WnS Ep. 237: In Love with X’s & O’s
WnS Ep. 237: In Love with X’s & O’s | Chatter about fitting sweaters, upper and full bust measurements, the value of re-knitting & ripping out; Angora rabbit fibre spins in progress; X’s and O’s coaster pattern woven in handspun Herdwick & Romney. #useyourhandspun #woolnspinning
Share this:
Dear Spinning Circle,
***
Twisting Tales Magazine Review – discount code for those wishing to subscribe: RACHEL-10 (valid until March 22, 2022)
***
Live Stream: Tuesday, March 8th @ 1pm Pacific // 4pm Eastern
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!
***
There is a lot going on in our community! Ketchup & Pickles for February 2022 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 Instagram/Ravelry/Slack (for Patreon members, @welfordpurls_admin)
Spindle Spun Stitches
Long-Term Goal: To Spin for a Sweater
Sarah Elizabeth Fibre Works Cormo // Processed by Kingdom Fleece & Fiberworks – supported spindle spun
In Progress – Spinning
SweetGeorgia Yarns silk puff (40% merino, 40% SW merino, 20% silk) ‘hearth’ – Ashford eSpinner 3; continuous backwards, lots of twist @ 1430 on speed knob
SweetGeorgia Yarns BFL+Silk (85% / 15% silk) in ‘Tofino Roadtrip’ – Lendrum Saxony, 18:1, 3-ply fractal
In Progress – Knitting
Wool and Honey by Andrea Mowry – Disdero Ranch Copaca (camel colour) – Corriedale & Alpaca blend (80/20) – 3.00mm // US 2.5
Lunenburg Pullover by Amy Christoffers – Dominion Fleece & Fibre North County Cheviot, naturally dyed in Indigo, Marigold, Madder
Finished – Weaving
X’s and O’s Coasters by Amanda Rataj – CraftyJaks Herwick & Louet Romney handspun, 2-ply, packed down nicely for the sett. Roughly 4.5” square. Finished in warm water with washing detergent, rinsed, tumbled dry low and laid to dry. Pressed with iron.
Community Inspiration // Participation
Breed & Colour Study – Jacob & Shetland
Becca shares two finished colour studies of her own: I realised I finished this spin ages ago but didn’t post anything. Here’s the Shetland B&C yarns. I wanted to try having the base colours slowly shift through the skeins. So I made 10 mini skeins of 3 ply and moved, one single at a time, from 3 singles on the white base, through grey and then brown. The 10th skein has 1 ply from each base.
Posting another B&C yarn (the Jacob this time) which will make me look terribly productive. However these were actually done ages apart. No real colour management here, just spun singles for practice and for a quick squishy yarn. But I can tell I was slightly rushed and/or stressed as they have a bit more twist than planned (which increased from skein to skein) Roughly sport weight and now just thinking how I want to combine them….
Lindsey shares: I have had drop spindles for ages but never really used them once I got my wheel. I would get frustrated by them dropping if the fibre broke and the slowness of them. But I turned them around and instead of top whorl they are now bottom whorl and took my time. I have just spun a 100g of white welsh mountain fibre, plied it on my spindle and have every intention of getting onto the needles pronto. My photo is of the single cop when I’d taken the whorl off. It’s so pretty!
Kim shares: Poodle hair spin done!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maegan has a great question: I spun these yarns all at the same time using the same process for all hoping to make myself a sweater with the end result. Question did I somehow add to much twist to the top skein? These have all be washed. I’m hoping that I can put the top skein back through my spinning wheel to make it less twisty.
Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings #weavewithhandspun
Sample Spinning // PLAY
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. – Carl Jung
Vikki shares: Oh my goodness, the squish factor!! I had this spun up almost immediately after I got it. Plied it too. But then it just became dining room art, hanging off a chair, winking at me occasionally. I finally took it off and found the “stats”. Mystery wool batt from Ziawoolz. 142yds, 108g, 596ypp, 7-9wpi (sometimes bigger that 7wpi… it’s an all over, thin and thick yarn), and about 15% elasticity, 8 bpi.
Dionne shares: Ok, only you all could appreciate this. I’m so excited about how my Woolfiend Avent fiber is knitting up. The first pic is how I mixed almost all the days. The second is my swatch, I’m loving it so much and glad i took pics because this totally works for me when I’m combo spinning.
Jeannine shares: Unwashed and still full of energy!! I’ll give a yardage count after washing, but we leave for vacation Thursday and I’m just trying to clear bobbins because driving from NH to FL means … I’m taking the ladybug on a cruise!!
Sue shares: Camp spinning is always satisfying. Polwarth x corriedale scoured fleece. Hand combs and mini spinner. I look forward to doing a bit if I can every afternoon on the road.
Priscilla shares: Finished the Lunenburg Pullover this week. Yay!
Sam shares: I have completed another of my 51 Yarns recently….no 35 to be precise, Spin a Yarn from Silk Fibre. I chose to spin up som silk mawatas that I bought on Etsy some time ago. Following Rachel’s recent video I set to work. I am so pleased with the finished results. Three hankies, split apart, then randomly spun to two bobbins and plyed. The total of the hankies was 10g, spun short forward, 60tpi, 45wpi, twist angle 35/40° with a result of 110 yds and grist of 4989ypp!!! I really enjoyed the process and my hands have never had so much pampering with a salt scrub and moisturise before each spin – Thank you @welfordpurls_admin for your tuition and encouragement. I hope to get some more mawatas at Wonderwool next month!
Kathy shares: Another shawl off my table loom. The next warp will go on my new-to-me floor loom. This one is 100% handspun. The white stripes are silk from the Sanjo sample box last spring. The warp is polwarth/silk, and the weft is merino/Tercel. The colourway is OOAK Cherry Blossom from Greenway Fiberworks. It makes me feel like spring!
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
