Episode 113 Live: Rolags, Combing & Handspun Weaving

Thank you for joining us this week! Welcome to new and returning viewers – I appreciate you being here! Thank you for the ongoing support to our patrons of the show – you keep the show alive month after month. This week, we had some technical difficulties at the beginning and I appreciate you for sticking around while I tried (and failed) to fix it. I shared some works in progress, including a guild project I am working on and a sock yarn I recently finished. I also share a finished woven scarf that I am incredibly happy with the results of! We had a great Spinning Growth to chat about this week and I’m so pleased Greta posted her great photos and shared her experience (links below). Enjoy the show!

Works in Progress

1. Breed & Colour Studies – Starry Nights on Masham (MAS-ham)
   • Woven blanket will be chronicled in the March How I Spin content – link here for vlog & PDF download.
   • Asymmetrical shawl – test knit
     1. Pattern from the book, which K & I are putting the finishing touches on
     2. Working through the pattern one more time
     3. Ran out of Tunis! Wasn’t Corriedale like I thought! Katrina to the rescue – gave me her Tunis that was the same fleece I’d spun for this yarn. Washed it up (video to come) and combing it with my hackles
   • Tamar (2ndzephyr) – “These are all a light Dk spun mostly on my spinolution worker bee at 9:1. I purchased the complete set. The braid with black is (A), the braid with white is (B), control is (C). Each braid was broken in half at the color sequence repeat in the middle. In turn those halves were broken again at the color sequence repeat and stripped in half lengthwise creating four bundles of each color per skein. The two skeins on the right are A and C with bundles spun intermittently. The third skein from the right is B and C and the skein on the left is A and B. This was such a fun spin and I’m just in love with the colors.”
   • Wendy (WMcN) – spun 6 different yarns including, hawser, cable, 2-ply fractal, chain, 3-ply crepe, 3-ply opposing ply – “The hawser has the lowest YPP at 1855 YPP and has the highest WPI at 22 WPI. The 3-ply crepe has the largest YPP at 2215 YPP. All the others have a YPP about 1930 YPP. The 2 ply has the least WPI at 13 WPI, but apart from the hawser mentions above, the others are all 15-18 WPI. I’m surprised that I managed to get a similar consistency across the skeins. I think the hawser is different due to the extra squashing caused by up-plying. Each skein is about 120m and the total length is 730 metres. Each skein will be one sock and will be an informal sock study into the difference between spin styles. At the moment, I think the cable and the chain ply are my favourites as they are squooshy and pretty.”

2.  Smith & Ewe SW Merino & Nylon Cabled Yarn
   • Winding weaving bobbins to ply from first-spun end
   • Using Leclerc bobbins because they hold more
   • Plying first two singles together for the first ½ of the cabled yarn
3. CraftyJaks March Club – Teeswater
   • Gradient spin
   • Nests of fibre
4. Rolags for mug rug for Guild – mish-mash of fibres.
   • Handcarded rolags for project
   • Working up a gradient
   • Will ply or maybe leave as singles … not sure

 Finished Objects

1. Woven scarf off the Jane Loom
   1. Three Waters Farm stash – leftover from my Exploration Station by Stephen West

Spinning Growth

• Thewarmestrows {post 100 – Greta} wrote:

Oh no!!!!!!! soooooo, I love these horned dorset socks and wore them maybe 2-3 times a week for maybe 4 weeks, in all sorts of boots. I washed them just recently in the sink with a wool wash bar and dried them on low in the dryer. There was no felting or shrinking. It was wonderful. Then I wore them one day and there’s the hole! I’m thinking the hole is because the staple length of the fleece was short (sometimes not quite 3 inches) which made combing too difficult so I had spun the fingering weight yarn woolen from rolags. I spun it tight and plied it tightly too though, and its a 3 ply. Should I have not worn them in the boots? Was it the woolen spin? The staple? The style of heel? I’m off to darn them but was kinda bummed.

• An entire conversation ensured so we are skipping ahead in the Spinning Growth thread and we will return to some of the previous posts but this really spoke to some of the sock discussion we have been having lately!
• Was a discussion between whether it was a snag versus wear and tear since she hadn’t worn them for very long,
• Suggestions to knit much tighter were offered:

I wondered that too but there is definate thinning on that sock at the heel. I knit them on US 1 needles and my gauge was about 30 stitches to 4 inches. TPI of the finished yarn was 13.5. it was a very soft fleece, more than I expected from polled/horned dorset, perhaps it was finer than I anticipated?

• Not being able to see through the fabric at all – making a tighter fabric in the knitting itself,
• Trying different fitting heels for a tighter fit,
• Watch for where your socks consistently wear to evaluate if that’s an area that needs attention or reinforcement,
• Feedback from CatCollective on Ravelry:
  • Knit at a tighter gauge,
  • Add a strengthening thread (like mohair either handspun or commercial) to be carried with your yarn as you turn the heel, and
  • Continue the heel stitch during and after the heel turn and run the reinforcing thread at least 4 stitches up each side
• Everyone agreed about Mohair taking on dye beautifully and that handspinning mohair is quite wonderful to avoid the typical ‘fluffiness’ of the commercially spun mohair singles.

Housekeeping

1. This month’s sponsor of the show is ColorStorms.com
2. Calendar giveaway
   • February Episode Thread (calendar):
   • Patreon Giveaway (fibre – batt):
3. 51 Yarns SAL – working through double-coated wools at the moment. Monthly teaching Vlog goes through my experiments for the month & Thoughtful Spinner chronicles my woven long-wool scarf that I made over Christmas.
4. Support the Show for small business owners – information on the blog and/or email me directly for more
5. Newsletter for Wool n’ Spinning
   • Helps to let everyone know about upcoming dates for the community all in one space
   • Access the sign-up on the blog in the bar at the top of the page
   • Published once per month

Happy Spinning!