Three Fiber Preps: Mill Combed, Flicked, and Hand-Carded

Just a quick update this week. I continue to work on the shawl, but I have run into a bit of a snag. I have finished 9 repeats of the the pattern (32 rows each) and I have enough yarn for another repeat. But the shawl is not nearly long enough: It needs another foot or so before it is a wearable length. So I am going back to the spinning wheel, and spin more yarn. I can't do this on the metro though, so I will have to start another portable project soon. Stay posted for more on that when I decide what I am making.

Meanwhile, I have been on a bit of a spinning binge. Once I had dyed the locks I immediately wanted to see what they would look like as yarn. But I wanted to spin it to match the rest of the shawl, so I had to do it on my Ashford wheel (maybe not, but I wasn't risking it). Unfortunately, my Ashford was occupied with the black merino bulky yarn I have been working on (and off) since June.

Aha! Motivation to finish it!

2-Ply Bulky Merino Yarn

The yarn was prepped from some yummy (and surprisingly cheap) merino top (mill-processed) that was being sold by the ounce by Delly's Delights Farm at Maryland Sheep and Wool. This skein came out more even and squishy than the blue one, so I think I actually learned something. It's always nice to have some evidence of improvement.

Once my wheel was clear, I could start on the hand-dyed blue yarn for the shawl detailing. I started by flicking the locks - a few locks of blue with a few undyed.

Dyed and undyed locks for flicking

To flick, I wrapped about half of the lock around my fingers and brushed it with the flick carder. There was a lot of VM, so I had to do a lot of brushing to get it all out (and even so, I missed some). I started with the butt, then did the tips the same way.

Wrapped and ready to flick

After flicking

As you can see, the process really opens up the locks.

I also got a LOT of VM all over my cloth, my pants, and the floor. This sheep was a pet, and wasn't coated - I am pretty sure it liked to roll around in mulch. I wasn't too careful with the washing either, so there was also a lot of waste. It was hard to grip the lock while still getting all of the VM out, and the lock structure wasn't well-preserved.

Because there was so much waste, and it had a lot of pretty serviceable wool in it, I carded and blended the waste into rolags, and am spinning it into some thicker, textured yarn now.

Waste from the flick carding

Rolags carded from the waste wool. I like the periwinkle color, but there is still too much VM.

Well, the flick carding didn't actually blend the colors any, despite my hopes, so the flick carded yarn is "barber-poled" to get a lighter look. I think it will still look good knitted up. It is hanging to dry now.

Hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn from the fleece

The carded prep is making a nice periwinkle yarn though.

Hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn from the fleece

It goes to show, though, how much difference the fiber prep can make to the final yarn.

Dyeing for the first time

Whelp, I did some dyeing. I know I said that it was too messy and I wouldn't do it, but my shawl needed a bit of color, and I was bound and determined to make everything in it from raw fleece. So I bought a small amount of acid dye (enough to dye 4 lbs of wool, the smallest amount they sold) and did a bit of dyeing today. I am currently waiting for it to dry so that I can find out whether or not it felted.

First, I started with a small amount of wool. I scoured 2 oz using dish soap, ammonia, and vinegar (just like I did for the rest of the shawl). The tips were still crusty, but flicking should deal with that when I spin.

Dry leicester wool, ready to dye

I took about an ounce and made sure it would fit in my "dye pot": a mason jar.

Measuring out an ounce of wool

Next, I soaked the wool in warm water for an hour, to make extra sure that all of the soap was out.

Soaking the wool

I mixed a small amount of dye powder with water in the mason jar while the wool soaked. Unfortunately, I didn't have any way of measuring the tiny amount of dye I would need for only an ounce of wool (the directions call for 1/4 ounce of powder per pound of wool). So I guessed the amount. Maybe I should have bought something to measure? I did get a dust mask though - the dye powder can be hazardous!

I filled the mason jar halfway with hot water from the tap before putting in the wool. I didn't want to agitate the wool by filling up the jar with it in there.

Jar filled with dye

After adding two tablespoons of vinegar to set the dye, I cooked the wool in a double boiler for an hour, making sure that the water never got hotter than a simmer. Occasionally, I would turn the wool over with a chopstick.

Cooking the wool and dye

I must have put it the right amount, because the water was almost entirely clear when I pulled the wool out, and the rinsing required was minimal before no more dye came off the wool.

I set it to dry on some newspapers. It's a bit darker than I was going for (though we will see how it looks when it finishes drying) but I can always mix it with the undyed wool for a lighter color. Well, how do you think it looks?

Wet, dyed wool locks

Measuring and Documenting Yarn

Whelp! Another spinning project finished!

I'm calling this "Cotton Candy Confetti Yarn"

I started planning this yarn way back in May 2014, when I first bought the wool at Maryland Sheep and Wool, but I started it on my spindle just this May. I mostly like how it turned out, but the colored bits make it more obvious that the wool had a bit of a golden tint (lovely in the lock, less so when mixed with pink and blue).

I don't have a project in mind for it yet, but I thought I would share some tips on measuring and documenting spinning projects - and mystery items in the stash that have lost their labels.

First, the platform. A lot of people tie samples of their handspun to index cards, or tape them in notebooks. The advantage of this is that you get to look back at your yarn with all five senses if you want (not sure why you would want to taste your yarn, but you could). I use Ravelry to keep track of my projects, because I find that a lot easier, but it would be nice if I could feel the softness or tension of the yarn that I made.

That said, if you don't have a sample with your description, a picture is pretty crucial. I spend a lot of time on my computer adjusting the colors of my photos to try to make it look close to how the yarn actually looks. You may have noticed that I often include a coin in my pictures, to give a sense of scale, as well.

After you have a picture or a sample, the next thing to include in your documentation is your fiber source. If you are dealing with handspun on Ravelry, you can link directly to a fiber page, hopefully with pictures and details on breed or fiber-mix. On a physical sample card, you can include a small sample of the fiber along with the yarn. Be as detailed as you can about what state the fiber was in when you got it (in the grease? mill-carded into roving?) and as much as you know about the animal it came from. If it is mystery fiber, you can always try a burn test, though the results are not that useful for blends.

I unfortunately didn't record much info about the colored locks in the cotton-candy yarn: I know they were a soft longwool or mohair, and I bought them as dyed locks - I don't even know from which booth at MD S&W. But, since that is what I have, that is what I recorded.

Assorted dyed locks - unknown breed

On the other hand, I have recorded both the breed and source for the white fiber. I don't know the name of the individual sheep, or the full parentage, but, since I was not thinking of buying a fleece, it is not so important.

Undyed, washed, Lincoln-Crossbreed locks; from Barnswallow Fibers and Yarns.

After indicating the method of fiber preparation (I spun from picked locks with no further prep by me) and any particular spinning methods used (corespinning, navajo-ply, etc), it is time to measure the yarn.

First, weigh it. I general record in ounces because the fiber is sold that way in the US, but the units don't matter, as long as you indicate which ones you used - 4 ounces is very different from 4 grams.

4.75 ounces of yarn

This weight can be useful later, in checking how much you have used up, and whether you will have enough.

Next, you want the amount of yarn in length. Always check this after you have wet-finished the yarn, as that may shrink it a bit. Stretch out your skein and use measuring tape to get the length of one round, count the rounds, and multiply.

Always re-measure the skein after washing, even if you know the length of your niddy-noddy.

My skein was 55 inches around, and there were 181 wraps, which equals 9,927 inches or 277 yards. Since you have the weight and the length, you can calculate the grist (in yards per pound) but I don't find it a particularly helpful number.

Finally, I calculate the "weight" or width of the yarn, in wraps per inch (WPI). This is not super-accurate, because different people wrap loosely or tightly, but the idea is that you wrap your yarn around a ruler and see how many "wraps" there are to the inch. The yarn shouldn't be stretched, and it shouldn't be packed in too much either.

13 WPI

Unfortunately, I haven't seen a lot of agreement matching WPI to weight. Depending on the source, 13 WPI is either a heavy fingering or DK.

Although I don't, twist angle is another possible measurement - just use a protractor.

When do You Fix It?

Much of the beauty of knitting is in the careful repetition and symmetry of stitches. A project, whether you are working off of a pattern, using a stitch from a dictionary, or are improvising, is usually regular in some way. Even if the person doesn't know the pattern, they may well notice that one part doesn't look the same as the others.

Even worse, because of the repetition, later parts of the pattern rely on there being the right number of stitches. Especially in the round, if you are repeating by 8, and you mess up so that you end up with 55 stitches, it is not going to look right.

Still, many mistakes will be invisible to the average observer. Few people will be staring at your project up close for hours (exception: spinning projects, but it will probably just be you). When do you tink back, frog,  or start over, when do you make a "good enough" fix, and when do you ignore it completely?

I rarely will frog or start over (this explains my vest with the ridiculously large sleeve holes). It is just so frustrating to realize that something is not working out, sometimes you just lie to yourself, and let yourself be lazy. Well, I do at least. Once something is done, I want it to stay done. I don't want to do it a second or third time.

A scarf from 2013 that shouldn't have been finished

But I rarely just let a mistake sit there - except for sizing mistakes, I haven't quite got the hang of that one. There seems to be an extra stitch where there shouldn't be one, but there are no gaping holes in the piece? Just add a decrease as soon as you can and hope you counted right. Find yourself one stitch short? Make one, it probably won't matter. Did an entire repeat of the pattern backwards, offset, or upside-down? Eh, call it a design element and do it that way again after a few repeats.

Heck, the first sweater I ever made (sorry, I don't have a photo) I hadn't knitted in several years. So I wrapped all of my purl stitches backwards and twisted them, and didn't realize that this was wrong until half the sweater was done. Well.... it was just a thicker, warmer sweater than I was planning (and was too small for my brother to wear, so it got donated to charity). It's not a mistake if people don't know the original pattern, it's an original design.

Sometimes, a mistake can just be fixed without too much effort. If you miss a yarn-over in a lace pattern and catch it within a few rows, you can usually, just make one and bring it up, and it will just be a little bit tighter than otherwise - barely noticeable.

But sometimes, you make a mistake in adapting the pattern, and it takes you awhile to notice. Then, you have only two options - start over or change the pattern. In the most recent hat I was making, I cast on 68 stitches. Most of the hat consists of k2 p2 rib, so I figured it didn't matter, as long as it was a repeat of four. Well, it turns out that the decrease for the crown of the hat is an eight stitch repeat. Lesson: always read the whole pattern before starting. But what to do? Just doing the pattern halfway would look odd, because the hat is knit in the round.

Rather than starting over, I wrote a new pattern of decreases. The number of decreases per plain worked stitches was the same, to keep the shape similar, but it was done in a four-stitch repeat, rather than an eight-stitch repeat. It worked out well, and I can't actually tell the difference.

Undyed jacob wool hat for dad

I also misread the pattern for my shawl. I wanted it to be wider that the original pattern called for, so I added additional repeats of the lace pattern - so far, so good. The repeat was 16, so I cast on 160 stitches, and worked it for a full three inches. I wanted squares of a different pattern on the corners, so the first and last repetition were just done in seed stitch. And then, I started to follow the pattern for the edges and my mistake was all too clear - the original pattern had four additional stitches on the edge to keep the piece from curling!

I had seen that there was two stitches of seed stitch on the beginning and end of each row to keep the edges from curling (stockinette will curl, especially when tightly knit; garter and seed stitch will not). What I hadn't noticed was that they were not included in the chart - they were extra.

At this point, I had a choice: start over with four more stitches or adapt the pattern. I couldn't add four more stitches at this point, because it would ruin the rectangular shape of the piece (I think. Maybe it could have worked). Well, of course I chose to just go with it, because I am me, and it has been giving me trouble ever since. Since I can't follow the original pattern, every row I need to figure out what to do with the first few and last few stitches. I have a placeholder to make sure that I don't accidentally add or subtract stitches, but my choices have not been terribly consistent, and the border looks ragged. At least to me.

Ragged, inconsistent edge.

This was supposed to be a rectangular shawl! Maybe it will look better after blocking. Which will be sooner rather than later: the shawl is more than halfway done at this point, assuming I don't decide I need to spin more yarn.

Progress on the shawl as of the beginning of September

Back to the Fair

Usually, people (who aren't doing it for a living) do crafts for just themselves, their friends, and their families. The greatest reward is to see someone wearing or using what you made. But sometimes, people get together to show off what they have created, and hope for accolades beyond the usual. For instance, I submitted two pieces this year to the Maryland State Fair.

Last year, I submitted two pieces to the fair and got one 3rd place ribbon and one participation ribbon. This year...

First place and president's award

For my hat-neckwarmer combo, I got first place in category (hat/scarf combos) and a president's award! For my skirt, no award (but they only awarded one ribbon for the category of original item of clothing anyway).

No ribbons. But I like the way they displayed the piece.

Of course, the other great thing about going to the fair (besides the accolades) is seeing what other people have made. Let's look at a few of the ones that I particularly noticed (apologies for the terrible photos, most of these were behind plastic wrap).

First, we have a really nice little example of entrelac. I am a big fan of the technique, and have been meaning to do a post on it for a while. I love how the knitting looks like a woven basket.

Hat (not mine, obviously)

Next, a really pretty scarf with a cabled center. When I was a kid, and first learning to knit, my grandmother told me that she would teach me cabling when I had gotten a bit better at knitting. Somehow, this convinced me that cabling was this incredibly difficult thing, and was the pinnacle of knitting skill. Truthfully, cabling is pretty simple as a technique. But it makes it very hard to fix mistakes, and can make charting or describing patterns nearly impossible. I like this simple cable though, and would totally wear the scarf:

A scarf with a cabled center

Next up, a few pieces with really nice colors

I don't really do stranded knitting or intarsia, because I like the backs of my pieces to look as good as the fronts. But I have to say, these are some gorgeous projects.

There were also some skeins of handspun. I could have submitted, but I am a lot less confident in my spinning skill than my knitting, since I have only been doing it a few years.

Prize-winning handspun skeins

There were some great pieces in the other arts categories too (basket-weaving, costumes, needlepoint, etc.) but I think that is enough for now. I do want to leave you with the other great part of going to the fair: meeting your fiber animals up close and personal.

4-H Alpacas, recently sheared

A goat, deciding to check out what her neighbor has.

Starting a Project

Today, I am starting a new project, and I though that I would talk a bit about how I choose what to do.

First of all, I decided to start a new knitting project because I don't have any small projects on the needles at the moment, and sometimes you just need something portable.

The first step I do when starting a new project is to look at my yarn stash, either online (I have pictures of everything up on Ravelry) or just digging around in the bins. I have talked about my yarn-buying strategies in the past, I have a bunch of yarn that was bought with a specific project (though not a pattern) in mind, so I might be inspired to start one of those. Or, I also just have a bunch of random yarn (either leftovers from other projects, spinning experiments, gifts, or impulse buys) and I might be inspired to make something with that. Sometimes, if I am starting a new project because I have a particular type of knitting I want to do, I will look through my library of patterns instead of my yarn.

Today, I figured that I would start by putting away some of the things I collected for my spinning class, and immediately saw a skein of handspun that I have been meaning to make into something.

Tweed jacob yarn

I made the yarn in the Fall of 2014, from undyed jacob sheep roving, on the basic spindle that I learned on on. It was an early effort, so it is not incredibly even.

Looking through my projects the other day, I noticed that I have made hats for every member of my family except my dad. I made a mental note that I should make him something, then immediately forgot.

But when I saw the yarn, that little note pinged my consciousness, and I decided that a good quick project will be a hat. (I make a lot of those, don't I)

So, I have my yarn, I have my project, now I just need a pattern.

I could do a pattern I have done before. But I mostly make women's hats, so I decided I would look and see what else is available.

First, I set my criteria.

The hat must be a cold-weather hat, using one color of aran or bulky yarn, that would be good for a man.
Also, no complex cables or detailed patterns, because the yarn is rather woolen (in layman terms: fluffy), so patterns are not likely to stand out.

I plugged the following criteria into my Ravelry Pattern Search:

Knitting
Free or in my library
Hats  (any kind)
One color of yarn
Aran or bulky yarn weight
NOT women

And then I started looking at pictures. I didn't want anything slouchy, lacy, or with fancy stitches, which got rid of a lot of the top hits.

But two patterns looked interesting:

The Gnarly Hat, and
The Gentleman's Fancy Hat

But I think I will go with the Gentleman's Fancy Hat.

So, I have my yarn and my pattern. All I need to do is call my dad and get his size, and I am ready to start.

A Skirt: Finished!

I finished my beach skirt!

When I last wrote about this project, in June, I was just starting the purple part at the top, and I said I would show you the pattern later. Well, later has come:

Wavy pattern with knits and purls

I created this pattern by a simple alternating pattern of knits and purls. I had a few false starts though. I actually miscalculated the number of stitches I had, and tried to do repetitions of 18. Then, when I realized that it wouldn't work, I used my fixer tool to good stead and changed it to repetitions of 12.

I am, of course, leaving out that I tried a different pattern first. My first version had a thin wavy line instead of what you see here - but I didn't like it. The nice thing about knit/purl patterns, is that they are relatively easy to change, without redoing everything: just let a single stitch unravel, and bring it back up the way that you really want it to be.

When I had the skirt as long as I wanted it, I needed to make a sheath for a drawstring. It wasn't that hard, but there were a lot of stitches on different holders to keep track of. I knit each stitch forward and back to double the number of stitches, put the back stitches on a string to hold, and knit up the front stitches (leaving a hole in the front for the drawstring). Then I put those stitches on circular needle to hold, and knit up the back stitches. After putting in the drawstring, I used kitchener stitch to bind it up.

Ready to kitchener. There are four needles, a drawstring, and a stitch holder in the picture. It was a lot to keep track of, and things kept falling off the holders because I was too lazy to use a real stitch holder.

The drawstring was actually pretty easy to make though. I just got a length of each of the three colors of yarn and spun them together. Then I folded it in half, and plyed them. It is a great technique for quickly making a thick string that isn't too long.

Drawstring

To fit with my ocean theme, I also added silver fish beads (from Etsy)  to the ends of the drawstring, to give it a little weight.

Finally, I had a stain to cover up, so I was going to use some handspun yarn to make "foam". Unfortunately, stitching using the yarn did not look good - the yarn was too thick, and uneven, and it didn't look like foam.

But I was able to sew some thick ramboullet roving to the skirt directly, and it looked better.

What do you think? Does it look sea-foam like?

Well, all in all, I think the skirt came out...ok. It is a bit large for me, and the drawstring sheath is a little loose. Also, it came out as a bit of a "mermaid" cut. because of the herringbone pattern. Not really my thing.

Well, enough criticisms. What do you think?

Skirt: front

Skirt: side

Skirt: Back