I'm going to take a brief moment to vent.
When it comes to business, I don't subscribe to the "always be nice" idea. Let me say that I do, in general, try to be kind to my colleagues. I try to communicate with them in ways that they will understand (visual vs. aural, go through pleasantries before getting down to the issue at hand; establishing relationships; yadda yadda) and make the experience of working together as easy as possible. However, I also believe that they will meet me halfway.
In the event that this state of detente cannot be reached, business still needs to be conducted. Work still must be done. Problems must be solved, products must be manufactured and money must be made. Colleagues honestly don't have to like each other, but we do need to be consistent and professional in our relationships.
Nothing, but NOTHING torques me harder than failure to follow this thinking. I simply don't understand why one person must succeed on the back of another.
There. Much better.
Spinning with a purpose
Over in Ravelry, a group of us are getting ready to do a KnitALong (KAL) with Sandi Wiseheart. End result of the KAL is a cardigan that's been designed to fit the knitter (or the knitter's intended victim) and also teach us about the designing process along the way. Sandi will be starting the KAL in August because I, hopefully along with a few others, plan to spin yarn specifically for this project.
I've started a thread on Rav for those SpinningALong (SAL) but am going to blog about it as well. That should let me ramble on a bit more and add pictures where it makes sense. Goal of this series of posts is to talk about the process of spinning for a specific project with an eye toward making a yarn that you love and that also works for it’s intended project.
I’m also working with Sandi to write up a swatch that’ll be indicative of the small amount of non-stockinette patterning that is part of her design so that you’ll be able to really get an idea of what the finished product will look like. That swatch will be posted here for all to see/use.
Full disclosure - I’m a very new spinner and I certainly don’t have all the answers! This is more of an opportunity for me to be a bit public about my thought process and hopefully give and get guidance along the way.
Jennifer and Susan will be offering dyed Blue-Faced Leicster roving in both superwash and non-superwash. Please consider purchasing through them to help support the project! Details for purchasing fiber and yarn should be available this coming Thursday, 6/24.
In an earlier post, Sandi pointed us to this Knitting Daily blog entry to help determine how much yarn will be required to knit up her cardigan. To save folks some electrons, here’s the relevant section:
Misses Sizes 32-40 Bust (for a regular, comfortable-ease pullover; add 5% for a cardigan)
* sportweight: 1400-1600 yards (1300-1500 meters)
* worsted weight: 1100-1400 yards (1000-1300 meters)
For a longer, loosely fitting, or oversized misses-sized pullover (add 5% for a cardigan)
* sportweight: 1500-1900 yards (1400-1750 meters)
* worsted weight: 1300-1500 yards (1200-1400 meters)
Since the yarn Sandi calls for is a DK/light-worsted, I’m looking at numbers between sportweight and worsted to estimate my yardage requirements. Using straight-line interpolation, I’m making this estimate:
Standard fit pullover (add 5% for cardigan): 1250 - 1500 yards (1150 - 1400 meters)
Loose-fit pullover (ad 5% for cardigan): 1450 - 1700 yards (1300 - 1575 meters)
The extra 5% nets out to less than 100 yards in all cases.
My bust size is a 34, so I start out at the low end of the yardage scale so I’ll do my estimate for a size 34 and then do some fudging from there. I’m going to shoot for 1300 yards of yarn.
Next step is to work out fiber based on that yardage requirement.
A little surveying of DK weight yarns put me in the neighborhood of 250yds per 4oz. This is a bit over-estimated and also mill-spun. Handspun is often of a lower Yards Per Pound (ypp) than millspun simply because of the way the commercial process handles fiber. Again, since I’ll be reserving for sampling and generally rounding up, I’m not going to get too hung up on this.
Ok, back to calculating.
1300 yards, divided by 250 yards = 5.2
Multiply that by 4oz = 20.8oz
16oz per pound and we get = 1.3 pounds.
Being conservative and ensuring that I have enough to sample, I should be able to get away with 1.5 pounds. But, since I’m really planing to have at it, I’m ordering 1.75 pounds. This will let me relax and make up a decent sized sample skein (maybe two) so that I can ensure I’m doing the Right Thing.
Comments/corrections/readjustments welcome.
I've started a thread on Rav for those SpinningALong (SAL) but am going to blog about it as well. That should let me ramble on a bit more and add pictures where it makes sense. Goal of this series of posts is to talk about the process of spinning for a specific project with an eye toward making a yarn that you love and that also works for it’s intended project.
I’m also working with Sandi to write up a swatch that’ll be indicative of the small amount of non-stockinette patterning that is part of her design so that you’ll be able to really get an idea of what the finished product will look like. That swatch will be posted here for all to see/use.
Full disclosure - I’m a very new spinner and I certainly don’t have all the answers! This is more of an opportunity for me to be a bit public about my thought process and hopefully give and get guidance along the way.
Jennifer and Susan will be offering dyed Blue-Faced Leicster roving in both superwash and non-superwash. Please consider purchasing through them to help support the project! Details for purchasing fiber and yarn should be available this coming Thursday, 6/24.
In an earlier post, Sandi pointed us to this Knitting Daily blog entry to help determine how much yarn will be required to knit up her cardigan. To save folks some electrons, here’s the relevant section:
Misses Sizes 32-40 Bust (for a regular, comfortable-ease pullover; add 5% for a cardigan)
* sportweight: 1400-1600 yards (1300-1500 meters)
* worsted weight: 1100-1400 yards (1000-1300 meters)
For a longer, loosely fitting, or oversized misses-sized pullover (add 5% for a cardigan)
* sportweight: 1500-1900 yards (1400-1750 meters)
* worsted weight: 1300-1500 yards (1200-1400 meters)
Since the yarn Sandi calls for is a DK/light-worsted, I’m looking at numbers between sportweight and worsted to estimate my yardage requirements. Using straight-line interpolation, I’m making this estimate:
Standard fit pullover (add 5% for cardigan): 1250 - 1500 yards (1150 - 1400 meters)
Loose-fit pullover (ad 5% for cardigan): 1450 - 1700 yards (1300 - 1575 meters)
The extra 5% nets out to less than 100 yards in all cases.
My bust size is a 34, so I start out at the low end of the yardage scale so I’ll do my estimate for a size 34 and then do some fudging from there. I’m going to shoot for 1300 yards of yarn.
Next step is to work out fiber based on that yardage requirement.
A little surveying of DK weight yarns put me in the neighborhood of 250yds per 4oz. This is a bit over-estimated and also mill-spun. Handspun is often of a lower Yards Per Pound (ypp) than millspun simply because of the way the commercial process handles fiber. Again, since I’ll be reserving for sampling and generally rounding up, I’m not going to get too hung up on this.
Ok, back to calculating.
1300 yards, divided by 250 yards = 5.2
Multiply that by 4oz = 20.8oz
16oz per pound and we get = 1.3 pounds.
Being conservative and ensuring that I have enough to sample, I should be able to get away with 1.5 pounds. But, since I’m really planing to have at it, I’m ordering 1.75 pounds. This will let me relax and make up a decent sized sample skein (maybe two) so that I can ensure I’m doing the Right Thing.
Comments/corrections/readjustments welcome.
Fiber-y goodness
It's been a while (again) since I've posted anything and I've got some fun stuff to show! I was lucky enough to get to the Monterey Fleece Auction at the Monterey County Fair (they sell tequila *shots* at the fair, how cool is that!??!) two weekends ago and that kicked me in the butt to start dyeing.
I've been wanting to dye my own stuff for quite some time, and the carding fun during the TDF really got me thinking about it. Finally, what pushed me over the edge was the wonderful fleece I bought at the auction. Nine pounds of Coopworth Romney cross, in a lovely gray. Oh, here's what it looks like:
Isn't it gorgeous? The majority went off to Morro Fleece Works for processing, but I stashed about 1# in a ziplock before heading home. This is post washing and pre-dyeing. Since it's gray, I wanted to try and get some blues and purples for scarves. I dyed the locks using acid dyes in the microwave. I don't think I got the water hot enough, but here's the blue pre-carding, and then the two finished batts:
I was quite surprised at how much the colors muted after carding, but the softness of both is just amazing. Have I mentioned how much I love my drum carder? Love. LOVE.
Anyway, I also had two pounds of merino top just lying around waiting for some love, so I decided to do some quick experimenting with kettle dyeing and hot-pouring. I'm much braver now about really heating the water/wool mixture and I just dove in. All the examples below use 4oz. of roving, so I've still got a pound of un-dyed roving leftover. The kettle dyeing was simple - just dump the dye in the bath along with the wool, then heat to set. For the hot pour, I heated the wool and bath *first*, then added the dye.
While I didn't take pictures of the kettle dyeing (too simple, I guess), I did try and document the hot pour. First experiment was with a blue mixture. I used a syringe to squirt the dye on half the roving:
Once that was done, and the dye started to settle, I carefully turned the roving over in the bath to distribute the remaining pigment:
For the green, I first added some water to my dye solution so that it would be less concentrated. Then, I poured more equally across the top of the fiber:
Again, once the dye pushed through and settled, I turned the fiber to better distribute the remaining dyestock
In both cases, I let the fiber cool completely in the dyebath and the dye was fully exhausted. Then, I picked the rovings out of the dyebaths, rinsed under luke-warm tap water, squeezed out as much water as I could, gave it a whiz in a garment bacg ala Alden Amos and then left to dry overnight. Results of the whole shebang look like this:
Again, the blue and green were hot-pour and the orange and yellow were kettle dyed.
All four of them are just *lovely*. The yellow is so wonderfully bright and makes me smile whenever I see it. I'm really in love with the blue - there are these great bits of blue/green in the darker areas and it's all pretty close to what I wanted. I'm going to try one more hot-pour experiment with an intent of getting more colors into the mix. I think I need less water in the bath overall (the wool floated too high) and to not rush the dye getting into the undyed spots. Regardless, I'm definitely on my way!
Oh, and in case you've not figured this out, the next color is in the reds/magentas. That part is missing from my color wheel.
Spinning soon!!! I need a happy, yellow scarf to chase away the winter chill. It is summer in San Francisco, after all.
I've been wanting to dye my own stuff for quite some time, and the carding fun during the TDF really got me thinking about it. Finally, what pushed me over the edge was the wonderful fleece I bought at the auction. Nine pounds of Coopworth Romney cross, in a lovely gray. Oh, here's what it looks like:
Isn't it gorgeous? The majority went off to Morro Fleece Works for processing, but I stashed about 1# in a ziplock before heading home. This is post washing and pre-dyeing. Since it's gray, I wanted to try and get some blues and purples for scarves. I dyed the locks using acid dyes in the microwave. I don't think I got the water hot enough, but here's the blue pre-carding, and then the two finished batts:
I was quite surprised at how much the colors muted after carding, but the softness of both is just amazing. Have I mentioned how much I love my drum carder? Love. LOVE.
Anyway, I also had two pounds of merino top just lying around waiting for some love, so I decided to do some quick experimenting with kettle dyeing and hot-pouring. I'm much braver now about really heating the water/wool mixture and I just dove in. All the examples below use 4oz. of roving, so I've still got a pound of un-dyed roving leftover. The kettle dyeing was simple - just dump the dye in the bath along with the wool, then heat to set. For the hot pour, I heated the wool and bath *first*, then added the dye.
While I didn't take pictures of the kettle dyeing (too simple, I guess), I did try and document the hot pour. First experiment was with a blue mixture. I used a syringe to squirt the dye on half the roving:
Once that was done, and the dye started to settle, I carefully turned the roving over in the bath to distribute the remaining pigment:
For the green, I first added some water to my dye solution so that it would be less concentrated. Then, I poured more equally across the top of the fiber:
Again, once the dye pushed through and settled, I turned the fiber to better distribute the remaining dyestock
In both cases, I let the fiber cool completely in the dyebath and the dye was fully exhausted. Then, I picked the rovings out of the dyebaths, rinsed under luke-warm tap water, squeezed out as much water as I could, gave it a whiz in a garment bacg ala Alden Amos and then left to dry overnight. Results of the whole shebang look like this:
Again, the blue and green were hot-pour and the orange and yellow were kettle dyed.
All four of them are just *lovely*. The yellow is so wonderfully bright and makes me smile whenever I see it. I'm really in love with the blue - there are these great bits of blue/green in the darker areas and it's all pretty close to what I wanted. I'm going to try one more hot-pour experiment with an intent of getting more colors into the mix. I think I need less water in the bath overall (the wool floated too high) and to not rush the dye getting into the undyed spots. Regardless, I'm definitely on my way!
Oh, and in case you've not figured this out, the next color is in the reds/magentas. That part is missing from my color wheel.
Spinning soon!!! I need a happy, yellow scarf to chase away the winter chill. It is summer in San Francisco, after all.
And in other news ...
I've got a quick FO sighting for y'all.
This is a Beech Wood Cowl done in bamboo/merino handspun. Colorway is Sangria by Spunky Eclectic. I got the fiber from a fellow Raveler as part of a "bag of crap" fiber swap. I was shooting for something heavier weight than the light fingering I usually end up with. This is about 10wpi, chain-plied. BTW, I'm falling in LOVE with chain-plying. Now that I'm confident in the process, it makes yarn happen almost instantaneously.
Yardage: ~170
WPI: ~11
Fiber: 80/20 merino/bamboo
I'm wearing it 'round the office today 'cause I lurves it.
Off to the mountains tonight for the long weekend and the start of the TDF. I'll post the "stash target" when I get back next week.
This is a Beech Wood Cowl done in bamboo/merino handspun. Colorway is Sangria by Spunky Eclectic. I got the fiber from a fellow Raveler as part of a "bag of crap" fiber swap. I was shooting for something heavier weight than the light fingering I usually end up with. This is about 10wpi, chain-plied. BTW, I'm falling in LOVE with chain-plying. Now that I'm confident in the process, it makes yarn happen almost instantaneously.
Yardage: ~170
WPI: ~11
Fiber: 80/20 merino/bamboo
I'm wearing it 'round the office today 'cause I lurves it.
Off to the mountains tonight for the long weekend and the start of the TDF. I'll post the "stash target" when I get back next week.
Three Bags Full
Today I started pulling out the fiber for the Tour.
I've joined a couple of teams: Team Monkey Farts, sponsored by Spunky Eclectic, Team Suck Less, sponsored by Abby Franquemont and Team Snobby Spinners. For the last one, it's all about spinning "luxury" fibers. Links go to the groups in Ravelry.
Monkey Farts is my cheerleading team. There's no Spunky fiber targeted specifically for the Tour, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the club fibers finds it way onto a spindle this month.
Team Suck Less is all about spinning a MILE of fiber in one day. A mile is 1760 yards, and if you 3-ply that, it works out to 580-ish yards. That's more than a pair of sock's wort (usually ~400 yards) and would work out to be around 5-6 oz of fiber. That's alot. That's about 10h *straight* of spinning. I'll be doing this on a Saturday.
Finally, for Team Snobby Spinners, I've got a choice of some lovely polwarth/silk blend that spins up frog-hair fine for lace or 4oz of some really nice bamboo/merino blend. I think that's the one for me.
The overall fiber count for the Tour looks like this:
1.5# of Merino for a sweater. Comes from The Sheep Shed and Carolina Homespun. The two sets of fiber are close cousins and are broken into three sets of 1/2 a pound, each. Makes it easy for the 3-ply I'm planning. This is targeted for the Wisteria Sweater from Twist Collective.
4oz of Bamboo/Merino blend. These'll be for socks. May use the SpinOff article from last year to split and ply the fiber. Otherwise, I'll be waffling between chain and true 3-ply. That's for later in the month.
~2# of Shetland fleece. My first one. I'd had some thought of dying this before I spin it, but I've both run out of time and am no longer sure that's what I want to do. If I save this for last, I can still "plot" a bit.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to this - quite a bit, actually. It's gonna be great to reconnect with my wheel, play around with my carder and generally spin until I just don't want to anymore.
It's training for SOAR in October, right?
I've joined a couple of teams: Team Monkey Farts, sponsored by Spunky Eclectic, Team Suck Less, sponsored by Abby Franquemont and Team Snobby Spinners. For the last one, it's all about spinning "luxury" fibers. Links go to the groups in Ravelry.
Monkey Farts is my cheerleading team. There's no Spunky fiber targeted specifically for the Tour, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the club fibers finds it way onto a spindle this month.
Team Suck Less is all about spinning a MILE of fiber in one day. A mile is 1760 yards, and if you 3-ply that, it works out to 580-ish yards. That's more than a pair of sock's wort (usually ~400 yards) and would work out to be around 5-6 oz of fiber. That's alot. That's about 10h *straight* of spinning. I'll be doing this on a Saturday.
Finally, for Team Snobby Spinners, I've got a choice of some lovely polwarth/silk blend that spins up frog-hair fine for lace or 4oz of some really nice bamboo/merino blend. I think that's the one for me.
The overall fiber count for the Tour looks like this:
1.5# of Merino for a sweater. Comes from The Sheep Shed and Carolina Homespun. The two sets of fiber are close cousins and are broken into three sets of 1/2 a pound, each. Makes it easy for the 3-ply I'm planning. This is targeted for the Wisteria Sweater from Twist Collective.
4oz of Bamboo/Merino blend. These'll be for socks. May use the SpinOff article from last year to split and ply the fiber. Otherwise, I'll be waffling between chain and true 3-ply. That's for later in the month.
~2# of Shetland fleece. My first one. I'd had some thought of dying this before I spin it, but I've both run out of time and am no longer sure that's what I want to do. If I save this for last, I can still "plot" a bit.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to this - quite a bit, actually. It's gonna be great to reconnect with my wheel, play around with my carder and generally spin until I just don't want to anymore.
It's training for SOAR in October, right?
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