Saturday, August 26, 2023

Rumpelstiltskin

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  Rumpelstiltskin was an imp or goblin that could spin straw into gold, quickly and earn a huge reward for doing so.  Hand spinning is still...

Spinning fingering yarns with Scotch tension

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Every serious hand spinner knows one can spin excellent fingering yarns on Scotch tension or bobbin lead flyer-bobbin assemblies! On the oth...
Friday, August 25, 2023

The path to handspun fingering weight yarn

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 When I first thought about hand spinning yarn for a Sheringham gansey, I assumed that the long wools that I had been using for Yorkshire st...
Monday, August 21, 2023

Needles for fingering yarn

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 I have gone off the deep end.  Now that I have really good fingering knitting yarns, I have stowed my fat needles (e.g.,2.3 mm), and all my...

Regrets

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 I try to live a life without regrets. This week I have a regret. I have an old Clemes drum carder. It had been getting a bit cranky.   Last...

Sheringham Ganseys

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 I have been interested in Sheringham Ganseys since I bought Gladys Thompson circa 2007. By then the fine yarns needed for such fabrics were...
Tuesday, February 08, 2022

Learning to use a knitting sheath

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 I learned several different ways to knit using handheld needles prior to using a knitting sheath.  Everyone said, that circular needle were...

Clarifications

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 It turns out that it is perfectly possible to hand knit (with no knitting sheath) with flat tipped "knitting pins". It takes lear...
Saturday, January 22, 2022

The Craftsman

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"Craftsman" is a traditional term referring to  people of all genders that make fine objects and materials. The craftsman sets out...
Friday, January 21, 2022

Planning

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 As usual, I have a sweater in progress. It will be about 100,000 stiches.  It is a worsted weight yarn, knit on 2.3 mm needles knit at 7.5 ...
Thursday, January 20, 2022

Knitting fast revisited

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 When I came back to knitting, circa 1999,  I was told a lot of things - circular needles are faster, Continental knitting style is faster, ...
Friday, January 14, 2022

Just knitting

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A while back, I read an account of a Master Knitter who required his apprentices to "knit" for 5 years before he allowed them to p...
Saturday, January 01, 2022

More crossed stitches

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 I have been working on crossed stitches for a while now - there were little swatches, some approaches did not work, some sort of worked. So...
Thursday, December 30, 2021

Cassandra said, "Beware of knitting in the dark!"

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 I am trying to learn to knit cross stitch. I had done a few rows - I thought I would test myself by knitting cross stitch while watching th...
Wednesday, December 29, 2021

As usual, when I try something new, I get part of it wrong!

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 It is perfectly possible to knit cross stitch / twisted stich / plaited fabric with blunt needles (and a knitting sheath.  It can be done a...
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Monday, December 27, 2021

Statement of errors (again)

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 Since taking Gladys Thompson as my primary teacher some 15 years ago, I have focused on uncrossed stiches. Neglecting crossed stitches in k...
Saturday, December 25, 2021

How I got ply-twist on Sheringham & Jersey yarns so wrong

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 I use  differential rotation speed (DRS) control of twist insertion as I spin. It is a well known technology - both Henry Clemes and Alden ...
Friday, December 24, 2021

Walking through a cave

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I find knitting crossed stitches to be like walking through cave -- it is an adventure. One never knows what one will find. Left over right ...

Notes from Sheringham

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  Knitting “Sheringham” fabrics has been a goal since I first picked up Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans by Gladys Thompson some 1...
Friday, October 01, 2021

Swatch knit from handspun 6-ply ~1,700 ypp sock yarn

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  4" by 4" swatch of latest sock yarn. One of the most elastic yarns I have ever spun and one of the most elastic fabrics I have e...

New Draperies

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 Consider the explosion of exports of English worsted textiles in the 16th and 17th century, the so called "New Draperies". It has...
Thursday, September 30, 2021

Tudor Textiles

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 Look at paintings of the Tudor Court (Henry VIII ==> Elizabeth R). Now, sit down and spin threads and weave samples of fabrics that matc...
Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Sheringham

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 If the fine yarns the Sheringham ganseys were knit from had/have the beauty of the yarns I am spinning, then I can very much understand the...

Bias

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 As I began producing these finer yarns, I had a problem matching singles twist to ply twist.  This was resolved with a new drive band betwe...

The Economics of the yarns I am making these days

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 I start by spinning worsted singles at 17 tpi and between 11,000 and 14,000 ypp.  In an hour, I can spin about 300 yards, using about 10 gr...
Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Spinning and sampling - Jacob

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   September 28, 2021 - spinning singles from dyed Jacob fiber,  then plying into 4-ply yarn at about 2,700 ypp. I knit this yarn on 1.3 mm ...
Saturday, September 25, 2021

Romney, 4-ply, 2,300 ypp

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Is it like the old Baldwin's BeeHive? No!, that was spun from a finer fleece. As I knit this (Romney, 4-ply, 2,300 ypp) on 1.3 mm needle...
Friday, September 24, 2021

Besotted

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 For twenty years was besotted with 5-ply/ 1,000 ypp gansey yarn. That despite the fact that the first weatherproof fabrics that I produced ...
Thursday, September 23, 2021

Learning to knit, again

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  A swatch of worsted handspun 4-ply (about 2,500 ypp, singles at 17 tpi, plied at 17ptpi) knit on 6" by 1.3 mm needles (in photo).  Fl...