WnS Ep. 226: Advent Begins! Spinning Polypay

Dear Spinning Circle,

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! Ketchup & Pickles for November 2021 here.

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

SweetGeorgia Yarns silk puff (40% merino, 40% SW merino, 20% silk) ‘hearth’ – Ashford eSpinner 3; continuous backwards, lots of twist @ 1430 on speed knob

Chaotic Fibres Whiteface Woodland / Llama / Ramie / Bamboo – plan to weave with finished 2-ply yarn, sampling done on The Wool Circle here

Kingdom Fleece & Fiberworks Polypay; Advent Calendar spin, Wk 1

On & Off the Needles

In Progress – Knitting

Ystava by Jonna Hietala – Estelle Yarns Llama Worsted, 5 skeins

Lunenburg Pullover by Amy Christoffers – Dominion Fleece & Fibre North County Cheviot, naturally dyed in Indigo, Marigold, Madder

Community Inspiration // Participation

Breed & Colour Study: Jacob

Jennifer shares: I have been playing a lot with the colours on the Jacob breed and colour study.  Originally, I made a gradient shawl, but I didn’t like the colour shifts and although I learned a ton about how the colours played together, I ended up with a shawl that I couldn’t imagine wearing out anywhere. I thought about hanging it on the wall as a sort of learning piece. Then I listened to Rachel’s discussion about a sweater she’d made and didn’t like and FROG!  I then got double knitting time out of the CRAFTY JAK fibre and informed by the colour choices I played with on the shawl, made three hats, which I do like and will wear.  I’d originally bought one batch of the pure colours and the other of the carded set and the hats were knit with an alternating row, for example, one row black, one row carded black.  In the black hat, I also did a few rows of pure colour, but apart from the blue at the bottom of the hat, the purple row and the yellow row aren’t a complete stripe, just 5 stitches contrast colour (say purple), then 3 stitches, then 2, then 1 for more broken row effect that works with the carding splotches of colour in a more subtle way.  I learned that the white shows the contrast colours the best, the grey tends to lose them, and the black is somewhat between the white and the grey – some of the colours stand out, but the darker colours merge in.  And someone mentioned a conditioner.  I found the Jacob a bit harsh, but great blobs of conditioner in the water prior to blocking REALLY helped, although I still might add inside knitted bands of something like Merino so there’s no scratch against the forehead.

Alisha shares: Final finished with my Jacob study.  I went with a cabled hat that I’d been wanting to knit and paired my handspun with some black commercial yarn for the brim. The cables get a bit lost in the yarn, but I still love the way it turned out with the colors. I think if I were to knit with it again, I’d go for a simpler pattern to allow the colors to be the focus, though.

Breed & Colour Study: Charollais

Kaylee shares: I finally have an FO with my Charollais yarn! After a quick swatch, I cast on this ribbed hat. It is warm and perfectly stretchy. May rip back the crown decreases to add some more length and clean up the decreases but it’s done for now. This makes me insanely happy! These crazy batts had bold color and a very different fiber that I struggled with and with some play they turned into a functional object.

Natural Shades ALONG

Suzanne shares: I am so pleased with the results of my first handspun sweater. Over the last year, I have been practicing supported long draw using various breeds I have had in my stash for a long time. This sweater uses a combination of carded and combed Shetland (cream, taupe, chocolate brown, dark brown), carded Romney (marled cream/brown), and a tiny bit of carded Corriedale (white) that I used every so often in the cream section to stretch yardage.

I used Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns to create a pattern for this yoke cardigan. I really enjoyed that process since I was knitting by the seat of my pants for a lot of the sweater. That process was a lot of fun and reminded me of how Elizabeth Zimmerman always said “you are the boss of your knitting.” I am most pleased by the fact that I was able to look at the pile of yarn pictured below and see past the inconsistencies to envision that something beautiful could be made from all of it. Of course, looking at examples of handspun sweaters here on Ravelry helped me see that vision a lot more clearly!

Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings #weavewithhandspun

Laura shares: Here’s the resulting sweater from the green cable plied yarn I did 7 months ago!  The lighter green is Cascade 220, and all I can say is, this project really taught me how much nicer hand-spun is to knit with.  It was a very direct side by side comparison.  And there’s nothing wrong with Cascade 220. It’s a great workhorse worsted yarn.  But comparatively, the hand-spun is so much better.  (Pattern is Cala Luna by Christina T Ghirlanda)

Sample Spinning // PLAY

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. – Carl Jung

Megan shares: I have been having a lot of fun sewing up these in wool felt with wool thread, which i totally copied from sarah of fiber trek…

Also shared by Megan: The 6 yo is starting to get it!

Tazhiana shares: I spent the day doing some spinning housekeeping – skeining up and measuring some finished yarns and washing a moorit Shetland fleece and my newest spins all look really good together. They’re all three ply – the left one is a Corriedale chain ply and 2 traditional 3 ply skeins, the blue on BFL and the rose on Merino.

Crystal shares: For all the Americans, happy Thanksgiving and hope you all are enjoying time with your family as much as I am. I’ve even been able to squeeze in a bit of knitting while entertaining my 3-year-old nephew. Progress has been slow.

Brittany shares: Not in any handspun. But I shared this knit in the Maker Morning a few weeks back. Knit in Nutiden unspun. Likely my most favorite sweater now along with my Wool & Honey sweater. Pattern: Lunenburg Pullover

Had to share this from Sam!

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!