And Now To Knit

Day 180: Handspun yarn can present its own unique challenge to knit in that it may or may not conform to the gauge required in any particular pattern. I tend to spin almost all my double-ply wool in an approximation of worsted-weight, and I am rather proud of the fact that out of 41.8 ounces of "cinnamon twist," I only have a variation of 3 yards/ounce between the thinnest of eight skeins and the thickest. I've worked with machine-produced yarns with greater variation than that! This morning, I knit up a test swatch and was pleasantly surprised when it came in at exactly the gauge given for my favourite raglan pattern, so now I can jump straight into knitting without having to make adjustments to the pattern itself. There is more than enough wool here for the sweater/jumper, but I may incorporate a design into the yoke in pure "cinnamon" and/or white Corriedale "sugar" which, you might have guessed, I spun up at the same weight. In fact, in some countries, spinners show a preference for spinning at a single thickness, then plying two, three or four strands to obtain different weights of yarn. This "practice makes perfect" technique makes it easier for the spinner to judge and control the amount of raw wool slipping between the fingers and therefore they are able to achieve a more uniform thread.

Plying The Cinnamon Twist

Day 164: I go at my crafts in fits and starts, a factor which used to annoy my husband terribly. I'd spend six months doing cross-stitch and beadwork and then, without further ado, shelve the supplies for both and pick up sewing or needlepoint. The point he was missing was that I finished everything I started, sooner or later, as my interest in a particular form of fiberart circled around again. Unless I was driven to complete a project by a specific date, say for a birthday or wedding gift, it didn't make sense to me to work at something I found boring when I knew that a vacation from it of weeks or even months would eventually draw me back and perhaps even be more productive in the long term, but that logic escaped his view entirely. He objected that I would stockpile supplies only to abandon their craft after a few months, but in the broad view, that was simply not the case.

For the last four years, I have had a quilt (several different ones, actually) mounted on a frame which takes up a substantial portion of space in my living room. The quilt currently on it is almost complete. Even though I have begun piecing another one, I will probably put quilting aside for some time as I delight in once again having "room in my room." Weaving...well, weaving is another story. The big loom has a room of its own, and it seldom stands empty for more than a week. Admittedly, some projects have taken me months to complete because I got bored halfway through, but when I returned to them, I went at it with a vengeance, usually driven by having another project in mind. Other crafts are seasonal, like spinning. I set the wheel aside when our wet months began, simply because I don't have space inside to hang finished yarn to dry. Now that nicer days are in the forecast, I've settled in to finish the "cinnamon twist." During the winter, I picked and carded the remaining brown wool and finished spinning it a few days ago. Now I am plying it, having also spun up most of the white Corriedale needed for the project. What's next? I don't know, but the likelihood of another year of isolation leaves space for a lot of fiberarts projects.

Fiber Frolics

Day 238: Despite the fact that I don't feel as if I'm spending any more time at fiber arts than usual, a mound of completed projects is growing almost daily. Admittedly, my attention span is quite short these days: ten minutes at the loom, a row or two of crochet, half a dozen rolags spun into yarn, two or three threads put into Mousie's quilt pushing the limits of my focus, but as they say, "a little of this, a little of that" adds up. Some unrelated crafts are interdependent, e.g, in order to spin more single-strand white wool for plying, I have to wind plied wool onto the warping board to free up spindles. To do so means that I have to remove the measured warp for my next weaving project from the warping board, and I can't do that until I get the current project off the floor loom. Perhaps this is why we speak of "web" in so many fiber arts. My studio space (crafts room, living room and to some extent kitchen) would make Arachne proud.

Wheels Within Wheels

Day 74: The wheels have been turning a bit more slowly these last two weeks while I've been dealing with tooth issues, but now my engine has begun to rev up and a bit more progress is being made. I'm finding that I'm going to need to ration quilting time in order to have anything left for the Feathers & Fur Quilting Tour to do when they arrive (date still undetermined), although if it came right down to it, I have another quilt partially done which I could quite easily pop back on the frame. As for spinning, even once the Cinnamon Twist is finished and I take up turning it into a sweater, I still have grey Gotland, more white Corriedale, black Shetland and a huge bag of silvery-tan, long-staple Romney fleece to keep my fingers busy. For those of you who are curious, my wheel is a Louet S15, bought before they began manufacturing models with a balanced flywheel (hole in the big wheel). I do not regret my choice. The slight difference in balance has not been an issue (it's easy to learn to compensate with the treadle), and it allowed me to paint a Tree of Life design on the face. The Tree of Life has been incorporated into each of my homes in the last 50 years in some form or another and always contains at least one bird among a welter of botanical diversity. Some of the figures have personal significance; others are simply drawn from fantasy.

Cinnamon Twist

Day 62: I'm loving my cinnamon twist, and we're not talking about bakery goods here. My current spinning project is moving along rapidly. The finished yarn is two-ply, slightly lighter than standard worsted. One ply is white Corriedale and the other, a cinnamon-hued lamb's-wool I refer to as "honey-lamb" for want of a more specific or descriptive name. The Corriedale fibers are long, straight and silky, while the fluffy cinnamon has a medium-grade crimp with a glossy finish. The second skein is still on the spindle, waiting to be measured and hung wet to set the twist. The first skein weighs 4.3 oz. and contains 167 yards of luxuriously soft yarn. Unlike most of my hand-spun wool, the future of "Cinnamon Twist" has been preordained. It will become a sweater for my personal use.