Episode 136 Live: SW Targhee WIP & demo

Welcome to another week, Spinning Circle! I was late in posting last week’s show due to a challenging week but it’s posted now if you missed it and in YouTube, the timestamps are available if you want/need to skip to specific parts of the show! Enjoy!

Attentive Spinners! Be sure to sign up for the Doodle to be part of Wool n’ Spinning Radio in the new year! We will be working on Word Prompt episodes and if you are a part of the Attentive Spinner tier – you are invited to join!!

Giveaway

For January, I’ll be sending out the other batt to anyone who enters in the January Episode Thread and answers: What did you learn in 2019?

Breed & Colour Studies

In December’s newsletter, I shared the beginnings of my Breed & Colour Study thoughts that will be vlogged about in the How I Spin content beginning January 2020. For the initial thoughts, please have a look here (YouTube).

Bridget (@bridgetflynn, post no. 85) says:

Finished the spin! The Polwarth was a creamy spin! The fiber moved through my fingers so easily. I started with two 4oz braids and spun end to end with the intention of keeping each color intact and in the order in which it was dyed. Because I am going to weave with it and because I am loving the weaving design using a thicker warp and a thinner weft, I decided to N-ply a portion of each braid for the warp and leave a portion of each as singes to be used as the weft . I was not precise in my measurements so Graffiti has 2.2 oz N-ply and 1.8 oz singles but Graffiti Interrupted has 2.5 oz N-ply and 1.5 oz singles and my yardage is not consistent. In the spirit of the painting on which this study is based I am fine with inconsistencies.

Now to start the weaving! I have been thinking, perhaps even obsessing, about what I will do for the project. I have gone through many ideas and many weaving drafts. My final choice is to make a jacket like this one, which I created from an 8 inch wide fabric that I wove and then cut into 8 panels and sewed together. After considering many different weaving drafts I have narrowed it down to plain weave or an uncomplicated twill which will produce diagonal lines.
I can’t wait to get this on my loom.

Finished! It measures 180 inches long and 7 inches wide.

Finished!!! Not enough fabric for a jacket so I halved the fabric in the middle creating 2 panels which I sewed together lengthwise. Then I twisted the fabric once and sewed one end to the side of the other end to make a twisted poncho. It can be worn either side in front. Thank you. It’s not exactly what I had envisioned but I like it. The colors are brighter than the pictures show. It has a nice drape and it is warm but not scratchy.

Thanks so much for sharing!

Handspun Knitting Thread in Ravelry

Kelly (@tomatl, post no. 416) says:

Well look at this – I completely forgot to post my finished sweater! Here is my Darkwater all done up. I acquired the fleece in 2017 from a farm to the north of me. They have a flock of Merino/Romney and East Friesian sheep. For this sweater I used the Merino/Romney fleece. I hand combed it all and spun it during Tour de Fleece 2017 (don’t let that picture fool you above, the locks look very short, but they were closer to about 3.5” so just long enough for combing). I had a shade over 1200 yds of sport weight yarn, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. So it kind of languished until this summer, after I had cut my teeth over 2018/2019 on natural dyeing. So this summer I gave it a dye in chestnut & osage, then overdyed in indigo, reserving one skein as the white for colour work. And then finally after long last – my sweater was born! I saw the pattern in mid 2019 sometime and knew it was the pattern this yarn had to finally become. My yarn was a bit thicker than what was called for in the pattern, so I knit the smallest size, and came out with about 5” of positive ease. It’s generally a bit more ease than I wear, but sometimes you just need a nice, slightly oversized sweater to snuggle down in. And thus the story of the 2.5 year sweater in the making is completed. Turns out though, that this is absolutely my warmest sweater. I’m not sure if it’s the combination of the prep and spin, or partially the fibre itself or what, but I’ve been out in -10C in this thing and I can barely feel the cold.

51 Yarns – Group A – Planning

Rebecca (@rebbiejaye, post no. 98) says:

I’m prepped! I decided to buy the book digitally, print it out on cardstock, and put the pages in page protectors. I’ll put samples straight into the page protectors, stapling them in the page margins and the “completed” part of the page

For me I’ll be thrilled if I can spin 1 oz/30g of fiber per yarn. For very fine ones, it might be a lot less; for tailspinning I expect to use my whole 3.5 oz of locks. I’m thinking about putting a time limit on it, like two evenings per spin. I’ll be really happy if I can do a little swatch for each one, but I’m not going to break my brain over it.

I’m using almost entirely stash.
-For several of the spins, I’ll take an oz of a larger qty that I have, and use it as an excuse to sample for a project. For example, for each of the first two spins I’ll take an oz from a sweater qty, and my sample will hopefully Be (or at least get me closer to) the yarn I want to make with the whole amount.

-for many of the spins, I’ll take a 4 oz braid that has no particular purpose and use it up over two to five spins.

-I have a couple of fleeces with no plans; I may go beyond sampling with these and try to use up a large portion of them on the different yarns. I’ll have left what I have left. Better to use it than keep hoarding it while it ages.

-I had to order a bit of Suffolk and Icelandic because I had no down wool or unprocessed dual coated. Such suffering.

That will at least get me through the first year. I’ll worry about the rest later. The mind-blowing thing is just how many options you have for each of these. You could spin 51 different yarns for each chapter in the book.

51 Yarns – Group B – Fine Yarns

Tessa (@TessaW, post no. 75) says:

My fine wool spin was a 10g sample of Rambouillet. This is my first time spinning Rambouillet and I love the buttery softness of it. The yarn needed a ton of twist to hold together but the final yarn, even after my ham-fisted chain plying (this was a good opportunity to practice and improve on that) remained soft and extremely springy. It is my new favorite fine wool.

This skein sat naturally 4 inches shorter than a skein of Alpaca/Tencel wound on the same niddy noddy. It had a full 4 inches of springiness built in. Final stats – 9 g 25 yards spun short forward draw and chain plied

Works in Progress – Spinning

SweetGeorgia Yarns SW Targhee

• Ashford eSpinner 3 – getting to know the wheel & breaking it in
• Lots of pull on spinner – find I am adjusting quite a bit to get used to it again
• Stripped braid ~8 times and spinning end-to-end with pre-drafting the fibre gently
• Lovely draft – easy & methodical

Housekeeping

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Unbraided – EBOOKS available here & book orders can be made here.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!