April Wrap-Up

Fiber Prep

• I am still combing Corriedale nests and have done several this month.  At this point I am down to about 1.5 lbs of clean wool.
• Lately most of my effort has gone to my new Gulf Coast Native fleece.  I am using the lock pop on this wool too, but instead of combing, I am carding rolags from the opened locks.  I have about 5.5 oz of rolags ready to spin.  As of last weekend the fleece is now thoroughly scoured.

Spinning

Flatiron

• Early in the month I finished up a 2-ply DK fractal spin from Three Waters Farm Falkland.
• Today I finished up another 2-ply fractal spin, this one is a fingering weight from Shropshire top that I dyed.

Kiwi 3

• The whole month has been spinning the Corriedale.  I now have 2 full bobbins of singles.  I am spinning this short forward draw and am aiming for a relatively thin (for me) yarn so this is going to be ongoing.

Knitting 

Finished

• Purse socks/bus stop socks
• Newleaf pullover, design by Jennifer Steingass

On the Needles

• Festive Sweater KAL Pullover by Skeindeer Knits
• DRK Everyday Sweater with the blending board merino handspun: I am 4-5" past the sleeve division and I have knit the right sleeve.
• Sportweight Stroll Spring Socks- these are the new purse socks.  I have finished one sock and will cast on the second sock this coming week.

Buying/Selling a Fleece On-line

This time of year there are fleeces for sale everywhere.  I am finding that I really prefer buying a fleece in person; however, not all breeds are available locally.  

I've been known to buy a few full fleeces in an on-line purchase, either through Etsy or Facebook.  I also practice a lot of restraint and don't buy all the beautiful fleeces I see posted in the fiber sale groups.  I see a lot of sales post though, and I wanted to take some time to talk about what the good and bad of what I see in a lot of these listings.

Let's start with the obvious: a listing should state the breed, the weight of the fleece, and the price.  Shipping is almost always in addition and at the buyer's expense, but shipping cost/policy should be stated.  It is helpful when the seller can give a rough estimate (i.e. "I use x size flat rate boxes that cost $ or shipping in the continental U.S. is typically in the range of $-$$. exact price will depend on your location.)

Picture are really a must.  Here is where I am going to get a little nitpicky, because I've scrolled past fleeces I might otherwise have been interested in because of bad/unhelpful pictures.  First of all, please make sure any pictures you post are clear and not blurry.  Second, multiple pictures are helpful!  One picture should be of a decent portion of the fleece, such as a good square foot or so of one side.  If the fleece varies a lot or it is a multi-colored fleece a whole fleece shot would be especially good.  It is really important that the picture of the fleece is the tip side, not the cut side.  You can include a cut side photo if you like, but you have to show the tips.  Yes, the cut side is clean and squishy looking, but you could roll up an absolutely filthy fleece and there would be no way to tell from the cut side.  A close-up of the locks is also helpful and that brings us to the "ruler shot.'

I remember a few years ago in a group someone who obviously didn't have prior experience selling wool to handspinners took a picture with wool in it and a yardstick.  The yardstick wasn't measuring anything, it was just in the picture because this person had apparently seen the "ruler shot" pictures but didn't understand them.  Another important bit of information about a fleece is staple length.  While a lot of listings helpfully explicitly state the staple length of an average lock, a lot of sellers will back that up with a photo.  When you do this please line the lock up the ruler in a way that makes the measurement easy to read.  Start at 0?  I can do math/read a ruler but it is kind of annoying to have a lock sitting at  4 3/4" and start the measurement there.  Besides the staple length, this picture is also really helpful because it gives the buyer a good look at what a lock looks like.  If the color changes, if the tips are dirty, the shape of the lock, the crimp, all of these is really visible in the picture.  It is a very good picture to have and this along with a photo of a larger section of the fleece are really vital in my opinion.

If you have a picture of the sheep whose fleece you are selling that is always appreciated.  It isn't necessary, but having a picture of the sheep and/or knowing its name makes it all more tangible.  It is also helpful to identify if the fleece is from a ewe or a ram or a wether or a lamb. 

Descriptions of the fleece are also extremely helpful, even if they are going to be subjective.  Amount of vm and type (i.e. some hay, or burrs, or ground up "pepper" type vm), any tenderness and breaks (you HAVE to disclose this), relative softness, presence of kemp, if it is a Shetland is it dual coated, is the fleece typical or atypical of the breed, staining or any flaws, description of color, and any other information that might be helpful or relevant is great.  I feel a lot more comfortable buying a fleece from someone who is taking the time to make at least a basic assessment of what they are selling.  I also feel a lot better when I can see in the descriptions that they recognize when a fleece is less than perfect because honesty always goes a long way.

Then there is the issue of skirting.  Now some people actually buy the "skirtings" for whatever purpose and obviously if they know that is what they are getting and it is priced accordingly that is fine.  It drives me crazy though when I see people posting "unskirted" fleeces for sale.  Maybe what they really mean is "minimally skirted."  I don't expect the seller to go through the fleece with a fine tooth comb to remove all the vm and second cuts and coarse sections etc.  I expect to do that myself when I buy a fleece.  What I absolutely don't want is manure tags or belly or britch wool that is caked in mud.  Sure, i could deal with that if I was given a fleece for free, but if I am buying a fleece priced on weight and then paying for shipping that is also priced on weight, I want to pay for wool, not mud and manure!  It also feels like if you can't take them time to pull off the obvious nasty parts of the fleece prior to packing it up and selling it, I can't trust that you have taken enough time with the fleece for me to be assured I am getting a sound fleece.

That is basically it, I do see lots of terrific posts with wonderful picture and great descriptions all the time.  Like I said, I have to use a lot of restraint this time of year!  

New Leaf

Way back in August I decided to knit a sweater for The Woolly Thistle sweater KAL.  I finished it this week!

So I had a lot going on and I have had a lot of other big projects in the meantime.  I'm happy to have it off the needles and ready to wear now, although that seemed like it wasn't going to be the case for awhile.  I will explain,

The main color is Jamieson & Smith 2-Ply Jumper Weight in color 202 from the cone.  The contrast color is handspun 2-ply Falkland wool.  The fiber was dyed by Kim Dyes Yarn and is the colorway Turquoise Ore.  It is funny because even though I didn't plan it to be exactly like the sample in the pattern, the yarn is very similar in color to the Spincycle yarn that was used.  

I specifically mentioned that the J&S was on the cone because their coned yarns still contain spinning oil and really bloom a lot after being washed.  This is the third sweater I have knit from their coned yarn and I have found that when I knit sweaters using this yarn I need to knit them an inch or two longer than what I want because the fabric ends up shortening in length slightly once that spinning oil is out of there.  So when I was knitting the sleeves I reached a point where I was pretty sure they were long enough and thought maybe I should just stop and make the final decreases and start the cuff...but then I remembered the shrink factor and I kept going.  That was a mistake.  They may have shrunk up an inch or so but when I finished the sweater and got it all blocked and tried it on it was obvious- the sleeves were too big!

I'm the type of person who tend to just push my sleeves up to my elbows anyway but that was not going to work with this sweater.  The fit of the sleeves is meant to be loose and the cuffs are colorwork and no ribbing so they weren't going to stay up if I did shove them up.  I can tolerate slightly long sleeves, but I don't want them to be any longer than the palm of my hand.  The cuffs came past my fingertips.  It LOOKED too big, it felt too big.

I had spent almost 8 months working on this sweater on and off and I was so ready to have it done.  I knew I was going to have to do something about the sleeves if I was going to have a wearable garment.  I took to Facebook with my dilemma and several of my knitting friends popped in with some advice on how to proceed.  

I had already considered a few things.  The cuffs are about 5 inches long.  Could I rip back until 5 inches before where I wanted the sleeves to end and reknit from there?  Maybe, but the stitch count wouldn't be right.  I would have to make several decreases all at once to get the stitch count right and I worried that would look weird.  It was the same issue if I cut the cuff off and just reattached it at that point.  Plus, as I mentioned, the sleeves were kind of baggy.  Maybe I should just go back to the armhole and start over on a smaller needle and reconfigure the decreases.    Whatever I did, after finally finishing the sweater, did I really want to frog the sleeves and take it back to WIP status?  I kind of wanted to throw it in time out for an undetermined length of time.  Especially since it was already mid-April and although I see it as a spring sweater, I wasn't going to have that much more time to wear it this season.  But then it would be hanging over my head that I had this sweater than needed fixed.  

One of my friends absolutely advocated for the time-out option.  Another friend argued for fixing it and getting it done.  I had in fact asked that friend for a pep talk as she had frogged and reknit a sweater recently to fix it and I think I just needed some moral support.  A couple other friends chimed in with the sweater surgery suggestion and one pointed out that the issue seemed to be that the sleeves were too long and too baggy, but that maybe the baggy wasn't so bad if the length was right.

At that point I decided what I would do.  I would put a lifeline in a couple rows above where the colorwork started and then snip and frog up from there.  I decided to keep the needle the same since I agreed the positive ease on the sleeves would probably be fine if the length was better, and besides, I knew what my row gauge was on those needles.  If I was keeping the needles the same size, I didn't need to frog the whole sleeve.  In fact, looking at the pictures I took, I realized the upper arm fit just fine.  I decided to only frog back to where the decreases started.  From there I needed to reknit 7 inches until grafting the cuff back on.  I figured out my decrease rate and had a plan.  Once I knew what I was going to do I was ready to just get it done.

Securing stitches before snipping into the sleeve

I stared project "fix the sleeves" on Monday afternoon and reattached the cuff by Tuesday.  Wednesday and Thursday I fixed the second sleeve and rewashed and blocked yesterday and now it is officially all done and ready to wear.

I used Kitchener stitch to graft the cuff back on.  Keeping the right tension is tricky and if you know what you are looking for you can probably see it.  But it is a case of no one is going to be looking for that most likely.  On the first sleeve I think I got the stitches a little too tight in at least one section and then I tried to keep things looser when I did the second sleeve and it was a little too loose.  I was able to snug that sleeve up a bit though.  One thing I didn't do was wash the yarn I frogged prior to reknitting it.  I could blame impatience and not wanting to lose the motivation and momentum I had, but it was also that to rewash it I would have had to cut it and then skein it up and then wind it up and I really hate having to change yarns and weave in ends on sleeves, I feel like it is always more obvious on the sleeve for some reason so I try really hard to avoid that.  

 It was definitely annoying to have to spend several more days on a project I thought was going to be done but I am glad that I did because now I feel a lot better wearing it.  I'm also glad it only spent a day in time out because now it really truly is done.

April Mid-Month Check In

Spinning:

• Flat Iron: Fractal sock spin with dyed Shropshire top
• Kiwi: Corriedale sweater spin.  One 4 oz bobbin is full now.

Knitting:

• Finished purse socks
• Finished New Leaf and then went back and fixed the sleeves (Blog post forthcoming)
• Still knitting on Festive Yoke Pullover
• Cast on DRK Every Day sweater with blending board spin yarn 

Fiber Prep:

• Still combing Corriedale nests I am spinning, combing waste is clean enough after using the lock pop that I am saving it for the drum carder/blending
• Just received a natural color (gray/tan) Gulf Coast Native fleece.  I've begun washing portions of it and am carding it up.  (Blog post to come on this too)

Falling in Love Fractal

This is essentially a part 3 of 3 in the unofficial little mini series of different and intentional ways to spin a dyed braid.  This skein came from a 4 oz braid of Falkland from Three Waters Farm in the colorway "Falling In Love."  The previous two skeins were also from Three Waters farm, the first was a chain ply and the second was a single-ply.

For this spin I split the fiber in half lengthwise and spun the first half end to end.  The second half I divided an additional four times and spun each of those sections end to as well.  I spun these on my Flat Iron in Scotch Tension on the 10.4:1 ratio.  I've done a lot of long draw and double-drive spinning on this wheel and now I'm making an effort to get comfortable with spinning more worsted yarns as well as using ST (and maybe soon I will start playing with IT as well.)

Here is the finished braid:

End of First Quarter Check In

I just clicked on a new-to-me podcast and the host started off talking about where she was with her 2022 goals at the end of March, and I thought that was a great idea so I am checking in here with the ones I listed out back in December.

1. Knit a sweater from my 2021 Jacob fleece. ✅ Done
2. I still want to learn to do brioche.  I plan to knit Andrea Mowry's Harlow Worsted as a learning project.  In progress - I started and frogged so no FO yet, but I have begun to learn the technique.
3. Socks are still going to be one of those things I always have going. Yeah, in progress because it is never ending.
4. Specifically, this year I would like to keep using my sock yarn stash.  I have some skeins I would like to get knit up, but I would also like to play around with scrappy socks and holding yarn double for thicker (and quicker!) socks.  In progress/not started.  I have been knitting with stashed sock yarn, but I haven't knit any scrappy or yarn-held-double socks.  I did knit mittens with sock yarn stash scraps.
5. At the moment I have 3 sweaters going.  I would like to finish all of them, as well as that Jacob sweater I will be starting soon. In progress, one done, two more to go nut lots of progress on both over the last few months.
6. I would like to make a colorful sweater from handspun as well.  I might do a sort of fade with my existing skeins.  Or...  In progress
7. I would like to play with my blending board a lot more.  I would really like to blend up enough for a sweater. ✅ Done!
8. Work on Corriedale fleece.  In progress.  (1 of 3 lbs. combed and spinning started.)
9. With the exception of my mill ends/add ins/sample fiber stash that I have for blending, I would like to spin up my existing fiber.  So close to done!!  I am spinning my last braid now.  I excluded the Corriedale and mill ends/add ins from this.
10. Knitting the 2021 Selection Box from The Woolly Thistle yarns.  In progress.  I have knit a hat with 4 of the skeins, five more skeins/4 projects to go.

Looking at that I really feel like I am making a lot of progress on the things I wanted to work on.  I have at least started or worked on each of those thing in some capacity and two of them are solidly checked off the list.