DesigKnit

Jocelyn asked for a video of my spinning technique in the comments a few posts ago, so Branden and I took advantage of some rare sun last weekend to shoot a brief segment.

(I’ve had this whole post written and ready to go for a week, but we were having video compression issues. Sorry for the delay, but hopefully the problems are all sorted out now…)

Before I show it to you, I need to add the disclaimer that I am a new spinner, I don’t have formal training, and I don’t honestly know much about what I’m doing. I’m just playing with yarn, and doing what feels right to me. So, this isn’t a tutorial…go to more experienced people for that!

After reading a little more about drafting techniques on Spinning Spider Jenny’s blog, I think I am doing some kind of variation on an American supported longdraw.

When drafting, I just increase the length of my drafting zone at the same rate that I add twist, so that I have the same (low) twists per inch throughout the draw. When I finish the draw, I have to feed the yarn into the flyer slowly, because this is where I actually add the real twist. If I let it in too fast, I don’t have a stable yarn. If I want more twist, I just let it in more slowly.

The video is shot from the front, by the flyer, which makes it seem like your attention should be on my left hand, but it’s actually the right that’s doing all the work. The left is just there to pull against for drafting, and to keep the yarn from rubbing on the orifice while I do a right-side draw. All of the thickness control is done by the right hand, by varying how hard I hold the fiber, and how far back I am on the staple.

If there’s a dense spot in the top, I sometimes get a thick spot in my yarn, but there isn’t much twist in the longdraw, so it’s easy to pull thin again. This happens once about halfway through the video. To fix it, I just grab the two ends of the thick section, separated by about two staple lengths, and pull gently. If there’s too much twist to move the fibers, then I roll the ends between my fingers to let some of it back out again, and continue pulling until it’s the thickness I want.

So, that’s how I spin. How about you?

Jocelyn asked for a video of my spinning technique in the comments a few posts ago, so Branden and I took advantage of some rare sun last weekend to shoot a brief segment.

(I’ve had this whole post written and ready to go for a week, but we were having video compression issues. Sorry for the delay, but hopefully the problems are all sorted out now…)

Before I show it to you, I need to add the disclaimer that I am a new spinner, I don’t have formal training, and I don’t honestly know much about what I’m doing. I’m just playing with yarn, and doing what feels right to me. So, this isn’t a tutorial…go to more experienced people for that!

After reading a little more about drafting techniques on Spinning Spider Jenny’s blog, I think I am doing some kind of variation on an American supported longdraw.

When drafting, I just increase the length of my drafting zone at the same rate that I add twist, so that I have the same (low) twists per inch throughout the draw. When I finish the draw, I have to feed the yarn into the flyer slowly, because this is where I actually add the real twist. If I let it in too fast, I don’t have a stable yarn. If I want more twist, I just let it in more slowly.

The video is shot from the front, by the flyer, which makes it seem like your attention should be on my left hand, but it’s actually the right that’s doing all the work. The left is just there to pull against for drafting, and to keep the yarn from rubbing on the orifice while I do a right-side draw. All of the thickness control is done by the right hand, by varying how hard I hold the fiber, and how far back I am on the staple.

If there’s a dense spot in the top, I sometimes get a thick spot in my yarn, but there isn’t much twist in the longdraw, so it’s easy to pull thin again. This happens once about halfway through the video. To fix it, I just grab the two ends of the thick section, separated by about two staple lengths, and pull gently. If there’s too much twist to move the fibers, then I roll the ends between my fingers to let some of it back out again, and continue pulling until it’s the thickness I want.

So, that’s how I spin. How about you?

I finished knitting the leaf socks that aren’t in November. November 21st, to be exact. They became my favorite socks, despite the fact that the splitty yarn made them unpleasant to knit. I had knit them small enough so that they didn’t slop around on my feet (I like my socks snug), and the under-arch expansion fits my foot perfectly. I’m not used to having things fit my feet perfectly, and so I really appreciate it when they do. I will forgive a sock for being a pain in the neck to knit if it repays me by fitting well.

I wear knit socks a lot around the house, but not a crazy amount. I have very few pair of handknit socks in my collection, and so my favorites get worn fairly frequently. I probably wear these socks once a week, depending on how on top of things I am in the handwashing department (and really, how long does it take to hand wash a pair of socks?).

On Sunday, I looked down at my foot and saw this:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a wear spot. In socks that are less than two months old. The rest of the sole is in similar condition:

(Look at that ladder! It didn’t show up at all when the yarn was intact!)

The sole is quite threadbare, compared to the tops of the socks:

I’m considering a repair job, but it would need to be so extensive that it doesn’t really seem worth it. And, why go to the trouble of darning something that won’t even last 2 months?

You might ask, as I did, what happened to all the fiber? Did I just pull it on a nail or something? Well, if you happened to turn the socks inside out, you would find something like this:

All that remains of a completely disintegrated yarn.

I am not pleased. Has anyone else had this happen with bamboo/merino blends?

It’s funny. When I started spinning yarn for a sweater, I thought that spinning would be a long, slow process. Turns out, it’s not.

Two pounds of Coopworth top turned into this in almost exactly a month:

I finished washing and drying the sweater yarn last weekend, and then managed to wait until Wednesday before breaking into the new fiber (self control…ha!). I said last week that the top looks felted when it comes out of the dyepot. Does that not look felted? But, a little bit of fluffing, and it turns into a beautiful, puffy fiber, with no signs of felt.

I tried the bigger drive ratio, and the yarn is coming out a little bit finer than before (8.75:1 vs. 7:1), but I still have a ways to go before I’m producing fine yarn. I think (hope?) that this will be a little heavier than DK once plied. I guess we’ll find out for sure when I set the twist!

I started spinning this on Thursday. I could finish tonight if I wanted to. I have 2 and a half bobbins full, and I only have fiber for three bobbins.This spinning thing is suddenly producing an awful lot of yarn. Not that I mind more yarn, of course, but it’s a little scary for the non-stashing side of me to see this much yarn piling up so quickly.

I suppose this means that I should actually get some knitting done. I do intend to have some knitting content to show you soon, this being a knitting blog and all. Actually, I would have had some tonight, except that I forgot to take pictures earlier.

It’s been a little easier to sink into spinning than knitting lately. I’m not sure why that is, except that spinning is a little newer and therefore requires a little more concentration. Maybe I need to pull out the lace knitting again, but that’s a different kind of concentration. It’s a counting and thinking sort of concentration, not a feel-fiber-run-through-your-fingers sort of concentration. Just a little bit different. Since I am in need of a little escapism through fiber, spinning seems to be a little bit higher on the to-do list lately, but I’m also looking forward to using the yarn I’m spinning, so hopefully there will be some interesting knitting to talk about soon.

So, the big question: what do I make with it?

Back again! Just reading through the blog list, and saw Boogie’s post on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and how it affects home crafters.

In short, a law is currently being put in place to require lead and other testing in all products that can be used by children. It’s meant to protect kids from hazardous imported toys, but has no clause to exempt small businesses and home crafters. The testing that this law would require is expensive, and will be far too much for individual crafters to pay. Want to know more?

As someone that enjoys being able to choose handmade over big-box, I think it’s worth a few minutes to send an email and object, no? We have until the 20th (that’s next Tuesday) to object. Maybe it’s time for knitters raise their voices?

If you want to include yours, you can do so by writing the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Office of the Secretary, email Sec102ComponentPartsTesting@cpsc.gov

They can be faxed to (USA) 301 504-0127

Snailmail:
The Office of the Secretary,
Consumer Product Safety Commission,
Room 502, 4330 East-West Highway,
Bethesda, Maryland 20814 US.

Comments should be captioned: Section 102 Mandatory Third-Party Testing of Component Parts’

If you agree, please spread the word!

I ran across these pictures on my camera the other day. I can’t believe I’d forgotten to share them with you! My nephew is about 15 months old, and he was fascinated with my knitting while we were home over Christmas.

Every chance he got, he’d run over and pick up the sweater in progress, find the needles, and tap-tap-tap the tips together. He didn’t quite get the idea that the yarn needed to be involved for anything to happen, but he definitely knew that the needles needed to click.

I have to say, he was very good about being careful. He got into the knitting many, many times, and never dropped a single stitch. I think he might be a natural.

Well, I survived the first week of classes, despite the fact that my home internet connection and my computer refused to speak for most of the week. (That small inconvenience makes it rather difficult to answer student questions and keep up with blogs, I must say.)

But, I had something to look forward to.

Yesterday morning, I made small bundles (about an ounce each) of white BFL top. While those bundles bathed, I covered my dining room in plastic.

That’s a 2 mil sheet of plastic from the hardware store. It failed to make a good cold frame for the garden (too lightweight, and ripped in the wind), but it does a great job of covering my entire dining room.

Of course, the reason for covering the dining room was that I was planning to play with things that stain.

I mixed up stock dye solutions in four colors, and one in black, in case I needed to darken the colors to get what I wanted. The stock dyes were then diluted down appropriately. At this point, I realized just how much dye you get in one of those Jacquard bottles. It’s a lot. One tsp of dye powder makes 1/2 a cup of stock, and then 1-5 tsp of stock get diluted to 3/4 of a cup, which is a lot of dye. Good to know.

I did some test strips to check the colors.

I couldn’t really see much difference between the burgundy and the purple, but I decided to use them both anyway, since I had already mixed them up.

If you’ve never gotten top wet before, you will be sure that you have felted it. It looks very sad when it comes out of the sink.

But adding colors makes it look like happy felt, at least.

The burgundy is on one end, and the purple on the other. Can’t tell, can you?

I wrapped the top up into little plastic rolls.

And then steamed it for a long time.

When it cooled, it looked like this:

See those colors?

It must have steamed long enough, because the dye was exhausted. No leaking!

After its bath, it hung up overnight in the shower to dry. This morning, I had some very pretty fiber waiting (and it doesn’t appear to have actually felted…it just got really dense)

I can now tell the purple and the burgundy apart, but my camera still can’t. But we won’t hold that against it, will we?

Maybe my carrot for this week is getting to do some more spinning…

I apologize to those that do not spin. The following may not be of much interest, being that it is a little bit heavy on the spinning-geek.

As you know, I’ve been spinning quite a bit on the sweater yarn lately. I’ve noticed that I have to keep reminding myself to keep the singles thick to keep my yarn the same throughout the project, so I think there’s some hope that I will get something smaller than super bulky one of these days. It’s been good practice to have to hold a constant gauge throughout such a big project; it’s really challenging to keep it the same from day to day, especially since I’ve been playing with technique along the way.

Still, despite my recent advances, I have just not been able to imagine getting my yarn thin enough for fingering weight on this wheel. Worsted, maybe. Laceweight? No way. I’ve developed a freeform (sloppy?), modified long-draw technique that I really like, where I actually let the twist into my draft area (I know!) and use it to pull out the fibers that I need for the yarn rather than using a second drafting hand. It works well, is much more meditative since I have to actually listen to my yarn, and I feel that it gives me better control, as long as I pay attention. With two-hand drafting, I end up pulling the fibers into the drafting zone with one hand, and I always get a thick-thin-thick single, either because extra twist builds up right before the leading hand (making it thinner than the rest), or because I end up pulling a few fibers too many into the drafting zone, thereby increasing the thickness of my yarn. In short, my two-handed method is not good enough yet to keep my singles even. I can make the two-handed method work, but I wasn’t loving the process. It seemed like there must be something better.

Not being one to play by the rules, I began experimenting with letting twist into the drafting zone. I needed something to help keep my fibers pulling out evenly, and twist seemed like just the thing. It was. With some practice, I’ve decided that I like this better, at least for the combed top that I’ve been using. The fibers come in straight and even, and it’s easier to control the uptake by playing with how tightly and at what angle I hold the top and let the twist do the drafting for me. My right hand holds the top, and I only use the left if I need to tweak the draft zone for some reason. And somehow, this rule-breaking makes my yarn better, as long as I focus on what I’m doing and keep the wheel tension right.

This is all a way of saying that I have been playing with my top to figure out how it wants to be taken up. I keep the tension pretty high (because the flyer is actually doing some of the drafting work for me), and so it’s not surprising that my yarn wants to go a little thin. But even at high tensions, I am nowhere near fingering, never mind laceweight. Besides assuming that my wheel just couldn’t do that weight of yarn, I had no idea what else to try, since I’ve tried using tension as high as is reasonable without that much gain.

But tonight, I figured out what I need to try next. Anne posted a link to Abby Franquemont’s blog the other day, and I decided on a whim to follow it. Well. If you need to know about spinning, let me tell you that this is the place to go. Go now. Take a look. You’ll be glad you did.

Amongst many other interesting topics, I found an entire post on drive ratios. Now, I thought I understood drive ratios. I was under the impression that the important ratio in a double drive band setup was the difference between the bobbin and the whorl. Turns out that it’s the ratio between the whorl and the drive wheel (the big one) that actually matters.

For those of you that already know about spinning, this is probably a very obvious thing. In retrospect, it is very obvious. I can’t believe I missed it. You talk about drive ratios in terms of 15:1, and there is nothing like that kind of ratio between the bobbin and the whorl. I should have caught on to this earlier. But, somehow I missed it.

The good news is that this means that I had completely reversed high ratio and low ratio for choosing yarn weight. I am using my biggest (of two) whorl size, because I wanted to have a large ratio between the whorl and the bobbin. But the big whorl actually makes a smaller ratio with the drive wheel. So, I have been trying to use a lower drive ratio to spin a finer yarn, and wondering why I was having trouble getting enough twist into the singles. I’d played with the tension, and it didn’t help. No wonder, since it wasn’t the problem.

I can’t believe it. I have seldom been so thrilled to discover that I’d gotten something backwards. If I can spin a yarn this fine on the “heavy” setting, then I should have no problem spinning a finer yarn on the higher ratio setup. And that means that there is hope that I can spin a reasonably lightweight yarn on my wheel. Not that I have anything against super-bulky, besides the fact that it eats fiber like crazy and makes a really heavy garment. I am going to love this sweater because it will be thick and warm, but it will definitely be for cold days only! I am not thinking about the broomsticks that will be necessary to knit it, either. I absolutely love it, but it really is a bulky yarn.

Moral of this story: take time to make sure you really understand your equipment, and read about it even when you’re sure you get it!

Of course, now that the ratio thing makes sense to me, I’m thinking about all the different ways you could manipulate the yarn even further. I’ve gotten a pretty good understanding of tension through this little exercise, and I’ve also really enjoyed playing with twist and uptake. Maybe ratios are next; I would love to experiment with changing the bobbin diameter relative to the whorl, but maybe another day. For now, I have some bulky to get off the wheel so that I can play with going finer.

Yay for informative blog posts!

This blog is usually a quiet little corner of the internet. Blogger doesn’t allow me to answer comments directly, and so I usually wait a few days between spurts of answering. I logged into Haloscan today, and was amazed at how many comments there were. Thanks, especially for the stash sympathy!

I said the other day that I didn’t really have any New Year’s resolutions for my knitting. Well, I lied. I do have one. I have this horrible habit of lurking on blogs. I’m quiet in person, and I’m quiet on the internet. The only problem is that, on the internet, being quiet makes you invisible. (That’s somewhat true in real life, too, but being made of matter does help with the issue.) So, I am trying to comment more. There are lots of blogs that I’ve read consistently for well over a year and only commented on once or twice. It’s not that they’re not interesting. It’s not that I feel unwelcome, or as if I have nothing to say. I just somehow never get past clicking on the silly “leave a comment” link. But I like getting comments, and I know others do, too. So I’m going to try to be better about that.

I haven’t been doing much knitting this week, I’m afraid. Instead, I’ve been focusing on this:

I had to go back to the Weaving Works and pick up another 3 oz today, because I’m almost out. 5 ounces left, and I’ll have spun a sweater! At first, I couldn’t believe how long it took to get 200 yards. And now, all of a sudden, I have a sweater’s worth. It’s like a time warp or something.

While I was in the spinning section (I love a LYS with a whole spinning section), I might just have picked up some of this:

(That would be 8 oz of white top for dyeing, if you hadn’t guessed.)

I didn’t get around to dyeing it today, mainly because my house really needed to be cleaned and I really needed some time to dither about colors. I’m thinking it will make a good reward for getting to the end of the first week of classes.

I may also have picked up a few other things…

But there will be more on those later.

For now, I think I will leave you with a recipe. The quarter beginning means that Sundays are once again cooking days, and it’s snowing outside (again…are we still in Seattle??). It’s just the night for something cozy. I baked bread for the week, and a soup seemed a fitting accompaniment. We have recently discovered that Branden has a talent for making perfectly carmelized onions, so we started there:

Squash and Apple soup

1 onion, diced
2 tbsp butter
2 large apples, cubed
1 large winter squash (butternut and delicata are my favorites)
2 16 oz cans chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp sage
1/2 tsp ginger
red chili flakes to taste
salt to taste

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and sprinkle with a little bit of salt. Saute slowly to carmelize (until it turns light brown and starts to stick to the bottom of the pan). Add apple, cubed squash and about a cup of chicken broth. Cover, and steam until squash is tender, adding extra liquid if needed. (I had the oven on already, so I roast the squash instead; it gives it extra flavor.) Add the spices and the rest of the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Let cool slightly, and blend.

Mix 1-2 Tbsp of brown sugar with cinnamon. (I have a cinnamon-walnut-hazelnut spread from the farmers’ market that is excellent for this!). Swirl a small amount into the top of each bowl, as a garnish.

Sour cream or goat yogurt make for a good tang, if you’re not into the sweet stuff in your soup. Cheddar grated on top is also good.

Or, try cilantro and green onions. Really. It’s good. Very Thai.

If you like the asian curry flavor, you could also substitute a can of coconut milk instead of chicken broth. Or milk, if you like it creamy.

As you can see, this soup has many variations that give very different flavors. Makes for great leftovers.

Our first apartment was nothing like the ideal lovers’ nest. It wasn’t well heated in the winter, had very few windows, and had a big cement block for a floor. The cement was great in the summer, because it held the cold for a long time. At least, it was great until it got humid.

Boston summers are known for their humidity, and the last summer that we lived there was a particularly bad one. Almost every closed up room went moldy that summer, because everything was warm and wet. There were huge repair expenses in libraries, office buildings, dorm rooms, anywhere that didn’t get enough air circulation went moldy. Our apartment, with its big concrete block to condense water underneath the rug, was no exception.

It’s amazing how fast mold spreads. One day things smell a little musty. The next day you’re sure there’s mold in here somewhere. Within a week, it’s climbing the walls.

That was the week that I developed asthma, which I’ve had ever since. Something about that mold got my immune system in a tizzy, and it hasn’t come back out of it yet. We’ve thrown away almost everything that we owned in that apartment, because I’m allergic to it, whether or not it was ever touched by the mold. One piece of clothing (that’s been washed several times) can be left in an open room for just a few days, and it starts to get to me. We’ve washed. We’ve dry cleaned. We’ve aired, and sunned. We’ve thrown away. The smell got into our last apartment anyway, and was part of the reason that we moved.

We’ve gotten rid of pretty much everything that we can bear to part with. But I’m still allergic to the basement where the rest of it is lurking. We’ve been talking about dealing with it forever, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

When we got home from Christmas, I was allergic to my house. I don’t know for sure that it was from the basement, but it was time for it all to go. So, last weekend, we cleared out 7 bags of favorite clothes that we were hoping to fit again someday, and my entire quilting stash.

I’ve been quilting since before high school, and I tend to be a scrap quilter. I have little bits and pieces of fabrics that I have been lovingly carrying along with me for well over 10 years. There are pieces of material left over from my first quilt, from blankets that we’ve given as wedding gifts, from the one I made for my best friend. There were scraps from a quilt that I made when I was 14 or so with a group at church to send to Chile, pieces that I’d been given by friends and neighbors that I’ve fallen out of touch with that are literally all I have left of them. Every piece had it’s story, and was patiently waiting to be woven into a new one. Honestly, I’m more attached to my quilting stash than my knitting stash. With yarn, you use it for one project, and it’s mostly done, except for a few odds and ends. It has the memory, but not the promise of turning into something completely new, of bringing two parts of your life in ways that you didn’t expect. With quilts, those little odds and ends are what make the piece. Fabrics have history.

But the fabric stash was with me in the moldy apartment, which meant that it had to go. I matched it all according to color, sorted the pieces, took photos for posting to Craigslist, and put them all neatly in grocery bags. We posted. And waited.

I guess asking $20 a bag for literally hundred of dollars worth of fabric is too much on Craigslist. We got 4 calls, and 4 no-shows. One little old lady suggested a senior center that was looking for donations, and I really just needed it out of the house. So, Branden brought the fabric to a seniors’ quilting club yesterday.

I think I’m a little numb. I’m glad it’s gone somewhere that it will be used. The little old lady made Branden come in and have a cup of tea and told him all about their club; they are very productive seniors, and it was clear that it will be well loved. And I’ll be really glad not to bring the allergies with us again next time we move. It was important for my health, if for no other reason. It’s just that it’s sort of like throwing out an old picture album; it takes a little while to let go.

But here, in the new year of 2009, I have a clean slate on my fabric stash. I’m not much of a hoarder, and I prefer to have less stuff, especially stuff that I can’t use. The hard thing about this was that the fabric was still useful, just not to me. If moths got into my knitting stash, I’d throw it out and not feel badly beyond aching at the waste.* Things can be replaced, if they need to be. It was hard to have the fabric be in perfect condition, completely normal and innocuous to anyone that isn’t me, and yet still be something that makes me stop breathing within minutes of entering a room with it. I wanted to use it, and it made me crazy that I couldn’t. But now it will be used, by people that understand the magic of fabric. It’s off to build its own history, and I can continue with mine.

I think it will feel good to start over.

*Please note that this is not intended as a taunt toward the knitting fates. I would be horrified if moths infested my wool. Getting rid of my knitting stash just wouldn’t have the same sense of giving up 10 years worth of memories, and a lifetime worth of possibilities. I am not asking for a smiting on the knitting front, too.