Sock fabric!

Elastic, durable, good moisture control, with minimum bulk

Early last spring, I set a goal of learning to knit "sock fabric". I wanted the fabrics of  Gladys Thompson's Sheringham ganseys and  Weldon's various gentleman's socks. These fabrics were knit from 4-ply Scotch Fingering Yarns. Paton's Beehive, was a commercial example, with samples still available. I also had samples of Froelich Wolle Special Blauband, which is also a 4-ply fingering yarn. It was clear to  me that 4-ply fingering was a fairly common kind of yarn - that at one time was commonly handspun.  

The modern Paton's BeeHive is synthetic and the Blauband contains 15% nylon. I like wool yarns, so after looking around, it seemed that I would have to become competent at spinning "sock yarn". I played with various forms of 3-ply (1680 ypp) and even made 6-ply versions, also ~ 1680 ypp, and decided, I wanted good,  4-ply fingering. Such yarns are based on 20s. (singles with 20 hanks of 560 yards /pound)

I could spin worsted 10s (5,600 ypp singles), so I did not fear 20s, but knew they would take some practice to spin on a production basis.

First I needed to do some spinning from the stash.

As excavated from stash. It is a colored (silver-brown, sepia) Cotswold-cross

 with a spin with a spin count under 40s. I bought it for a gansey for myself, but my 

wife tells me it is the wrong color - so it is promoted to socks. It should be a durable as nylon, 

but with all the virtues of wool.

First pass on combing

First bird's nest for this project.

 It needs better planking.

First spinning trial. Grist should be ~11,000 ypp (e.g., 20s). 

At this grist it spins very fast  and easy.  By the

time I write this, I have several bobbins of singles wound off

 and ready  to start plying.

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Repeat for every large bin in the stash. No blending - each single is from one fleece. Often the yarns would be marled, plied up from yarns spun from different fleece.  Except for the navy-blue Romney, all fiber was undyed.

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Also, there was a reality check - did I really hate yarn from this fleece spun as 10s, and plied up in 1,600 ypp 3-ply?  Mostly, I had 10s spun, and it was just a matter of plying and knitting a swatch. Ya, I wanted 4-ply fingering.

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With the exception of a coarse gray Cotswold,  I liked the 4-ply 2,500 ypp better than the 3-ply 1,600 ypp.  The surprise was one of the coarser Rambouillet fleece. It was surprisingly hard to spin as 20s.

I settled on the singles being worsted (Z) spun ~12,00 ypp at 17 tpi. The yarn was S plied at 12 tpi. A hank of 560 yards is ~ 23 grams,  which can easily spun on my DRS system. Length is lost to twist in plying, so a hank of 4-ply is ~500 yards/ 90 grams.  However, I lose good control of twist after ~ 40 grams, so I ply the finished yarn an ounce at a time. Commercial 4-fingering was traditionally sold in 1 ounce balls, so I do not feel too bad. I do feel these yarns are real sock yarn with good abrasion resistance, elasticity, and moisture control when knit on 1.3 mm needles at ~ 12 spi and 20 rpi. I like these fabrics - a lot. I find them worth the effort.

I sampled six fleece, and  spun a worsted 20s from each. These were plied to produce 2 marled and 2 single fleece yarns with grist between 2,000 ypp and 2,500. These were knit into a chain of swatches on 1.3 mm needles. The Cotswold swatch was finished with about 3/4" knit on 1.0 mm needles in deference to Gladys Thompson's description of Sheringham ganseys. In the photograph, a 1.3 mm sock needle is  above the bit knit with finer needles.   When knit on 1 mm needles that  4-ply fingering spun from Cotswold  is weatherproof. Such knitting is a hell of a lot of work.  As plain knitting, it has very limited elasticity, so it needs a stitch  pattern to give it elasticity and wearing ease.   On the other hand, imagine an 8-ounce "gansey" that is weatherproof! That is real magic! Something like that would be worth spending 10 weeks knitting.  (Frankly, I would use a finer wool to spin 23s or 25s, if I was going to knit on 1mm needles, but I have bouts of "crazy"! )

4 samples from different handspun 4-ply finger fingering yarns.

Gauge is about 12 spi by 20 rpi. ( ~240 stitches/ inch^2).

The long needles are 1.0 mm, the short sock needles are 1.3 mm.

These days I hang a small weight from the bottom of the knitting sheath

to provide better balance.

I am not sure why, but the spinning went a lot faster than I expected. Current theory is that when inserting more twist, I spin the wheel faster, so I am drafting about the same speed I would if spinning 10s. I know this project put a lot of wear on the drive bands, and they need to be replaced sooner than I expected.

Sorry about the pix quality-  I was up on Mt. Brionies, slipped in the dust, and came down hard on my phone.