Imaginary post

Warning: picture-overloaded post ahead

I was absolutely convinced that I'd started a post about my finished Sour Fig yarn, but Blogger says no. I'll just have to blame my aging Mommy brain for that little mental hiccup. So this post will be a finished yarn and a finished object all in one!

First up: the yarn. As previously described, I took my spindle on our trip back to the US, and after a horrible injury and fabulous repair, I whizzed through 4 oz of Sour Fig Shetland from Adrian.

That's it in the lower right corner - sadly I have no photo of the original fiber, but there's a bunch here.

It took me about four days to spin up the six singles and do the 2-plies. This included spinning in the car, and spinning at every available second during the day. I was determined to ply in one go, so I ended up with a very full spindle, to say the least.

When it was all wound off and soaked and thwacked and dried, I had 56 yds of super bulky yarn with a very interesting texture.

The next problem was to figure out something to make out of it - 56 yds is not very much, but I thought I could maybe get a cowl or a hat out of it. I went for the one willow cowl by Jennifer Casa, and 3 hours later I had a finished object.

The pattern is a simple 1x1 twisted rib cowl, where you knit through the back loop but purl normally. I kept going until I ran out of yarn, which meant I had to tink back several rows so I could cast off successfully. But there it is - instant gratification knitwear, and it's thick enough to ward off some serious winter weather.

Which means it will probably go in to the gift box. Because no matter what my office mates say, London winters are so not bad. But there's one Christmas item done!

Spinning new wools

Right, it's Friday, which must mean it's time for some fiber, right? We've successfully arrived back in the UK, and have had a lovely week getting over jet lag and getting back to the Real Life (TM) schedule. I now have not one, but two English schoolgirls, who are pretty thrilled to be back in academia.

 

I've spun two yarns in the 6 days we've been back (hooray for the wheel!), both of which are destined to be turned in to socks for the school girls. I ordered a bunch of different wools that I've never spun before we left, and have been happily working my way through dyeing and spinning them. First up is for Devil - some Lincoln Longwool dyed in blues.

This was dyed to give a specific stripe pattern, so I split it in half and spun each half separately, then chain plied. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I tend to overspin, I spun and plied at much lower ratios then I usually do, hoping to avoid ending up with wire (spun at 6:1, plied at 7.5:1). The fiber was fairly slippery, surprisingly so, and it took a bit for me to figure out the right amount of twist to keep the single together without overspinning. I ended up with 114 yds of bulky chain ply, which I'll knit up into some quick, cosy socks for her. It's not terribly tightly plied, but I'm hoping a small needle size and the durability of the fiber itself means they won't wear out by Christmas.

The second yarn is for Boo Boo, dyed by herself:

Cheviot fiber, spun/plied at 12:1, 2-ply.

I spun this one as a quick wheel fix right after we got home. I think I did the entire 100 gr in a day and a half. I've never spun Cheviot before, but I now consider myself a huge fan. It's not a soft as some fibers, but it has such a great toothy feel while spinning - it would be great for sturdy mittens or outerwear sweaters. Plied up, it's a lot softer then I was expecting from feeling it in top form. I'm not terribly sensitive to wool prickle, but I'm not sure I could wear a Cheviot sweater without a layer underneath, but that may just be this batch. I plied fairly tightly for durability, and I think these socks will be a huge hit.

There they are, all balled up and ready to go. Time to bust out the bigger needles and get started!

Birthday presents

One for me, one for my MIL (in progress):

One LYS down, one to go!

Spindling again

I brought my Golding spindle and some Hello Yarn Shetland (in "Sour Figs") with me for vacation, with the idea of doing a bit of real handspinning while we were away. When we got to the airport, I opened my bag to discover that the spindle had broken. Disaster! The whorl cracked across in two separate places, and came completely detached from the shaft. Things were not looking good in Porpoise-ville.

However, it just so happens that Tom and Diane Golding live a mile from my mother-in-law in Vermont. So I called them up, went by with my broken spindle, and hoped that Tom could work his magic and fix it. Lo and behold, two days, some wood glue and a rebalance later, my spindle is back and better then ever!

Since Friday, I've spun up 5/6ths of my Sour Figs. I've got one more single to spin, a two-ply to do, and then I'll get to the cabling portion of the program. I can't wait to see how the yarn comes out! People keep asking me what I'm going to do make with it, and I have no idea. A six-ply cable is a serious time investment, and I have no idea if I'm going to have any real amount of yardage. But I'm hoping for a hat or a cowl-worth of yarn. And at the rate I'm going, I need a trip to Amy to get some more fiber before we leave!

FF: The last of the worsted spinning experiments

 

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club merino, in "Patchwork"
Spun/plied: 17:1/15:1, short forward draw, aiming for speed.
Stats: 179 yds/4 oz, approximately worsted weight.
Comments: I split the top in half, then stripped each half into four long pieces and spun each half on to one bobbin. I was trying to spin this quickly, so I used a high ratio to get the twist into the fiber fast. I also tried to spin a slightly thicker single then my default, so the final yarn would be a heavier weight. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out though, and I think this skein is destined for Boo legwarmers.

From start to finish, the spinning took 3:36, so I rounded it up to 4 hrs with finishing. So that gives a starting price of £40 for spinning, plus £15 for the fiber itself, which ends up at £0.31 per yard. £55 seems like an awful lot for one skein of yarn though, so I might split this in half. It's still within the range I've found online though, so we'll see. This certainly isn't going to make me rich however! I also need to try some woolen spinning and see if that makes a dramatic difference in the amount of time this takes, or the yardage. That, however, will have to wait until September.