Fruity Inspiration

The thing I really enjoy about starting to dye wool/yarn is that I am constantly on the lookout on exiting color combinations. When I was eating a kiwi some time ago I looked at the green, because that’s what we are anticipating with kiwis and then at the brown. And I started to imagine these colors together in a yarn. Next time I had the colors I tried mixing the green and the brown. I son realised that I would like to add another fruit, it needed something spicy (the red) and some fresh spring green.

I painted two rovings:

I wanted to spin them together in thick singles. I split each of the roving into eight stripes. Then I pre-drafted one stripe of each roving together.

I don’t have a picture of the finished yarn yet. But I am not completely satisfied. The first skein was hopelessy overspun. The second was better, but still…

Conclusion:

• I need to train spinning even singles.
• I don’t like Merino spun in even singles
• Merino needs to be spun thin and plied
• Merino is overestimated. I just think it is to flabby.
• I do like the colors

Finished and More

I finished my first object from my own hand spun yarn! That’s something. I chose Calorimetry from knitty.com, first because it’s a perfect object for little yarn, second to manage my growing hair! And since I wear it quite a lot I probably knit some more.

I really like the yarn (and the color), I first was afraid that it would be too hard, because of being overspun, but it turns out it was totally ok to knit. I should know because I knit it twice – the first try was why toooo big (and I swatched ladies, my gauge was smaller, so I figured that using the same stitch number would be ok, but still, had to reknit it with 25% stitches less). Anyway, it’s finished and practically stays on my head.

ravelled

At the same time I try to manage the twist amount and use the cheap multicolor bats to exercise spinning fingering weight singles. And did I tell that I get some help from my oldest. That usually works that way, that he treadles and I draft. Not too bad – he treadles quite slow which is good for the twist. So far I have spun four skeins (about 65g) each. Oldest whishes a hat from the yarn, we will see…

And from time to time I am still knitting on the second edition of helgi’s mittens – this time with a heavier yarn and darker colors. It’s getting cold outside…

Tags: knitknitting spin handspun yarn calorimetry

In Need of Color

This week I plyed my second skein – some improvement is visible, at least to me (for all of you who don’t see it, the right one is the new one). I found a tip in one of the online Spin-Off articles which said to ply with a higher ratio than the wool is spun. That worked pretty well.

I still have some of the cheap grey wool, but decided, that I really needed a change – and some color. The mixture is called autumn – that fits.

The color really fits the weather after a rainy grey yesterday we have beautiful weather again today.

Tags: handspun, joy, spinning wheel

New fields

Some months ago I thought that after knitting (and sometimes crochet or sewing) spinning my own yarn just would be the logical follower. And end of last month I finally managed to go to a introduction lesson at Spycher’s handwerk. It was fun, even if the result was not very promising.

But they have a good offer, for not too much money you can loan a wheel. Which is perfect to try it out before making the investment. I am quite proud of my first real handspun (2 ply), but I made some typical mistakes:

• didn’t let the yarn rest on the bobbin (not to speak of rewind it on another bobbin – guess what I read)
• didn’t put enough ply twist in it
• was very proud that the singles weren’t totally overtwisted, so at some places the twist is on the small side now (plying really removes twist, especially AFTER the washing)

  

But anyway, got into the flow at some points and am definitely going to keep my JOY…

Made one FO, just in time (didn’t have time to block them, because I actually finished them on the way to the party!). Yes, a birthday gift for C.

Helgi Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia, ravelled here