Neapolitan mug rugs

There isn't much to say about this project, as I didn't take notes (bad). I warped it during a study group meeting, using some naturally brown yarn purchased from The Big Red Barn; it's from Sanctuary Farm and is either 100% alpaca or 80% alpaca and 20% merino. I then wove some handspun superwash merino known as Lone Star Arts superwash merino, colorway 'Neapolitan'.

I've always been a little unhappy with how that yarn plied and assumed the problem was me. But recently I realized that the problem is it is superwash, so it doesn't want to cling to itself. Lesson learned.

I don't consider these to be my best work. See how the hemstitch pulls in one corner on one end? That is another lesson for me.

Housekeeping

Per usual, the so-called studio is such a mess that I can barely get through it. I thought I could spend an hour or so in there and make it useable, but no. There was just too much handspun hanging here and there, awaiting further development.

The 900g of Romney needed to have its twist set. There is so much of it, it had to go into the washing machine. No, I didn't agitate it, just soaked the skeins in warm water for 20 minutes.

It is undyed, and I assumed I would dye it but maybe not? It's a lovely ecru color and there is enough for a sweater, me thinks.

Today while putting away all the handknit sweaters that had accumulated on a chair in my bedroom, most of which I barely wore this past winter, I wondered *why* I would want to knit another sweater. Yet, I probably will. And I will probably dye at least some of the Romney for it.

Knitting: I made some real progress on the current sock project while in meetings and listening to recorded Zoom sessions.

One of the meetings was with the Austin guild, on natural dyeing. In Texas, one can easily grow indigo and harvest cochineal, neither of which I can do here in zone 5/6, although I could grow some indigo as an annual. I can always buy dye materials that I cannot obtain locally, though. The idea of having an indigo bath for dipping already dyed yarn appeals to me. Also, anything that gives me shades of red and pink like cochineal interests me.

A recorded session I listened to was about weaving with handspun, which is giving me the courage to do just that. So I'd better get the current project off the loom.

Dyeing iron-mordanted yarn in rudbeckia dye bath

One thing I have to say about iron mordanting: DON'T. It takes much less work to do a cool alum mordant and an iron afterbath than to do the iron mordant up front. Also, one has more control of the outcome.

I didn't keep very good notes about this whole dye experiment, nor very many photos. At least the photos I did take have a date-time stamp, so there is a timeline of sorts.

First, I gathered flower heads from Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivanttii 'Goldsturm' growing in the area of my yard I refer to as The Meadow. These I left to soak in water for several days.

Next, I heated the flowerhead bath for an hour or so, to extract the dye and let it cool overnight.

Meanwhile, I mordanted four small skeins of handspun wool singles in an iron bath. Those I rinsed thoroughly, as iron can be hard on fiber.

Over the next several days, I added a skein to the dye bath, heated the dye bath for an our or so, then let it cool before removing the yarn. I processed one skein at a time, hoping to gain variations in the depth of color. It didn't work like I expected - all I got was dark gray with little variation. I finished by dyeing a skein of rhubarb leaf mordanted Cascade 220.

The handspun singles all look about the same, even the ones that were put into an "exhausted" dye bath. The skein of Cascade 220 that was not iron-mordanted but mordanted with rhubarb leaf came out dull, which I suspect is an aspect of the rhubarb leaf mordant. At least it looks different from the others.

So what did I do wrong? For one thing, I neglected to weigh the plant material, to get an idea of just how much yarn could be dyed with it. Mordanting the yarn with iron I believe corrupted the dye bath, so I ended up with dark gray yarn instead of the dark green I was aiming for. I was not careful, nor did I take my time and plan things out before hand. Hopefully, lessons learned!

Mistake rib cowl in Lorna Laces handspun

Once upon a time, my online fiber friend QuteCowgirl sent me a box of fiber. Included in the package was some Lorna Lace's Shepherd Wool, which I fractal prepped and spun. The yarn was lovely, and just the ticket for this mistake rib cowl.

Pattern: Mistake rib cowl from Purl Soho
Yarn: Fractal prepped and handspun Lorna's Laces Shepherd Wool Top superwash merino in 'Devon' (118g)
Needles: US8 (cast on and bound off using US9)
Modifications: Cast on using alternating long-tail method and bound off in pattern

This pattern is perfect for mindless knitting and needs only 100g of worsted or aran weight yarn. My handspun was a bit thick and thin and a little bulky, but still fine.

Another grayish clowl

This is what happened to the 2-ply handspun tencel, silk, and merino yarn. Cowls are so easy to do. This one is similar to the previous grayish cowl, but I knit this one in the round.

Basically, it has 10 roundss of 2x2 ribbing at the beginning and end, then stockinette stitch interupted by eyelet about every 6 rows. Not very fancy.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: handspun tencil, silk, and merino, two-plied
Needles: US5

The photo below shows a close-up of the detail, and it is a good thing I took this pic, as it shows a dropped stitch. Grrr! I'll have to fix it - and check closely for any other dropped stitches - before offering this to anyone else. Although I may just keep it for myself.

Although this handspun is nice and soft, I don't really like the combination of fibers. The silk and tencel makes the yarn slicker than plain wool would be, so it's more difficult to maintain tension while knitting. After all my experiences with fiber, I find myself going back to what is simple.

Grayish cowl

A while back, I purchased a couple of braids of roving from Little Shop of Spinning. I spun one braid, then two-plied it. The other I chain-plied. This is the story of what became of the chain-plied yarn.

My goal was to use up all of this yarn, so I decided to provisionally cast on 36 stitches which would be grafted to the end of the knitting. Theoretically, this would also leave the possibility of making a mobius cowl by twisting one end a half turn.

The pattern is basically knit 4 rows of garter stitch, knit an eyelet row, then purl a row. At each end, I omitted the eyelet for a couple of stitches, to create a border of sorts. I meant to slip the first stitch of each row, but didn't always do that right, hence the wonky edges. Also, there is a definite slant to the whole thing which I was not able to completely correct with blocking.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: handspun tencil, silk, and merino, chain-plied
Needles: US9

The fabric was not long enough to twist into a mobius, so I simply grafted the two ends, using instructions found online (and I can't find again). If you can do kitchener stitch on stockinette, you can graft garter stitch.

While comfy and soft, this cowl is not my best work. It will end up on the xmas gift table tomorrow, in case anyone wants it. If not, I have a new cowl I can wear with my new black coat... which I have yet to wear this winter, as the weather is not very wintery.

Art yarn

The program at the spinning guild featured a demonstration of "art yarn" and core spinning. I did a little research first, so arrived with some core already spun and some fiber to add to it. I also deconstructed the art yarn from the last cowl project. The light blue is the core, the dark blue the main fiber, the metalic thread the wrap.

My results from the core spinning were a bit loose and wonky, so the next day, I wrapped my sample with gold silk thread. I'm not sure what I will do with it.

Knitting: Marching along on the socks, with no problems (so far). The Lempi sweater is approaching the third button hole; my stitch count was off due to an increase that did not belong, but I was able to correct the problem without ripping back.
Spinning: I'm wrapping up my adventures in Polish merino (separate post to follow). The yarn I spun at the last spin-in was SO tight, I'm not sure the result is usable unless I do something - but what? It's really kinky.

Weaving: The county fair is next week, so I have been working on a few almost-finished wall hangings to submit to the adult craft event. The Great Grizzly is warped and the hem of a rag rug started on it.

I decided that if a project sits on a loom too long, it is never going to be finished, so I might as well remove it. I cleared the Peruvian diamond project from the 24" rigid heddle loom and the krokbragg project from the inkle loom. The latter has been in limbo since before my first shoulder surgery, and the former just wasn't working out and I couldn't bring myself to work on it. It was time to cut bait or fish!

Graham slouchy hat in red Tunis

This pattern is a favorite of my daughter and granddaughter, and my daughter said she liked the red Tunis handspun, so I knit yet another 'Graham' slouchy hat. It looks more rustic than previous ones, and came out larger, so neither of them may want it.

Pattern: 'Graham' by Jennifer Adams
Yarn: Handspun red Tunis, 3-ply
Needles: US5 for ribbing, US7 for rest
Modifications: None

My handspun tends to relax a lot when knit and blocked, so I stuck with the smaller needles. As you can see, the hat expanded and is larger than one knit in Cascade 220 Superwash on the same size needles.

I've complained about the color of this yarn before, but it is beginning to grow on me. And you know what they say - if the hat fits, wear it.

Fresh spun yarn - alpaca

Even though I don't post here very often, I do some kind of fiber art activity everyday. It just takes me a while to get to the point of showing you something. Today is the result of days of spinning and plying some alpaca.

In 2009, I purchased about 8oz of alpaca at our local Johnny Appleseed Festival. It came from an animal named Spartacus who lives on the Michel Century Farm in Huntington, IN. Alpaca fleece has no lanolin, is smoother than sheep wool, and is very warm. Spartacus was a rose gray huacaya. Since the fiber felt finer than wool, I spun it worsted at a ratio of 8:1 on my Joy2 Ashford wheel. The result is 330 yards of 3-ply. (I haven't measured the WPI yet.)

Alpaca fiber supposedly does not need to be cleaned before spinning, BUT. The roving felt dirty, and my spinning fingers attest to the fact that is was dirty. Yet, when I soaked the yarn to set the twist, the water remained clear. I am making a mental note, however, to wash the yarn before I dye, knit, or weave with it. Even if I forget my mental note, the feel of the yarn should remind me.

In general, I am not a fan of alpaca. However, it's durable, resists pilling (VERY IMPORTANT TO ME!), blends well with other fibers, and dyes well. I may have to reconsider my bias.

The old swatcheroo

My spinning guild issued a challenge: spin for a project, then execute the project. Lucky for me, I already had a project like that sorta started: weave a runner for in front of the sofa. With the deadline looming, I am (finally) putting the pedal to the treadle.

But first. I decided I should make a swatch, to see if my assumptions were correct. Spoiler: some were, some were NOT.

One assumption was that I would weave 3 ppi (picks - or rows - per inch). That turned out to be false. The actual ppi is 5, which means I need to spin more yarn. Also, there was virtually no shrinkage of the swatch, so I don't have to worry (much) about that.

The roving I spun is not dyed. My assumption that the natural colors would play well together? Correct. The dark brown and light brown are both Shetland, which I chose because of its reputation to be pill-resistant. The white "art yarn" is my poor attempt to spin woolen, using Dorset Polypay. The yarn is 3-ply, because I was trying to imitate some commercial 3-ply rug yarn. The Shetland came out super bulky, at 5 wpi (wraps per inch), the Dorset Polypay is bulky, at 7 epi. This variation will give the runner some visual texture (she said optimistically).

Yesterday I put on my big girl panties and warped the loom with 'Khaki' cotton/poly carpet warp. I really hate warping because I can't seem to get even tension across the loom, but this time it worked relatively well. The epi (ends per inch) is 5. (Pay no attention to the bright super bulky yarn - I use that to spread the warp.)

Although I wove only 10 rows of the carpet warp on the swatch, it seemed like enough to assume its quarter-inch length would translate to 40 ppi. On my rigid heddle loom, though, it was more like 35, even with beating. Today I finished up the edging at one end, securing it both fore and aft with a row of cross over stitches. This edging will be folded under (I think).

I did some cypherin' to figure out how much of each yarn to use where. The runner is supposed to be 18" wide and 72" long. As of right now, I plan to do the following:

• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 36" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown
• 3 picks white
• 3" light brown
• 3 picks white
• 2" dark brown

I'm not exactly following the implied rules of spinning for the project, as I started spinning with a general idea of how I would use the yarn. I'm making the yardage determine the pattern instead of the other way around. But spinning bulky yarn is new for me, I have a lot of Shetland to use up, and the white was serendipitous. Good enough for me.