Another knit and more spinning

The decade old yarn has inspired another knit, a skull cap for me. I dyed both colorways and I think they go together quite alright. I love the way it fits me and it will get good use this fall. Did not work from a pattern, just winged it, a very simple design.

I started by checking the gauge with size 8 needles then calculated for the circumference of my head, accounting for the 2x2 ribbing. The ribbing is followed by stockinette and six decreases on every row. Easy peasy.

I wonder what else these yarns will inspire? Hm.

The green Merino is spinning up well and I have switched to one of my Kunderts. This will be the second skein when full, a larger skein than the first. You will notice the masking tape I adhered to the bottom of the spindle for better gripping when imparting a spin. One wonderful feature of the Golding I showed in the previous post is the ribbing carved into the bottom of the spindle. A great enhancement.

One great side benefit of spindle spinning, seeing how I prefer to do so standing up, is it is getting me on my feet! A good thing.

I finally figured out how to spin the 'mongrel' roving I purchased from Wellington Fibres as a 'mystery' roving. It's a mix of wools and, I believe, mohair. The short, whispy, mohair makes it difficult to short-draw. I tried. The mix of long and short makes it difficult to long draw. I tried.

Modified long draw is the ticket. I'm carding the roving into rollags first. The noils in it create a challenge, both in carding and in spinning, but modified long draw is working out quite well. I'm very pleased to have settled on a method for tackling this beautiful roving. I'm planning to make either a vest or a sweater with the yarn, depending on how much yardage I end up with.

When all the various colors in the roving are blended into yarn, the result looks purple. A very nice purple, especially when viewed in the blue, evening light from the window. In reality it is not quite this blue, but still a very nice gray/purple.

Somewhat different from the distinct colors in the roving.  (Also, the picture below was taken in 100% artificial lighting.)

For this spin, I'm using my Country Craftsman spinning wheel. It has the speed and perfect tension adjustment I need for the technique.

I have decided that the Country Craftsman, the Kromski Mazurka, and the Shaker Great Wheel are the three wheels which I am going to keep. The other two: an antique flax wheel and an Ashford Traditional will go to the thrift shop if I don't find a buyer. The flax wheel is lovely but the bobbin is small and there's only one of them. The Ashford just isn't doing it for me, I'm afraid. The tension is fiddly, and again, I only have one bobbin. Truth be told, I only have one bobbin for the Country Craftsman as well, but I know someone who makes them for sale.

I only need the one bobbin for this spin because I'm Navajo plying directly off the wheel onto a spindle!

Furthering the discoveries from my foray into the upstairs craft room was a ball of repurposed sari silk "yarn". This is yarn that is made from torn up silk saris--into strips--and then twisted into "yarn". It has absolutely no give whatsoever, even less than cotton. I bought a few balls of it at one of the sheep and wool festivals many years ago because it was so beautiful. Shortly after I bought it, I decided to weave with it, on a pin loom. Back then, I had woven two squares. I wove two more this week.

Now that I have four squares--there is still enough "yarn" to make a fifth if I want--I'm thinking of sewing them together to make one big square, then crocheting a border around it to make a table centerpiece. It would look very nice with a piece of hand-thrown pottery on it.

We had a couple cool days early this week making it feel vaguely autumnal! I think it's warming up again. Good. I love autumn but we need to get through summer first.

Inspired by old work

Taking out the yarn left overs from many years ago reminded me of the joy I derived back then from spindle spinning, especially yarn that I plied 'on the fly', and it has inspired me to take out the spindles.

I purchased some green gradient Merino last year at the NH Sheep & Wool and I'm spinning it on my Golding spindle.

As in 'the old days', I'm Navajo plying it and doing so 'on the fly'. Navajo plying goes by a few different names: N-plying, Navajo plying, chain plying. "Chain plying" is the most descriptive of the three, but not very exciting or colorful as the other two names if you ask me. It creates a 3-ply yarn. Chain plying "on the fly" is a way of spinning a single thread and plying it right away. Great for instant results. Navajo plying is super useful as a method for isolating colors in a multi color preparation.

I wind my singles temporarily at the bottom of the spindle until I've spun about 2 or 3 yards, then I wind it off the spindle onto my hand from whence I will ply it. (Clicking the picture will enlarge them.)

The following picture shows how the plying works. The "Single" is passed through the loop to form a new loop which causes 3 singles to lie next to each other. These three are spun counterclockwise to ply them together, and the process continues, creating an ongoing chain of large loops. I do like to create quite large loops, a yard long if possible.

I am planning to make a hat with this yarn when it is all spun up.

The Golding spindles are very beautiful but the one I have is heavy so as soon as this one is full I will switch to one of my Kunderts, my favorites of all, and they are very light.

Speaking of hats. There is still plenty of yards of old yarn left and I've picked some out for a hat. There may not be enough of these to knit the entire hat and I'll have to dig into the bag of scraps again. I'm sure something will work out. Here I am swatching for gauge: I hand painted the yellow/green and blue/purple silk/wool blend. It's a very soft, luscious yarn.

I've got more Hollyhocks than ever this year. This one is over 8 feet tall!

The scarf got frogged

I had a change of plans for the scarf.

Since the yarn is a bag of left over hand-spuns from years ago, the supply is limited. But after looking at what I'd knit and seeing what was left in the bag, I decided that I could probably make something that wasn't simply 'scrappy', that there was probably enough of certain colorways to make a scarf that looked planned.

So I frogged what I had and started over. In order to make my favorite colorways last, I cast on fewer stitches. The new plan was a narrower scarf that I could consider chic. And the plan worked. Apart from 2 different multi-color yarns, the next abundant was some orange Harrisville wool that I'd spun, also 3-ply in the Navajo fashion.

I'm done with the knitting and have started adding fringe to the ends. I like the result, it doesn't look like something pulled out of a bag of scraps. At least to me it doesn't. I'm sure I will enjoy wearing this in the fall and early winter.

Another unfinished project I ran across while puttering around the spare room is a set of leaves that I knit.... oh.... four or five years ago, probably. All the knitting was done at that time, but the leaves need to be composed into a shall. Before the construction can begin all the loose ends need weaving in, and every leaf, no matter large or small, has 9 loose ends! It's tedious, but it must be done. I want to get this project finished!

The pattern for this shawl is called "Autumn Leaves Shall" and it appeared in "NORO Silk Garden, The 20th Anniversary Collection" (c) 2016, Sixth&Springbooks. It is designed by Anna Stoklosa.

I used a mix of NORO and other yarn, including Lambs Pride, when knitting my leaves.