WnS Ep. 187: Shifty & Catedral Progress; Overspun singles – now what?!

Dear Spinning Circle,

Live Stream: Saturday, February 13th @ 8:30am PST

Direct YouTube link here.

Thank you for being here today, especially those who were able to make it to the Live Stream. I appreciate your time spent here in this place with me. You are most welcome. I hope you feel most welcome because you are welcome here.

Enjoy the show!

Live Chat Assistance here.

There is a lot going on in our community! It’s a lot to cover and remind you of each week. Have a look here for more info!!

If you are curious about what happens in our community, please click the links below, reach out to me: rachel @ welfordpurls (dot) com, or reach out on Instagram/Ravelry/Slack (if you are a Patreon member, @welfordpurls_admin).

On & Off the Needles & Bobbins

In Progress – Knitting

Shifty by Andrea Mowry

• slightly larger gauge on 3.5mm // US 4 needles; Westcoast Colour Falkland & Polwarth + Silk spins here, here & here
• top-down, worked ribbed neckline afterwards for added structure

Catedral Pullover by Ewe Knit Toronto

• Got gauge with 3-ply CVM fleece; long draw; tightly plied (twist angle ~45)
• Construction – bottom-up, twisted rib with charts

Works in Progress – Spinning

Disdero Ranch Romney batt – Ashford e-Spinner 3; short forward draft; carded preparation

Kingdom Fleece & Fiber Works Finn / Silk – Lendrum DT 18:1; long draw; 3-ply for Natural Shades ALONG

In Progress – Weaving

Kingdom Fleece & Fiberworks Advent Spinning Calendar Blanket

• Leclerc Jack loom (45”); 10EPI & 10PPI
• huck lace pattern; trial and error at the moment to see how it works out!

Community Participation

For February, tell us about your GARMENT FITTING ISSUES — share in the episode thread here or comment below here on YouTube!

Ask Anything

From Wendy: This is a chain plied Shetland (from my departed sheep Tansy). I was overcompensating for my tendency to undertwist and I overtwisted the singles. I thought they would loosen when I plied them but they didn’t. Then I hoped the yarn would soften after knitting with it but nope! And it’s very unpleasant to knit with too. This is the last of my Shetland from my little flock :’( Is there any hope for this yarn? I’ve even tried using a hair conditioner on it! Should I just resign myself to weaving a doormat with it?

General Spinning

Becca (@bethy40) shares via Slack: First skein to come off the wheel in a long while as my making pace has slowed to a crawl…  this is the Yarnadelic base (Corriedale) from John Arbon in the Sunflowers in my Garden colourway. I spun it as a 2ply to hopefully do some stranded colourwork with other colours I have yet to spin, about 24 wpi, waiting for it to dry before measuring length

Unexpected Surprises // Spinning Growth

Kaylee shares via Slack: I spun up an old braid of polwarth for a snack spin late last year. It was heavily thick and thin. Finally pulled it out to whip up a hat not 100% sure it would work. Lone behold, it worked out very well! This is fueling me to dig through my stash to see what else I can knit with!

Kat (@kokori) shares via Ravelry: Just to throw something a bit controversial into the mix – last weekend I dug through my little bucket of ply balls. When I spindle spin I’ll often wind the single off onto a cardboard disk, and then throw it in the bucket, to be plied when I have spun the rest of the fibre. This particular fibre was from last year’s phase of “I’ll get better at supported spindles by spinning every day”, and to enable myself I made a bunch of pretty coloured rolags on a blending board. And when I found my little plyball I realised I really liked the colours. So much so that I just cast on and started knitting, without plying or even setting the single. I used just a very simple shawl formula, spun the remaining rolags over the next two days and finished the whole (small) thing in 3 evenings. Now, I’m not expecting this shawl to stand up overly well and last me a lifetime (or even longer than one winter) but it was fun and liberating to just play with this and see what’s possible.

Sharon (@frogstitch) shares via Ravelry: Made this shawl from some older yarn I had spun. It is 50% Merino and 50% Tencel. It has a marvelous sheen and drape. The roving was already chemically dyed. I started the shawl for a friend the day I learned that her husband had died of Covid.

Natural Shades ALONG& Zero to Hero

Sarah R shares via Slack: The finished sweater! Midwinter by Trin Annelie. Super happy with the fit. I omitted the pocket because knitting it would involve to much yarn chicken. I went through the fibres an yarns in my last post but didn’t mention that all the handspun is 2-ply worsted weight. If knitting it again I might do a few raglan increases in the underarm and cast on fewer stitches to improve the armpit fit. The bottom ribbing could also be longer but I totally lost patience.

Judi (Creekcrafter) shares via Slack: My first fleece scour-to-skein is completed and ready to knit with. It’s a half-fleece, shetland/bfl cross. I sorted the fibre to create a natural fade, now I have to figure out how to use it. It’s not the most consistent spin I’ve done – worsted to aran. But I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I thought I had six skeins, but I just found another pile of spun yarn, not finished. I have 850 to 900 yards.

Megan (@lykkemeg) shares via Slack: Finished the cardi for my husband!  Grey is cvm from local fleece, brown is bfl, blues are brooklyn tweed.  Westerly pattern made into cardi in the round and steeked.  zipper up the middle. Also finished this grey lincoln spin.  3 ply.  definately a long wool that is drapy and has zero elasticity.  i spun with a good amount of twist for weaving, so it feels pretty coarse.  this was a very traditional long wool spin: short forward, smooth back, rewind the bobbins to ply, very much not my default!  I am thinking about dying the lincoln dark blue and pairing it with this brown karakul and weaving a herringbone project bag.  i have something else on the loom first though so it will be a bit.

Iris (@iirislotta) shares via Ravelry: I will definitely need to do some more dyeing and spinning for my Shifty! Colours always surprise me. I knitted a swatch with both mc options, and grey really doesn’t appeal to me at all. What do you think?

Nicole shares via Slack: My spark Cardi is done and I love it, I did fewer short rows for the collar and left out the belt loops, I may go back and do them after I wear it a few times. I did the crochet method for the steek and then needle felted a tiny bit… Thank you everyone who posted links they were super helpful

Tin Can Knits ALONG – thread here– Dissolving into Zero to Hero at the end of January 2021

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!