WnS Ep. 239: Lunenburg Pullover // BFLxBowmont Spin

Dear Spinning Circle,

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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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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

On & Off the Spinning Wheels

UK Mill BFL x Bowmont spin – 2-ply, long-draw, fulled slightly (hot, hot water, cold shock)

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

Finished – Knitting

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

Community Inspiration // Participation

Breed & Colour Study – Radnor

Julie shares: Radnor sampling. This is a horse of a different sort! Will finish and sample, but overall, this wool is so easy to draft —and drift— my sweet spot is a small spot. And getting to twist lock takes a little minute, but over twisting will go ropey quickly. Withholding decision about yarn/project until finished swatches in singles, woolen and worsted. This slate yarn at the bottom is finished. It puffed!

Spindle Spun Stitches

Sarah shares: I have a few pounds of Corriedale in my stash that I purchased at a guild sale.  It is pin drafted roving, but seemed a little sticky.  I have been carefully weighing out two ounce portions and rewashing it.  It has been so nice to work with on my spindles!

Nicole shares: Looking for some advice from the amazing spindle spinners. I have been so inspired by all the spindle spinning I decided that I wanted to do a sweater spin on spindles and because it was my birthday not only did I get the fibre but 2 new Turkish spindles. This is my very first turtle and it’s kinda loose. Anyone have some tips on winding on?

Natural Shades ALONG

Amanda shares: Alright, I’ve been feeling like I haven’t been getting anything done lately but the reality is that I’ve been working on a big spin and I finished it this week.  Approximately 2400m of 2-ply worsted-spun with an average grist of 4150m/kg. The fleece was a rescue/waste fleece from a local meat-sheep farm that I got from the Autumn clip late last year.  Not sure if it is a Svea (mixed breed) or a Swedish Finull (Finewool) but it has the Finull characteristics of a fine wool with a tight purling crimp.  Staple length approximately 5cm (2″).  From past experience I knew that I had to open up the locks otherwise that purling crimp can get caught and cause neps.  I decided to comb it with my mini combs since I don’t like to flick staples that short and there were enough second cuts and short bits to justify the extra effort.  In the end I decided to spin for something that would be suitable for both weaving and knitting.  I spun directly from the mini combs (to break up the fibre prep stage and spinning stage a little as I was returning to spinning after a wrist injury) and spun short forward worsted-style (no twist in drafting triangle) but not squeezing out the air as I worked.   Under warp tension the plied yarn is about 24wpi and relaxed is about 16wpi.  If I knit with it, I would treat it as a  fingering weight yarn but I’m currently leaning towards weaving with it.  I have an idea for a bomber-style jacket in a type of broken twill that I saw in a commercial jacket.  Should be fun to combine a handwoven fabric with hand knit cuff and collar elements.  If the calculations all work out, I’m thinking of using this yarn for warp and the for weft using an undyed medium-brown handspun Finull that I spun last year during Tour de Fleece.  We shall see how far I get!

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

Julie shares: Here are a couple of pieces I’ve finished with the lovely grey lamb fleece that seems to never run out. Dyed washed locks. Combed and carded to combine the reds and blue-greens, and spun woolen, short forward. Oh the squish!!! But very low contrast, which makes a Fair Isle pattern harder to see. So I knitted the next cowl in helical stripes, which I’m going to try again in a different helical technique to compare them. These cowls are headed to the farm where this lamb was raised. An offering to the shepherd goddesses who raise lovely Romney x Cvm x BFL critters. Still halve enough yarn for another cowl. Or two. They sell their whole clip of white wool to a buyer across the state. I’m leaning on them to consider selling some fleeces directly to spinners. These guys are raised in a pear orchard, so pretty low vm for uncoated sheep.#zerotohero

Sock Colour Study

Shauna shares: I started spinning for The Shift Cowl! I’ve wanted to make this for a long time but today was the first day I dug through my stash to find some colors I liked together. Hopefully there will be enough contrast. This first fiber is a wool (unknown type) and alpaca blend. I’m not sure of the percentages. It’s SO sticky. I’ve never spun anything with the lanolin still in it, an unusual experience for sure. I’m aiming for about 25 WPI on my singles which will hopefully be about a sport weight when it gets plied back on itself. This is going incredibly fast compared to a sock spin!

Josee shares: Casted on a pair of DRKeveryday socks with my new Southdown spin. Very interesting fiber. This will be my first ever pair of non superwash yarn socks, I am very curious to see how they wear (3 ply fractal, fingering weight).

Dana shares: I finished my socks from the #drkspinittoknititkal. These are Andrea Mowry’s Everyday Socks. I spun a 3ply fractal, 1:2:4 pieces end to end. The fiber was Just a Glimpse from Hello Yarn.

Sample Spinning // PLAY

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

Diana shares: Making some fibre blends and samples for an upcoming School of SweetGeorgia filming. I’m smitten with these red, orange, and magenta blends.

Lisa shares: I made yarn!

Becca shares: BFL/mohair (Birds of a Feather colourway from Craftyjaks) cable yarn is done!  I went with blue and reds plied together in 2ply step and then two of those plied together. Well, this is freshly skeined off the wheel so we’ll see about the balance after a soak… Well, final stats and thoughts about the cable ply.  The skein is 209 yds and 112g so it is dense and 18 wpi (it did not puff much at all after being firmly twisted in both directions). If I were to do it again I would put in a bit less twist in both plying steps but I am really happy with the balance overall. The colours mixed a lot and give a red-purple impression from a distance. The hand is firm and has a nubbly texture and finished yarn is very drappy (not surprising for a BFL/kid mohair blend spun worsted).  I look forward to seeing and feeling the swatch but that won’t be for a bit.  I have SO many swatches to do…

Kathy shares: My most favorite colorway ever! SGY Tea Leaves (targhee).  Goal is to improve my chain plying…we’ll see how that goes!

Jennifer shares: Working through fiber in my stash. This one is from Clemes and Clemes Good Clean Fiber Bliss subscription. The Bliss fibers are all crossbreeds, as opposed to their Pure subscription. This spin is BLF Teeswater X. 5-6″ staple, curl not crimpy, high luster, a lovely natural ivory, 4 oz. unprepped. I ran it one time through the drum carder. A lovely, smooth long draw/backward draw spin. Went for low twist, 10:1 on the Lendrum regular flyer. The twist angle is about 60-65 degrees.  As a long wool, I wanted to keep it soft and the singles and ply low twist means the result is VERY soft. WPI varies a bit – on a WPI measure 16 at the smallest, maybe to 12, though I got more like 11 on the one inch wrap, averaging. Sobering how much my singles vary in thickness, when while spinning and under tension, it seems so consistent! I’d like to knit it up to see how it looks regards of the range of WPI, and to test the softness, how much drape the low twist has. The final yarn weighs 3 1/8 oz. I lost more to the Lock Pop flicking than I thought, but I will use what was culled in other things – already put some of it as batting into a tiny art quilt.  I have other similar crosses that fall in the long wool category like this. I would say the Teeswater characteristics really come through. No idea what I will do with the skein. Ordinarily, I just tuck these low yardage skeins/lots into a box to sell at the Dickens Fair, but as I will not do the Fair this year (Holidays 2022) I’m not sure what will happen with it!

Weaving

Glenda shares: I wanted to make a baby blanket on short notice, so I was limited to yarn on hand. I used 4/8 cotton, all from stash except for the fuchsia which I bought from a friend’s stash. After the warp was on the loom I was afraid that there were too many bright colours, no place for the eye to rest. But I am happy with the result. I hope the baby likes bright colours!

Linda Sue shares: Thrilled to finally be weaving my gamp.  I opted to weave in plain weave because the 36″ width is the widest I have ever woven.  So I want to get the hang of throwing the shuttle that distance before I start the twill pattern for the shawl that will follow. I thought I would only get one color done and the hemstitching.  Wow, the hemstitching took a bit for 36″, but I am super pleased with my tension and keeping it straight.  Hubby did the dishes tonight (definitely a Keeper!) So I wove two more colors.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!