Tag Archives: handspun

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!!

Patio Spinning

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I felt the urge to clear my wheel. I had half a bobbin of my Deep and Meaningful singles from early summer. PB wanted me to watch her play in the background so I pulled up a patio chair and spun while I watched an imaginary soccer game. She won, of course!

I still have a wee bit of this half of the braid and I can call this bobbin done. Using short forward draw this fiber is spinning fairly finely. I am hoping the lapse in time between the first part and this part isn’t too long so that my singles are different.

How can I invent more time in the day so I can do all the crafts at once?

All The Pretty Skeins

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I got stalled for a minute, but I washed and dried all the plying that has been hanging around.

The top skein is chain plied long draw. It came out to 14 yards over 40 grams which is a very inconsistent bulky yarn. The middle is some BFL I spun from a batt. This skein came out to 30 yards of yarn over 44 grams which is Aran weight. And the bottom is some lamb that I failed to launch. This was one was 55 yards over 54 grams so its Aran-ish to Worsted-ish.

All of these skeins are headed to the handspun stash to percolate for awhile. And my wheel is down to only one spinning project 🙂

Clearing The Bobbins

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I already plied my batt experiment and my long draw class and while I was looking for bobbins I found some singles from an abandoned spin.

This was some lamb I inherited in a de-stash. It was from a farm stand and very rustic. The staple was pretty long and I was fighting a lot of guard hairs. I really hated spinning it and gave away the rest of the fiber. But these singles were just sitting on a bobbin. So I chain plied them to get them done.

I had a lot more singles than I remembered so this ended up being fairly significant amount of finished yarn. With this one done I need to wash and whack all the plying I have done recently. Then I can turn these in for prizes maybe!

Happy Spinning!!

Woolen Spun Plying

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I have been working on finishing up a ton of partially done spinning projects. I had a bobbin of singles from my long draw class with Maggie Casey. They were ROUGH but I decided they still deserved to be yarn.

I chain plied the singles into a yarn. I have zero clue if you are supposed to chain ply woolen sp111un yarn….but I did anyway. And I got some wonky results that resembled yarn. Very thick and thin all over. I have more plying to get done and then this skein will get a bath with all the others. I may have over spun it but a good bath might help.

Happy Spinning!!!

Ply A Wee Bat

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The wee little bat spun up super quickly!

All the singles fit nicely on a bobbin where I let them rest for 24 hours before plying. I was in a rush to get this finished so I could have a summer spin entry with the Two Ewes Podcast so I chain plied the singles.

This fiber was part of a free event so the BFL is not the best quality but the experience was worth it. The yarn (pre-washing) is pretty crunchy and rustic. And thanks to my impatience, the spinning is pretty thick to thin. I’ll be interested to see what happens after a soak and a whack!

Happy Spinning!!