Spin – Page 51 – Fiber Musings

New Sockies!

On 17 Jan, 2008

I love my new socks! These are supposed to be my travel/meeting knitting, but I couldn’t resist. I pulled them out this week and finished them. I stopped every couple of rows to admire the hand spinning, the plying, and the stripes, and …

Yarn: hand spun (source unknown at this moment, because the tag is up at the cottage, but it was acquired at OFFF this past September); chain plied; 14 wpi
Needles:US #0 (2 mm)
Gauge: 7.5 spi
Pattern: My generic toe-up socks with figure 8 cast on; increased up to 64 sts; short row heel; and sewn bind-off.
Yardage: Unknown, but I used just shy of 2.75 oz. I still have 2.5 oz of this yarn. Enough to make some footies. (I’m sure I have it scribbled on the fiber tag, but it’s up at the cottage.)

Update (30 Jan): I found a picture of the fiber tag that I took after my shopping expedition to OFFF. The roving is from Sarah Anderson of Great Balls of Fiber. The fiber is 5.5 oz. of 80/20 Merino/Tussah in “Purple People Eater” colorway. No wonder it’s so beautiful and soft!

I started with 12 sts (figure 8 cast on with 2 circs), and used a short row heel. I normally decrease the heel down to the same number of casted on stitches, but this time, the heel was too wide. So, I ripped it out and went down to 8. Why 8, I don’t know. Now, the heel is too pointy. I kind of feel like Goldilocks. Next time, I’ll work down to 10 sts. That should be juuuust riiight.

On the second sock, I was having serious issues with rowing out on the heels. So, I ripped yet again, and reworked the heel with US #00 (1.75 mm). Much better.

I love these socks because it is the most consistent sock yarn I’ve spun to date. The grist is consistent through out. It’s slightly over spun, which I like for sock yarn. I love the way the chain ply preserved the colors. I love the stripes.

In fact, I love it so much that I immediately casted on another pair of socks using some more hand spun yarn!

This time, it’s Superwash Wool from Crown Mountain Farmâ€™s Superwash Merino in â€œSay A Little Prayerâ€ color way. I last used this for a baby blanket, but I also bought enough to make some socks. I spun the yarn for a regular 3 ply, but this ball is 60 grams of chain plied yarn from the dregs of the bobbins. That should be enough for some anklets.

Why is it that knitting socks with your own hand spun seems to go much faster than knitting the same socks with commercial yarn? Especially since I keep stopping to admire my own handiwork!

Prepping Batts

By Ann

On 7 Jan, 2008

In Spin, Technique

I dove into the batt from Abby’s September batt club offering. She provided a 2 oz. batt of luscious superfine merino/tussah/suri alpaca/mongolian cashmere blend in a beautiful orange that she called “Harvest Moon” and 2 oz. of tussah dyed to match Sorry, I have no before pictures of the batt. I just dove right in late last night and didn’t think about taking pictures until I finished 2 strips of the batt.

Today, I thought that I’d share with you on how I prepared the batt for spinning in a photo-tutorial. This is a picture laden post, so I’m putting it below the fold, so to speak. Proceed if you are interested.

Hodgepodge

By Ann

On 30 Dec, 2007

In FO, Knit, Spin

I made the mistake of taking a Claritin-D last night. I was careful by checking my blood pressure before and an hour or so after taking it. No increase in my BP. So far so good. But 4 hours later, I woke up and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I was wired. BP still good, but couldn’t relax. I had forgotten what the extended pseudophedrine does to me.

So what’s a girl to do? Go to her spinning wheel and experience a little zen.

This is “The Beat Goes On” colorway (discontinued) from Crown Mountain Farms. I sort of followed Teyani‘s directions for spinning the fiber, with one difference. I broke the roving into approx 10″ lengths. I ended up with approximately 60 lengths each of light and dark. I’ll be spinning 20 lengths of each onto 3 separate bobbins for a 3 ply yarn. The singles are approximately 40 wpi.

Isn’t it pretty?

And you know what? It worked. My body and brain settled down enough 90 minutes later for me to head back to bed for another 3 hours.

Oh, and you see that bit of fluff where the red arrow is pointing? It was a tip I picked up at SOAR. Remember my complaint of the rattle with the new WooLee Winder? It turns out that it’s because of my spinning method (semi-long-draw). When the tension is taken off of the spun fiber for drawing in, the mechanism has a bit too much play and rattles. By tying a bit of yarn around it gave it just enough cushion to muffle the rattle. It still rattles a bit, but no longer as annoying as it did before.

Near Anarchy Chart By the way, look at this! See all those tick marks? Yup. I’m 3 squares from finishing the body of the sweater. I was hoping to finish it by 2008, but I’ll have to settle for finishing the body by 2008.

I think I will seam it up and work the neckline and waistband before starting the sleeves. That way, I’ll know exactly how much of each color I have remaining. I’ll work the sleeves in stripes instead of squares, as shown on the book’s back cover.

The colors are approximate and not exactly me (except the purple, which I bought later when I decided to work this sweater). They worked better for my stepmother, for whom I picked the yarn out for. But it should be a nice cozy sweater for wearing around the house or walking the dog.

To close, here’s a picture of the finished fingerless gloves. As I said earlier, they are dense and warm. A little bit of all the colors in the repeat shows up in each glove to make them definitely fraternal, but not identical. I like.

P.S. I finally signed up for Ravelry. My screen name is FiberMusings. Now I can see what the fuss is about.

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: Spin Page 51 of 69

New Sockies!

Prepping Batts

Hodgepodge