Handspun Thorpe

Tags

handspun, hat, spinning

My first finished object from my own handspun! You may remember a few posts a looong time ago about me trying to learn to spin, and that I was at one time working on a really lovely batt from Brains and Beauty Yarn. Just to recap, the batt was BFL, silk, sari silk and angelina and was called Autumn Glory. Well, I finished spinning it and it is my best finished handspun yet!  And it was actually kind of fun this time (less frustratingly slow).

I didn’t have that much yarn in the end, so I decided to make something small and I thought Kirsten Kapur’s Thorpe would be perfect – if I only had enough for the top of the hat, I could finish the garter stitch portion in a different color. As it turned out, though, I had enough for the whole hat and just needed to work the crochet in a contrasting yarn (some left over plymouth yarn homestead from a long time ago (like, before this blog existed) when I knitted a wedding blanket for some good friends).

I’m so excited with how this hat turned out – the yarn knitted up very evenly (victory!) and the colors are gorgeous! I also couldn’t resist including some gigantic pom pons at the end of my braids since this was already a really fun accessory. The pattern is worked from the top down and has great little details like the garter stitch edge being longer in the back than the front. It’s a super simple knit, but really fun and I love the contrasting crochet on the edge. Here’s Sophie enjoying the hat (I tried to get her when she was swatting at it, but this was the best I could do).

I would highly recommend the pattern, and I just have to say that it is really exciting to see something that started out as a big pile of fluff end up as a wearable object! Obviously Sophie loves the hat, however my family has advised me that I should never wear it like this (otherwise, I think they like it too).

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Acquiring a New Addiction

Tags

handspun, spinning, yarn

A few weekends ago, I pretended that I had enough time to do all the knitting I want, and that I might have time for another sort of fiber hobby on top of it.  Under this delusion, I took a beginner spinning class at L&B Yarn Co. with Brita from Yarn Made Me Do It.  Brita dyed up some Corriedale (I love sounding like I know what I’m talking about by naming the type of wool) for us all to try out.  I learned to pre-draft the fiber, and Brita taught us to “park and draft”, which lead me to numerous thoughts of “and she claims I will be able to do this continuously some day?”.  I did eventually finish spinning, then learned how to ply, wind onto the swift, wet finish the yarn and twist it into a skein!  My first skein of handspun, beautiful greens and blues, in all of it’s lumpy, bumpy, thick and thin glory:

This is probably a skein that will never be knit – I think I might frame it, along with my second skein of handspun.  (When Brita pulled out more fiber for sale after class, I couldn’t resist grabbing some more to try out).  They both look so adorable in their skeins (and probably a lot better than they would knitted up!) that I’m going to have to leave them that way.  The fiber for my second skein was also 100% Corriedale, in the “Something New Everyday” colorway (such an adorable mix of pinks, reds, and grays):

I did much better on my second skein, and by the end I think I had finally figured out the whole let-go-of-the-spindle-while-drafting-at-the-same-time thing (just like Brita said!).  My yarn was getting much more consistent by the end of the . . . ok, I forget what you call a bunch of fiber that is not a batt . . . was it combed top?

Now I’m working on another 3 oz. of fiber from a Louet spinning kit I got for Christmas last year (I’d been too chicken to try it out until I had the class).  It’s a solid color, and I don’t know what type of fiber it is (I can’t find it anywhere on the box or any insert in the kit), but I can tell you that it’s pretty!  The singles I’m spinning from it are much thinner than my previous two skeins, which hopefully means I’m getting better because Brita said for a while all any of us would be able to spin was really fine gauge yarn (I think this was an attempt to get us to enjoy our fat, lumpy first skeins while they lasted).

I’m sort of cringing at the thought of an actual spinning expert (or even someone with intermediate spinning skills!) reading this post, because I’ve probably said multiple things that are incorrect (and infuriating to a fiber-fanatic).  Hopefully this learning curve won’t be too steep!