Samples away

Spurred on by my preparations for a program for our local spinning/weaving guild, Prairie Weavers, I have been doing a ton of experimentation regarding the effect of varying amounts of twist used for plying yarns (I'm not the best judge, but I think the program tonight went really well, thanks for asking).  I won't go too much into it yet because I'm planning on a whole post with pics of my samples, etc. a little later on as I have time to process it.  But I did want to show this:

(For those who are interested, this was spun on my Kromski Minstrel - singles on 12:1 ratio; ply on 16:1.  Fiber is KnitPicks Gloss roving.)

This is 38 grams of a silk/merino laceweight yarn before washing.  Before washing, it was 368 yards of yumminess.  After washing (for reasons that are plain to those who were at the guild meeting for the program), it was 332 yards of squishy yummi-numminess.  Why?  All will be made clear when the post about my little experimentation hits the stands.  I've found out why much of my laceweight yarn has been just yummy instead of squishy yummi-nummi.  It all makes so much sense now!

I've also been working with some of my recently (within the last year) acquired fleeces.

On the left is a sample skein of the bfl/suffolk cross. (By the way, I realized today that I'd misspelled Suffolk all through the last post.  I really do know how to spell it and every time I typed it I knew I was misspelling it but I just couldn't stop it.)  Next to it is a lock of the fleece.  Long staple - not unusual for a sheep with bfl in its heritage.  There's still a bit of lanolin in the fleece so I'm working on finding the best preparation for spinning.

On the right is a lock and a sample from the Polypay fleece I got earlier this year in Kentucky.  You can see the staple is only about half that of the bfl/suffolk and it has a finer crimp.  I really like the sample I spun when I combed the fleece.  It's a little more work but I got a much nicer end results. Actually, I only had to do one or two passes with the combs because it opened up so wonderfully.  I would love to have enough of this spun to make something to wear when I go to Kentucky next year.

What I did on vacation

Life has been so busy this spring that I've hardly knit a stitch but I got some vintage magazines given to me the other day and came across a knitted doily that I just couldn't pass up.  I started this on Saturday:

It's been a lot of fun and I love the fact that there's some variety in the textures in each of the petals.  It's worked in size 30 thread on US size 0 needles.  I'm debating about doing the ruffle.  It's pretty in the picture but in what universe am I really going to be able to get it to ruffle right?  We'll see.

The other main thing I've been working on is a great big ole square of garter stitch.  Okay, it's not a square yet but it's going to be a square.  Normally I hate knitting garter stitch but in this hand spun yarn with the movement of colors, it works, I think.  The problem is that I've run out of yarn (twice).

Actually, I knew that would happen but, whereas I'd kept up with the spinning and knitting, I have now run out completely.

I don't want to go too far with the spinning, though, because I think I'm going to do something a little different with the border and the edging.  I'm almost ready to start plying for my third round of knitting but I think I need to add a little more of the brown back into the second bobbin of singles.  I have to say, though, that I'm really loving the whole process of spinning and knitting this shawl.

I did find some turquoise merino roving at the KY Sheep and Fiber Festival that I've started spinning.  I'm wondering about using that for the border and then spinning the browns that I've taken out of the second bobbin of the singles for the original yarn for the edging.  I think I'll have to have a think about that.  I'm just thinking the solid turquoise would show up the lace knitting so much better and then the brown will ground it all in the edging.  We'll have to see.

All in a Day's Work

I know this will shock you but I always overestimate what I can do in any one given period of time. But I have managed to finish the bobbin lace doily I was working on:

When you work a square doily like this, you work it in 4 triangle sections. The only reason I don’t throw up my hands and walk away is that I got a little bit better in each subsequent section. Just a little bit but that’s okay. Now I’m going back to straight pieces, both because I they’re not as complicated as working around like this and because I need a little bit of a confidence boost.  You can see I haven't worked in all the ends.  That's for anotehr day.

At the most excellent of all used book stores located in Denton, Texas, I scored the unbelievable. I found 5 bobbin lace books, some as low as $3 and the highest at $13. One of these is regularly on e-bay and other sites for around $75 so I’m feeling very blessed right now and encouraged to move on with the lacemaking.

The other thing I’ve been working on is the handspun lace shawl. Not an exciting picture, I know, but there's only so much excitement you can give to a garter-stitch triangle.

I’ve spun this a pretty light lace weight from Frabjous Fibers Blue-faced Leicester. The 3 main colors that show up in the roving are green, brown and turquoise blue. I happily spun the first bobbin straight from the roving but when I started to spin the second bobbin (it was to be a 2-ply yarn), I realized that I was going to end up having brown in 2/3 of the finished yarn and that didn’t make me happy. It’s a pretty brown but I thought it was going to muddy the other colors. So for the second ply, I worked each of the colors and when I got to the brown, I pulled it out and put it aside.

That way, when I plied it, there was some brown but it kept the other colors more pure and that made me happy.
This is the very unexciting (so far) middle of the Thistle and Fern shawl from the new Margaret Stove book, Wrapped in Lace. In a Shetland-style shawl, the middle is worked (often point to point like I’m doing here and often in garter stitch as I’m doing here), then you work a border around this middle and finally you add an edging.

The center here is up to 180 stitches and I have to keep on until I have 254 stitches before I start back the other way. Seventy-four rows of lace weight garter on size 3 needles is a lot of knitting, in case you didn’t know it. I’m not progressing as quickly as I would like. A Jeannie-like blink and it’s done would suit me. I’m not a big fan of the garter at the best of times.

But one thing that has taken me away from progress on the shawl is a little baby blanket for a first grandchild of a friend of mine at work. I just found out about him last week so I’m trying to finish the blanket before his first birthday!

Lace study

With the class coming up at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Fesitval, I've been trying to push my limits in spinning lace.  Let's be honest.  My default yarn tends to be on the fine size.

But I wanted to work some samples with different types of fibers and different direction plies and see what I could come up with for projects for the Spinning for Lace class.

First of all, I put together this group of samples.  One of these is a commercial merino lace yarn.  The others are all handspun.

(Okay, there are 2 commercially spun yarns.  The one on the left is a strand of worsted weight yarn as a example.)

I also wanted to spin enough of one sample to knit something that will show the progress so here is the merino lace.  I spun something like 275 yards from 3/4 oz of merino fiber.  I can't believe how springy and fun to knit this is.

I spun this on my Kromski Symphony (which is my new favorite wheel for lace weight) at 16:1 ratio.  I spun the singles z and plied s.  I washed it in really hot water which activated some of the original merino crimp and gave this wonderful bouncy light lace weight yarn. The pattern is feather and fan (with an extra garter ridge running through one of them - I didn't find it until I was way past).  I've had to rip out several times and, because I've got plenty of twist in the yarn, it's hasn't been harmed by the ripping and reknitting (and ripping and reknitting - several times).  This was less than an ounce and I've got about 10 ounces left so I'm going to be able to do plenty with.  And isn't it a pretty color?  So springtime!

One more sample I'm going to knit up.  This is bfl which puffs up a lot once it's washed so it's never as fine as it seems when you're spinning:

One more and then I promise I'll stop.  This is rambouillet from the fleece which I washed lock by lock and spun straight from the lock:

(This is the worsted, handspun bfl and handspun rambouillet fleece.)

P.S.  Did you pick the commercially spun yarn?  It's the white strand on the left.