Whisper cardigan progress

This is what one hank of Malabrigo lace gets you if you are knitting the medium size of the Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig.

The entire back, the ribbing, a bit of each of two sleeves and about 4 inches of the body. Not too shabby. I've got an entire hank to go, so I should be able to make this as long as I want and still have enough for the sleeves.

I'm going back and forth on the yarn though - it's knitting up into a lovely fabric, but it felts together if you look at it funny. Or don't look at it and just leave it sitting around for a couple of days. Folks, this stuff felts if air gets on it. Initially I was extremely unenthused by this state of affairs - who wants a sweater that's felted and worn looking before it's even finished? - but it does produce a really lovely halo on the yarn, and fills in the gaps in the stitches caused by knitting laceweight on 4.5 mm needles. I think you can see that in the photo - the section on the top of the picture is slightly felted, while the bottom part is "new", and therefore less felted.

So...I'd say the jury is still out (I certainly wouldn't knit anything for someone that would ever get used with this yarn) (or give it to someone who didn't understand the Finer Intricacies of Handwashing Your Woolens), but I'm thinking it will be ok in a cozy, lightweight layer of a sweater for me. Stay tuned...

A few thoughts on the Hansen miniSpinner

So I have been the proud owner of a Hansen miniSpinner for just over two weeks now. In that time, I've done my best to put the beast through some of it's paces. Here's the result:

I've done four different fiber types: BFL, Wensleydale, a mixed wool sample that came with the miniSpinner, and Targhee. The final yarns are 2- and 3-plied (no chain plying yet - the thought gives me hives!). My feelings about the miniSpinner are overall positive, but the learning curve is a bit slower then I was expecting.

First off, I'm finding it hard to adjust to a constant rate of twist insertion, to be honest. I think that, on the Lendrum, I unconsciously adjust my treadling speed as needed to get the single/plying twist that "feels right". With the constant speed of the miniSpinner, I'm finding that I'm undertwisting my singles (although that's gotten a lot better) and definitely underplying! Fresh off the Lendrum I get skeins that twist anywhere from 0.5-2 times when hanging free, and they usually end up balanced after finishing. Now I'm getting skeins that are balanced straight off the bobbin, and underspun after finishing. This is something that I'm sure will get better with time as I adjust to the  miniSpinner.

The other thing I was expecting was that the miniSpinner was going to dramatically improve my rate of production. Ummm...not so much: I'm definitely faster on the Lendrum then on the miniSpinner. Again, this is something I think will change as I get used to it, and get a better feel for where I should set the speed for spinning and/or plying, but it's not happening as quickly as I was imagining. So I guess I can't be all production spinning quite yet!

Low down on the yarns - Round 1: I had some tail ends of Leaf Peepers BFL lying around, so I spun them on the mS and compared the resulting 2-ply with the 2-ply leftovers from the first batch. Lendrum-spun:


mS-spun:


I think you can see the difference in the two, right? They were both spun worsted-style, from combed top, and finished the same way. The mS-yarn is both overspun and looser and fluffier then the Lendrum-yarn. And much less even - you can see that my drafting is not a smooth on the mS as the Lendrum (i.e. overspun sections next to poofy, underspun bits).


Round 2: This is some Salamander Wensleydale that I've spun up as a gift. Again, much more underplied (and underspun) then my usual, but with a long staple length like Wensleydale, this makes for a lovely, soft, drapey yarn, so this one is a win.

Round 3: there was a teensy puff of lovely greyish pinkish fiber included with the miniSpinner, so I spun that up next. I didn't think too much about what to do with it, just threw it at the wheel (spinner?) and waited to see what came out.

Again, lower twist singles, lower twist plying makes for squishy poofy yarn. Nice, but not my usual default spin by a long shot!

Round 4:

3-ply Golgi Targhee - this is one of the colorway experiments I did before starting up Porpoise Fur, and it's been languishing in the stash ever since. I thought it might make a nice neutral cowl for a Christmas present, so I decided to spin up my default single (~30 wpi) and see if I could get a bulky 3-ply.

This varies from bulky to worsted - the Targhee poof factor has not failed me! And since I'm getting less twist in there, I don't have many of the overtwisted bits that I ended up with the last time I spun Targhee. Still not the most even drafting you've ever seen, but it should be ok when knitted up. I'll have to see if I can get this cast on ASAP.

The verdict is still out on the WooLee Winder - I like not having to stop and change hooks, but it alters the take-up in a way that I'm still getting used to, and I'm not sure I really like... But all in all, the miniSpinner is a big win. If you'll excuse me, I'll go off and finish up Round 5: Southdown!

Denial

What I should be doing: knitting the prototype for hat numero 5 for the ebook and blocking hat 4's prototype.

What I am doing instead: knitting 1x1 ribbing in the round, with laceweight, on 4.5 mm needles, wondering why the heck my kids aren't asleep yet.

Such a glamourous life I lead...

Preparations

In a little over one week, I will be hopping on a train and heading off to the wilds of West Wales for a weekend with about 30 other knitters, headed up by the lovely Brenda Dayne and the fabulous Amy Singer. To say that I'm getting excited would be a bit of an understatement, although the jury is still out on whether I'm more excited to be hanging around with other fiber people or escaping from my everyday life for a while...

In any event, it's getting on towards the time when I have to decide what I'm going to bring to this event. My mental list is enough to qualify for steamer trunks and Sherpas to get it all to Pembrokeshire. Since there is just me, I'm going to have to cut it down a bit, but honestly: how many clothes am I really going to need? (Correct answer: not many - is it ok if I wear the same shirt for four days?)

We have been instructed that we don't need to bring any yarn - there will be goody bags with everything we might require (squee!), or we can buy stuff at the small but fabulous marketplace that will be set up - danger Will Robinson! But if there's something in particular we want to bring, we can.  I do need to bring needles. And some stitch dictionaries. Needles and stitch dictionaries I have in abundance, so there's a good third of the suitcase gone already.

My big question to myself is: do I want to bring my new toy? I am waffling back and forth...I could bring it with me, but am I really going to want to spin? There's going to be so much knitting going on...on the other hand, spinning is a pretty good mindless thing to do while chatting with everyone, so it might work out ok. Hmmmm...I had coffee with a fellow P3-er this morning, who said I should bring it just because loads of people might want to try it out. Maybe Kevin Hansen will consider giving me a commission on new business?

Decisions, decisions. I suppose it will all get sorted out by next Friday, but I'm pretty sure that I will be the only attendee who presents a bag of skeined yarn and a printed out pattern for Today's Sweater.

One of the many reasons I am a biologist, not a chemist

I've recently been playing around with a couple of new colorways for the October update (as well as a couple of new fibers). One of my experiments resulted in this lovely Southdown - I think this will spin up into a really gorgeous, tinted yarn. I'm hoping the purples and blues and greys will blend together well with the undyed sections of fiber.

So I figured I had a winner, and set off to replicate the colorway on some Cheviot. I've been working really hard to keep good notes on all my colorways so they can be reproduced - this is one of my key selling points for custom dye orders - so I checked my notes and off I went. Sadly, the vagaries of chemistry conspired against me.

I don't know how well you can tell from these photos, but this fiber, while still very pretty, is predominantly brown, with hints of blue and purple.It is defnitively NOT blue/purple/grey with sections of undyed fiber.

WTF? I honestly have absolutely no idea why this dye job came out so completely different from the sample. I used the same dyes, the same dye pot, the same dyeing technique. The fiber was in the dye pot for longer because it was 350 gr instead of 100 gr and it took longer to get everything hot enough to set the dye, but as far as I can remember, that's the major difference between the two runs.

Since I have no idea how this happened, this is destined to be a one-off dye job. Which is too bad - I think it would make some really nice socks, or a lovely neutral-ish sweater. If only I could figure out what happened, I could add it to the list! The next shop update will be 15 October, so if this appeals to you, don't wait to snap some up - it won't be back!

Happy spinning,

Rachel (who is going to lie awake for some nights to come trying to puzzle out this whole thing)