Spinning BFL for twined knitting

Spinning yarn. It was a long time since I did that ... But I have now spun a yarn for twined knitting from Blue Faced Leicester. I used my Majacraft Little Gem wheel both for spinning (in S) and plying (in Z). I think that Little Gem is excellent for spinning yarn of this kind, but rather weak for plying. Next time I will use my Louet for plying.

Two natural shades, spun separately and then plied together. The contrasts turned out a little more pronounced than I had hoped for ... a total of 190 grams. I enjoy spinning, but there is no doubt that the result will be better if I do it on a more regular basis. More than two years since I spun my previous yarn.

BFL Humbug: 4-ply, S-plied

This was my first time making a 4-ply yarn. I used Blue Faced Leicester since it is so easy to spin. The Humbug mix made me a bit worried, the singles looked so varied that I was afraid that the yarn would be far more variegated than I had envisioned.

Singles spun in Z

Rewound and prepared for plying

2 skeins: 4-ply - after washing and drying

Close up

A total of 195 grams.

Handspun Massam, 2-ply, Z-plied

My spinning continues. This yarn is spun from Massam ( a.k.a. Masham) wool. I have never tried this wool before, but it was a nice experience. It is easy to spin and has a nice shine when finished. Since I am a fan of natural colours, grey in particular, this is a wool I will have to spin again. I spun this in S om my Little Gem, and then rewound and plied in Z on the Louet S10.

It will be part of a twined knitting project in the future.

Handspun Red Merino, 3-ply, S-plied

After intense knitting during the Autumn I am now spinning again. This is a 3-ply red merino.  S plied, so it is not intended for twined knitting. I had read a lot about spinning merino (positive statements only) so I was curious about trying it out.

I had some problem in the beginning understanding the fiber. It is very fine and it felt as if I could spin it thinner than anything else that I have spun. But it also was a bit tricky, since it was a bit difficult to get an even flow.

I spun this from tops with many shades of red in them and I had from the beginning decided to make an S-plied yarn. It turned out that I spun this thinner than I intended, so to get a yarn that was not too thin I decided on a 3-ply.  This also meant that the distribution of colours got evened out, making the overall impression more harmonic.

I am quite happy with the result, and I will probably spin merino again in the future. The hardest thing will be to decide what to knit with it. It is very soft, so it will probably be knitted into a scarf or a hat.
All in all I ended up with 200 grams. I spun this on my Majacraft Little Gem, and rewound the yarn on my Louet S10 before I plied it on the Little Gem.

Haruni

I wrote in July that Blue Faced Leicester became a favourite for spinning. It also turned out to be very nice to knit. I knew that I had to try it out in a project that uses s-plied yarn, so Twined Knitting was out of the question. There are a number of shawl patterns that I have had my eyes on, planning to knit when I get a craving for lace-knitting. The one that I chose this time was Haruni by Emily Ross (yes I know it is ages since it was released but I don´t do a lot of lace knitting so I don´t keep up ...).

I do recommend this pattern, it knitted up fairly quick and it wasn´t too difficult. I made two extra repeats of Chart A to get a somewhat bigger shawl - the finished result is 188 cm  x 95 cm (75 inches x 38 inches). I used all but 5 grams of my hand spun Blue faced Leicester.

There will be more spinning and more lace knitting with BFL in the future!

Blue Faced Leicester - A Favourite

This vacation my last spinning project was Blue Faced Leicester Tops.

It is hard to explain how nice this was to spin. A real joy. I will definitely spin more of this. This time I chose to spin in Z (on the Majacraft Little Gem) and ply in S (on Louet S10). 300 grams. Actually, this is the first S-plied yarn that i have spun. So I will not use it for Twined Knitting. It will most likely end up as a scarf or a shawl.

All in all I have spun 1050 grams of yarn this vacation. It could be said to be crazy - but I needed to practice spinning! It is relaxing ... and it is a nice feeling to knit something out of your own handspun yarn.

And we have been very lucky with the weather,  with warm days and lots of sun. So I have been sitting outside spinning - no way I was going to spend my vacation indoors.

Z-plied Handspun

Here are two more examples of yarn spun this vacation:

A total of 360 grams.
After sorting and washing the wool, I mixed grey Spelsau from Norway with white Leicester (50/50) by hand carding.
After that I spun (grey) singles in S and plied in Z. Washed the yarn. Dyed it red. Washed again.

This yarn  is for twined knitting and I´ll probably make some more. I think it will be a good yarn for socks.

120 grams of green yarn out of very mixed fiber spun on my Majacraft Little Gem.
Not a pleasant experience to spin (some of it was very low quality with lots and lots and lots and lots of cuts) - but I had decided to see this through. It is spun in S and plied in Z, so it will join my handspun stash for twined knitting. It will be useful …

Making yarn

This vacation I have spent a lot of time making yarn - spinning. Here are some photos showing the process of sorting, mixing, carding, spinning, plying and then the finished yarn.

Some of my handspun - 2010

These are some of the yarns that I made during 2010 - the year I learned to spin:

1. My first handspun - on spindle (Kundert). 

White and brown wool of unknown origin. Spun in S and plied in Z

2.This is my first yarn, for twined knitting, spun on a spinning wheel.

I used my Majacraft Little Gem for spinning, and a Louet S10 for plying. It is an attempt to spin a yarn that is similar to Wålstedts yarn for twined knitting. I used fleece from Swedish Rya (dark brown, almost black), Gotländskt Pälsull (grey) and Leicester (white). I mixed these with a drum carder and then added some coloured fleece for “accent”. Then I spun in S, and plied in Z. 400 grams all in all.

3. Gotland - Handspun for Twined Knitting

This was spun on my Little Gem and plied on a Louet S10.

Spun in S and plied in Z. The fleece is Gotländsk Pälsull in grey. 80 grams.

4. Mixed Spelsau - Handspun for Twined Knitting

We were gifted Spelsau fleece from Norway by a friend!
After sorting and washing some of the grey spelsau (70 %) I mixed it with some wool that was dyed red (30 %) during hand carding. I then spun in S and plied in Z. It was an experiment but I am quite pleased with the result. This is a very strong yarn and I believe it will be very good for things (mittens) that need to be durable for many years. Since I took my first spinning class in August I have almost done no knitting at all - I will have to start knitting again soon. Spinning has proved as addictive as knitting!













5.  Shetland - for Twined Knitting
Dark brown Shetland, spun in S plied in Z (as usual …).