Spinning, but not in a good way

I want to spin up some lace weight, as I fancy making this, or this. I've some merino and silk top in soft oranges and golden brown which has been in my stash for years. I don't know if I was too uptight, or what, but I didn't take enough care, I seemed to go far to fast, then lose control of the amount of fibre I was drafting, with the result the singles are quite uneven in both diameter and twist. I just rushed the whole thing, now I'm not at all pleased with the result. A sample I've knitted up isn't too bad, so, not all wasted, but not the result I wanted, I wanted it to be perfect dammit. Today, I was much more controlled, slowed down, took my time, and breathed. About 10% will be good, the rest will just be good enough. It's probably going to be the Flower Basket Shawl as there won't be enough for the Aeolian. And that really does deserve some decent work.

Or maybe a moebius.

Candy floss

I dyed this.
My Method Pre-soaked the roving in a large container with lots of water with vinegar and a drop of washing up liquid added. Then after several hours removed the wool, add a very weak solution of magenta acid discharge dye, swish it around and replace the wool. Leave to settle. Then with a 5ml syringe squirt a few mls of stronger pink and even smaller amounts of turquoise deep into the wool under water, be sparing and random. The dye pools, and doesn't bleed far from where you put it. Start to heat very very slowly over about 45 minutes up to the temperature you normally dye at. Continue as normal. I didn't stir the roving at all. I like the effect a lot. I'm into subtle now.

Then spun and plied it...



and swatched..

I really love this stitch pattern, start with an even number of stitches, K1 *yo, k2tog* k1. Every row - yes, even the wrong side row, that's how it works. It's not as fast as I thought it would be to knit up as the needles need a bit of manipulating to do the K2tog, you are knitting into the YO k2tog of the row below, and not purling as you often do. And just don't drop a stitch, they just disappear and are almost impossible to pick up.
It's going to be a shrug for Molly, I've 340 yards so I think it should do. I started to do a cuff to cuff version but I just don't like vertical stripes, and there are subtle ones in this, so I've ripped it and I'm now doing a front to back. I wondered if it's possible to do short rows to get a narrower sleeve sections, but as the fabric is very stretchy and should conform around Mol's little bod I don't think I will this time, not wanting to give myself the stress of ripping again if it doesn't work. I'm intrigued with the the idea though, so I might just try it on a doll sized garment to see how it goes.

Okay, I'll spin then

I took some superwash wool which I picked up some years ago from Wingham WoolWork, then dyed it. The sliver striped into 5 separate strands very easily which helped to achieve the random, blobby effect, which of course was entirely intentional.

Then spun it up with quite a lot of twist as I wanted to Navajo ply it and still have a 'fingering' type yarn.



This is the swatch I did. There are approx 18 wpi and this is on 2.5mm needles.



I found it quite tricky to handle the fine single while plying. I don't have a tensioned lazy kate but adapted the Majacraft's bobbin box by tying cord around it and in the bobbin's grove which did put enough tension on it. I found it tricky to adjust the take up and one minute was feeding in to quickly, then slowed to a stop. So the number of plying twists aren't consistent and I noticed afterwards that the lower number of twists, the more it allows the plys to spring out and increase the diameter of the yarn. So, more twists gave me a snug, fine, cabled looking yarn, less twist, a fluffier yarn. There wasn't a problem with the yarn twisting Z or S either in the different sections so it seems I was probably at either end of the limits of the number of plying twists the single needed. An interesting light-bulb moment and one to put in my spinning records.

Now, I've 80grms, just enough for those small foot coverings..

Loose Lattice Scarf, and a Mrs Beeton

Blue Scarf
Originally uploaded by Alpagalaine.

I finished this scarf a couple of weeks ago and then decided to do some Mrs Beetons to go with it. I'm very happy with the scarf, it was an easy pattern to memorise and knit, but I don't like the wrist warmers. Firstly, once I'd cast on I knit to many rows before I should have decreased, secondly, I didn't have the required sets of double pointed 4.5mm needles so they are on 3.75mm and 4.0mm and the fabric is a bit too firm. I do have some circular needles but they have the most horrible stiff cords - bought many years ago before I discovered Addi Turbos and I hate the way everything is such a fight with them. And, I didn't have any beads to add! So, I am being very patient and I've ordered some beads from Regal Crafts in the UK, and some Brittany Birch double pointed needles from Angel Yarns. The beads arrived last week and I've played knitting with them and like the effect very much. I'm waiting on the Brittany's which I ordered later, they are on their way. In the meantime I'm alternating with making a felted cat bed from my copious stash of brown, uninteresting wool I spun when I was first learning the craft. I will add some orange for interest - can't have cats in a boring bed. I found a couple of large hanks of Margo's fibre I'd also spun up several years ago which is quite fine and should suit the Lacey Shrug from Knitty. I decided a shrug would be useful and we went out for dinner one evening with friends and I was a little chilly in my light, browny, orangey blouse and had to wear a fawn lightweight cotton ribbed cardigan. Not the sexiest. Not that I do sexy very often, but I'm trying to be less of a frump.

Do not play with fibre when it’s wet, do not play with fibre when it’s

Sandie's fibre, dyed sea green.
Originally uploaded by Alpagalaine.

I don’t learn not to leave fibre/yarn alone when it’s wet. I was dying my 800+ yards of Sandies fibre which has taken me hours to process and spin up; I’d soaked the 3 skeins in glaubers salt solution overnight in preparation for dying it this morning. I began thinking I would use a pale shade of turquoise and perhaps some very small amounts of yellow and maybe darker blue – perhaps scatter dye powder on the wet skeins and steam? In the end I chickened out and went for one shade. I used a very small amount of my stock solution of turquoise – probably no more than 30 mls for the 750 odd grms of yarn. Brought it up to simmer over 2 hours, I was very careful to keep it just at the point a few bubbles were breaking the surface, and after about 30 minutes all the dye had discharged, I just loved the colour – the dye had taken very evenly! I was so pleased! I had taken so much care and it had paid off.

I was going to leave the skeins in the pot until it had cooled right down but became impatient and took them out and spun them dry. Then realised I hadn’t rinsed them! The skeins were fine at that stage, yarn separating easily. I washed them in the sink with some wool wash, there was a lot of lather….I SQUISHED THEM TOO MUCH!! All I noticed was they felt a little harder after I’d finally rinsed the suds away, ‘umm, I thought, dying not agreeing with this’, spun them again, when I took them out of the machine the second time aaaarrrggggghhhhhhhh! All the yarn was stuck together. I started to pull it apart, and it did separate, slowly and with much tearing of tiny fibres and pulling the ply’s apart. I worked and worked around all 3 skeins, one was particularly bad, must have got most of the squishing..

I thought I’d better separate all the strands before it dried in case they became totally impossible to separate, so I wound each one from the swift into a ball winder, then wound it back onto the swift. So now I have some lovely fuzzy yarn! Not once did it break, alpaca is so strong.

I’m still not sure what to do with it, I fancy “Symmetry in Silk” from The Best of Knitters’ Magazines ‘Shawls and Scarves’. I also think it would weave up very well, but I am reluctant to do it until I’ve had more practice warping. And, perhaps, it would work better if the yarn was fuzzed up after I’d woven it and not before!

Almost Print O' the wave Shawl

I finally finished my Print O' the wave shawl and blocked it last week. It was almost completed 2 months ago - but 10" from completing the border I realised I wouldn't have enough yarn. Damn. I needed to find another lace edging that was narrower so searched my stitch files and books and finally settled on one from Interweave's "Knitters' Shawls and Scarves" - that's not quite the right title but I can't see it on my shelf at the moment - where the hell is it? It's the edging from (will fill in this space once I find the damn book). It's okay, but the proper edge pattern would make for a wider shawl. Now, when am I going to wear this thing? I don't have any clothes that it would go with! I would love to give it to one of my girls but I don't think they'd wear it for a moment. Neither of them are lacey people. My mum would put it in a drawer and not look at it again. My granddaughter would love it - to dress up in, no thanks. No, I want to wear it, when I lose the stone I need to I'll buy a little black number and E can take me out to dinner! So, a bit of a wait then.

Do you know where your merino roving came from?

I had an email from my daughter, Sam, this morning with a link to PETA. This describes the barbaric practice of "mulesing" young merino sheep in order to avoid fly-strike. Basically, merino's have been breed to have large folds of skin in order to maximise the amount of fleece they carry.

Unfortunately this predisposes the animal to fly-strike, and mulesing is the Australian sheep industries way of preventing it. Now, while I find the practice sickening as any abuse of animals, when I read sites such as PETA's and find statements like "The market for alpaca exploded in the 1980s, when South American alpacas and llamas were marketed worldwide to entrepreneurs who bought into the vision of a ground-floor investment in a luxury fiber market. The craze subsided but breeding continues, and unwanted animals are now routinely put up for auction. Llama sanctuaries and rescue operations have sprung up in the wake of the breeding craze to handle the growing number of abused, neglected animals." I wonder how much of their argument is exaggerated, in the end, it will not help their cause to give their opponents any amunition for counter attack. Which is just what the Australian wool industry is doing. Unfortunately their efforts to justify the practice of mulesing are pretty pathetic, they belive it's better than the animal suffering from fly-strike! They even report that the "new method of clipping" will avoid mulesing, so instead of skin being cut away, they will put clips on the skin which will restrict the blood supply, the flesh will die and drop off - end of problem!!

Hand spinners probably only account for a very small percentage of end use of merino wool, it's the major manufacturers that need to join the demand for welfare friendly fleece. But although in the past I have bought merino rovings from UK vendors who probably are unaware of the welfare issues, until such a time when that is possible, I won't be buying any more merino roving.

"New" dyeing technique!

This is some nameless white roving I found in my stash which has been 'hidden' for over 2 years. It feels a little harsh as it was cheap, 'white' wool, I think the intention when I first bought it was to practice dyeing with natural dyestuffs.

Which I haven't done.
Yet.

I spun and plyed the yarn and used acid dyes to paint the skeins. I only have primary colours and add some stock solution directly onto the skeins, wrap them in clingfilm, squish them about a bit to mix and blend the colours and then microwave them. I didn't really like the effect, I thought the red/blue/s and yellows were to strong, so I simmered them in the pre-soaking water which allowed some of the non-fixed dye to mix and I got the autumnal mix seen here.
I am very happy with the result and will use the technique again.

Chip's Skein

I'm very proud of this! It's pure alpaca, dyed with acid dyes from Fibrecrafts. The fibre is from Chip, an older whether (castrated male) whose fibre is white but on the course side now, I wouldn't want it next to my skin. But it took the dye well and combed out into beautiful rovings, which felt softer and looked brighter than the raw fibre. Okay, it was a lot cleaner as well. I will keep it as singles, plying would muddy up the colours. I've never knit with singles before, I've been reluctant to try it, I keep hearing dire warnings in my head from seasoned spinners about "twisted knitting". But I reckon if you don't put too much twist in to start with and set it well, it should be okay. It was spun at 8:1 and the twist set by putting the bobbin in scalding water until it had cooled (don't panic, plastic bobbins). It's nice and relaxed now - soft, but holds together well.