Spinning Singles Successfully For Knitting; Postage Stamp Swatching; Witches' Ball; Southern Vermont Fiber Event; and Lisa's Sweater

Just a little advertising for the Southern Vermont Fiber Event to kick off my October blog post. But once you've filled your bags with yarn and spinning fibers at this cool event, don't leave Brattleboro, Vermont too quickly because that evening...

there's the 1st annual "Witches' Ball," hosted by Kindred Spirits. It is November 1st, 7:30~11:00 pm at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery, 139 Main Street/, Brattleboro, VT. Fee is $15 per person or $25 for two (ages 17 and up welcome). There will be prizes for costumes (note that costumes are optional), food, music, dancing, a silent auction, and more. Spinning Spider Jenny will be one of the Tarot readers scheduled for the night. To reserve your space, call 802-254-7777. Tickets will also be sold at the door, however space is limited.

No doubt about it, there's a chill in the air here in southern VT that wasn't present a month ago. The above pic shows our Leslie typing away comfortably despite the fact that it's cold in her Brooks Memorial Library office. This pic and blurb recently appeared on the library's website. HOW THE STAFF AT THE LIBRARY IS DEALING WITH THE HIGH COST OF FUEL OIL

Cataloger Leslie Markey with her homespun, hand knitted Alpaca wool gloves. Orders anyone?

Hiccup. Rhinebeck. New York Sheep and Wool Fest. Just the name alone evokes smiles from the fiberish friends I know. This year the spider taught three workshops (two fiber prep workshops and one spinning workshop) at the fest, held last weekend. What's always a blast for me is to meet new folks as well as get reacquainted with spinners who have taken classes I have taught elsewhere.

Lisa was a participant in a Rhinebeck workshop who I had happily met when teaching at The Spinning Loft last fall. Lisa is a wonderful spinner and designer of knitwear and came into this year's workshop wearing another beautiful, handspun creation that I thought you readers would enjoy seeing. I don't know the actual particulars of her yarn or design, but I bet if you squawked loud enough, she'll let us know about it in the comment section of this blog post.

The pretty, fitted back of Lisa's sweater.

If any of you were present on the Saturday of the actual New York Sheep and Wool Fest, I'm sure you could attest that it was mind-blowingly crowded. Surfacing through the crowds were none other than...

Leslie and E, Lunar Ladies both. They tried to get into my Saturday workshop on their own but were stopped at the door by bouncers. Luckily I found Leslie and E milling about out front of the building I was teaching in and boldly brought them back into my classroom for pics. Perhaps the bouncers thought they were fiber riff-raff?

Here's Leslie in front of my white board proclaiming "Postage Stamp Swatching," a technique which Leslie herself developed and I sagely pass on to students via my teaching. Postage Stamp Swatching is perfect for devout non-swatchers, as well as for those wise spinners who would never proceed to spin up pounds of fiber before seeing how their handspun works in a swatch. The beauty of Postage Stamp Swatching is that it takes a very short time to complete. Begin by making a lllooonnnngggg ply-back from your freshly spun singles. We're talking a ply-back (singles folded back on itself) that reaches across the room you're spinning in. You may need a helper to do this. Knot the ply-back at the end, making sure you let no twist escape, and remove it from the wheel. Smooth the ply-back out so that the singles twist you put in balances with the plying twist (achieved by the fold over). You can now wash and dry the resulting, 2-plied yarn...or not...your choice. If you plan to knit with the handspun you're spinning, pick some needles you think might work well with the size of yarn you produced as your ply-back. The reason we call it a "Postage Stamp Swatch" is because the long ply-back knits up into the size of a stamp. OK, if it's thickish yarn, it might be a biggish stamp you'd find in Togo or some other place like that. (You were/are a stamp collector; weren't/aren't you? Both Chris and I were stamp collectors as kids but we've kinda let that hobby go by the wayside). This little stamp of a swatch will tell you if the singles your spinning will make a 2-ply that will work in your project. If the swatch is too sleazy (a technical term for low twist), then make another Postage Stamp Swatch from singles that has more twist in it. If the swatch is hard as a board, then make another Postage Stamp Swatch from singles that has less twist in it. 'course do consider that you may have chosen a needle size that was not suitable for your yarn size... An important point you need to know is that when you make the ply-back from freshly spun singles, it will balance itself and make a 2-ply yarn where there's no excess twist going Z or S (right or left; clockwise or counter-clockwise). Once you see a Postage Stamp Swatch you like, consider making a larger swatch from yarn that was spun in the same way (but in this case spin enough singles so that you can ply the yarn in whatever conventional way you choose). It's from the larger swatch that you'll take your gauge. That way, you won't spin gobs of fiber up to find out that the yarn you spun won't work in the project you have in mind. Easy peasy and time-saving to boot. Thank you, Leslie, for this excellent technique!! Oh...and of course you can make Postage Stamp Swatch with a long a 3-ply-back or a 4-ply-back, etc. in the same manner.

Here's E wearing her stylish, new Llama Llama Poo Poo shirt. The spider herself can testify to llamas producing superb, non-burning, fertilizer for the garden.

The llamas at Hemlock Haven Farm have their own blog. Please be sure to check it out.

A logo you llama-lovers KNOW you're going to have to wear! Visit Llama Llama Poo Poo for more information.

Chris picked me up at the end of my Saturday class at Rhinebeck. Apparently he spent a few hours roaming The New York Sheep and Wool Fest by himself before heading to my classroom. He relayed hearing his name called out by a man somewhere in the flock of people roaming the fairgrounds. Chris looked to see who it was and saw a group of men waiving their hands to bring him over to them. The man who called was none other than Ted, Knitterguy!!! The guys were all friends of Ted's. Now to understand the power of the internet, one must realize that Ted and Chris have never met in person. Ted realized it was Chris, in the sea of humanity, by seeing his pics on my blog. Pretty incredible, eh?!

During the last hour of the fest on Saturday, after I had packed my teaching stuff up, Chris and I walked the grounds and visited the booths together. Again, out of the blue, came "Exuse me. Excuse me...! Are you Spinning Spider Jenny?" A lovely woman from Maryland greeted us and said she and her son were avid readers of my blog. I believe the son is 8 Years Old!!! She said her son insists that she print out the spinning techie portion of my blog each month. Oh my gosh, I nearly cried with joy. Who says that children can't learn to spin and comprehend spinning techie stuff at an early age, eh?!!!!!!!

On the Saturday evening of Rhinebeck we headed over to the Ravelry party. Surely there must be 600+ people who took pics at this party and they pics are scattered around blogland like forty going north. Here's my pic offering. Chris was amazed that THAT many people showed up for the party. I wasn't amazed in the least, knowing what Ravelry means to us fiber folk.

I WAS properly in awe of the fabulous Namaste bag I won at the Ravelry party. Orange just happens to be my favorite color, don'tcha know?!!! Thank you, Namaste!!!!!

Check out those groovy wrinkles on my 50 year old forehead. Hard-earned rungs climbed during life's journey?

At one of my Rhinebeck '08 spinning workshops, a very kind and thoughtful participant gifted me with a box of notecards with the above "spider writing" image. You, too, can get yourself a box of these notecards and more at Punkin's Patch. I love 'em! Thank you!!

Hiccup. And now for the spinning techie portion of this post...

Here's some rainbow dyed Cormo/Romney X wool from the flock of Alice Field, of Foxhill Farm, in Lee, Massachusetts. For more on rainbow dyeing, see the past post: Clear & Brilliant Rainbow Dyeing . The natural dye extracts used are cochineal, logwood grey, logwood purple and Osage orange...all from Earthues.

As I had chosen for the bulky, Navajo 3-plied yarn in the past post, And The Winner Is; Bulky Navajo Plying; Lotsa Birthday Celebrations; Back To Dee-troit And Another Visit To The Spinning Loft, I used the HUGE whorl (3.8:1 ratio) of my Schacht Matchless wheel, set in single drive, flyer-lead, Scotch tension in order to spin the yarn above. This time I wanted to spin a low twist singles yarn that would be used as a singles (not plied) in knitting. I chose such a large whorl because I wanted to put the least amount of twist needed for stability for the size of yarn I was spinning AND do so in a comfortable manner. Putting the least amount of twist needed for the size of yarn you're spinning and still retaining stability (yarn does not drift apart when tugged) is the key to making a singles yarn that would behave and not skew out-of-control when knitted. That said, singles twist IS twist that is going in only one direction and can never be balanced, so if you put as little as is needed to make a stable yarn, you're at least going to skew less in your knitted fabric. An important note: skewing will show up most in stockinette fabric; possibly less when knitting something other than stockinette. Swatching is essential to test which fabrics will skew or not with your low-twist singles yarn.

Knowing the average staple length of the fiber you're spinning is also an important point to consider when spinning a singles yarn. For instance, if you're using a shortish fiber of less than 1.5" or so, and you're making a thickish singles, you'll need more twist to make the singles stable, but in doing so, you may end up with more twist than you like in your yarn (rope-ish). BUT, if you make the same thickish yarn with fiber of a longer average staple length, you'll be able to lower the twist better to cut down on skewing and still keep it stable.

Two points to consider that may serve you well: The finer the yarn, the more twist needed to make the yarn stable. The thicker the yarn, the less twist needed to make it stable.

Above you'll find the rainbow dyed singles on a niddy noddy prior to washing. For me, it's important to wash the skein prior to knitting (yarn ain't done 'til it's washed), so that it'll be all that it was meant to be (ie. no surprises).

And here's a pic of the skein curling up on itself after washing. Singles WANTS to balance itself...that's why you see it trying to ply-back on itself when washed and damp. However, if you have a handy-dandy swift and yarn blocker you can tame it like I did so that it'll dry straightened but not stretched.

I placed the damp skein on the swift and carefully wound the singles onto the yarn blocker, being extra diligent not to stretch the yarn as I'm winding.

One hand turns the yarn blocker and one hand guides the yarn onto the blocker as shown.

The singles yarn is shown wound on the blocker to dry.

Above you'll see a swatch knitted at the bottom with stockinette...not too bad of skewing, eh? But do take a look at the individual stitches in the stockinette portion. If we look at the left and right side of an individual stitch, do you notice that the right side is much straighter than the angled left side? Now, let's learn to "read our knitting." If you placed an "S" over the diagonal of the left side of the stitch, you'll find the diagonal of the left side matches the diagonal portion (between the upper and lower hooks) of an S. But if we tried to place a "Z" over the right side of the stitch, we'd be hard pressed to see the diagonal (it's nearly vertical!) of the stitch looking like the diagonal of a Z (between the upper and lower horizontal lines of the Z). This tells us that there's more Z or clockwise twist in the fabric showing up, which makes sense because the singles was spun Z and you can't actually balance a singles yarn. However...and it pays repeating...you CAN put the least amount of twist needed to make your singles yarn stable (keeping in mind yarn size and average staple length) in order to successfully knit with it.

Finally, let's look at the stitch pattern above the stockinette portion of the swatch. It's an easy but dynamic stitch pattern that I found in "Barbara Walker's Learn-To-Knit Afghan Book," by Barbara Walker, called "Trinity Stitch," pg. 117, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1974. Nary a problem with skewing using the singles when knitting this stitch! It pays to swatch and try out different stitches.

Advantages of knitting (or crocheting, for that matter) with singles handspun: 1) A time-saver...no need to ply!; 2) Keeps colors clear when spinning and knitting with multiple colors. Any other plusses you can think of?

I'm planning to knit my singles into an ear-warming headband. Will probably line it with some fluffy dog fur handspun for warmth and added style.

Now because I'm a more or less honest woman, I have to admit that the tad of yarn used for the swatch itself was spun on a high whorl spindle using the park and draft method; spun as a passenger in our Chris-driven car on the way to NYC (trying not to hit Chris in the face as I spun)...not on the Schacht wheel with the HUGE whorl that I ended up spinning for the actual project on. AND, again since I'm a truthful woman, I knitted the singles using #5 US needles right from the spindle without washing it. So yes, singles can be knit without washing. Know that I did wash the swatch. But, I like my wash-after-spinning-the-yarn method-prior-to-swatching explained above a whole lot better. Why? Well, just 'cause I do...there's less chance of problems, me thinks, and by washing the yarn first you get to see how it "blooms" and settles into its own twist along the entire length of the skein prior to knitting. And yes, I put the same amount of twist used in the swatch into the yarn for the finished project. How do I know? I tested the angle of twist in both the spindle spun yarn and the wheel spun yarn. Why did I choose to spin on the wheel in the end? I don't know; I just did. Maybe I just felt like treadling! There's more than one way to achieve what you're looking for. It's up to you to find the way that works well and pleases you most.

Happy Samhain! Happy Halloween! Will no doubt have a pic taken of me in costume and post it separately like last year. What are YOU going to dress up as on All Hallow's Eve?

'til next time.