Craftpost!
I'm mildly interested in making things out of yarn, but it comes and goes. I've become quite good at making long, skinny rectangles. Recently, though, I was craving something new - following an actual pattern, doing something more complex than a scarf. I searched through some webpages for inspiration and found a cabled scarf pattern that looked simple but elegant - I had my Fall chorus project! (Some of the COC chorus gals are avid knitters - lace, socks, baby clothes, funky shawls, you name it! It's a way to while away the time between chorus scenes in the quiet and the sometimes-not-so-quiet dressing rooms.) Yes, it was still a scarf, but it was a step up from ribbing or stockinette. I got some beautiful medium grey wool & a cable needle and started knitting. To my surprise, it was easy! I had always been scared of cables, but this was just a simple twist. Before long, I was finished. I wove in the ends and tucked it away to present to Jeff in December. I gave it to him just before we went up to Whistler for the Film Festival - he barely took it off the whole week!
Fresh from my cable scarf success, I was a knitting machine! I decided that Mom and Mom-in law were both getting scarves for Christmas. Mom's was a gorgeous combination of greens and browns with a few touches of blue in a wonderful chunky thick-thin wool. Diane's was a creamy white, in a bulky weight. They both got the same stitch pattern, but the scarves looked very different once finished. The end result is a woven effect -
Once I figured out how to do cables and fancy stitch patterns, I decided hats were next! First, some back story...a long time ago, I tried making a hat to go with a big fluffy purple scarf I made. I made it on a circular needle, but I didn't knit in the round (go figure). It turned out to be a big floppy mess. My mom came for a visit and I showed it to her, seeking advice - maybe all it needed was some elastic through the band? She tried it on, and it fit over her enormous hair (if you've seen my mom, you know what I'm talking about) - no further adjustments were necessary. Anyways, I've never tried making a hat since then - the first one was such a bomb, and I couldn't find any patterns that a) were knit on straight needles, and b) weren't stocking caps. I sat down with my thinking cap on and read through a couple of patterns to see if I could understand the concept of knitting in the round. I knit a band in the same stitch pattern as the scarf, and picked up the right number of stitches, put them on two circular needles and started knitting. A little time passed and I had a hat to match Diane's scarf. As it turns out, hats are easy.
I'm still scared of socks. Maybe one day, I'll figure out DPNs. (that's double pointed needles, for the non-knitter) I may have conquered the 2 circular needles method of making hats, but the Magic Loop still eludes me. Maybe if I see it in action - I tend to learn better once I've seen the process. We'll see...
Current projects on the needles: a pair of arm cosies (fingerless mitts), a scarf to match my tic-tac-toe hat, a wrap/scarf thingy that I started ages ago (like, 4 years at least - another chorus project), and a multidirectional diagonal scarf that I'm not happy with and may decide to rip out. I'm still pondering that one... Perhaps that wool will be the perfect candidate for my first foray into felting...
In the meantime, however, I've discovered the joys of spinning. I absolutely love it. Feeling the wool fibres slip through your fingers and get grabbed by the twist created by the wheel - this is magic! Three weeks ago or so I spent a few hours transfixed, watching YouTube videos of spinners spinning on wheels and on drop spindles. It seemed so soothing - almost meditative. I decided that day that I wanted to try learning how to spin, so I looked up local yarn stores that sold spinning equipment and fibre. As it turned out, there's a carding operation and storefront quite close by - they had the equipment I needed to get started. I bought a drop spindle, and some dyed merino fibre. Jeff called the colour Muppet Guts - it looks like what you'd see if you had a Muppet on the operating table.
See?
I made lots of mistakes with this - it's overspun in places, too thick, not properly drafted, etc, but it's my first yarn, and I was rather proud of myself. I knit it up, intending to make a neckwarmer. The resulting fabric was way too stiff for anything - I think it's going to be either a cushion cover or a trivet...
I went back to Birkeland Bros. in search of more fibre and got some lovely (to touch), dyed Perendale in a beautiful rose-pink shade. Spinning this stuff was strange - it felt almost like velcro when I was drafting it. The yarn is probably best suited to something that's not going to sit next to skin - it's a little too coarse. But, my drop spindle technique was improving - I was getting thinner yarn most of the time, still overspun in places, but with fewer slubs and corkscrews.
I was, however, getting frustrated with the inconsistent and slooooow results I was getting with the drop spindle. This was not the way I wanted to spin! I kept seeing gorgeous handspun skeins on Etsy, and knowing that I couldn't even come close to that kind of yarn with my little drop spindle.
I started looking online at spinning wheels. Hoooo boy, there are some expensive wheels out there! Starting at around $500 and going upwards to the $1200 range....way too much for my budget and beginner ability. I went instead to the used websites - Craigslist and UsedVancouver - and found a few lovely wheels. Most of them were probably used as decoration, including the one I eventually bought. The lady I bought my wheel from was going to try her hand at spinning but never got up the nerve, so her wheel languished unused from the time she bought it 10 years ago. It is a working wheel, though, and with a little steel wool and sandpaper to smooth down some rough patches, is working like a charm. I swung by the wool store (or crack dealer, as Jeff likes to call it) on my way home from Aldergrove to ask some questions (I was scared I'd bought a dud and wasted $200), and to get more spinning fibre. The gal in the shop was super helpful, got a drive band attached, and a leader yarn on the bobbin and started spinning. Yay! Random used wheel purchase for the win!
Here's Gretchen:
I should say, she's working like a charm now, but the first few days were frustrating!! She didn't come with any instructions.
The first day I couldn't get anything to spin without breaking. A little research, and I figured out how to adjust tension on a double drive wheel.
The second day I couldn't get my treadling and drafting to work together. I got a lot of practice at pulling yarn back through the orifice and joining new wool on to the spun single.
The third day I was having take-up issues - the spun yarn wasn't winding around the bobbin. I was getting better at drafting and treadling, though... Baby steps, right?
The fourth day I was getting some smoother results - the tension was better, the treadling was slower and steadier (I had been speeding up out of frustration), and I managed to spin two bobbins of what looked like respectable singles yarn. Now, on to plying! Since my singles were nowhere near balanced, I needed to ply two strands together. Balance is when the yarn hangs fairly straight without doubling up on itself. My first plying attempt was a bit of a mess - the singles would tangle up, both on themselves as well as on each other, then the wheel would start spinning clockwise when it needed to go counter-clockwise, causing the yarn to jump off the hooks and get tangled up on the bobbin... Not fun!
The fifth day, I rested. My mind needed a break to soak it all in.
The sixth day I started again. Things went smoother. The tension and take-up seemed good. The twist was better. The drafting was better and more consistent. My fibre preparation was different and seemed to work better. I spun up two more bobbins, plyed them with fewer tangling issues, set the twist in some hot water and hung the skein up to dry. Now we're talking! This looked a little more like YARN!
See?
A little uneven and overtwisted in places, but miles better than those Muppet Guts from a few weeks ago...
I finished up my Corriedale fibre with a skein I'm pretty proud of... In total I have about 200 yards of usable yarn and I have no idea what to make with it. Perhaps inspiration will strike if I try dyeing it first?
This adventure will definitely continue. You should see the gorgeous batts I bought yesterday...
Fresh from my cable scarf success, I was a knitting machine! I decided that Mom and Mom-in law were both getting scarves for Christmas. Mom's was a gorgeous combination of greens and browns with a few touches of blue in a wonderful chunky thick-thin wool. Diane's was a creamy white, in a bulky weight. They both got the same stitch pattern, but the scarves looked very different once finished. The end result is a woven effect -
Once I figured out how to do cables and fancy stitch patterns, I decided hats were next! First, some back story...a long time ago, I tried making a hat to go with a big fluffy purple scarf I made. I made it on a circular needle, but I didn't knit in the round (go figure). It turned out to be a big floppy mess. My mom came for a visit and I showed it to her, seeking advice - maybe all it needed was some elastic through the band? She tried it on, and it fit over her enormous hair (if you've seen my mom, you know what I'm talking about) - no further adjustments were necessary. Anyways, I've never tried making a hat since then - the first one was such a bomb, and I couldn't find any patterns that a) were knit on straight needles, and b) weren't stocking caps. I sat down with my thinking cap on and read through a couple of patterns to see if I could understand the concept of knitting in the round. I knit a band in the same stitch pattern as the scarf, and picked up the right number of stitches, put them on two circular needles and started knitting. A little time passed and I had a hat to match Diane's scarf. As it turns out, hats are easy.
I'm still scared of socks. Maybe one day, I'll figure out DPNs. (that's double pointed needles, for the non-knitter) I may have conquered the 2 circular needles method of making hats, but the Magic Loop still eludes me. Maybe if I see it in action - I tend to learn better once I've seen the process. We'll see...
Current projects on the needles: a pair of arm cosies (fingerless mitts), a scarf to match my tic-tac-toe hat, a wrap/scarf thingy that I started ages ago (like, 4 years at least - another chorus project), and a multidirectional diagonal scarf that I'm not happy with and may decide to rip out. I'm still pondering that one... Perhaps that wool will be the perfect candidate for my first foray into felting...
In the meantime, however, I've discovered the joys of spinning. I absolutely love it. Feeling the wool fibres slip through your fingers and get grabbed by the twist created by the wheel - this is magic! Three weeks ago or so I spent a few hours transfixed, watching YouTube videos of spinners spinning on wheels and on drop spindles. It seemed so soothing - almost meditative. I decided that day that I wanted to try learning how to spin, so I looked up local yarn stores that sold spinning equipment and fibre. As it turned out, there's a carding operation and storefront quite close by - they had the equipment I needed to get started. I bought a drop spindle, and some dyed merino fibre. Jeff called the colour Muppet Guts - it looks like what you'd see if you had a Muppet on the operating table.
See?
I made lots of mistakes with this - it's overspun in places, too thick, not properly drafted, etc, but it's my first yarn, and I was rather proud of myself. I knit it up, intending to make a neckwarmer. The resulting fabric was way too stiff for anything - I think it's going to be either a cushion cover or a trivet...
I went back to Birkeland Bros. in search of more fibre and got some lovely (to touch), dyed Perendale in a beautiful rose-pink shade. Spinning this stuff was strange - it felt almost like velcro when I was drafting it. The yarn is probably best suited to something that's not going to sit next to skin - it's a little too coarse. But, my drop spindle technique was improving - I was getting thinner yarn most of the time, still overspun in places, but with fewer slubs and corkscrews.
I was, however, getting frustrated with the inconsistent and slooooow results I was getting with the drop spindle. This was not the way I wanted to spin! I kept seeing gorgeous handspun skeins on Etsy, and knowing that I couldn't even come close to that kind of yarn with my little drop spindle.
I started looking online at spinning wheels. Hoooo boy, there are some expensive wheels out there! Starting at around $500 and going upwards to the $1200 range....way too much for my budget and beginner ability. I went instead to the used websites - Craigslist and UsedVancouver - and found a few lovely wheels. Most of them were probably used as decoration, including the one I eventually bought. The lady I bought my wheel from was going to try her hand at spinning but never got up the nerve, so her wheel languished unused from the time she bought it 10 years ago. It is a working wheel, though, and with a little steel wool and sandpaper to smooth down some rough patches, is working like a charm. I swung by the wool store (or crack dealer, as Jeff likes to call it) on my way home from Aldergrove to ask some questions (I was scared I'd bought a dud and wasted $200), and to get more spinning fibre. The gal in the shop was super helpful, got a drive band attached, and a leader yarn on the bobbin and started spinning. Yay! Random used wheel purchase for the win!
Here's Gretchen:
I should say, she's working like a charm now, but the first few days were frustrating!! She didn't come with any instructions.
The first day I couldn't get anything to spin without breaking. A little research, and I figured out how to adjust tension on a double drive wheel.
The second day I couldn't get my treadling and drafting to work together. I got a lot of practice at pulling yarn back through the orifice and joining new wool on to the spun single.
The third day I was having take-up issues - the spun yarn wasn't winding around the bobbin. I was getting better at drafting and treadling, though... Baby steps, right?
The fourth day I was getting some smoother results - the tension was better, the treadling was slower and steadier (I had been speeding up out of frustration), and I managed to spin two bobbins of what looked like respectable singles yarn. Now, on to plying! Since my singles were nowhere near balanced, I needed to ply two strands together. Balance is when the yarn hangs fairly straight without doubling up on itself. My first plying attempt was a bit of a mess - the singles would tangle up, both on themselves as well as on each other, then the wheel would start spinning clockwise when it needed to go counter-clockwise, causing the yarn to jump off the hooks and get tangled up on the bobbin... Not fun!
The fifth day, I rested. My mind needed a break to soak it all in.
The sixth day I started again. Things went smoother. The tension and take-up seemed good. The twist was better. The drafting was better and more consistent. My fibre preparation was different and seemed to work better. I spun up two more bobbins, plyed them with fewer tangling issues, set the twist in some hot water and hung the skein up to dry. Now we're talking! This looked a little more like YARN!
See?
A little uneven and overtwisted in places, but miles better than those Muppet Guts from a few weeks ago...
I finished up my Corriedale fibre with a skein I'm pretty proud of... In total I have about 200 yards of usable yarn and I have no idea what to make with it. Perhaps inspiration will strike if I try dyeing it first?
This adventure will definitely continue. You should see the gorgeous batts I bought yesterday...