So I'm headed to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair this weekend. I've signed up for a spinning class on Friday and a lace knitting class on Saturday morning. With Franklin Habit, of everyone's favorite sheep, Dolores, fame...well, and his wonderful blog and fabulous knitting.
We were instructed to bring a ball of DK weight, light colored wool yarn and a set of size 4 needles. I ran up to the Woolery, thinking no sweat. In a bizarre twist, they didn't have any light colored truly DK weight wool yarn. I picked up a ball of the next closest yarn, but on the way home thought, well what would keep me from spinning that up myself? I mean, why on earth would I need to buy any yarn (not that that's ever stopped me... ;-).
Keep in mind that I'm no lace knitting expert (why I'm taking the class), but when I think lace, Shetland comes to mind. I just so happened to have some beautiful, light colored Shetland roving left from Michelle's visit from Boulderneigh. After my delight in the three ply Tour de Fleece yarn, I decided to try to spin a three ply DK weight yarn.
It's probably a bit too thin. I ended up with 14-15 wraps per inch, which is more of a sport weight I believe. Maybe it will fluff a bit when it's washed? Regardless, I was happy I got as close as I did with my sample and know what I need to do to fix it.
In the meantime, the reason I allowed myself to play with that yarn this afternoon was as a reward for finishing all of Jester's yarn.
Yippee!
We were instructed to bring a ball of DK weight, light colored wool yarn and a set of size 4 needles. I ran up to the Woolery, thinking no sweat. In a bizarre twist, they didn't have any light colored truly DK weight wool yarn. I picked up a ball of the next closest yarn, but on the way home thought, well what would keep me from spinning that up myself? I mean, why on earth would I need to buy any yarn (not that that's ever stopped me... ;-).
Keep in mind that I'm no lace knitting expert (why I'm taking the class), but when I think lace, Shetland comes to mind. I just so happened to have some beautiful, light colored Shetland roving left from Michelle's visit from Boulderneigh. After my delight in the three ply Tour de Fleece yarn, I decided to try to spin a three ply DK weight yarn.
It's probably a bit too thin. I ended up with 14-15 wraps per inch, which is more of a sport weight I believe. Maybe it will fluff a bit when it's washed? Regardless, I was happy I got as close as I did with my sample and know what I need to do to fix it.
In the meantime, the reason I allowed myself to play with that yarn this afternoon was as a reward for finishing all of Jester's yarn.
Yippee!
10 comments:
It all looks GREAT! Now in your OTHER life you can knit it all up.... ;-)
You put me to shame...
Have a good time at your classes! Your yarns look great.
Your yarn looks great! You are ready to go! Give Delores our regards.
Sara...this post shows me how little I know about this wool/spinning lingo.
You do such a great job.
Such gorgeous high quality yarns...I luv those natural colours.
Have a wonderful time at your classes! In the last picture of Jester's yarn - the grays look very different in color. Do they have that much contrast in person? If so, I don't think you need to add a black.
Yummy yarns!
A bit of yarn wisdom I picked up from Judith McKenzie at some point along the way:
for regular knitting, 3 ply is better because it makes for a more even surface (fills in the cracks)
for lace knitting, 2 ply is better because the direction of the plys makes the holes open up more
for weaving, 2 ply is better (can't remember why at the moment)
Of course, all of this is "in general" advice. She may explain more of the details in her book. I'll have to look and refresh my memory.
Colors are just borderline on being different enough. I think I'll swatch it in pattern and see what everyone thinks.
Thanks Amyfibre!!! That's very helpful. I love this about blogging :-).
I went to the Midwest Folk and Fiber Fest last year- was back in the area for my 20 yr high school reunion, and couldn't resist the draw of the fiber! Didn't get a chance to do any classes- just did a walkthrough, checking out the vendors and all. Was really nice. I might have to start planning all my chicago-area family visits around those dates!
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