handspun – Sheetar.com

Socks

Ember Socks

By Sheetar 1 March 2017 7 March 2023

Yet another Spun-to-Finished project! Simple socks this time, but I really wanted to show off the color transition, and a pair of “fraternal twin” socks seemed like the perfect opportunity. First up, the fiber!

The fiber is from Twisted Fiber Art and is “Sleek,” a now discontinued blend of 50% Superwash Merino wool and 50% Tencel which makes it a great, sturdy blend for socks. The colorway is, “Ember,” which has also been discontinued from the Twisted Fiber Art list of colorways. The tencel makes the Superwash Merino spin up super silky and smooth.

And the spun yarn! I used a chain ply method to get 415 yards out of 4 oz of fiber. The plying method helped preserve the color changes in the roving. It came out to right about fingering weight, so I knew this would eventually become socks.

The finished socks! I knit the same basic sock I always knit – 64 stitches around, top-down, with a heel flap. I started them August 3, 2016 and finished August 19, 2016, so these went pretty quickly! As you can see, the striping doesn’t quite line up from sock to sock, and that’s okay. I actually prefer to waste less yarn and just knit onto the second sock without worrying about the start color lining up just right. For the heels, I switch to the other end of the yarn cake once I start the heel flap so that the color transition on the leg to instep section isn’t interrupted. Yeah, it makes for two extra ends to weave in per sock, but it takes a matter of a few minutes and makes the sock look nice. Here’s the Ravelry Project Link for this project if you want to see more. There aren’t any notes or anything since this isn’t a really complicated pattern, but I am pleased with how they knit up and, as usual, how amazing it is that my hands can turn a bunch of fiber into something I can wear.

Shawls/Wraps, Spinning

Antarktis

By Sheetar 25 April 2014 20 August 2023

Another spun-to-finished project! I recently realizes just how much handspun I have sitting around, and how much I need to start using it instead of keeping it set aside as precious yarn that shall not be touched. The resulting shawl came out really lovely, light and airy, and I’m super happy with the results. I’ll admit to not really being a shawl person, but with the right pattern, I’ve slowly grown to like wearing them with the point in front, and sometimes add extra increases to make sure the long side is long enough to go all the way around. There’s nothing worse than a shawl that won’t wrap around the whole way without feeling like I’m being strangled. Details below!

First up, the fiber. This is Twisted Fiber Art’s Cloudy in colorway “Terrain” which is 60% Merino and 40% Bamboo. It looks like the name of the fiber was changed to Glam, and the fiber contents tweaked a little.

Next, the yarn. Spun to something between fingering and lace weight, I came out with 547 yards, chain plied.

The shawl! Pattern is Antarktis by Janina Kallio. Total knitting time was just over two weeks, so it went pretty quickly and was easy enough to bring with me to knit night. I used up pretty much the whole skein, following the pattern instructions until I got to the border section, except switching the wrong-side rows to purl so that it was garter instead of stockinette with a 3 stitch garter border. Just not a fan of garter stitch! I kept repeating the border section until I was just about out of yarn and then bound off using Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. Blocked aggressively with wires and the resulting shawl came out beautifully. Ravelry Project Link in case you’re interested.

On a non-knitting realted note, I’m really trying to blog more, especially with One Local Summer starting again. It always seems like I go from May to November only posting about food, and I want to try to blog more to break all that up a bit! I have a whole bunch of projects I haven’t blogged about lined up, and there will be PLENTY going on in the vegetable garden, so hopefully those will break up the summer monotony. We’re also going on some trips this summer, and I hope to be able to blog from the road. Anything you’d like to hear about specifically? Let me know in the comments!

Spinning

Tour de Fleece 2013

By Sheetar 26 July 2013 20 August 2023

(The photo that was here was lost to a flickr deletion – I thought I had backed up everything, but this file was missed)

Tour de Fleece is over for another year. What is Tour de Fleece? Well, it’s held during the Tour de France, that big bicycling race, except replace bikes with spinning wheels and fiber, and you have a nerdy, wool filled 21 days (plus two days rest) of spinning your feet off. I posted my progress shots on Instagram, but I figured I’d post the final shot of my finished work here. My final tally is 3081 yards of finished yarn, but times three for the three plies, and I have 9,243 yards spun in total. Not too shabby! I could’ve probably spun more, but I was pretty busy and seemed to have stressed the heck out of my hands like I never have before. My favorite is the Chasing Rainbows top mostly for the way it spun so easily and evenly. REALLY love the colors on the Taylored Fibers yarn. So, now that I have all this handspun, I need to actually start using it for projects!

All have been chain plied, links to go my Ravelry stash page.

Top row, L to R:
1. Chasing Rainbows Merino/Bombyx top – 332 yards, 2 oz
2. Taylored Fibers 80/20 Merino/Silk – 542 yards, 4 oz
3. Dunn Spunn Alpaca/Wool/Bamboo – 628 yards, 9.3 oz

Bottom row, L to R:
1. Twisted Fiber Art Cloudy 60/40 Merino/Bamboo – 547 yards, 4 oz
2. Mountain Colors 100% Targhee – 506 yards, 4 oz
3. Wild Hare Fiber Studio Superwash Wool – 526 yards, 4oz

Cowls, Gloves/Mittens

Mittens and a Cowl

By Sheetar 12 March 2013 12 March 2013

I get so good at blogging and then fall off the wagon for a while. To be fair, we’ve had a bad few months with lots of grief and loss, so the blog has been less important lately. Anyway, I do have another spun-to-finished project to show off. Well, two, really, from the same batch of yarn/fiber.

The fiber is Koigu braided roving, and is 100% Targhee fiber. This was acquired at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival in 2010, and I LOVE the fiber.
It’s really light and sproingy, so I managed to spin 500 yards from the 100 grams.
Finally, the two finished objects made from the same skein of yarn. One pair of Broad Street Mittens, and one Moebius Cowl. Both were easy knits, and simple, because I wanted the colors to show themselves off more than the pattern. They’re both patterns I’ve knit before, so it was easy, and I made a few small modifications along the way (as you do when you’ve knit a pattern multiple times and know just how to fit it to your peculiarities). Very pleased with how they both came out. I knit the mittens first and then the cowl second, using up every inch of the yarn which means it’s a little short, but does the job well enough!

Ceramics, Scarves

All Things Crafty

By Sheetar 15 February 2012 15 February 2012

Spinning and spinning and knitting. Spinning up clay on the wheel, spinning up yarn on a different wheel, and as always, knitting.

Not too long ago, I started going to Cara’s open studio Wednesdays at the Cobb Studio. She’s a wonderful teacher and it’s been an incredible amount of fun getting my hands dirty. I got a quick lesson in throwing clay on a wheel one day when the studio was a little emptier than usual, and I’ve slowly been working on getting better. Just wanted to share a few pieces I’ve made that I’m super happy with so far. The first is a little tea cup. It’s a bit heavy and thick on the bottom, but I absolutely love how the handle came out. The second is a mug with a leaf applied to the side so that you can slip your hand inside and keep your hand warm while you sip on your tea. Unfortunately, I neglected to account for the shrinkage of the clay when it dries, so it came out a little smaller than I expected, but I can still get my fingers inside the little leaf pocket.

For fiber spinning, I’ve spent the last week or so not knitting. I think I may have over-knit recently and my elbow is telling me to take a break. I’ve got two bobbins spun and plied so far, and am working on some 100% silk which is challenging, but AMAZING at the same time. Below, on the left is some superwash merino fiber from Twisted Fiber Art in the colorway, “Maple” and on the right is more superwash merino fiber from PigeonRoof Studios in, “Illuminated Moss.”

Then I have another spun-to-knit project because this month has been all about handspun.

Fiber is from Fiber Optic yarns and is 80% Merino and 20% silk dyed into one big long gradient. The colorway is Gold-Copper-Cinnamon-Espresso.

All spun up! 480 yards, fingering weight, and chain plied to keep the color progression.

Knit into Saroyan! (Ravelry Project Link) The pattern is pretty easy, and the only issue is that it wants to curl up. I thought I had blocked it pretty well, but the garter border at the top still wants to curl under. Other than that, I’m really happy with how this came out and how even the not-so-even handspun knitted up. Can’t wait to wear it out and show it off!

Gloves/Mittens

Owlie Gloves

By Sheetar 7 February 2012 7 February 2012

Owlie Gloves! They’re just too cute, and a great way to use up my growing stash of handspun.

First, the Fiber:

Fiber is by Gnomespun and is Polwarth in colorway, “Hidcote” – I picked this up at Rhinbeck in October 2010

Second, the spun yarn:

Yarn was chain plied, and came out to 328 yards. It probably falls between worsted and DK and is pretty slubby and uneven, but it’s got a very handspun quality to it which is perfect for gloves. The unevenness seems to disappear, especially when knit at a smaller/tighter gauge. The yarn is lofty and squishy and perfect for gloves.

Thirdly, the gloves!:

Pattern is Owlie Mitts that I added fingers to so that I’d have gloves. I love fingerless gloves and mitts, but really, it’s my fingers that get cold, and adding fingers to mitts is pretty easy! They fit perfectly. The gauge is pretty tight (think knitting a thick DK yarn on US 1.5 needles), but there’s no way the cold is getting in through these. The beads were sewn on later rather than knitted in since I didn’t have the crochet hook or floss necessary to add them during the knitting. No big deal. Here’s the Ravelry Project Link if you want to see my short bit of notes.

knitting, Socks, Spinning

Go With the Flow Socks

By Sheetar 16 April 2011 16 April 2011

Finally, another spun-to-finished project. I’ve been accumulating quite the stash of handspun, and I figured it was time to put some to use. The yarn is dyed by Meg at Twisted Fiber Art, and she’s really quite the magician with dye. The colorway is called, “Intrigue,” and was part of a club Meg ran for 3 months. I spun the superwash merino roving into a thin single and then chain or navajo plied the yarn so that the colors would stay together as they were dyed. I ended up with about 425 yards of fingering weight yarn that was then turned into a really squishy pair of Go With the Flow socks. The pattern knitted up quickly, and I only made a few modifications – worked a plain slip-stitch heel and didn’t turn the work inside out after the heel flap was done. I love the way they came out and refuse to take them off now that the photos are taken. Yeah, it’s almost not-sock season, but that won’t stop me from stocking up for the winter!

Gloves/Mittens

Boscage Mitts

By Sheetar 25 March 2010 7 February 2012

I was fortuante enough to participate in another test knit – I’m really getting to love doing these! It’s taken me a while to write up (I know, I know, bad blogger!), but here’s what I’ve got. Expect more updates in the near future – I’ve got a lot of things to tell you about.

Boscage Mitts
Pattern: Boscage Mitts
Designer: Ritsuka Nashi
Needles: US 11 (8mm)
Yarn: Handspun silk/wool blend, approx 10wpi
–Ravelry Project Link–
What an absolutely fabulous pair of mitts! I happened to have this skein of handspun merino/tussah blend that I bought as roving from Cloverleaf Farms at Rhinebeck. It had been spun up for a while, just waiting for the right project to come along. Well, the right project did come along and how right it was. The stitch pattern makes the mitts light and airy while still being warm, and get this, reversible! Ritsuka’s pattern is well thought out, using a tubular cast on which makes the finished mitts look clean and neat. I know it’s not really the season to knit mitts anymore, but you can never be too prepared for another snowpocalypse, now can you? Plus, they knit up quickly – I finished these in one afternoon.