Tag Archives: handspun

Spinning Clouds

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I have been lacking craft motivation lately. I haven’t felt like doing much now that we can be outside again. To break up my doldrums, I pulled some cashmere cloud from my spinning stash to put on the wheel.

This is the Cumulus fiber from Oink Pigments that I picked up at SSK 2024. It’s 80% merino and 20% cashmere so its BUTTER soft. I split the fiber in 1/2 and I will make a 2-ply. I want something drapey and soft to make a cowl of sorts?

The fiber is spinning quite lovely. Some parts are coming out solid colors and others are marled depending on how I draft the fiber. My muscles are out of shape so I am only spinning 20 minutes at a time to get back in shape and reduce the strain on my hands. I did my default short forward draw so my hands are getting a workout.

Happy Spinning!!

Half Of My Advent Skeins

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I decided not to wait until to spin the last half of the 2024 advent spinning calendar to ply the first half. I call it spinners prerogative.

I chain plied these singles to maintain the colors. I think overall I got a heavy worsted that is mostly uniform with some thick/thin spots. I was worried about the colors being too crazy but I think they came our mostly rainbow, in a good way.

My singles were just a tiny bit overspun and a bath washed that right out. The finished skein was 181 grams and 212 yards of yarn. I am going to tuck this into the spinning bag where my other half of the fiber for motivation to finish the rest!

Happy Spinning!!

Cozy Handspun Decreases And A Finish

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My Handspun Hat is finished and oh so cozy!

Pattern: My own basic beanie “recipe” with 72 stiches

Yarn: My own bulky (thick and thin) handspun

Needles: US 10s

This hat weighs roughly 120 grams and round about 100 yards of yarn. It is sufficiently large enough for my noggin. This hat will not be going into the gift bin. This will be a Rachelle hat. I have a couple of yards of handspun left but not enough to really do anything with. I put it in my scrap bag just in case.

I need to see if I have any more skeins of handspun to make hats with! Or you know work on the sparkly handspun hat that has been languishing for AWHILE, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Handspun Hat Progress

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I am really loving how my Handspun Hat is coming out!

I am getting close to the end of this handspun skein and probably need to start the decreases. The yarn is a 2-ply from a braid I split down the middle. I can tell where my fiber colors lined up and therefore give me solid color chunks versus the barber poling. It is giving the hat an almost striped appearance?

It’s true when they say that you should knit with your handspun so you can see what how it works up in fabric. Is it my most even yarn? Absolutely not but will make a cozy hat! I am knitting on US 10.5s and I don’t have that sized DPNs. I am just going to make due with the US 8s again and try to manually manage my gauge to finish.

Happy Knitting!!

All The Essentials

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I am finally picking back up my Deep & Meaningful Hat!

It’s cold, it’s dark and still February. So I decided to grab all the self care essentials….Diet Coke and Knitting. I am using handspun so I am VERY unsure how far I can get with this hat. Probably another project I should have done top down. But I’m not going back now. Future Rachelle might regret those words.

I did like 3.5 or 4 inches of ribbing and then folded the brim over to start the main body. I did not log the yardage of this handspun skein when I put it in Ravelry so I really don’t know what I am working with. It is 120 grams total weight and therefore I should be make a decent hat size?

Maybe I just need more Diet Coke!? Happy Knitting!!

More Advent Fiber

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Up next in my advent spin are some really neat colors! I think this is day 8 -12? I have kind of lost track since I am not diligently spinning these every night. I opened them all before Christmas to peek at them but now I’m spinning leisurely.

I am excited to get these on the wheel and I may decide to mess with the color order to suit the yarn I want. Also, its very clear that I will need to put 12 days on one bobbin and move to a new bobbin for the second half of the calendar. I have a few days off for the new year and perhaps I can make some progress!!

Happy Spinning!

Cast On: Meaningful Handspun Hat

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Santa comes tonight and I’m in need of plain autopilot knitting. I gifted almost ALL of the hats I knit this year and it felt so good. And now I have a little urge to refill that bin!

So I decided to grab a skein from my bag of hat yarn and start. This one is a little special as it’s handspun. This was my Deep & Meaningful 2ply from this summer. It’s heavy DK to worsted and it should make a lovely squishy hat.

I am working on my US 10.5 needles and 72 stitches. Totally have not swatched and not sure this gauge will work. And I can always rip out and start over. And I may find that I don’t have enough yardage as well. I really feel like living dangerously at the end of 2024!

Happy Knitting!!

Advent Spinning 4-7

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I batch spun my next few little fiber nests! This is my 2024 Knitz And Pearlz advent calendar.

I started the top portion before I snagged a photo, but it first a NEON yellow solid color. And that was followed by a nice mix of pinks and blues with white to unify those two. Next up, on the bottom left, was a pink and orange mix. And lastly, on the bottom right, was some solid pink.

The solid pink was slightly felted on one end and not the funnest to spin. I flipped the roving over and it did spin better from that direction but it only delayed the inevitable of the felted bits. My bobbin is filling up nicely and fairly certain I would only be fit 12 or 13 days on this bobbin.

Oh! And the pink fiber came with a Christmas bobble stitch marker. There are little green stars inside that you can shake up!

Happy Spinning!!

Advent Spinning

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I am not spinning my fiber advent calendar in real time. I am opening each day on the day to get a little dopamine boost. But I decided to set aside some time to work up the first three days.

The little nests are not labeled with fiber type. But they are about 1/4 ounce of something. This was not the most organized or polished advent I have ever received but it’s still pretty. I can tell that this fiber has some factor of silk content based on the feel and sheen.

The first day was some springy colors, followed by blues and then pinks/purples. I sat down and spun these end to end onto my bobbin. I am using Ashford Kiwi 3 and I feel a bit rusty after non spinning since summer time.

Hopefully this advent warms up my muscles! Happy Friday and Happy Spinning!!

Plying Deep & Meaningful

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I knuckled under and spun my heart out. I finished the first bobbin of Deep and Meaningful and then this past weekend evening I watched a long movie and busted out the complete second bobbin.

I was so in the zone, I just crafted and no photos. In fact I was halfway through plying before I grabbed the photo of the two bobbins. It plied fairly well but I was right that my second bobbin was thicker and ran out sooner than my first bobbing. Too much time had passed and my ‘default’ spin has changed.

I’m not precious about my handspun so when I ran out of the first bobbing I just chain plied the rest of the singles at the end of the skein. I will either use it that way or break off the 3-ply from the 2-ply when I went to use it. I just couldn’t be bothered to change my bobbing for such a wee bit of yarn. Now this needs to rest and then a wash/whack.

Happy Spinning!!