These red braids are one of the first fibers in my now-decently-sized fiber collection - two braids of BFL/Silk in "Vamp" from Pigeonroof Studios. I was certain this deep red-colored fiber would translate to deep red yarn, and it sort of did, via a surprising route.

I decided to spin these 9 ounces into a 3-ply yarn. As an experiment, I referenced a new favorite commercial yarn, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Paivatar. I took a bit of that yarn, unplied it, and taped the paralel singles to an index card. This would be a way to check that my spun singles matched up in diameter.

There are lot more advanced calculations that can be done for spinning, like twists per inch and plies per inch. Through these calculations one could even hope to produce Paivatar's handspun twin. Maybe some day I will be a master of these calculations. For now, I am not ready for spinning math. I just matched the diameter, made a little 3ply sample with fresh singles along the way, and hoped for an even yarn.

One of my favorite parts of spinning hand-painted fibers is watching the colors change - they line up on the bobbins into neat stripes. What looked like solid red in the braids turned into stripes of maroon, rose, hot pink, and even light blue. hmmm, I suppose I am not getting solid red yarn after all. What would it look like plied?

Maroon. ish. Isn't it funny how such bright fiber turned into subdued yarn? I wonder if this is usually the case with spinning fiber. After all, there does seem to be a lot of super bright fiber out there. The colors in the plies remind me of Cascade 220 Quatro, where each ply is a different color. And overall it is pretty consistent - that little index card worked!

Yardage is 500 yards of about DK or worsted weight. The color could be right for a fall scarf. or, maybe a cowl and mitts. I just bought some classic-preppy cordovan loafers and this totally matches. I'll let it marinate in the stash until late summer and see how it looks then..

Now, I find myself thinking about what project each spun yarn should be, and I try to spin the right yarn for the job. at the very least I aim for a specific weight of yarn.

My first project with handspun yarn is this pair of half-finger gloves for Brian. This Corriedale was the first wool willing to cooperate with my beginning spinning efforts. I spun two ounces on a spindle, it turned out well, and I decided it was suited to rustic half-finger gloves. I bought two more ounces of wool to complete the project, and having obtained my wheel in the interim, set out to spin the rest of the yarn on the wheel.

Would you expect a novice spinner's wheel-spun efforts to match her spindle spinning? ah, no. and it didn't. Though the spinning went much faster, the yarn ended up smaller and tighter than the yarn from the spindle. of course, I found this out after I had a glove and a half complete, with not enough of either the spindle or wheel-spun yarn for a full pair. As a solution, I used a half and half method - ripped both down to the cuffs, and used the finer yarn to re-knit the hands.

So, in the completed gloves, the ribbed cuffs are spindle-spun yarn, and the hands wheel-spun yarn. It made sense to increase stitches at top of the cuffs and proceed with the smaller-gauge yarn. The hard part was abandoning the one already-completed hand, ends woven in and everything. and if you've ever knit gloves, you know there are a lot of ends.

Now that they are complete, all those ends were worth it. Just in time for the weather to warm up! ah, well they will be ready for next fall..

On these cold winter weekends, its so lovely to spin during the day, warm inside with natural sunlight coming in. During the week, though, spinning doesn't have the same appeal. In my apartment, it seems there is simply not enough light to spin at night. I suppose I could get a better light. but instead, I am trying out a new routine.. wake up a bit early, get completely ready for work, brew some coffee, then spin for awhile. Depending on how early I get up and how fast I get ready, there is anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to spin in the morning light. Extra sunlight time is welcome on these lengthening winter days.

This leaves evenings open for other things, including knits...

Here's the beginning of a pair of fingerless gloves. The yarn is Spirit Trail Fiberworks Paivatar, and its amazing, with super crisp stitch definition. I'd like to spin a yarn just like it. These are going to be half-finger gloves, with a flapover mitten top.

Also in progress is the start of a sweater, Kerrera, in Berocco Peruvia. I meant to use this yarn on the Tilted Duster sweater, which I've had in my queue basically ever since the pattern was published in the Fall 2007 Interweave. But, as it turns out, I am not super interested in knitting it anymore. Kerrera, however, seems fresh and new and the yarn should work. So far, just past the bottom border.

The fiber comes in one thick strip, dyed in different colors throughout. I decided to try a 3-ply and started by splitting the top into 3 parts lengthwise, creating 3 thinner strips from the original length. Each of the three parts would be spun onto a separate bobbin, then plied together at the end. I didn't necessarily want the colors to match up, so I stripped the fiber further, into 3, 4 or 5 thin strips. Then I predrafted a bit, loosening up the fiber so it moved smoothly, and rolled the fiber into balls, all the while keeping the original 3 parts separate.

The spinning seemed to take forever. I tried to see just how thin I could spin. Even though the fiber wasn't superwash, and I knew I wouldn't use it for socks, I wanted to see how close I could get to a sock-weight yarn.

Merino is tricky! I've heard that it is not the best for beginners, and would modify that to say *dyed* merino is not the best for beginners. It just seemed to resist drafting. Right after I finished spinning for this fiber, I tried some undyed merino top, and there was a world of difference. The undyed merino moved much more smoothly. It felt like a different fiber. I think this is just a natural part of the dyeing process, and not anything specific to Into the Whirled, because when a fiber soaks up water in the dyeing process, it crimps up, and holds onto its neighbors.

Once the 3 bobbins were spun, I let them rest overnight, then set them up on the lazy kate for plying.

At first, the colors matched up and created areas of the same color in the yarn. Then, as the plying went on, the colors became more variegated.

Amazingly, the finished yarn ended up much thinner than I expected. It really could be sock yarn! 581 yards from 4 ounces.

This is definitely the yarn I am most proud of so far in my spinning adventures. It felt like an epic amount of spinning. I was just not used to spinning for a couple hours and making (what seemed to be) so little progress. The whole process took two weeks from start to finish. In the end I am really happy with how it turned out. Its probably just a matter of practice to get faster and more comfortable with dyed merino and spinning thin.

For now I'll take a break from 3-ply and go back to a little thicker spinning and some nice 2-ply yarns!

once upon a winter 2007, or thereabouts, I set out to knit eunny jang's anemoi mittens. some knitter gauge error occurred, and one mitten turned out smaller than the other. I decided a solution might be to felt the larger mitten and shrink it down a bit to match the other one.

as you might suspect, it was an ill-fated plan. the mitten didn't shrink, but the colors bled and now the white areas looked vaguely tea-stained. only on that one mitten. fail. I called it a day tossed them into the box of winter accessories.

cut to the present. my current mittens are out of commission due to a growing hole in the thumb. I grabbed the anemoi's, and they finally see some time outside.

I was pleasantly surprised to find they are super warm. I must be the last one on the boat of fair-isle hand wear fans. for anyone out there who hasn't got the memo: fair isle mittens = the ultimate in winter hand comfort. (also, handspun = awesome)

turns out the difference in sizes doesn't bother me. alas, they were still different colors.

nothing a little dye can't fix.

hello, navyblack mittens.

I started with a braid of combed top from JulieSpins. Its 5.4 ounces of Falkland, in the colorway "Cornucopia." (this is her photo)

It turns out that braids are not braids at all. They are one length of roving, crocheted into a chain! I unraveled the chain and thought about how to spin this. There was an area of yellow on one end, and an area of darker colors on the other, with some reds in between. In the finished yarn, I wanted the colors to be distributed throughout the yarn, so it wouldn't pool when knit up.

I decided to do a 2-ply yarn and split the top lengthwise, into about equal amounts. Then I pulled off even skinnier lengths and pre-drafted them, creating little balls of fluffy fiber like these. I kept the balls of fiber from each of the original two halves separate, creating two equal piles, one per bobbin.

Spinning begins! I enjoyed watching the colors change and create stripes on the bobbin. and falkland wool was terrific to work with.. it is smooth and elastic. I spun it as thin as I comfortably could.. need to work on even skinnier spinning!

Spin, spin, spin. I decided to try scotch tension because I've only used double drive up until now.

Below is the plying in progress. The yarn looks fuzzy in this image, I think its because of the direct sunlight. In real life its a smooth yarn. Plying took a surprising long time.. well I don't really know how long it typical; this took me about 3 hours.

I plied until one bobbin ran out. Then I made a center-pull ball from the remaining single on the other bobbin, and asked Brian to be a "lazy husband" (like a lazy kate, get it?) and monitor the last of the yarn for tangles while I spun a two-ply from both ends of the ball.

The finished yarn: 452 yards of about dk-weight, maybe worsted. so many yards! What to knit with this, hmmm.. maybe legwarmers?

This just in: When the two bobbins ended up at uneven weights after spinning, even though I'd divided the fiber equally beforehand, I figured I must have spun extra fiber on the first bobbin. Then, a week later, Brian found a ball of fiber under the bed. It turns out that Gus (our little fiber-loving cat) had taken it to his hiding spot! Got to keep an eye on that one..

These are, in order, my first, second and third pairs of knit socks ever, circa 2004-2005, pre-blog. As you can see, I was in quite a green phase. The two solid pairs are Koigu, and the striped ones are Jawoll.

I learned a couple things in this endeavor. Namely, the advantages of avoiding darning.

Sock Darning Prevention:
1. Knit socks in sock yarn that has nylon in it. for real. there's a reason its called sock yarn. Koigu is merino - very soft, but not the strongest. However, when you count that these socks have been going for 5 years, that's not too shabby.

2. Keep those extra yards of sock yarn. Then you can fix the socks in the same colors quite invisibly, unlike my very noticeable repairs.

3. Watch socks for weak areas. Its way easier to repair something that is not yet a huge gaping hole.

Read on for a step-by-step of darning..

Its a Schacht Matchless. This is the same wheel I've been using in class, which is good because I have a basic understanding of how it works. I chose this one because I'd tried and liked it, and because its so versatile - there are various whorls for different speeds. well, I only use one or two speeds so far, but someday, the rest!

The sad-looking shoebox in the photo is a makeshift lazy kate. Somehow the fine people at Schacht forgot to put a lazy kate in the box, so I temporarily usurped this one from my little cat, who likes to sleep in shoeboxes. Schacht labels all their wheels based on the day they were made - this is the 13th one made on 12/16/09. The inauspicious 13 must be the reason behind the missing lazy kate..

But, not only did I get a spinning wheel, but also a whole pound of merino spinning fiber, and carders! I am so set to be a spinner.

Of course I've been spinning up a storm since getting the wheel. For the first yarn on the wheel, I spun some corriedale wool, because I had just worked with that on the spindle. It looks strikingly similar to the last handspun photo I posted, but I swear it is different yarn.. This one is 186 yards of about worsted weight, made from 4 ounces of roving.

So far, I've taken one intro to spinning class at Brooklyn General and am in the middle of a spinning wheel class at The Yarn Tree. This is a totally different approach from when I learned to knit, where I basically taught myself. Back in 2003 or so, a friend showed me the basics of knit and purl, I picked up a copy of Stitch and Bitch, and went from there. Of course, one can't rule out the daily inspiration and knowledge that came from an active community of knit bloggers. I wonder if spinning benefits from learning from others, or am I just more apt to jump into classes these days?

This is probably my 6th or 7th handspun. Its on a spindle because I don't have a wheel at home (yet!). I really got into a spinning groove with this almost-black corriedale. While I spun, it was a sunny day, light coming into the living room. I found it helpful to hold the fiber up to the light and really see how much was being drafted with each pull. This is about the thinnest I've been able to consistently spin up to this point. It takes a surprising long time to spin up 2 ounces of fiber on a spindle at this medium-skinny thickness. I am going to estimate like 5-6 hours total?

Corriedale, almost black from The Yarn Tree
2 ounces, 164 yards
about sport to fingering weight

And here it is all plied up. Its real yarn! There are some uneven sections, but overall I am so thrilled with it. I only know one way to ply on a spindle - make a center pull ball, then pull from both ends for a 2-ply yarn. This was nearly a tangled disaster. Luckily, I have a patient husband who was willing to monitor the yarn ball and make sure it stayed two separate strands.

I can understand why spindling is a good way to learn to spin - its slower than a wheel, and can be slowed down to just park-and-draft for the basics. and apparently, humanity used spindles for 4500 years of textile creation, with just the last 500 years on a spinning wheel (and well, industrial production over the last 100 years or so on humongous machines, but I am not counting those). I just can't imagine how long it would take to spin a sweater's worth of yarn on a spindle. There's so much starting and stopping to wind on the yarn to the spindle, and reaching down to pick it up.. I am wishing for the constant steady calm of a spinning wheel.

It turned out I had enough fabric on hand to make a whole gamut of new storage vessels for knitting things. Why just have a circular needle holder when there could also be a case for crochet hooks, douple-pointed needles, notions, and of course, projects in progress? Matching of course. I love matching. When there is a choice between matching and not, matching is the way to go.

The main fabric is this blue print from Ikea, a single yard originally purchased as a contender for the wedding photo booth backdrop. Ikea has a decent fabric selection, if on the bold and bright side, and upholstery-weight prints like this one go for only $5/yard. I paired it with some solids in various yardages - blues to blend in, and yellows for contrast. I also had a decent selection of yellow zippers and some yellow buttons. All in all, didn't have to leave the house for supplies. Always a plus when its freezing cold out.

the three needle cases

circular needle case

dpn case

crochet hook roll

box bags, large and small, and a drawstring pouch

They are quite a beachy group. Its quite possible I'll get tired of seeing the same print all around, but for now I like the idea of visual consistency. Instead of the mismatched red, navy, brown and yellow bags I use now, they all share this blue and yellow beachy theme.. hello 2010.

For my mom's birthday, I made this simple cabled hat. With only a single skein of 126 yards, there wasn't enough yarn for a folded brim or a complex cable pattern. but I wanted something a bit more interesting than a plain stockinette hat. I decided on wavy, subtle cables. Like wind-blown sand dunes..

The Hope Spinnery wind-spun yarn is lovely. It varies a bit in how twisted the plies are. I just loved knitting with it. I've started spinning and maybe someday I can spin a yarn like it.

This hat is one of the many lined hats I am knitting this year. I used some dk-weight alpaca on this one. super soft. Lining hats is also one way to use up half-skeins of yarn, and you can employ a non-wool for those sensitive to itchiness. When using partial skeins, I usually let the amount of lining yarn determine the height of the liner, and knit until the yarn runs out. no leftovers = good.

I may have succeeded on adding this pattern to ravelry. Hrm, how to get a photo on the sand dunes hat ravelry page?

Pattern after the jump.

It only took until 2 months *after* the wedding to complete the engagement sweater. Just in time for cold weather. Brian is thrilled to have his own handknit sweater, and I am just happy there was enough yarn to finish it..

Pattern: Beck by Jane Ellison, from the Jane Ellison Queensland Collection
Yarn: Mystery worsted recycled from a j.crew sweater.
More project details on Ravelry

Modifications:

1. Size. The pattern jumps from a finished size of 37" for an XS to 43" for a S. I needed something more like 40". I swatched the cable pattern with 2-stitch ribs instead of 3, and worked it out for a size 40". It took a couple sketchbook pages to figure out the cable placements, but in retrospect, a pretty straightforward modification. I knitted in the round with 208 stitches for the body, and followed length measurements from the size S.

2. Collar. The collar is a bit shorter than the pattern suggests. I also decreased on the cast-off row, similar to the method I used on the urban aran.

Sure, everyone uses different yarns than patterns suggest, but this project took yarn substitution a step further. A couple years ago I was interested for a time in unraveling thrift store sweaters, as an economical path to decent yarns. These days, I mostly buy yarn at yarn shops. But this recycled yarn was still in the stash, and matched the gauge. No reason to buy more worsted brown yarn when I already had some, so, why not..

As the sweater progressed, 2 cabled sleeves and half of a cabled body later, it became clear that a yarn shortage was impending. Hrm. How could I possibly get more of the same yarn? Odds were slim that I'd find another matching sweater somewhere. Commercially available yarns might come close in color, but there would be a noticeable difference no matter what. But wait - I remembered way back when I posted about finding this yarn, a commenter mentioned that they unraveled the same sweater. Maybe they'd have extra? Amazingly, they replied, and they did have extra and would know in a couple weeks when their sweater was expected to be complete.

In the meantime, I decided to get as far as I could with the yarn on hand. I unraveled the swatches and finished the sweater body. Post-blocking, the body was just a bit long, so I took out an inch and a half from the back and front, and used that for the collar. After sewing in the sleeves, there is maybe a yard left. one yard!

Lesson Learned: You can get a sweater's worth of decent yarn for 5 dollars, but there may not be any more if you run out.

Folks, I write you now as a married person, one who had the great fortune of marrying someone who likes stopping at yarn shops. Not only did my new husband drive us to Maine and back, he kept one eye out for yarn shops along the way.

I like finding yarns when traveling. I imagine they carry a bit of vacation spirit with them. We got more yarns than I can probably get through this season, but even if I knit the sweater 2 years from now, it can still be a "honeymoon sweater".

Here's what I brought back from our Maine trip.

Peace Fleece, 5 skeins
I am itching to start on this one. This gray-green yarn will be for another "camping sweater", this time a basic turtleneck sweater with deep ribbed cuffs. I haven't decided how to construct it, maybe in the round with raglan sleeves.

Blackstone Tweed, for husband sweater the first
Maybe for the saddle-shoulder aran cardigan by Meg Swansen.

Bartlett yarns in Bark, for husband sweater the second
I love the color of this yarn.. brownish black and tweedy. For a manly version of the camping sweater, a basic crew-neck.

Sock Yarns
Sock yarns are so hard to resist. One is super bright yellow, and one "crazy ball" with colors that reminded me of Maine. The yellow will be for textured socks of some sort. The multi-colored ball looks like it will have long stripe repeats a la Noro. I am thinking about striping in a solid gray or black to break up the long repeats.

Wind-spun Wool
There from Hope Spinnery, a Maine mill where they spin yarn with wind power. The yarns come in lovely subtle colors. This is for a hat for my mom. I made her a hat a couple years ago, but she lost it on a trip and had the hotel staff scouring the laundry for it, to no avail. Time for a new one.

I think it would be great if there was a book or an iPhone app to locate yarn shops while traveling, complete with reviews and hours, so we go to the good shops at the right time. Does this exist? Google maps does a decent job, but more than once I've found the yarn shop out of business or relocated.

In case you're headed up the Maine coast, these shops were my favorites:
Heavenly Socks Yarns, Belfast, Maine
Knit Wit, Portland, Maine
Halcyon Yarn, Bath, Maine

Back in the depth of winter, I took a machine quilting class at Purl Patchwork. I bought fabric for this baby quilt back then too, solids for the front and the print for the backing. Then I started a new job and wedding planning and this project was set aside - until now.

The quilt front will be made of these half-square triangles, a color paired with white for each, to be pieced in a random arrangement. Each square will only be 3 inches, I like them small. But according to my calculations, the quilt will need on the order of 168 squares!

What do you think would be the best way to quilt this? I love the look of swirling circle quilt lines, but since this is my first quilt undertaking, maybe straight lines are the way to go.

(Printed fabric by Alexander Henry, solids are Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton)