WnS Ep. 197: Gettin’ er Done!
Dear Spinning Circle,
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Enjoy the show!
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On & Off the Bobbins
Bowmont & Huaycana (waa-kai-yah) on Lendrum Saxony; long-draw
On & Off the Needles
In Progress – Knitting
Fanel by Orlane Suuche – Disdero Ranch 100% Romney; woollen spun; Ashford eSpinner3
Florence Tank by Sari Norland – Drops Lace Unicolor (70% Alpaca/30% Mulberry Silk)
Cruiser by Kristen Finlay – Small Bird Workshop CVM/Mohair held double with Cascade 220 Fingering 100% Wool in colourway 9680
Aurealis by Jennifer Steingass – 100% spindle spun sweater in Gotland; Spunky Eclectic ‘Thread Box’ (December 2020 club colourway) with 100% undyed Gotland; Turtlemade Turkish Spindles (~35g); sample swatch finished!
Community Participation
For May, tell us about your favourite food & why! Ravelry Episode thread here.
April’s giveaway took into account YouTube comments and Ravelry, choosing one of the YouTube comments! Please Elysia art, get in touch and I’ll send you the 100% Targhee!
Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland
Liz shares via Slack: Ok need some be thoughts, I’m spinning the breed and color . I finished my first 3 ply skein. About 230 yds. I’m guessing sport/dk. Is that enough to do a colorwork yoke? I was thinking if I do did a 2 ply with the rest, I might have enough fingering wt maybe for another sweater yoke. Or should I do the rest as 3 ply… Such decisions. All done Washed and dried over 300yds, ok wish I could start knitting it right now, but I have so many other things I need to finish first! There’s so many different color changes as hard to get everything in the picture.
Debbie asks via Ravelry: I have started to use one of my breed and color skeins. I realize now I would like to have shorter length of color change. How would I spin to do this? This was spun end to end then plyed from center pull cake. (Pattern is merrie dancers toorie . By Elizabeth Johnston; brown yarn is alpaca)
Inne shares via Ravelry her photos of her Breed & Colour Spinning!
Greta Lyn shares via Slack: Starting my weaving final. Weft is tussah peduncle.
Dorothy shares via Slack: A shot of my latest skein. Lace weight merino/silk.
Suzanne shares via Slack: I finished my Sian sweater!!!! I loved knitting it. I made it with lettlopi because I really wanted that halo of the Icelandic yarn and I love knitting with it. This is the first yoke sweater I’ve made for myself as I’ve been trying to work through fit for my bust. I made the size 6 but when I separated for the sleeves I put the size 5 amount for the back and size 7 amount for the front and it worked out great! In the future I’d leave the contrast color off the collar, hem and cuffs.
Kelly shares via Slack: My skein of Manx Loaghtan is comically large!
Marce shares via Slack: Following on my original note about this project, just logging progress here. I am rally enjoying spinning as I go for this Slumber shawl. Because gauge is not a limiting factor, I am able to focus on learning the settings of my wheel to get the best out of a fiber. I am using a Shetland/Ramie/Silk base in different colors, and each colors has varying percentages. This kind of “sampling” feels useful on multiple levels … More long draw and chain ply practice with this worsted prep of Shetland/Ramie/Silk blend, and I am loving it. The long draw drafting method and fine singles allowed the drape to stay in the strands after finishing, and the bounce in this shetland really came to life after a hot soak (no snapping or thwacking). This is 40g that will go into my Slumber Shawl in progress.
Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings
Sarah shares via Slack: Finally finished plying!2139 yds / 798 g; 3 ply, about 10 wpi; I ended up filling 2 great jumbo bobbins, about 400 g each, though I could probably fit a bit more. I had to divide each bobbin into 2 skeins because neither my niddy noddy nor swift could handle 400 g; Now to swatch! I’m thinking the winters beach cardi by Andrea Mowry
Carissa shares via Slack: Shawl made with handspun yarn (60% Merino, 20% yak, 20% silk) with an unsharpened pencil for scale. Unblocked still.
Alisha shares via Slack: All done Washed and dried over 300yds, ok wish I could start knitting it right now, but I have so many other things I need to finish first! There’s so many different color changes as hard to get everything in the picture.
Sample Spinning // PLAY
Jennifer shares via Slack: A good amount of my wool stash goes into my art quilts. There is a symbiotic relationship between processing for spinning and what I use for felting, meaning anything I cull as I prep for spinning lands in the containers for felting. Here is one finished 3D art quilt, for a show in July. I call it Globe Trotter. It is a cover of a felted and quilted fleece on a folding umbrella ( held by tension with little triangle holders that the umbrella arms fit into). The umbrella was our son’s when he was a little boy, so that has meaning for me.
Mary shares via Ravelry: I finished my spring themed spinning and blending project modeled after a picture of radishes in a seed catalog my daughter sent to me. Here are the yarns I spun on my Snyder Turkish spindles and chain plied on my wheel. I cast on Da Crofters Kep with a light brown yarn that I dyed with hickory nut husks. I’ve learned a lot with this project. I still have more to figure out about blending to match pictures but it was so much fun to play around my stash. After not doing much knitting in February and March this pattern has gotten my mojo going again. I cast on a second hat last night with the leftovers from the first hat changing only the main color. It always amazes me how much changing just one color can change the look of my knitting. The golden brown is a bit tonal and fuzzier looking than the off white which makes the colorwork look sharp and crisp …
Mary’s reflections afterwards: I think this spinning and knitting project taught me a lot about blending for color in my spinning. And it also taught me about combining color in my knitting. these hats ended up being mini swatches. I think the 3 different background colors changed my perception of my blended fiber. the light golden brown is the most mellow of the 3 hats, the color work is muted. the colorwork in the hat with off white background the colors are sharper and stand out more. there was a little bit of yarn still left and I wanted to try a darker background – I was knitting in the evening and didn’t think the colors were showing up as well but once I had a look in the morning I think the contrast is pretty good. even though the contrast isn’t very sharp in the light brown hat I think that is my favorite.
Tawnya shares via Slack: I’ve been playing with different sock yarn structures and fiber blends and just finished my most recent pair – a 2-ply Southdown/Mohair/Silk blend (a gift for my yellow-loving mom for Mother’s Day). This was the last of my basic plies (2, 3, and 4-ply), so now I get to start the really fun ones, opposing ply and crepe yarn!
Alex C shares via Slack: I was playing around with acid dyes, trying a new to me technique. On the second layer of dye I thought I flubbed it, but I am so happy with this result! I was aiming for a high twist 3ply for socks but I didn’t quite get it thin enough or enough meterage. Its a bit tricky to get the colour right in pictures because they want to show more blue, but it is more like the green copper turns overall.
Katie M shares via Slack: I tried hand carding for the first time ever, and spun the results into 157 yards of worsted weight woolen spun. Making rolags is… hard.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
