Category: Technique Page 7 of 8

Handspun socks

On 15 Mar, 2007

Remember these and these socks? Now that I’ve worn them a few times, I have to say that I love, Love, LOVE them. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get the gumption up to knit socks from my own handspun.

There is one thing that I’ve noticed. The Black Bunny Hop ranged between 10-12 wpi according to my spinner’s control card, and was knitted using US 1 (2.5mm). The Spunky Eclectic averaged 12 wpi, and was knit using US 0 (2.0mm).

Wait! 2.0mm needles? What’s going on here? I normally use these needles for socks knit with Koigu. Koigu comes in at 16 wpi. Much finer than my handspun. A quick look through my leftover sock yarn stash…

Koigu: 12 wpi; typically use 2.0mm needles
Trekking XXL: 20 wpi; current socks using 2.0mm
Bright Anklets: 18 wpi; don’t remember, but likely 2.5mm
Black Bunny socks: 12 wpi; 2.5mm — the fabric is a little sleazy, and I could have gone down to 2.0mm
Spunky Eclectic socks: 12 wpi; 2.0mm

So, why am I all over the place on the size of needles that I’m using for my socks?

I’ll write about my theories tomorrow. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your theories.

Two End Knitting Lessons Learned

By Ann

On 9 Jan, 2007

In Knit, Technique

Lesson #1: use worsted spun yarn

For the silk pouch, I spun the silk from the fold. While this allowed me to spin a thicker yarn (my own personal spinning quirk, your mileage may vary), it also produced a fuzzy woolen yarn. This may be desirable in many instances, but not in two end knitting, in my humble opinion. I would have preferred a smoother yarn to show off the stitch definition. As it is, it is all lost in the halo of the yarn. I know, “halo” is not how one typically would describe a silk yarn, but mine definitely had a bit of a fuzzy halo about it. Not only was the stitch definition lost, so ws the color variation. And this is all before I washed my sample. It will likely bloom even more.

Lesson #2: use a nostepinne for making the center pull yarn ball

The center pull yarn ball from my ball winder collapsed part way through and caused a snarly, ugly mess. The nostepinne would have kept my yarn ball neater.

Lesson #3: overply your yarn

This was recommended in Ann-maj Ling, and it definitely is a great tip. The ply definitely untwisted during the knitting process. To keep a stable yarn in the knitting, you definitely need to overply your yarn.

Lesson #3a: don’t set your twist

She also recommends that you don’t wash your spun yarn before knitting with it She doesn’t explain why, but my conjecture is that you don’t want to set the twist so that the twist in your yarn is still “alive” and will untwist appropriately. This is just my observation of how my yarn behaved. I don’t know for sure what she had in mind.

Lesson #4: find your perfect yarn length

Ann-maj Ling recommended unwinding 2 yards of yarn from the yarn ball, and knit from that length. Nancy Bush suggested 1 yard of yarn. I found that my ideal length is slightly less than 1 yard because I am height impaired. While seated, if the yarn is too long, then the yarn ball drags on the floor while I’m dangling it to unwind. Everyone will have a different ideal length. Experiment and find your comfort zone.

Lesson #5: don’t try to knit to the last possible stitch before unwinding more yarn

I found that when I knit all the way to the end of the yard length, the yarn is near unplied. At the start of the next length, the twist is still very high (over plied). This causes great variation in the stitch definition at the beginning of a yard length vs. the end. If I had knitted 3/4 way through and unwound more yarn, the twist would even out a bit more. Thus less variability between the start and end of a length. Keep an eye on that twist and determine the best place to unwind more yarn.

Lesson #6: don’t forget to twist the yarn between every stitch

I forgot to do this during the first couple of rounds. I ended up knitting in regular fair isle method. You don’t get the stitch definition if you don’t twist the 2 yarn ends as proscribed.

Lesson #7: It’s FUN!

I will definitely do it again. I would love a pair of mittens using this method. And I would like to make a vest using this technique for sailing.

The Perfect Sock Yarn

By Ann

On 12 Dec, 2006

In FO, Knit, Spin, Technique

This is a two-fer post — Black Bunny Hop and Dye-Spin-Knit-along. Not that I actually signed up for either, but there you go.

I think I have perfected the perfect handspun sock yarn. Before I go any further, I have to admit that I have never knit a pair of socks from my own handspun. Never. (Actually, I still haven’t yet, since I’ve only finished the first sock of the pair.) I’ve spun yarn from fibers that I’ve intended for socks, but for some reason, I never actually made socks from them. They never really seem “right,” but I didn’t know what “right” was either.

May I present to you…the perfect sock yarn…

Sock Yarn

The blue-green yarn is my handspun (aka the perfect sock yarn). The variegated yarn is Koigu.

Now, why is it perfect? Because it is soft, lofty, and squishy, just like Koigu. The fiber is blue-faced leicester from Black Bunny Fiber. I spun the singles using my variant of a long draw, so the yarn retained a lot of the loft. And I remembered what several of my past spinning instructors have told me … “underspin, overply.”

I never asked any of them exactly what that meant. In the comfort of my own home, and not having the experts nearby to explain to me, I decided that the “overply” part meant that your singles have set somewhat on the bobbin. Thus, the resulting plied yarn will appear a bit overspun while you are spinning it. Once wetted, the twist will relax back to a balanced yarn.

In the case of this particular yarn, I didn’t get a perfectly balanced yarn after I washed the finished yarn. When I hung it up to dry, there were still some kinks in the yarn. The skein didn’t twist back on itself, but there were kinks in the individual strands (sorry, I don’t take a picture of it while it was drying). Anyway, I didn’t weigh it down to block. I just left it to kink and dry, because I want to preserve the sproingy-ness of the yarn. (Note the high angle of twist in the ply, just like Koigu.)

The end result is what you see above. A puffy yarn that has really good structure and will wear well.

(click image to see details)

The sock is knitted from the toe up on size 1 needles. It’s a really dense fabric because I don’t want this pair of socks to wear out too quickly. After all, I spun it!