Thursday, December 17, 2015

Rooting around at the bottom of the Rabbit Hole

At the end of the last episode, I was left wanting 4-ply, worsted spun, 2,500 ypp gansey yarn.

This morning, I rooted around in the stash for some fine long wool, oiled it, and carded a batt.

I put the 20s whorl on the wheel, and spun a bit, then did a wpi test - it came out to 26 wraps in 1/4 inch packed to refusal - which is ~104 wpi =>a grist of  ~11,000.  then I spent a couple of 90 minutes spinning a thousand yards of  11,000 ypp single winding off on to 4 bobbins.

I put the bobbins on the tension box and plied a few feet, and did a wpi test of the 4-ply - it came up 13 wraps in 1/4 inch or close to  50 wraps /inch => grist of  2,500 for the finished yarn. I plied about 200 yards of the yarn.

By lunch time, I was knitting my handspun replacement for Paton's 4-ply Beehive  on 1.25 mm  DPN.  Actually, the primary difference between it and the other worsted 20s that I have spun to make 6-strand 1650 ypp sock yarn is the fineness of  the wool.

For a "gansey", I think I would use the coarser 55 count wool, rather then the finer 60 count wool. The real question is whether the fabric from a 2,500 ypp yarn is worth the extra knitting effort.  I need to test some swatches.




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