Spinning — Confessions of a Sockaholic

Oh Look… YARN! (A Dilemma)

by Kristin Page on March 7, 2011

Have I ever told you how much I love the process of spinning? Right now my wheel and I are on the “love” portion of our “love / hate” relationship. That’s okay though.

The spinner in me still wants to believe that spinning a whole fleece is the best way to spin and that I would love a hand knit sweater out of yarn that I started out processing, spun up, plied, and then knit. The a-d-d knitter in me loves color. Unless sheep are starting out in blues, greens, and purples… the ideal of me and the fleece is slowly drifting away. At least for now.

About a week and a half ago, Leslie posted a link to the Wool Gatherings etsy shop on Plurk. (Somebody please go buy the rest of the fiber in her shop before I do!) As it was a Friday at lunch, and my paypal just HAPPENED to be hooked up to my etsy account… I had a “fall-down-go-boom” moment… and ordered some fiber. The colorway doesn’t have a name but it was 4oz of 100% Blue Face Leicester. My goal… sheep to shoe… in other words I wanted to spin my own sock yarn.

This seller shipped FAST. The following Monday (yes, three days later) the fiber showed up in the mail. It took me all of 3.2 seconds to split it into thirds and start spinning. This yarn was also going to be my first 3-ply.

I have been in love with this fiber since the moment I started spinning it. It spun up so well, was so nice to spin and was just plain pretty. Last night I finished each of the individual bobbins. Like a good spinner, I let my yarn sit over night.

After a bad start to the day (involving ice, a car door handle, and my pointer finger) my goal was to get this fiber plied up and ready to go.

These pictures were before I soaked it and set the twist, so please ignore the twist quality here. The final count is 241 yards. There is a tiny bit left over that I’m going to use to teach my self to Navajo ply.

Here is the dilemma. Remember when I said that I wanted to make socks out of this yarn? My other option was fingerless mittens (an obsession we won’t even get into right now). The yarn came out to be fingering – sport weight, not quite enough for a full size pair of socks. As I plied the yarn up, I realized that no matter what I do with this if there is two of it they won’t match.

I’m having a horrible time deciding but want to cast this on because it is so pretty… I just can’t decide. I need your help!

Leave a comment with your vote… ankle socks? or fingerless mittens?

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A Handspun Hat

by Kristin Page on January 28, 2011

A Tree Hugger's Wife Fiber

Back in August my parents went on a trip to Alaska. While they were there, they visited a yarn store and bought me some fiber. It was from A Tree Hugger’s Wife in the colorway Wild Violets.

I went ahead and spun up the yarn and it came out pretty even, which I was surprised because in the past my spinning hasn’t been all that even. There was about 250 yards of it so I set it aside knowing that at some point I wanted to make a hat. The next step was the quest for the perfect hat. This would be the first item completed with my handspun that I’d actually show in public.

I came across a “Cabled Beanie” pattern on Ravelry and went ahead and cast on. One of the problems I find is that I always want to wear beanies, but so rarely are they made to fit a woman’s head. Usually they fit the guys better. I wound up modifying this one a lot, mainly because it really was made for a man, but also because it seemed like it would be way too big either way. Now it fits just the way I wanted it to in the end so I’m happy with the result.

I will say as a side note, for paying $4.95 for a pattern, I really expected it to be written a little better, it was a little confusing.

Aaron calls it my "hippie" hat.

Yarn: Handspun – A Tree Huggers Wife Fiber -Wild Violets
Needles: US Size 4 and US Size 5
Dates: January 19 – January 27, 2011

I’ve also been working on my first sock design. I’m just about done with the first sock and cleaning up the pattern to send off to test knitters next week. I’m excited about it and can’t wait to show everyone!

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Frieda

by Kristin Page on November 12, 2010

Two years ago a friend of a friend offered to teach me to spin. I borrowed her wheel and hand carders and she said I could have a this fleece if I learned to process it myself. I said SURE!! (seriously, full fleece, for FREE?!). This fleece came from a Romney sheep by the name of Frieda.

Over the last two years, Frieda and I have had our ups and downs. She really was a fleece to LEARN with. My first yarn with Frieda was bulky, not straight, and far from ready to knit with. That was okay. We were learning.

One night my roommate came home to find the rest of Frieda floating in the bathtub… We had decided it was time to finish processing her. The one problem was, I missed the step to “pick” the fleece. Everything I did I kept washing the fleece. I’m pretty sure by the end of my “processing” Frieda was OVERprocessed.
That’s okay, we learned together.

I’m done spinning Frieda now. I’ve spun all sorts of weights yarns with her, but they are all two ply. It’s not the softest yarn in the world, but I did it! My goal in spinning was to learn to spin sock weight yarn. I got close by the end when I spun about a sport weight yarn at 187 yards in a 2ply.

Frieda and I had our ups and downs. I was getting frustrated with the over processing but in the end pushed through to finish. It was a great learning experience.

For a learning fleece, I think we did pretty good.

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Handspun Success

by Kristin Page on October 30, 2010

This summer I talked about how i “re-found” my love of spinning. It had been awhile since I had picked up my wheel and I was having a blast spinning up this brown, pink and white Intentions Yarns in the colorway “Hope”.

Well I finished the brown and white and my wheel sat for another two months because I really wanted to ply it with this Romney wool from a fleece named Frieda that someone had given me. Free fleece? Sweet! The problem was, it was my first fleece and I decided to process it myself… This was two years ago and no one had told me about the “picking” process in cleaning a fleece, so I kept sending it through the wash. I think I’ve washed the fleece three times between the time I started spinning and and am almost done with it. It’s been my learning fleece… NONE of the yarn from it is even, NONE of the yarn from it comes out to the same yardage, it goes from bulky to fine… but that’s okay…

Anyways, the fleece had me stumped. Since it has been over processed, I didn’t like spinning with it… it wasn’t soft to spin but I really thought it would go great with this intentions yarn and help me get a little more yardage out of it… I missed spinning… so I finally decided to spin 10 minutes a day… and see what I came up with…

The next thing I know, I had a 2-ply yarn

2 Ply Handspun Yarn, Shown with Penny

I have about 200 yards of yarn to be exact here. It’s about worsted weight, so I started digging through ravelry to find out what I can make with a worsted weight yarn under 200 yards. (I LOVE the ability to put in a weight and a yardage and it pulls up projects to match!) I found the Evangelaine Fingerless Mittens pattern, and I’m thinking it’s going to the top of my queue, right after the Christmas knitting is finished.

I have a small amount of romney left, so I’m going to just get it done. There is still some left over from what I spun here… I switched my wheel to be using the fast whorl, so I’m going to see where that gets me… that will be my spinning for the weekend, and maybe a little bit into the week… Next up is some beautiful roving my parents bought me in Alaska from A Tree Huggers Wife, I can’t wait to start it, my goal is to make it my first handspun sock yarn.

Oh and I have two posts of Finished Projects coming soon, it’s been a matter of photographing, and sitting down to write them. For now, there is some Christmas yarn calling my name.

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You Spin Me Round…

by Kristin Page on July 31, 2010

Over the past week I’ve been doing some spinning. It’s felt great to get back behind the wheel. I was getting incredibly bored spinning a Romney fleece that I’ve had for almost two years now so I decided to change it up and it’s helping!

As I mentioned the other day, I’m spinning Intention Yarns – Hope. It’s Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) fiber and I’m loving it!. The colorway is a mix of pink, white, and brown and I’m going to two ply it with some of the brown Romney.

Ultimately I’d like to get a good 200-300 yards out of the 2-ply. Ideally I’d like to give another shot to the the Yarn Harlots One Row Handspun scarf. My last one did not have nearly enough yarn and wasn’t even close to evenly spun!

Tension wise I’m getting better and keeping it pretty even although it definitely has it’s bumps. Someday I’ll get it all evened out!

What’s on your bobbin?

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Spinning in Circles

by Kristin Page on October 15, 2008

Wow, this last week has been complete craziness with all kinds of things and emotions.

Last Monday night one of roomies parents friends taught us how to spin. We’re borrowing her spinning wheel for a little bit and I’ve become obsessed. Someone she had previously taught to spin who didn’t enjoy it too much left her with a full fleece from a Romney sheep named Frieda. I went through the washing process this week and washed up the fleece and am working on carding it. I have fallen for spinning… this is so not good. I’m borrowing an Ashford Traditional.

Knitting wise I’ve been all over this week… I had a rough day Wednesday (more about that soon) and needed something incredibly simple to just knit back and forth… not even sock simple… eaiser than that… so I cast on a regular scarf with the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Knitters without borders Sock Weight yarn on size 6 needles… and just knit back and forth…

I’ve also been working on my Central Park hoodie a lot lately and I’m hoping to have that finished up soon. I just blocked the two front pieces tonight… so all that I have left is the sleeves! We’ll see how that goes.

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Oh Look… YARN! (A Dilemma)

A Handspun Hat

Frieda

Handspun Success

You Spin Me Round…

Spinning in Circles

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