merino?
Spun worsted, short forward draw at 9:1, plied at same ratio.
3.1 oz/305 yds of 26-20 wpi yarn after a hot soak (laceweight, although there are some mutant 16 wpi bumps in there).

This stuff was lovely to spin - quick, easy to draft, the perfect mindless spinning for someone who spent far too much brainpower and creative energy on Christmas knitting!

It's already been balled up as well - I'm thinking a lacy little scarf of some kind. This picture is probably the best representation of the color. Plus you can see my MacGyvered ball winder set up. So it waits patiently on the top of the active stash, waiting for inspiration to strike.

* I got the flu twice over the holidays, the first time three days before Christmas, the second time on New Year's Eve. My second bout morphed into TWWC(TM), which is only now starting to resolve. However, I have discovered the wonder that is the Hot Toddy**. And it snowed last week, rendering my presence at work somewhat optional. I'm betting I'm completely well for my scheduled doctor's appointment on Wednesday.

** The version I've been enjoying includes honey, single-malt and the juice of half a lemon, filled up to the top of the mug with hot water. Mmmmmmm...two ibuprofen/paracetamol and a hot toddy = happy sleeping sick Porpoise.

Windfall

Last Friday, I was early to pick up Devil, so I stopped in to Stash to say hi to Ali. When I walked in the door, she looked at me, pointed to a large blue bag sitting on a chair, and said "Free fiber". That was all I needed. I walked out ten minutes later with this:

That's about 2 lbs of assorted fibers, most of them things I've never spun before. Diane was clearing out her stash, and had dropped off a bag full for anyone to take. I ended up with:

Some lovely soft multicolored top, maybe Ashland Bay?

A pile of silk hankies dyed in green, teal and pink.

60% Lamb's wool, 40% blue fox (!). Given our regular nocturnal visitor, this may have to become something for Ironman.

A merino/possum (!) blend.

The remnants of a Spindlefrog sampler. As far as I can tell, this contains some silk, some mohair, and some wooly stuff that might be cashmere or camel or angora or alpaca.

Last but not least, a bagful of wool/silk batts in green and blue and white.

Non-striking postal service

A few weeks ago, I packed up some parcels and took them off to the post office to ship to the States.

In spite of various and sundry postal issues, I now am the proud possesor of this pile of September HYFC fiber:

I don't know why I so fell in love with this stuff (pink, green and brown? Seriously?), but I did, and was desperate for more. By the time I got ahold of her, Adrian was cleaned out, so I posted on the HY forum swap thread looking for more. A flurry of Ravelry PMs later, I divested some Hive, Mollusc and Sour Fig (a borrowed picture from the HYFC flickr group), and ended up with twelve more ounces of Winter Storage (September Club fiber) and some lovely merino in Harmonia (the purpley-brown one).

I'm hoping to have enough to make myself a sweater out of the Winter Storage. Which will require some super fluffy woolen spinning to stretch out 20 oz to enough yardage to cover moi, size Large. But between this and the purple stuff, it's looking like January is going to be a happy sweater spinning month!

In other news: today I hit a new knitting milestone - I walked out the door wearing three handknit items: this, this and these. There was frost on the Combat Zone car, so more wool seemed like a good thing. Toto, I don't think we're in Houston anymore!