Dyed, Spun, Plied and now Knitting.

It has been awhile since I posted on my hand-dyed, home spun yarn. I had shared some of my dyed roving with my friend who introduced me to spinning and she showed me what she had spun and plied and I was inspired! I immediately came home and started plying up what I had spun.

I should have taken pictures of the plying process, but I was so excited to begin, that I completely forgot! My knitting sister got here in time to remind me to take a picture before I pulled the blocked and weighted yarn off of the clothes line where it had spent the night drying.

I ended up with about 80 yards of plied yarn which was two small wound balls of "artisan" yarn which varies in weight from fingering to worsted.

I knew that I wanted to make a narrower, lace scarf that I could wear at work with a blouse. I toyed with the idea of a lace hat, but it would never be warm enough for me to wear in the winter and I wouldn't wear it in the spring. Besides, if you go to all the trouble of dying, spinning, plying and knitting up your own wool, then you should be wearing it all day! So, a scarf was the perfect wearable item.

I selected a free pattern from KnitPicks called Victorian Spring Scarf which seemed to be just the ticket. The pattern calls for a slightly thinner yarn with a larger needle, so I will need more than 80 yards, but I have plenty more wool roving to spin. I have gotten about two repeats of the lace done and am pleased with how it looks. Yum!

Happy knitting!

Spinning Progress -- How Long Does It Take to Spin a Pound of Wool?

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir,

Three bags full;

One for the master,

And one for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.

I'm guessing those bags only weighed about a 1/3 of a pound! Now, I know that I am new to spinning and that it takes longer to spin with a spindle as opposed to a spinning wheel, but that laundry basket full of wool really has not been reduced much. The spinning that I have done only amounts to 142 grams of yarn. Since there are 453.592 grams in a pound, there are approximately 311 grams left (less the 80 grams or so that I have given to friends for their knitting and felting projects).

Happy Spinning!

Spinning: Lessons Learned ... So Far

Practice does make a difference. After several days of spinning yarn, I have been able to get my yarn  much more consistent in thickness. In the picture above, the roll on the left was made before the roll on the right. I can see that there is some variance in both rolls, but less so in the second roll which is on the right.  I am still over-twisting my yarn, but it is not as bad as it was. I have been practicing so much, my right shoulder is hurting from holding my hand high when drafting.

Doing something new is frustrating and fun at the same time. You would think that I was watching a football game on TV with all the "OH NO!'s", "Gggrrr's" and "Come ON!'s" coming out of my mouth. Just when I think that I have drafting down pat, I pull so hard that I rip off a piece of roving. But I love watching the yarn form as I spin away.

There are lots of things you can buy to make your life easier. I now know that I need a Niddy Noddy, a Lazy Kate, Bobbins and a Swift. And there are some things that you can make pretty cheap -- if you don't care about pretty. I can't afford it all, so some leftover PVC pipe and glue made a quick homemade Niddy Noddy -- that saved me from one purchase. I will put the money saved in a jar and name it "Spinning Wheel Fund." And now you know what tool I really want!

Happy Knitting!

P.S - If you are interested in making your own Niddy Noddy, you can avoid all the re-cuts and adjustments that I made by watching this video by Camaj Handspun. I did glue all the parts except for one arm which I can pull out to release the yarn. I made my arms longer and stretching the tied and wrapped yarn over the arm would be difficult.

Dying for beautiful wool.

A few weeks ago, my boss told me that my company had hired someone to head a new project. Little did I know, this person would not only be a knitter, but a spinner!!! I heard through the grapevine that I needed to introduce myself. And introduce myself I did!

I love the knitting world. It only took 10 seconds and I thought I had known her forever. We met for lunch and she gave me my first spinning lesson and loaned me an extra top whorl spindle and gave me three types of roving to get started. Oh and am I hooked. I went home that night and ordered my own spindle and 16 ounces -- yes, ONE POUND -- of Bluefaced Leicester wool.

Bluefaced Leicester are a long wool breed of sheep. longwool types are easier to spin. The "blue" is due to the color of the skin, not the color of the wool. Their faces are bald and their noses are "roman" which makes them look a little sad. According to the breed standard, "On both white and natural colored Bluefaced Leicesters, the wool should be tightly purled, fine, dense, semi-lustrous, and when parted, it should open cleanly to the skin. There should be an even, consistent fleece coverage on the body, and the fleece should be free of hair and kemp. There should be no tendency for the main body of fleece to “peel” (the fleece breaking and sloughing off).

The Bluefaced Leicester is classified as a longwool breed with a staple length of 3-6 inches, a fleece weight of 2½-4½ lbs., and a fiber diameter of 56s–60s count, or 24-28 microns. It creates high-quality semi-lustre yarns with soft hand, beautiful drape, and excellent dyeing properties."

I separated the wool into 12 pieces of 35 to 45 grams of roving and ran out to 3 different grocery stores to pick up a variety of Kool-Aid packages. Yes, Kool-Aid. Yes, you can dye wool with Kool-Aid. I just started with two colors tonight and will blog about the dyeing tomorrow.

Happy Knitting, errrr, Spinning, no Dyeing!!!