The Knitting Pirate

There is something interesting about making friends in the SCA or at Pennsic: that is that we rarely get to know each other very well, and yet we would consider ourselves to be close. For example, I have known Baroness Gaerwen for at least six or seven years. She is one of the first people to greet me when I arrive on site, she plies me with drinks at the Saints Marg and Rita party, and although I have no idea what her “real” name is, I would definitely say that we are friends.

So why didn’t I know that she is into dyeing and spinning?

Well, it could be that she doesn’t do these things at Pennsic, but it could be that it never came up… until Saturday night, when she told us that she is being inducted into the Order of the Laurel (the highest level award for arts and sciences) for her work in fiber arts. She even does proper indigo dyeing. How awesome is that? I am going to ask her to take a look at my spinning and give me a lesson or three, if she has the time.

And another SCA friend, Alaric, makes beautiful drop spindles with stone whorls. I will have to try them out and see if he has one that’s about .75 ounces which fits my hand well. He did say he had some lighter ones in stock.

There are several fiber arts classes being offered at Pennsic University this year, amongst the thousand or so offerings. Everything from beginning drop spinning to fiber prep to non-wool fibers to how sheep were raised in medieval times. If you’re interested in checking out the class list, you can see it here.

Here is a not-so-great phone camera picture of the beginning of the smaller size of the Brother sock pattern I am designing. I cast on 80 stitches on Saturday morning, after some “emergency” text messages to Michael to find out how well his pair fit him, and to remind me of how many stitches in the ribbing. He gets brownie points for being able to read knitting, that’s for sure, and I lose points for not taking better notes the first time I knit this pattern. How silly of me!

I like fine-gauge socks, and there aren’t too many patterns for them out there. These are knit at 45 stitches to 4 inches, which is not really too hard. I have to keep in mind that the legs should be made slightly shorter than usual, because the fine gauge uses up more yardage than a thicker yarn would. Even with my size 10.5 feet, I can get a pair of crew-length socks, just below my calf muscle, from a regular 100g ball of sock yarn – so I should be able to knit something taller than anklets from the Trekking. I thought about knitting the cuffs, heels and toes from a contrasting color of yarn, but decided that I didn’t like the way it looked with the options of colors I had in my stash. I will write it into the pattern as a suggestion for other knitters with large feet.

This is four ounces (112g) of a Merino-Silk blend from Cloverleaf Farms in the “Woodland” colorway that I bought at MD Sheep and Wool this past May. I’ve never spun anything with silk in it before. The plan is to go for a sockweight; how deliciously warm will merino-silk blend socks be when it’s blustering and snowing, and I’m cozily inside with hot chocolate by the fire? I can’t believe I’m already looking forward to winter! Wasn’t it just earlier this week that I was looking forward to fall? Well, first I’m going to enjoy the rest of the summer.

Unbraided, the colors look incredibly different! Since this is probably going to come to Pennsic with me if I don’t have it finished in time, I decided to just split the fiber in half the short and easy way. I am expecting some lovely interplay between the greens and bronzes. The sheen of the silk just doesn’t come across in the photos, which is unfortunate – the fiber is almost glowing with color.

Spinning this stuff is interesting. The silk is almost sticky – not in a gummy-sticky kind of way, but it holds the fiber together in a way that wool by itself doesn’t. I am spinning a fairly even single, a little thin in spots, without much effort. Plyback tests show a beautiful shiny fingering weight yarn.

I don’t know why this is, but it’s true: lots of new and new-ish spinners have never knit with their handspun yarn. Oh, maybe a gauge swatch, a little test here and there, but never an actual finished object.

Janis and I learned to spin at exactly the same time, at the 2007 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Two years have gone by and neither of us has ever knit with our own handspun! How crazy is that? So we’ve committed to each starting a sock with our own yarn. I’ll be using the BFL, and knitting toe-up and plain stockinette. I haven’t yet swatched, but the yarn is fine enough that I might have to go down to size 0 needles, and I want to get as much sock as possible from this yarn.

Just to hedge my vacation-knitting bets, I’m also going to bring a ball of Trekking XXL with me. I have been wanting to knit a pair of “Brother’s Socks” for myself in my own size, so that I can write up the pattern in two sizes and get it published already. I just need to work out the heel and toe numbers; the rest is almost exactly the same. Conveniently, I already know what gauge I get with Trekking; a horrifyingly small 45 stitches to four inches. I’ll be using the yarn that didn’t work out for my previous attempt at ribbed socks. Now I know I need many, many more stitches than what I cast on last time!

I briefly considered bringing the green yarn and chart for the “Verdant” socks that I began in the class I took with Cookie A. last year, but I think those may take too much concentration to be vacation socks. I still need to come up with a ribbing that flows into the pattern, and the charted lace takes all of my brain-power… which is in short supply in the heat of the day.

Anyway, I’ll only be gone for nine days! As much as I think I’m going to sit around knitting, I’m not very quick at it. Not to mention all the spinning I’ll have with me. I think I’ll be able to keep myself occupied with two socks and a half-ton of fiber.

I am getting better at this spinning thing!

Last August, I started spinning this superwash merino from C*EYE*BER Fiber, which I bought at the 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I very carefully split the fiber into four equal parts, to make two bobbins’ worth of two-ply yarn (the Ashford bobbins are tiny; I would only have to split 100g of fiber into two equal parts to spin on the Sonata!) and got to spinning. Not very well, or very smoothly, but I was spinning!

Well, last year I only spun up half of it, into this thick and thin squooshy goodness. It averages out to 8 wraps per inch, which is a super bulky yarn. It’s very soft and pettable, though I admit I was disappointed when it came off of the drying rack. It’s not the kind of yarn I like to knit with. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. I can’t even felt it, because it’s superwash. My guess is that I never spun the second half of the fiber because it was too difficult, too slippery, too lumpy and bumpy and no fun at all to spin.

This week I picked up the other half of the fiber with the intent of spinning a more even, slightly thinner, but still a bit thick-and-thin, yarn. Since I’m not emotionally attached to the first skein, and I have nothing else in the stash that’s superwash, I figured this would be a good practice spin for me. I was amazed – when I started the first bobbin, I found the fiber to be much more manageable than the first time around. Halfway through the second bobbin, I realized that I was getting a much more even single than I thought I could, given what a rough time of it I had a year ago!

Here’s a second pic for good measure, which better shows that I still managed to get some thick-and-thin going. I was surprised at how easy it was to spin *evenly*, how automatically my hands moved to thin out the lumps or add more fiber to a thin spot. After a wash and thwack, this should floof up a bit and be soft and squishy like its older sister… just much more knittable.

And sure enough.. it’s delightfully evened out and quite squooshy! I have almost 50 yards of it; what shall I knit?

I stumbled across a mention of a destash on Ravelry, and could not resist buying these three braids of fiber. I was just going to buy two, but… well… you know how it goes.

Four ounces of Rambouillet from Zen Yarn Garden. I always think of autumn colors in the middle of the summer! I love all the seasons, and enjoy them for what they are and what they bring, but autumn is one of my favorites. (In mid-winter I’ll say that spring is one of my favorites, so take this with a grain of salt.) It feels like the beginning of the new year to me. So this top, with the crisp colors of autumn, was just something I had to have. It’s a fine fiber, and I’m not yet sure what I’d like to make with it. Perhaps a sport or DK weight, 14 WPI or so, would yield enough for a hat and mittens… and perhaps if I hurry, I could have that done in time for the cooler weather – which, here in Virginia, won’t be until mid-October, so I have a little time.

4.4 ounces of Falkland from Bee Mice Elf. These sea greens and blues look like they’d be perfect as socks underneath a pair of dark jeans, don’t they? Perhaps I’ll split this top the long way and spin for subtle stripes again. I like that look in handspun. This might be one of the braids that comes with me on vacation next week. I am really looking forward to having nearly ten days to spin or knit whenever I want, and I’m hoping to come home with a whole bunch of new yarns. Perhaps I’ll find a nice niddy-noddy in Merchants Row.

Finally, the fiber I almost didn’t buy: 4.35 ounces of a Merino-Silk blend from Lovesticks. Pirate-Husband says that this colorway reminds him of a candy that he used to have when he was young. He described it as pulled and twisted sugar, like a candy cane, but with different flavors and colors mixed in. The clarity of the white sections of this top contrast beautifully with the jewel toned splashes. I am really interested to see how it spins up with all that white. Will it have white sections and then colored sections, or will the white dilute the color all the way through? I’ll just have to spin it and find out!

That BFL top which Pirate-Husband bought me has become the first completed yarn off the Kromski Sonata. I had a slow start with some concerns about making the colors line up, and then the bobbins sat for a few days while I tried to find time to ply in one go.

But here it is, finally: 410 yards from 4.4 ounces of Blue-Faced Leicester top. That measurement is from before the wash, so it might have shrunk a little bit. Still, that’s enough for a pair of socks! I will definitely be weighing out the yarn into two sections and then knitting toe-up. Given how hard I tried to make the colors in the singles line up for the plying, I expect that they will be somewhat stripy socks. I am tempted to cast on for them *right now* – if it weren’t still a little damp. And there are the other works in progress, too. Okay, so I won’t cast on right now, even if I do want to. I’ll finish the Stripey Striped Socks first, so I can see if I’ve got the fit of the 60% short-row heel right. Yeah, that’s a good reason to wait!

Here’s a closeup, with a penny for scale. I am pleased with the tight twists of the plies. The singles only drifted apart in one section when I was plying, so I might have gotten the hang of putting enough twist into them. Some parts of the yarn do feel a little hard, but I have faith that they will soften up in the knitting and in the final wash.

Socks with my own handspun yarn: does it get any better than that?

New Thing the First: The blog layout! Please tell me what you think, and let me know if you have any suggestions. I am enjoying the new, wider format, and the ability to put widgets into the sidebars. Unfortunately, the Twitter widget is not fully functional yet, but Twitter does know about the problem and claims to be working to fix it. Anyone know of a better widget that I could use in the meantime?

New Thing the Second: Last night I plied the BFL and today I skeined off 410 yards of it! After a wash and a snap and a thwack, it is hanging to dry. Pirate-Husband said, “Wow, this looks like professional yarn!” The plying was interesting; one bobbin had slightly more than the other. When I found the color run that had the extra length, I snipped that single, wound some off onto a spare bobbin, and reattached the single into the ply at a better spot. I plied the extra back onto itself when everything else was done. I put a lot of plying twist in for a strong yarn, and I don’t know how that will affect the feel of it, but as for looks, it should make some nice subtle stripes when it’s knit up. Before washing, I measured 21wpi. I wonder how much it will fluff up. Pictures tomorrow, after it’s dry!

I have been thinking about how I might start up a fiber artistry business. Here are some of the thoughts I have:

• Dyeing yarn and spinning fiber:
  • Acid dyes and citric acid, though vinegar can be used for the acid.
  • Punta for $12.50/lb.
  • Other wools for even less.
  • Good superwash sock yarn. I have heard good things about both Kona *and* Treadsoft.
  • Dyeing tutorial one and two
  • Sell on Etsy or to LYS
• Carding fiber:
  • Run already-dyed top through the drum carder to make nice blends
  • wool + nylon = sock batts
  • Sell on Etsy or to LYS
• Handspinning fiber:
  • have to get faster at this, first, to make it worthwhile.
  • Sell on Etsy or to LYS
  • If selling to LYS, probably need to have steady production
• Designing and publishing patterns:
  • I can see that this is going to be the slowest one of all, but the work only needs to be done once and then the pattern is out there forever.
  • I have a few ideas in mind. Just have to knit them.
  • Ravelry has a great system of selling pattern .pdfs.
• Marketing:
  • this website (needs more pictures)
  • Twitter
  • business cards
  • Etsy
  • LYSs

So I took the first step – my new twitter username, to be used for fibery stuff, is KnittingPirate. Feel free to follow!

What else? I think it might be time for a new look for the website, too. I have been using the same theme for two years, and I’m running into some limitations. For example, I would like to be able to put a twitter widget into the sidebar, but this theme doesn’t use widgets (and the sidebar isn’t wide enough, anyway). Heck, the whole layout should be wider. And I’d like another sidebar; the one I have is sort of long.

Edited to add: New layout is here! With sidebars and widgets!

PS I put a few new stripes onto the stripey sock yesterday, lest you think I’m not knitting at all. :)

Janis asked,

So the important question is, what spinning and knitting will you be bringing to Pennsic?

Well!

For knitting, I will bring the Noro Striped Socks. I’m up into the leg of the first sock, and would like to get them finished, but honestly – they’re not holding me. Counting five rounds of stockinette stitch over and over is sort of dull, and I will be glad when they are done. I was also thinking about bringing the green yarn for the “Verdant” sock design that I started in Cookie A.’s class, and working on that. Or perhaps I could bring some Trekking XXL and work out the heel numbers for the fine-gauge rib pattern that I used for the Bloo Sock; then I’d have heels for two sizes and could publish that pattern, which will be called “Brother’s Socks”.

For spinning, I am definitely going to bring the Bullens Woolens fiber that I picked up at MDSW. There are four ounces each of Falklands and Merino/Silk, and I’m going to spin for a fingering weight with one ply of each. I will almost certainly take another braid or three of fiber with me. I decided against the batts that I carded and the “Starry Night” roving; I don’t want to mess with weighing anything. If I spin from braids, I can just fold them into half or thirds and tear. They’ll be even enough that way.

There will undoubtedly be fiber in Merchants Row to purchase, but it may or may not need processing before I can spin it. I seem to remember some silk hankies last year… in colors that I didn’t care for. Maybe if I get there as soon as they open, I’ll have better luck this year!