WnS Ep. 190: In Progress … Spinning & More Spinning
Dear Spinning Circle,
Live Stream: Saturday, March 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!
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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 Bobbins
Longway Homestead Finn – Kromski Minstrel; long draw
Louet Romney in colourway Maize – Lendrum DT; 12:1; continuous backwards draw to mimic Plyology spin Hello Yarn Kent Romney 2-ply
Disdero Ranch Romney – carded; Ashford eSpinner 3; short forward realigning fibres as much as possible
Spunky Eclectic Gotland in “Thread Box” – Turkish spindle; 35gm; short forward with smoothing; low twist
On & Off the Needles
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
Magnolia Bloom by Camilla Vad
- adjusting gauge; tight neckline so deciding what to do …
- Custom Woollen Mills 4-ply CVM
Community Participation
For March, tell us about Spring or Fall in your area of the world — share in the episode thread here or comment below here on YouTube!
From February & Fitting Issues: Megan’s comment on Ravelry (#18): fit…..as i’ve knitted for over 20 years now, largely for myself, i’m much better at fit. I struggled with fit for many many years in many many ways, but i think the last 3-5 years i have made a ton of progress. i think the biggest 2 things i’ve learned are; 1) use a muslin, use a shirt, sweater, or whatever you are knitting. find something in your closet that you like the fit of and match it
2) try it on and on and on; i’m generally happy with my fit if i do these things.
Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland
Lisa shares via the Slack channel #fibre-prep: The brown fleece with silver is a Shetland cross that sat in my stash for about 10 years because it had a weak spot in the staple and did not withstand combing. I was disappointed and put in time out. I finally pulled it out this month, flicked the locks to pull out the short broken bits and ran it all through the carder. I am left with 365g out of the 550g of washed locks that I started with, so loss was high. Still, that will be 365g of yarn I could not have made otherwise, right?
Alison (@abigbee) on Ravelry shares about both her Breed & Colour AND her 51 Yarns SAL: I have been working on the Structure section of 51 Yarns in conjunction with the Spring 2021 Breed and Color Study! I have used some of the half braids of Shetland I bought from Craftyjaks for this and here is what I have completed so far: #18 – 2 ply: I had some of the white base of the Shetland left on the bobbin after creating a 3 ply of all three bases together so I Andian-Plied the left over to create #18 – 2 Ply Structure! I had stripped the half braids into 4…1/2 ounce each…to prepare for my Breed and Color Study. One of the yarns I created for the Study was a strip of each base plied together (one white, one moorit and one oatmeal)…this yarn is also my #19 – 3ply Structure in the 51 Yarns book! I Chain Plied one strip of the Moorit base together and this is #21 – Chain Ply Structure! How different the color interplay is!
Kathy shares via via the Slack channel #sweaterspin: Here is a progress report on my Shetland spin. I decided to make Michele Wang’s Ondawa pattern again. From a previous experience knitting this, I had a good idea about yardage and sizing since I don’t have a large quantity of handspun – it was a small first fleece from Sprite (sheep’s name) and it is super soft! I used up all of the three ply and had to finish the last several inches of the second sleeve cast off with the left over two ply, which was also necessary for the seaming of the pieces. I really do love this pattern!
51 Yarns – Group B
Linnea (@lbmbirds) shares on Ravelry: 51 yarns # 15 low twist singles – I really enjoyed this spin. I spun the split and predrafted top supported longdraw. Trying to keep track of my treadling. i tied a piece of yarn from the wheel to my fiberhand to keep the same drafting distance. I was very excited to see how the yarn would fall out after washing and fulling it. It is the first time i make a singles, that will stay as a singles and first time fulling. I am vey happy with the result, and it will not be the last time making low twist singles.
Holly (@hhaeger) shares on Ravelry: My self striping yarn is done, and I am currently spinning my tweed. Here are some notes on my self striping yarn and project. I didn’t set out to make a hat with this yarn, but when I finished the yarn it sort of screamed hat. I really wanted to see how the stripes would knit up. I have a fascination with self striping yarn. This is 3 ply – chain plied, spun from fine merino and hand dyed by greenwood fiber company in their outlaw colorway. I love this pattern for my handspun because all of the different sizes in the pattern mean that I can adjust for any size of yarn. This yarn knitted up more Aran weight than worsted weight, and I was able (on my second attempt) to cast on the small size and have it fit my medium head perfectly. The yarn was a bit of a journey. I was initially SO PLEASED with this yarn, but after a few more spins and acquiring a new wheel, I realized that this fine merino should have been less dense (more lightness and air in the finished yarn), and that I probably shouldn’t have put in quite so much twist. It was and is still plump and squishy, but it’s just more dense than it should be. Maybe I just needed finer singles… I decided to knit with it anyway, and I’m glad that I did. The finished 3 ply yarn was 141 yards from 4 ounces. The next time I spin fine merino, I will try to make a less dense yarn, however, this is a very wearable hat that is soft, plump, and I think will be a bit more durable than it otherwise might have been. Ultimately I went through an emotional rollercoaster with this yarn: elated, disappointed in myself, discouraged, despairing, hopeful, to full circle elated and satisfied. Who knew spinning was going to be such an emotional journey!
Luxury Fibres ALONG
Elizabeth shares via the Slack channel #luxury-fibres: I finished my bombyx sample and started on the muga silk. What a difference! The bombyx was really challenging for me. The fibers were short and I had trouble with twist building up too fast. I had to adjust my wheel. It took all of my attention to spin. Despite that I really like the results. The muga is a longer length and a lot easier for me to spin. It feels crunchier than the bombyx. Maybe not as slippery, so that might be why I am finding it to be a lot easier. I am curious about everyone else’s experiences. What do you think about silk? Also, I haven’t finished the bombyx sample yet. How should I finish it?
Pia shares via the the Slack channel #luxury-fibres: Here’s progress on my Polwarth and tussah silk spin. It really wants to be a fine single. Still debating on whether to make this a 2 or 3 ply.
Natural Shades ALONG& Zero to Hero
Kaylee shares via the Slack channel #natural-shades-along: When I started this spin, I was just playing trying to use up 200 g of Jacob that I prepared from a fleece. I love grays and had toyed with this fleece a lot but found that I have learned a lot since I first started prepping this fleece. It was originally partially combed, some carded, but all a mess. My early batts were clumpy and not very well combined. I carded them again, trying to keep all the fibers aligned and going slowly then pulled off with a diz. I find this makes a big difference and keeps things aligned but airy. I had intended to make a 2 ply but the fiber wanted to be fine, so I let it and made a real deal three ply despite having divided the fiber up for a 2 ply. I had to get creative in splitting up the singles up for plying. Used my ball winder, paper tubes, and akerwork bobbins to ensure everything rolled evenly off my lazy kate. This setup worked perfectly! Ended up with 504 yards and 166g of an even 14wpi yarn that I love.
Noemi shares via the Slack channel #natural-shades-along: Last week I found a moth in my so precious two-yr old Fibreshare mini-stash. Which is terrible, but it made me clean it, freeze it and spin it very urgently and join this channel… So a good thing it was, thatmoth, right? And I purchased two mitten patterns from Carol Sunday – with one I want to test Plotuloppi yarn and for the other one this palette could be just perfect. There is not much yardage and the wool is pretty coarse, but for mittens just the right thing. Now for the wool, it is a breed specific sample of German regions – the grey is Pommeranian sheep, brown is Braunes Bergschaf, the cream is Coburger Foxschaf (that was mentioned recently in the podcast), black I think is the Pommeranian lambswool and the white is Bentheimer Landschaf. Now for colorwork mittens from these guys I will only need a helluva winter.
Tracey (@TRace44) shares via Ravelry: Well I think I have enough yardage to make my Shifty sweater. Now the part I don’t like, trying to figure out which skeins to use! I don’t plan on following the designer’s way of changing colours. Please offer any options you might have Second picture is a more monotone thought.
Sherri (@prairiefirebird) shares via Ravelry: Finished an owl sweater from Kate Davies Designs using a raw fleece purchase from a local to me shepherdess. The fleece went off to Dakota fiber Mill and came back as three large bags of roving. I wanted a yarn that would not pill and would have good stitch definition, so I went for a cabled yarn using my new Ashford e-spinner 3. Singles were spun Z, two singles spun together S and spun again S to get abundant twist. Two 2-plies were then spun Z working to get that sweet spot where the two 2ply yarns would snap together into a cable. This was a cabled yarn learning experiment for me and the next sweater’s worth of this fleece/yarn will have better cable structure in the yarn as I apply more of what I have learned.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
