Spinning Update

I realise that though I have been spinning like a mad thing lately I haven't really talked about it much on the blog.  I have found that spinning on my supported spindles keeps me sane.  The smooth even twirling on the spindle and the soft even drafting of beautiful fibre is hypnotic and meditative.

The last time I talked about spinning was to mention it when I was talking about the New To You SAL.  I have now spun my first complete skein of yarn on my Tibetan Spindle from IST Crafts and fallen head over heels in love with spindling.

I used the Fyberspates fibre I talked about in my previous post and it was lovely to spin with the merino and silk.  The fibre was blended really well, so there were no lumps for me to deal with.  The stellina felt strange at first but I quickly got used to it.  I spun all the fibre in one continuous single.  This spindle is incredibly fast and this leads to very fine spinning.  The nature of the fibre also meant that even though it was very fine, it also spun up incredibly quickly.

Every time the spindle got full I wound it onto a plying ball, which I started by needle felting a small lump of wool fibre into a ball about the size of a walnut.  I then wound the single off the spindle by hand, which helped even out the twist in the single as I went.

When it came time to join the single from the spindle to the end of the singles wrapped around the plying ball, I employed a technique shown on the Yarnraising Podcast.  I simply treated the end of the single on the plying ball as though it was fibre about to be spun onto the spindle and spun the two ends together.  I could then wind the singles on the spindle onto the plying ball and it would be one continuous strand.

When I got to the end of the spinning I decided I would try chain or Navajo plying.  The following video is the one I watched when finding out how this kind of plying was done.

I tried by starting off doing the chaining and the plying at the same time, and failed miserably.  Instead I did the chaining straight onto another plying ball, which meant that the big loopy chains were ready to be plied, without getting myself in knots.  I watched another video to see how that was done.  This video has weird interference for the first few seconds and then evens out.

Once the chained singles were finished, I spun them in the opposite direction from the singles, to ply those chains together to form yarn.  To spin in the opposite direction I spun using my left hand.  It was much easier than I thought it would be to spin in the opposite direction by changing hands, rather than changing direction with my right hand.  I like that it means you don't have to think about which way you are going to be flicking the spindle.

With this style of plying you can see the little bumps caused by the parts where the chain junctions are, but you do have to look closely. I like how it keeps the different sections of colour together.  Once I had my plied yarn spun, I wound each section onto a niddy noddy and tied it in several places with spare sock yarn.

The main problem with plying on a spindle is you do end up with several smaller skeins because of the limits of how much a spindle can hold.  To deal with this I simply tied the ends of the different sections of spun yarn together.  I will sort out the simple knots when I knit the yarn.

Once made into a hank, I soaked it in a tepid sink of water with some Euclan for a while, to make sure the yarn was properly soaked.  I then squeezed out the water and gave it a good thwack against the bathroom tiles to try and align all the strands and make them grip together.  I don't think this technique works with superwash or other non-scaled fibres.  I left the hank to dry before rewinding it round the niddy noddy to see how much yarn I had.  The finished fibre weighed 114g and measured approximately 210m/230yds.

The finished yarn is a light fingering weight or 3ply.  It is very dense because it is so tightly spun.  I think I will try and learn how to spin with less twist.

I love how the yarn turned out and it will definitely get used, when the right pattern crops up.  I won't be in a hurry to chain ply again, as it is an added complication, however I will probably use it when I want to keep blocks of colour together, as this an easy way to achieve that effect.

I'm really pleased that I joined in with the New To You SAL, it taught me a lot and resulted in an increased confidence in my spinning, and confirmed how much I love it.

KALs in Progress - STCLKAL, NEWTOYOUSAL, MSROBKAL

September has started with a bang.  31st August, was the start date for the Stitched Together Crafting Library KAL (STCLKAL) and it seems there were several of you waiting with baited breath.  There is lots of chat in the thread on the Ravelry group board, and there are already several progress photos posted.  It's really exciting and inspiring seeing what everyone is casting on. As you might have guessed, I too have cast on.  I have a measly 1.5" knit, but then I have to remind myself that this is the whole body being knit around and I had to do lots of sums first!

I have decided to make this cardigan to fit me perfectly - assuming I lose 2" all the way around my circumference!  I am currently losing weight at quite a good rate so it seemed silly to make the garment to fit me now, because by the time I've finished the garment it will be too big.  I have assumed that my back measurements won't change a lot, nor the proportions between the height of shoulder, waist and hip.  I am making the size that fits my upper bust measurement less 2", but as there is quite a large range between sizes it actually should just about fit my upper bust now, which is fairly comforting!  I should be able to wear this even though it will be a little small on my full bust and hip.  I know from past experience that when I lose weight my proportions remain fairly consistent, so I feel safe making these assumptions.

I am placing most of the additional stitches required for my bust at the bust darts and some at the side and the additional decreases for my waist will happen at the sides and the back darts.  I also know that I need to add length to the torso and between my shoulder and bottom of the armhole as I have a long rib cage.  There are lots maths involved and in order to get started I've only done the bottom bit of maths, the hip!  In about another 2" I'll have to start the decreases and I'll need to do more maths.  I'm really enjoying this challenge after reading Knit to Flatter and I'm hoping this garment will really fit me nicely.  Even when I've added bust darts in the past, garments don't fit me perfectly because of my long torso and relatively small waist.  It shall be interesting to see what kind of difference it will make to my appearance.

The cabled panels, at the front of the garment, keep things interesting.  The cables are single stitch crosses and the knit stitch is nearly always twisted by knitting through the back loop.  It looks great but it makes things a bit slower.  I'm knitting the cables without a cable needle.

The panels are mirrored, so you need two charts, but I think it makes it look really polished.  I started to knit this using Addi Lace circular needles because I couldn't find my ChiaoGoos and they really weren't pointy enough to deal with the cables.  I was so relieved when I dug out my ChiaoGoo Lace Interchangeables from an unused project bag.  The difference in doing the cables was significant as the point is so much sharper.

I have added the additional stitches equally between each front and the back, as there are false seams, and kept the back and bust darts in the same locations as if there weren't additional stitches for the hips.  I'm not sure that I will keep those darts in that position until I've knit a little more length so I can compare it to my own body and work out whether I should move them a little.  I like the look of the fake seams which involve slipping the right side stitch and purling the wrong side stitch.  You can see the effect above.

I hope I have more to show you next week.  I plan on having a regular STCLKAL blog post.  I was intending to do it on Monday, but I wasn't very well earlier in the week and couldn't face blogging.  If you are blogging about the STCLKAL then leave a link to it in the comments.  It would be good to see what other people are thinking about this KAL!  Remember to use the tag #STCLKAL on Twitter and Instagram, as it's been great seeing what people are doing on those platforms.  If you don't use Instagram, I highly recommend it, as there is an app for iPhone and Android now so you can easily see your friends' photos.

This project is actually a double dip KAL.  I am applying it to the Must Stash podcast's Rhinebeck or Bust KAL.  The ideas is to make a stand out item that you would be proud to be seen wearing around The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck (usually just referred to as Rhinebeck).  I am fairly sure that this cardigan will fit that!  I can't win any prizes for my KAL, so I'm double dipping to win somewhere else!

Speaking of prizes, there have been a few people who have offered additional prizes for the KAL, which I will hopefully tell you about next week when it's all firmed up.  They are good ones that I think you'll like!

I'm also taking part in a SAL!  "What is a SAL?", I hear you cry.  It's a SPIN a long.  Melia of the Yarn Raising podcast is running a New To You SAL.  New to You means using a fibre, technique or tool that you've not used before (or maybe just sampled).  As I've not done a full skein on my Tibetan spindle I am using that and spinning the Fyberspates fibre I got in their sale.  The blend is merino/silk/gold stellina.

It is spinning like a dream!  It's so quick to draft.

The new technique I want to use is chain plying.  I think this would be a lovely 3-ply yarn and I think this would be a heavy lace or light fingering when it's done if I carry on with this thickness while I spin.  I think this fibre would work well as a chain plied yarn as it's got a limited palette and they colours blend together beautifully.  I'm really excited about this spinning and I'm glad I decided to join in with the SAL, even if it is another commitment!

As this is technically a WIP post as well as a KAL/SAL post, I'm linking up to Tami as usual.  I'd love to know what KALs you are joining in with at the moment.  Please tell me I'm not the only lunatic!