Colorways, Navajo plying, and projects

Just a quick update on the yarn from the alpaca roving I wrote about in my last post. I have around 1,000 yards, with 6 oz left to spin. Here's a picture of one of the skeins that has been wound on my ball winder. I usually don't ball my yarn up until I'm really ready to use it, but I am dying to knit a sample from it! The skeins came out really light and airy, and have a WPI of 21 (wraps per inch for you non-spinners). I think it will make fabulous socks! I have enough to also do a scarf. With the extra left on one bobbin, I plied it with some extra wool I had on another bobbin from the Dr. G's Vest I spun the yarn for (mentioned in a previous blog...)

Upcoming projects (as always, click on the pics for a larger view)
Silk Lace: At the knitting retreat we had a schwag* event where you pick numbers and the lowest numbers get to pick first, etc. I was number 12 out of 20 something because I was a "Chatty-Cathy", so I missed out on some really great stuff, although what I got was wonderful too.

I picked out a skein of Cherry Tree Hill cascade lace (1,000 yards of 100% silk) in a beautiful Martha's Vineyard colorway with purples, blues, and greens. (Funny how all three things I got at the Retreat have the same colors! Just different shades and blends.) The silk makes the colors shimmer. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to do with it.

Soysilk: This was a lovely gift for being a workshop presenter. It's 50/50 soysilk and merino. It's called Karaoke, in the Mermaid colorway, with plum, seaweed green and some light olive greens (others may say teals, purples and blues, but I'm blue/green colorblind, so what do I know!). I pulled the roving into 2 long strips, then broke just one into 4 more. I spent some time attenuating just one strip--the "silk" feels just like real silk, has the same shimmer, and has the same "tacky" feeling from being dyed, ie., it clumps some. This made attenuating a bit of fun. Not! But, the time I spent attenuating (also called predrafting) was well worth the effort. The fiber drafted well when I spun it, and I spun enough to make a sample swatch.

I really wanted to maintain the colors in the plying, so I spun up a bit on just one bobbin, then I Navajo plied the single, with my wheel set at moderate uptake, I treadled verrrryyyyyyy sllllooooowwwwly.... Navajo plying turns a single ply into a 3-ply. It's like finger crocheting. You pull out a loop from the main "line" about 10-20", or shorter (when pulled out, the loop now has two "sides"), the leader then wraps around the two "sides", thus making a 3-ply. This takes a LOT of practice! If you treadle too fast, it's just a harsh, tight and overplied yarn. I really wanted this to be soft, and to maintain the color changes at the same time. One hard part is to ensure that where the loop meets the next loop that there is not an overlap, because you can see this. Navajo plying (in my opinion) works better on thinner yarn because the "join" is less obvious. For a lesson and video clip go here: navajo plying.

I knitted up a 4" x 8" swatch, using a modified basket weave. Mine was 3 sts edging, then *(k2, p3)* repeat between * * to last 3 sts, then 3 st edging; next row: maintaining 3 st edgings, *(p3,k2)* repeat to last 3 sts, do 3 st edging. Repeat rows 1 & 2, then do row 1 again. On the next row (row 6), do a purl row (this is the back side). Then repeat the first 5 rows, but switch the k2, p3 to p2, k3, thus offsetting the sts. On the 12th row do a purl row. Anywho, you probably get it by now!

The purl row creates a pull on the front, so that the knit blocks on the right side pop out, and almost have a convex curve. It's cool!

I plan on doing at least a scarf with this. I think it's 8 oz.

Superfine Merino Top: The last stash I got at the retreat was 7 oz of superfine dyed merino top in a green/blue colorway. This one has more greens and blues in it than the other two stashes, with some purple. I haven't spun up any of this yet, but have attenuated a couple of strips. More later!

*for a history of "schwag" go here: schwag

A Lesson in Washing Handspun (or garments)

Many people have asked how I wash my fiber and yarn. I basically use the same process for washing either small amounts of fleece, or washing my skeins. Let's use the alpaca yarn I just spun from the beautiful roving I bought at Alpacas of Easton (AOE) on the alpaca farm field trip mentioned below (during the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat).

As always, click on the pics for a larger view!

Here's a shot of the roving before spinning. It feels like a silky, soft, light cloud! Kate (of AOE) had white and grey alpaca blended to yield this very beautiful white with silver/grey. The second shot is two of the skeins right after winding on my skein winder. I usually wind the plied yarn from the bobbin onto a niddy-noddy, but this time I wound it right on the skein winder. I set the winder at about 58" circumference, wound it, then multiplied the number of strands times 60 (inches), then divided by 36 for yards. The two skeins came out to be roughly 800 yards. I was going to do a 3-ply, as I was spinning it almost laceweight, but I was spinning pretty fast, using a long-draw which morphed into a quick back draw. When I started plying the 3-ply I realized it was going to be heavier than I wanted (I picture socks and a scarf out of this), so I switched to a 2-ply.

Washing
I fill up a sink with warm to hot water. I use natural, environmentally-friendly dishwashing soap. There are a variety of efficient and effective soaps out there, including Dawn, and other things that cut some of the grease. I tend to buy more natural dishsoaps, but buy whatever meets your financial and personal needs. With wool, I use a hotter water temp to cut some of the grease, but with alpaca and llama I use moderately warm to hot, right out of the tap. Alpaca has no lanolin, and is relatively cleaner than wool, and the roving I purchased had very little vegetable matter in it (grass/hay).

Add the soap to the water, I only use about 1/8th of a cup. I don't even measure it. The dirtier the fiber, more I'd use. I just squirt some in, let it foam a bit, then shut off the water. I then add the skeins to the sink, submerging it a couple times to ensure that it gets fully wet. Alpaca (and angora bunny) don't absorb it as quickly as wool, so I just gently push it down a couple of times.

Then, just let it soak for about 20 minutes.

To drain and rinse:
I push the fiber to the side of the sink, and pull the plug in the drain slowly. I usually don't lift the skeins out of the water, as the heavy weight can drag/pull on the fiber. I use this same method for washing fiber, skeins, and garments.

After the water drains out, still holding the fiber to the side, I gently squeeze the fiber trying to get as much water out as possible. You can either lift it out of the sink, supported by both hands, and put it into a bowl/container, or keep it to the side of the sink, refill the sink with warm water. Try to keep the water temp roughly the same as the last soak water. The only caveat of this is you hope the water coming right out of the tap is about the same as the soak water--not really cold or really hot. So, for a newbie, I'd recommend taking the fiber out of the sink to refill.

Refill the sink, add the skeins again, and gently submerge. Let it soak for about 10 minutes or so. This alpaca was really clean. If your fiber is dirtier or dyed, lengthen the soak and rinse cycles.

Remove, using same method above in the soak phase (gently squeeze out as much water as you can). For garments, I roll in a towel, absorbing more moisture. For skeins, I put in the washing machine (yes!) but ONLY ON SPIN!! Tres importante! If your machine has only spin-with-spray feature, do not use this. No spray/spritzing. I let it spin for only about 10-15 seconds.

Remove the skeins from the washing machine, then gently "snap" the skein between my hands (no pic, as I couldn't do this and take the pic). Rotate the skein 1/4 around in your hand, therefore snapping (gently) at another section of the skein.

Drying: Weighting the skein. One note, a lot of people were taught to do this in the '70s and '80s by "hanging a can of soup" (or another weight) on the skein. I do not recommend this! There are specific uses for this, mainly for setting the twist for singles, and for weaving.

The purpose for weighting the skein was to set the twist and to achieve a more balanced ply. Many of us, in early spinning, were not the best plyers. The main problem with this is that the weight can stretch and break the fibers. Another problem is that I think it leads us to not learn how to achieve a balanced ply. If you are must do this, I would recommend that you take the weight off from the skein after a couple of hours, and check the skein's twist. Okay, enough of this soapbox!

I believe that roughly 10% of the twist comes out in the wash, so to speak. The twist relaxes and is distributed over a longer length of the plied yarn. When I teach someone how to spin, I try to emphasize that a skein (before washing) can have about a 1 1/2 extra twist (in the skein), and that will most likely end up pretty balanced. You can use this as a guide to figure out if you are overplying or not. Of course, different fiber reacts differently.

After gently snapping the skein, I hang over a clothes rack, or doorknob. Because of the trip to the washing machine, there is very little moisture in the skein. I will readjust the skein a couple times over the next 8 hours, so that the weight is redistributed during the drying process. Most of my skeins dry overnight.

Tip: I do not ball up the yarn until I am ready to use it. I find that the twist stays in better. One off-topic note, but kind of related, I do not use a steam iron over a towel to block my garments. This works well for showing/displaying, however I find that a thorough wash of the garment, then flat blocking works better.

These are just my thoughts, no right or wrong (except for stretching the fiber with the soup can!).

I hope this helps some of you out there!

Men's Spring Knitting Retreat

Wow. Although I could try, there aren't enough accurate, descriptive words to encompass the feelings and emotions I have from attending the retreat this past weekend. Others may try, but they will fail! Seriously, check out a couple of these blogs Sean's Soapbox (boston sean), Kenny from Houston, for other recaps and some feelings about the weekend. I'll add more links and pics later on as they appear.

Condensed short path: Kyle from CA led me to Ravelry, which led me to line A: the Vt. Knitters Group, which led me to meeting 4 other Vermont gay guys who knit, which led to a Vermont Men's Knit Group (no real group name exists at this time); at the same time, line B (from rav) led to the Men Who Knit group, and the development of the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat which was held at Easton Mountain Resort in Easton, New York. Please check out their website and learn more about them. Let me say, it was a great location, the staff was great, the food was good-to-great, and, as their website states, it was a "haven where people can explore the integration of body, mind, heart and spirit." That is an understatement.

Special thanks to Joe and Ted for all their hard work, time and energy, and love and sharing! Monday was like an e-mail lovefest! Between the dozens of e-mails just on my end, and all the posts on Rav, I think many of us were suffering from knitting and male knitting/spinning camaraderie withdrawal! I agree.

I'll post more later. I just wanted to get something up, with some pics. Note: as always, click on the pics to go to the larger view.

Top pic: One of the lovely green mountains surrounding the retreat.
Second from top: day old baby alpaca! So soft and warm. I.love.pacas!
Third from top: Kate from Alpacas of Easton, baby paca and mommy paca.
Fourth from top: Kate, mommy, and baby, again...
Fifth from top: Two of my many new BFF's: Left, Kenny from Houston, me in the center, and right is Jim from Hudson, New York. Both soooo sweet and lovable! (Yes, my partner was there too.)

I wanted to make sure I included enough pics of the Alpaca trip, because Ted did not get to go and missed out on seeing these cuties! (the pacas....)

Pics of the retreat:
(Below at right) These pics are from the night of the "fashion" show. Note, lower case F in fashion, and light use of the concept of show! Seriously, just kidding. There were lots of super nice designs and great work by many of the guys. It was our attempt at mocking such lovelies as Miss Banks and such.

Sorry the pics are so dark. It was a kind of dark location. Some of the pics I took across the room and in the center and they turned out dark, others I took from right in front of me and they came out much better.

The pic at right is a partial group shot of the circle. I can't tell who all of them are from this shot, but I think they are Bob from Tampa, I know Joe and Sean are in there, can't quite make out the others.

I'll have to add more tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this recap. I, as most of the other guys, am looking forward to continuing to develop these wonderful relationships formed at the retreat. As I said earlier, I am blessed, humbled and enriched by meeting these fabulous guys!

Happy knitting!