To Blog.....or not to blog? Or, Adventures in Spindling

Takli

"You never blog!" "When is your next blog update?" Just two of the comments I've heard regarding my zzzzzzzzz blog. Sigh. It's hard to keep up with so many social networking platforms. What are the best formats to share my passions with people? I've been hiding mostly on Twitter--I follow so many wonderful people--knitters, spinners, fiber dyers, tea lovers, and people with many other similar interests. It's quick. And very easy. Little snippets of what I'm doing. But it's hard to get a lot of details out in 140 characters! I know, there are functions such as Twitlonger, but you get what I mean.  Facebook is my second option. But it's more time consuming, and harder to quickly upload pics of what I'm doing. The blog. Updating the blog takes the most time, and it's kinda static. Just a snapshot of what I was doing at a moment in my life.

So, what should I do? 

Russian style support spindle

I am leaning toward using the blog for projects. How I approach a project from start to finish. My thoughts, ideas, considerations entailed in how I do "my thing". More of a quasi quarterly newsletter. For example, I'm currently knitting an afghan, the Tree of Life designed by Nicky Epstein blogged about by Tina--AKA arizonaknitter on twitter. (The afghan I'm doing is the third picture down in the linked page.) I started with alpaca fiber generously gifted by AlpacaFarmGirl on twitter. I spun the fiber, then dyed the skeins in pale chestnut and pale green, with a couple transition skeins of chestnut/green. Pics of the process can be found on my Facebook page, Chrisinvermont, picture album Tree of Life afghan. Anywho, it's in-progress, and representative of the types of things that I will blog about in detail; including pics, resources, tips, etc.

Drop Spindling

Tibetan style support spindle

This has been a summer for trying out new fiber skills. For many years I've resisted the urge to spin on a drop spindle. It's too slow, it's hard on the arms, why would anyone bother?

Then it hit me. I decided it would enhance my general fiber skills and round out my repertoire. It's portable. I can carry a small spindle with me just about anywhere. Little bits spindled here and there add up. I'm not always into knitting everywhere I go, and it's fun to have a variety of things to do. Although I'm not certain I can bring a Takli on a plane...

I've been watching dozens of videos of people spindling. In Peru, Ecuador, Chile. I find it so fascinating. (One of my favorites, the one with the Navajo spinner/weaver Clara Sherman, bring tears to my eyes! So much knowledge, passion, experience in her hands!) Watching these videos ignited my interest in finally really applying myself to learning to spindle.

Akha spindle

So, do I buy just one spindle? NO! I now have a collection.

*A Takli--a short, thin spindle with a brass whorl on the bottom (picture at top is of my cotton spinning on Takli). The Takli originated in India, and is primarily used for spinning cotton. Here's a video on Takli spinning--> Takli Spinning Video link.

*A Russian-style support spindle (second picture). I purchased mine on Etsy from SpinDizzyChick. Love it.

*A Tibetan style support spindle (third picture) purchased from NealBrand on Etsy

*An Akha spindle for drop spinning cotton (fourth picture). I realized after watching the Akha woman spinning for like a dozen times, I was doing it different from how she was doing it. I should wind the yarn on the top portion, so I will be able to use the bottom for the twist motion.

Oh, and a Turkish spindle from ThreadsThruTime, also on Etsy. Lol. So many options!

I mastered all of these in about a week. Each one is different in ease, function, and use. More about these in the future!

If you want to keep up-to-date on what I'm doing, follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook! I am carding, spinning and dyeing fiber blended with bunny fiber from my zoo! I will be listing some skeins & hats for sale soon!




And we went to York, Maine...
Ciao

On to May...

Right. Time to update the old blog. It's been languishing the past, oh, 4 months. Now that I am officially selling handspun yarn, handknit items, and soon--carded batts of fiber, I think it's time to dust off the blog.

About three months ago I purchased two adorable French Angora bunnies. A silver-gray doe (Nuit Noire), and a light cream-color buck, Primo Torto. Over the past months I've noticed that they have developed personalities. Nuit (I call her New-ee) is a bit timid, but will always come right up to the door to say hi to me. Torto is very gregarious. He hops right up to the door before I even unlatch it, and insists that I rub his nose/head before anything else occurs. They are about 3/4 through their first fiber shedding, and I've been combing it versus shearing it. As a handspinner, I find sheared bunny fiber tends to have coarse ends where cut. Combing or brushing ensures a better spinning fiber.

French Angora bunnies are smaller than the English/Giant breeds, and therefore have less yearly fiber yield. However, I think I'm going to get at least one, as the fiber yield can be anywhere from 1-3 lbs per year--which is 2-3x more than FA yield.

I finally got new yarns and some knitted hats on my etsy site. Even made 2 sales in the past week! I'm very excited, as I hope this leads to Vtknitboy on Etsy becoming a larger part of my life.

Will try to post more often, as I will be listing yarn, knitwear, and batts (to spin) later!

Cheers!

First: A Bit on Twitter....then, about spinning!

J kind of laughs when I go on about Twitter, and tweets from so and so. But, with my updates protected, I am able to accept or decline those who wish to follow me. There are some silly people out there, whose goal, it seems, is to get as many followers as they can get! Some people have hundreds, thousands. Even hundreds of thousands! Then you have celebs with a million plus. Lol. I'm pretty happy with my <200.

On to the crafty stuff!

I haven't been to sleep yet--from last night! I was knitting a clapotis (a French scarf)--click the word clapotis for a link to the first site I found when I googled clapotis. Hmmm. Kind of interesting that this link came up. Kimberly, the author of the blog Knit Whimsies, seems to have disappeared. Last entry was May 2008. This could be a mystery...

I went to bed at 2:30am and couldn't fall asleep, so I just got up and started sorting through all of the fiber (roving and batts to be spun into yarn), and yarn stashed in the closet in the den. I seriously have a lot of yarn and fiber. My goal is to put a lot of the handspun up for sale on my etsy site: vtknitboy at etsy.com. Now, don't go searchin' for stuff now! Nothing's up yet. I'll post to this blog after I get it set up.

I've been playing around with various fibers: mostly alpaca from Maple at Northstaralpacas.com in Michigan. She has fabulous fiber available--check out the stuff she has for sale at her etsy site. You can link to her etsy site right from her blog. Other fibers I've been into lately are soy silk, bamboo, and tencel. I'm really concerned about the use of oil for man-made fibers when there are so many natural plant and animal options in the world.

I'm interested in how these fibers can be sustainable and eco-friendly. I'm pretty sure the yarn made from corn is not a good example of this, as it takes lots of energy to convert it into yarn, and also removes it from the food supply. Soy silk is made from the soy by-product/remains of making tofu. There is also milk yarn! I'm not quite sure how it's made--if anyone has info on the yarn making process for these, please leave a comment or e-mail me!

Here are some of the yarn combos I did last week.

Top pics: attenuated bamboo roving (left); spinning the bamboo (right).

Pics directly at right: checking the twist on the single (left pic); bamboo spun onto the bobbin (right).

The bamboo is very shiny, almost like silk. But way cheaper and eco-friendly! It is very nice to spin. The fiber is attenuated by splitting it up lengthwise, then pulling it out about every 4-5 inches (the length of the fiber). This helps start the drafting process by sliding the fibers along each other. This also helps if the fiber is slightly matted, stuck, sticky, or just compacted a bit. ETA: here's a link to bamboo info: bamboo.

The next set of pics is the baby camel. This is very soft! Almost as soft as cashmere, but about 1/3 the price.

In the pics at right, spinning, on the bobbin, and checking the twist. Because the fiber is so short, it requires a lot more twist to keep it together.

In the next group of pics, the one at the left is the Lazy Kate. The three bobbins, left to right are camel, merino, bamboo. The middle pic is plying, and the pic at the right is checking the twist on the two ply yarn.

The final pic is the skeins of yarn, drying on the clothes rack, after being soaked in hot soapy water (I use an eco-friendly dish soap), then soaked in clear water, then drained and rolled in a clean towel. I give it a good whack, then put it on top of the rack.

New Twitter Friend!

I have become friends with a woman in Alabama, Katy, who goes by Alpacafarmgirl on Twitter. She sent me a sample of fiber from two of her alpacas. She asked me to post about it NEXT week, as she is willing to send out samples of fiber to those interested. In the meantime, I just want to say that it's superbly fah.buh.luss! Her blog is here. She's having a

Fiber Arts Friday & Giveaway!

More on knitting in a couple of days!

-Vtknitboy (Chris)

Handspun Shetland Sweater...for ME!

It's finally done! And I can now update my blog. I've been getting nudges from people e-mailing me, asking me to update my blog. The last time I blogged was around my birthday in October, and I've been kind of busy since then.

I meant to blog a couple of weeks ago, but we got a new computer, and I've been getting it up and running and transferring files. Then, there was that little thing--you know--the election, that kind of got in the way! I'm really excited my guy got elected. I just hope the pile of crap the current prez left for him doesn't sidetrack the new administration too much.

And, I'm teaching a couple "learn to knit" workshops at A Stitch in Time Yarn near the Jericho/Underhill townline on Route 15 and River Road. I'm really excited that the owner Kelly has given me this opportunity to teach workshops there. I just taught three women how to knit last week. It was super fab to see them "get it" and the glow on their faces when they were "stitching" as one put it!

So, what's finally done? My handspun Shetland sweater. My extremely talented friend Joanne of Pine Ledge Studio and I visited the Maple Ridge Sheep Farm in Randolph, Vermont, oh, about ten years ago. I believe this was one of the first, if not THE first, Shetland sheep farm in the United States. I picked out three fleeces: a black with a hint of white, a lovely creamy color, and a light grayish brown--either a Musket or Mioget. You can see the wide range of Shetland colors here: Shetland Color Range.

Joanne meticulously washed and carded the fleeces for me, and even divided the carded batts into over a dozen paper grocery bags, labeled "best black", "best grey", "mixed", etc. These bags have been sitting around in "the fiber room" for years, along with pounds of roving, and other forms of fiber, waiting for me to get around to spin them. It's only been recently that I have fallen into the "use up what I have mode"--everything from a back-stock of shampoo and soap, to spinning what I have, and knitting what I have already purchased--before buying more. It's been a combination of my not working very much lately and the economy souring that has put me in this use up mentality.

Months ago I posted pics of spinning this yarn, so I'll skip that for this post. Plus, all of the pics are on the old computer and I haven't transferred them to the new one.

The Knit Game
Okay, how many times can one re-knit sleeves on a sweater? Depends on how anal you are. I re-did the sleeves three times. Really. I used a basic top-down raglan sweater pattern, but made several changes to it. I wasn't happy with the looseness/baggyness of the sleeves, and kept ripping them back to the shoulder or to the elbow until I was happy with the size and the amount of decreasing.

I did a 3x1 ribbed pattern between the shoulder sections on the top. I wanted to give the sweater more strength on the top, just in case it sagged/grew a little while wearing.

Another change I made was adding a split welt to the bottom. I wanted this sweater the drape freely, and I also am not found of the bulkiness created by having ribbing on the bottom (it also makes one look, well, heavier). I haven't blocked this yet, so the bottom rolls up a bit. This should end up flat after washing and blocking.

The other big change was the collar. I made a stand-up, fold-over collar, by knitting about 2.5 inches of shetland, doing a K2, yo, row, then a knit row, then 2.5 inches of handspun cashmere I had hanging around. I then folded it over inward, and tacked it down.

I knit this in a 1x1 rib, which made it nice and stretchy. For the V-neck section of the collar, I just crocheted one row in black, evening out the edging, which made it nice and uniform to pick up stitches for the collar. I then knit a couple rounds in black, then 4 in the grey, then single crocheted 1 row of white cashmere. I followed this up to the standup collar, creating a nice and even white edging. It might flatten out with blocking, but I don't mind the outward curl. It makes it more relaxed looking.

It fits pretty well! The only thing I'd change would be to have about 1.5 inches less in the underarm. The pattern called for 4 more inches than what I had, and it was too baggy. The spinning is light and lofty, and will be a very warm sweater! I tried it on with just a t-shirt to take the pics, and it was not very itchy at all! The cool thing about it is each one of the different fleeces yielded a different hand (feel) to it! The white is the softest, the greyish is closer to the white in softness, and the black is the "roughest" but I use that term loosely.

I'm pretty psyched that I finally have a handspun sweater for ME! J has 2, plus a vest, so I thought it was my turn to get one!

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Chris

September Update...

Wow! I haven't blogged in ages! Kenny, my knitting friend from Houston, is here in Vermont for a week's vacation from the hurricane after-effects in Houston. He was without power and water for 9 days, and just had the power restored the day before he flew to Vermont. Luckily, he has a kind friend in Houston (with power) who let him stay with him for a number of days.

So, we've been off leaf peeping, visiting yarn shops, seeing the sights, eating great food and just hanging and relaxing. We visited the Mountain Fiber Folk Coop in Montgomery Center, Vermont. (First three pics at right.) I met Sabra (pictured with me), and Carol at the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival about 3 weeks ago and told them we'd make the trek up to MC to see them. We had a blast! Nice stuff, nice people.

We had a lovely trip to Craftsbury Common, which is one of the most beautiful towns in Vermont, and saw lots of wonderful foliage, and some sheep right next to the road (dirt road)! I think it was the Bonnie View Farm. I'll have to goggle it and update here.

Other pics of foliage I think were on the way to Montgomery Center.

I just wanted to get a quick post off to update ya'll. I had lots to blog about after: visit to the Vermont Sheep & Wool, the stash I got there, spinning updates, and knitting updates. But, that's all for now!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

-Vtknitboy (chris)

Spinning for Socks

In the past week I've been spinning a number of samples for socks. My goal is to get the sock yarn in the range of 6-8 stitches per inch. Following are some of the samples and some notes on the various fibers plied together in the yarn. I will be knitting them up over the next couple of days.

I spun up a couple ounces of white Shetland top I got at Paradise Fibers. This is fabulous top! It glides super, and drafts wonderfully--soft yet strong. Not hairy like some Shetlands, but also not downy. I then spun up smaller samples of various fiber.

Click on all pics to enlarge them...Sorry that some of them are a bit blurry!

Sample number one: The first is the blue-turquoise-green-purple roving of fine Merino. I got this at the Mens' Spring Knitting Retreat in Easton that I went to in May.

This roving was a bit compacted and I spent a lot of time attenuating the fiber so that it would draft easier. I first broke the roving into strips lengthwise, then attenuated them. I really love the colors, although they don't show up very well against the white Shetland. (I did another sample with this and dark wool with mohair, where the colors stand out much better.)

Sample number two was plied with some of the light gray alpaca I also got at the Spring Retreat, this was from the Alpacas of Easton I blogged about it May. This alpaca is super silky, and yields a thin yarn that is easy to draft. This plied up into a nice soft yarn.

Sample three I plied with some dark brown llama I got from our friends Chris & Leigh at Mountainshadow Farm. It has a different texture than alpaca--I describe it as more like hair--but it is as warm as alpaca; about 8 times warmer than wool. It makes nice sock yarn!

I did another sock yarn out of some black Shetland I bought years ago from Maple Ridge Shetland Farm in Randolph, Vermont years ago. My friend Joanne at Pine Ledge Studio in Fairfax, Vermont hand carded it for me, along with some gray, off white, and fawnish color. I plied this with some of the dark brown llama from Mountainshadow Farm. This is a bit more rugged than alpaca yarn--I overplied it on purpose to yield a nicely balanced, but firm sock yarn. This is the heaviest weight of all the yarns I did for this study.

I have another batch of samples drying, but I just did little bits. I'll post later about them.

Oh! I did have some fun with cashmere! Here are pics of the 100% cashmere yarn, and one small ball of cashmere plied with the Shetland. It's the small white ball of yarn in the bottom left of the picture--below the dark alpaca/llama yarn. Note that I overplied the cashmere on purpose. Down fibers like this and others tend to relax drastically after washing. In this case it was overplied, but relaxed into a just barely balanced yarn!

Some of the things to think about when spinning fibers that you are going to ply together are: fiber length, twist, and compatibility. The various fibers should be similar in length as possible. The longer the fiber, the less twist to get the yarn you want. I mean this in general. There are always variants and different ways to achieve different results. So, one example of not too compatible fibers would be cashmere and Lincoln wool. Cashmere is very short, about .5-1.75" and Lincoln wool averages about 7 inches! The problem that arises when plying these together is that there needs to be an incredible amount of twist in the Lincoln to come close to the twist in the cashmere. Thus, the Lincoln would be almost entirely unspun when plied with the cashmere. Okay, so these are kind of at both ends of the spectrum. But hopefully you see the point.

So, for the samples:
In sample number one, I could create a better yarn by spinning the Shetland thinner and with more twist. The colorful merino is a much finer fiber, and spun up thinner naturally. It had more twist in my sample, so the Shetland in between the twist bumps is looser.

In sample two: it worked out well. The alpaca and the Shetland were similar.

In sample three: it worked out well. The alpaca and the llama are similar.

It didn't work out so well having the cashmere plied with the Shetland. The Shetland is very loose--and in between the bumps in the twist of cashmere, it's pretty loose. I could overcompensate for this by spinning the Shetland very thin and tight, because the cashmere must be spun thin and with lots of twist to yield a nice yarn. I could spin it with less twist, but I think that it would shed and or pill a lot due to the ends being loose. Although, the yarn is super soft, it's not the best fit.

As far as compatibility, plying cashmere with any of the above isn't the best use of the fiber. It's expensive, and has a short length, so would best be matched up with another short fiber. In this case it would be better to blend cashmere with another base fiber, therefore lending softness to the final product.

Alpaca and most wools are pretty compatible in fiber length, so I think any of these will be good sock yarns. Plus, alpaca lends a great warmth factor to the yarn.

So, I try to match fiber as closely as possible in similar lengths and twist required for a good yarn, and that's why sampling is so much fun! I get to see what goes well with what.

Someone asked me if it was possible to ply from a single. Yes! I use this technique frequently when I want to spin up small amounts fiber. It's really easy. Just spin whatever you want onto one bobbin. Then, using a ballwinder, wind up into a ball. Have your wheel all ready to ply, and carefully take the ball of yarn off the ballwinder. Keep a couple of fingers inside the hole of the ball! Now, gather up the inner and outer ends of the ball, and keep two or three fingers inside the ball of yarn--creating enough tension between your fingers to keep the ball stable, but not so tight that you can't get the single yarn to unwind.

Tie the two ends up to the leader from your bobbin, and ply! There you go. When the ball starts getting loose and starts to collapse, insert another finger into the ball. Keep tension even on the yarn between the ball and the bobbin.

That's all for now!

Spinning Updates...the quest for lace continues!

So, I've been spinning up a storm lately! Lots of alpaca, Merino, Cormo, Shetland, and alpaca/Merino blends, and today I started on some cashmere. My next post will be about the joy of spinning cashmere!

According to standard WPI (wraps per inch) charts, I'm spinning lace and fingering weight yarn, with some sport weight. One of my goals is to get about 800 yards of lace for some future project (I joined a shawl KAL), so part of this spinning has been to play around with getting lace yarn and also sock yarn (which in some cases is interchangeable). I sampled a standard purchased sockweight yarn and I got 21 WPI with it, so I'm pretty close to it in my spinning.

One of the interesting things to note is the various characteristics of different fibers. Mainly, how much the yarn fluffs up after washing in the skein. I always wash my yarn after I've plied it--I skein it up and soak it in hot, soapy water, then a moderately hot rinse (soak), then spin it in the washing machine, then let it air dry. In almost all cases, the yarn fluffed up after washing and drying. Some fibers, like Cormo, for instance fluff up really well. Others, like Lincoln, not so much.

One of my projects was from my friend Maple at North Star Alpacas in Michigan. This was 4 oz of a blend from Indy, which is 74% alpaca, 1% mohair, and 25% Merino, I think. I have two skeins total of 475 yards/4.9 oz/1550 ypp (yards per pound) at 24 WPI. I see this as fabulous sock yarn! With alpaca being roughly 8 times warmer than wool, this blend will make nice, lightweight socks. All in white! I spin the singles with a modified supported longdraw, which incorporates a lot of air into them, and get the firmness and strength via plying. (Aside: I think it's funny when people refer to a single as a "one-ply". Doesn't it take two to ply?!) Yes, those are Tigger's feet in the picture! He likes to "help" spinning, knitting, and picturing.

Another white project! lol. I have bags of white alpaca and brown llama from our friends Chris and Leigh from a couple of years ago, and since I did a major reorganizing of the contents of the fiber room this week, I decided it was time to start using up what I have. I ended up with 233 yards/2.8 oz/1330 ypp at 20 WPI. Really great for more socks!

On to the fiber with some color! lol. I have a couple of Shetland fleeces I bought years ago, and my friend Joanne carded it all for me. I have 4 different colors: a very creamy off-white, a light grey, this one (light grayish brown), and a dark brown. Click here for Shetland color chart.

I have 11 oz of this color, and spun up a small sample of it. I think it would fall under light grayish brown. The fiber has a long staple, is hairy, like mohair, and stretches easily, gliding for a good long draw. Unfortunately, because it's so springy and hairy, I was getting lots of neps in it-- the hair curls up and snags, kind of like a pill on a sweater but it's tangled up in what I'm spinning. Also, little bits of more downy stuff would just come off, so I needed to be fastidious and pick them out. The sample came out about 19 WPI.

The black in picture on the left is a lambswool I was also sampling to see how it would make as lace yarn. It's soft and springy, and a little hairy. I might have problems knitting with it, especially at night, as I won't see the stitches very well. But it would make a nice lace shawl. The knit swatch was made from the first Shetland lace attempt (19 WPI), which is at the bottom of the swatch, and the black lambswool (18 WPI) at the top of the swatch.

I wasn't happy with the diameter of the first Shetland lace attempt, so i did another couple of 1/2 bobbins, and really tried to go for a super thin single. I plied it and washed it, and the lace is pretty nice. This skein (both pics are the same one) weighs 1.5 oz, there are 210 yards, and came out to 23 WPI, so this was my best attempt at lace! It comes out to about 2240 ypp, so much closer to the 2600 ypp standard lace weight.

One note about preparing fibers for lace spinning: It is really important to have very well prepared fiber. The thinner the roving, the better chance of achieving thinner singles. In all cases I attenuated the roving by splitting it into thinner strips lengthwise, then attenuated each strip before spinning it. In the case of the Shetland, it was carded into shorter batts (a square, versus a roving, which is a continuous "rope") and I broke it into short sections then attenuated them. The Shetland also had a habit of nepping, so I had to very lightly attenuate it, but ended up leaving it thicker than other fiber. This reduced the neps and yielded a better single.

There are a couple things here: spinning fiber finely, and spinning fine fiber (also finely). It is possible to spin average wool and other fibers thinly, but the thinner the fiber diameter (Merino being the finest wool), technically one should be able to achieve a much thinner yarn the finer the fiber...

There are other ways to spin fiber fine. One way is to spin from the individual lock, which has been washed, dried, and is then flicked with a little brush which opens up the fiber into a fan-shaped lock. One spins off the corner, and it is easy to spin a super thin single. Best info on this is Margaret Stove's book: "Handspinning, Dyeing & Working with Merino & Superfine Wools". She signed my book in a workshop I took with her in February 1999!

Enjoy!