Spinning fine to replicate traditional yarns

I acquired my copy of  Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans by Gladys Thompson  (GT), shortly after I posed the question of : "How did the old seamen stay warm in wooden, square rigged ships?" almost 20 years ago. It is now stained with coffee and red wine. It is more stained than almost any other book in my collection.

Certainly, throughout GT there are a number of problems. I would not think of attacking any of those garments without the wisdom in Knitting in the Old Way, by Gibson-Roberts and  Robson. However, KitOW will not get you to the weatherproof garments in GT unless you use a knitting sheath/knitting stick/knitting shield - which is not addressed in either GT or KitOW

Another problem we have in replicating the objects described in GT is yarn. Many of the objects in GT were knit from yarns produced in mills with traditional equipment. When that equipment wore out the mills closed. Circa 2006, my favorite gansey yarn mill in Yorkshire closed, and I saw the writing on the wall - and started spinning. 

5-ply gansey yarn was my first focus, and I spun miles of it. The singles were 5,600 ypp. I learned to spin it at 9 tpi.  Most of  the objects in GT could knit from yarns plied up from those singles. Such 5-ply yarns also became a favorite for knitting into gear for for hiking, skiing, sailing, camping, and sailing. I plied the same singles into 10-ply yarns and tested them. I did not write about those objects, because they tended to be too warm and heavy.  I compared what I could knit from hand spun gansey yarn to what I could knit from various modern commercial yarns, and how ever nice/functional the objects knit from commercial yarns were, the hand spun was better.

The objects in GT not based yarns derived from 5,600 ypp singles are the Norfolk/ Sheringham patterns starting on page 83. Over the years, I bought various sock yarns and fine(r) needles, hoping to be able to replicate these objects and get some understanding of them. Early last spring, with Covid and everything, I swore to study "sock-like" fabrics until I understood these objects.

GT says, "Dunraven 3-ply". I thought they were 3 plies of 5,600 ypp for a total grist of 1,680 ypp -  a common modern commercial sock yarn - a yarn that I could produce in my sleep.  That was easy, but like many easy answers, it was wrong. Dunraven 3-ply was  3 plies of of  11,200 ypp for a total grist of  3,360 ypp. And then there was BeeHive - that I knew as the modern 2,500 ypp 4-ply yarn. However, in the old days there was also a 3-ply, 3,360 ypp Beehive yarn.  

Ya, that kind of yarn is out there - for a price, but I have bins of "Heinz-57" that I got as a "Spinzillia Special" from the Woolery, sitting under the combing bench. It has a spin count of 52- with some focus I can spin it into 20s (11,200 ypp).

My spinning throne, on the patio, under the umbrella - forecast high - 100F

Starting to spin 20s of Heinz-57

White singles on tension box for ply

Fiber on my distaff and in a bin

(I have a heavy duty distaff, before a car wreck, it was a 

fancy photo tripod. It makes a great distaff!)

Spinning a natural dark fiber into 20s to use as marker and twist indicator

Singles in tension box

Starting to ply

A bobbin of plied yarn

After its bath! 

It is real close to 3,360 ypp! 

Variation in yarn diameter is variation

in twist that disappears as the yarn is snugged up in knitting.

On UK16 needles (actually 1.3 mm) it  knits up at ~12 spi and ~20 rpi. With UK17 needles, this 3-ply handspun yarn knits at ~14 spi and ~24 rpi.

The weather has cooled off, and my focus has improved.  I was just sitting on the patio spinning the Heinz-57 at 14,000 ypp (25s).  No problem, just a more relaxed fiber prep.

It took 6 months of work, and a pile of self directed evolutions, but now I think I have a reasonable handle on sock fabrics. The hard part was jumping from singles of 5,600 ypp to singles of 11,200 ypp. It only took a few seconds but it was the hard part of the year.