Spinning of Spudnick's fleece is done

I finally finished spinning Spudnick's fleece Sunday. I took 2 days to ply the 3 nearly full bobbins, winding one into a center pull ball and leaving it on the winder so the yarn would 'set' in the ball. I then plied the other 2 bobbins until one ran out of yarn. I did all the spinning, of the entire fleece, on my Mazurka, and all the plying on my double-treadle Lendrum with the plying head.

That was Tuesday evening I started the plying. Wednesday I finished plying the rest of the remaining bobbin with the center pull ball, and when that was gone the other end of the ball, finishing what has been, for me, a very long journey. I skeined, washed it and hung it (unweighted) to dry. It is now wound up and in the box with the rest of the yarn. Next step: get pictures then figure out how I want to do the yoke. Who knows, maybe I'll finally be able to wear a sweater made from this yarn next winter!

After I finish the Spiral Dance Shawl. Back to the border!

Spring Day has us all busy

We have had a busy day today, enjoying the lovely sunny spring weather. It is cool, but the sun is warm and the sky clear. Perfect day to walk the dogs, sit out and crack hickory nuts and do some handspinning.

I've put a new bobbin on the Mazurka wheel as I spin up the final few batts of Spudnick's wool. I've gotten several batts spun up this weekend, as well as making progress on the Pink Spiral Dance Shawl and the Knit One Below Reversible Vest. I even got a little work done on the quiviut scarf when I walked the dogs this afternoon. Now it's time to work on the spinning for a bit before the last of the late afternoon sun goes.

Spudnick Update Pictures

I've been getting some spinning in, and this fleece sure is wonderful. I've had hundreds of hours of fun with it and I've got a lot yet to go. Here is a picture showing some of what I've gotten spun up. The big gray skein is from what I spun last summer, as is the small silver-white ball. The rest are what I've spun this winter.

The 2 shades on the lazy kate are singles, not yet plied. I'll wind them into a center pull ball to ply them. I'll be starting on the next shade, a much lighter gray, like a mix of the silver-white and lightest gray shown here.

I posted 2 pictures as they came out slightly different due to the flash, to give an idea of the shades in different light.

Spinning again

Over the weekend I finished spinning and plying the last of a dark gray/taupe CVM fleece on my Mazurka. This is the fleece I wanted to finish spinning before I started back on Spudnick's fleece, as both have been spun on the same wheel. The carded weight was 3.2 lbs. I've got 6 huge skeins of fluffy yarn. It was spun fairly softly, with lots of loft and will probably be knit on a size 8-10 US needle, maybe larger, when I get around to swatching. I've got in mind a mid-thigh length jacket/coat, probably garter stitch similar to some that Elizabeth Zimmermann or Meg Swanson have written up in their books. At least those were the books I ended up pulling off my shelf and finding what I was looking for!

Haven't decided if I should do some big cables on it, which would preclude the garter stitch, or if I should spin up some of the other, lighter gray CVM I've got around to make a contrast color to make it more interesting. Decisions, decisions!

Once I finished that on Sunday I got out all of Spudnick's carded fleece, putting part of it into the now-empty box that the dark gray/taupe was in. If I stack all 4 boxes/tubs that these carded batts are in they'll be about as tall as I am! Woohoo!! I got out some of the darkest set of batts, 3 or 4 of them in that bag, and started spinning to match my sample. The texture is a little different, not quite as smooth and soft, but otherwise similar. I need to get some pictures of the 2 shades crossing each other to show the color variation. I've really got my work cut out for me with this fleece, but it is so wonderful to work with. I definitely won't have my sweater done for this winter, but maybe I'll finish the spinning and knitting in time for next winter. Or the one after!

Spudnick's Fleece is finally carded

I finally finished carding Spudnick's fleece today. It is going to be a long time before I get it all spun! Here are some pictures. This is about 4 times as much as I had the first time around. Good thing I found the rest of the fleece before I gave up on my sweater and made it into something else!


As you can see, there are several shades. I'll be spinning each shade by itself, to keep the colors from blending any further.



To give an idea of the size of the batts here's one with my hand.



I love all the shades of gray!

Processing matters

I've been spending quite a bit of my holiday processing Spudnick's wonderful fleece. I'm using a process similar to what Margaret Stove uses for superfine Merino, using a wide-tooth dog comb to open up each lock of the fleece, sorting (somewhat) by shade of color. I put the opened locks in an box, then when I finish opening all the locks of a particular shade, I card it, cut-ends first. I've still got quite a bit yet to open, but it's going well.

Spudnick Fleece Pictures

I finally got the camera out and got some pictures of the lovely fleece that I'm making my sweater out of. When I found the tub with the bags in it I was very pleased to find the tag describing it. This fleece is from a ram named Spudnick.

I've been remembering it as CVM, but the tag says that he is a mix of Corriedale, Polypay and Cottswold. It was shown by Clyde A. Vair, of Eaton, CO, and took 5th place. I guess I was told it was similar to CVM, and that's what I remembered.


This picture is of the largest bag of fleece awaiting processing. It is dark silver in color.

This fleece is soft, cushy and has a nice sheen to it. Truly lovely.


This is a close up of the bag of nearly black fleece. It is a mix of some completely black, some dark gray, some mixed silver and black.

This is a box of one batch of the fleece that has had the locks combed with a wide-toothed dog comb. In the lower left corner is a single, darker lock, from the nearly black bag, next to a tube of lip balm. This box contains medium-dark silver, just a shade darker than the medium silver shown being carded below.


Close up of the single dark lock with tube of lip balm.

This is my new Strauch carder with the medium silver going through for the 2nd time to blend it well. I ended up with 11 batts of this shade which I then split lenghtwise into 3-5 strips, attenuated, split that attenuated length into half again, and spread the attenuated strip out flat before feeding it into the carder. I used one strip from each of the original batts until the carder wouldn't hold any more.

It may have been more than I needed to do, but the blending has been very even from this method. I've currently got 5 nice recarded batts, and enough strips to make 2 or 3 more.

Sweater Update

As I may have mentioned, I got partway along on the body and sleeves of my lovely gray sweater only to realize that there wasn't enough yarn to finish it as the yoked sweater I've been dreaming of. I put it down and went on to other things, trying to decide what to do. Well, as fate would have it, I was looking for some angora/silk/Merino yarn the other day and lo and behold, I found a tub with some wool in it! I brought it in, hoping and praying that some of the bags of washed fleece was the same gray fleece that I spun over the summer. Eureka! It is! I've got nearly-black, some more similar gray, and a 2-4 times the amount of darker gray.

Yay! I may rip back to redo the yoke with the dark as well as the light, but I should have plenty for a nice yoked sweater, no problem.

Well, other than preparing to card, carding and spinning, of course!

I've got one of the bags of medium gray carded. Took me a while to figure out the best process. I have got it to where I'm using a dog comb on each lock to tease/comb it open, then laying the carded locks all parallel. Once I've got a decent amount ready I'll run them through the carder. I've run all I've got done through once, but need to split the bats, thin them down then recard them to finish blending the silver & darker gray.

Sweater on hold; Making Mitts

Well, After I got a bit done on the sleeves and the body I decided I didn't like the way it was coming out. Things have been really hectic these days, so I haven't had time to figure out if I messed up my calculations, but that's what I expect. When I get some time (after marching band season) I'll redo my calculations. I expect to have to rip back a few inches of the sleeves and body, readjust and start that part over.

In the mean time I've been aware that the lovely warm weather we've had is not going to last, so I found a ball of natural cream color hand spun Targhee wool and invented/unvented a mitt pattern. My goal was to be able to knit or spin while keeping my wrists and the backs of my hands warm. I wanted my fingers and the palms of my hands free to work.

I started by hand-chaining a length of the yarn long enough to fit around my middle or index finger, put the loop on a wooden double pointed knitting needle, then picking up one side of 3 of the chains. Turned, then knitted across those stitches, knitting into the front and back of each loop, thus doubling the number of stitches. Then I started in to make a 2-faced fabric by double knitting. After the first double knit row (k1,s1 across, turn, repeat on the other side) I did an increase at the 2nd from the end of every other row.

When this ever-increasing triangle was long enough that it would fit around my wrist it also seemed to be long enough to cover the back of my hand, so I joined, crossing the first 2 stitches of each fabric face to prevent a gap. Once joined I knit on 6 dp needles until the wrist cuff was about 4.5 inches long, say 11 or 12 cm. Long enough to give good coverage for my wrist, but not so long as to go over the larger part of my lower arm.

After wearing them some I think if I make more that I'll change the increase rate for the last few flat rows (say 5 or 6 increases) before joining to every 3rd row, making the part of the back of the hand a bit longer before joining. They are working, but I'm finding that my thumb moving around as I'm wearing them is affecting how they ride on my hand.

Silver Spudnick sweater - Yoke into Sleeves & Body

Last night I was walking with my kids, dogs and neighbor while trying to work on my sweater. I was trying to count 252 stitches, decrease by 14 stitches around while putting in markers, listen to the conversation, and put in a comment or so when I had a thought! Didn't work very well. I kept loosing track of my count, or increasing instead of decreasing.

I ended up just sitting down with it later in the evening. Decided I didn't like the last half-inch or so. I ripped back a couple of rounds, did the decrease round earlier, to remove the extra stitches I'd added to make the color pattern area big enough to match the rest, put the markers in to tell where I'll break out the sleeves and body, then went to bed.

This morning I've gotten to the point that I'm ready to cast on the underarm stitches for one of the arms, and start to split the yoke into 2 sleeves and a body! Yay!

When I get home tonight I need to take the 2nd skein of yarn and wind it into a ball. I rewound the light silver-gray I had left after making the yoke pattern. Sure is a much smaller ball! I don't know if I'll be able to do the same pattern on each cuff again, or not. I guess I'll have to see when I get there.

Silver Spudnick Sweater In-Progress

I've still got a lot to do, but here it is as of this morning.

I spent 2 wonderful days enjoying the Cincinnati Celtic Festival, sneaking in a few hours up at Wool Gathering at Young's Dairy Sunday morning. This gave me quite a bit of time to knit on the Silver CVM Sweater as I wandered around.

As previously mentioned, I cast this on so I could knit both directions from the base of the neck ribbing. I ended up knitting a couple of rounds of the neck ribbing on the same size needle as the body of the sweater, then switched from US 9 to US 6 to tighten up the ribbing. I then left the neck till later, after I'd done the patterned yoke so I'd have enough of the light silver white.

I knit the yoke patterning, but didn't like the way it came out. I hadn't added extra stitches before doing the color pattern, and the pattern sort of bunched a bit around my shoulders. I also decided it should be lower, on my upper arms, instead of just on top of the shoulders. So back I ripped, taking out the patterning, then continuing in the dark silver. I had about half a handspan (wrist to fingers) from the neck ribbing when I Celtic Festival. I knit another 2 or 3 inches on the yoke, at one point during that I decided I'd better finish the neck ribbing so I could try it on better. As you can see I put 3 stripes of 2 rounds each of the light silver in the neck ribbing. I cast of on the US size 9 needles to give the edge plenty of flexibility while staying stable.

When I figured the yoke was long enough I added some extra stitches, enough that at the end of the 26 round pattern I'd have the proper number of stitches for the number of rows I'd have, then started the pattern. As you can see, it's coming along well. In one of the typical vagaries of hand spinning, even though all of the yarn was spun to the same sample various sections of it were a bit thicker or thinner. The silver white has been a bit thicker than the surround dark silver. The silver white is thus slightly more prominent in the yoke than the gray.

Silver Spudnick Pictures

I finally took some pictures of the Silver Spudnick. I wish the texture of this lovely, springy yarn could come through!


Here's the light silver singles next to the dark silver 2-ply I was spinning to match. The wheel is a Kromski Mazurka stained mahogany.

Silver Spudnick CVM is becoming a sweater!

I finally took the plunge and have started knitting the silver CVM into a yoke sweater from the top. I love knitting sweaters from the top, and socks from the toe, so I can just go until I run out of yarn, or it reaches the size I want. In either case, I don't have to do the "pray the yarn won't run out" thing!

I'm using some techniques I've learned recently, as well as tried-and-true ones. The cast on is one I learned in "New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One" by Cat Bordhi. She credits another knitter with inventing/unventing it, but unfortunately all I recall at the moment is her name is June. I think. In any case, the cast on let me make a totally invisible caston, then have live stitches to knit both up and down.

I started with 80 stitches in the dark silver gray, then used the usual increase 4 stitches every round to get the yoke. I made the increases totally randomly, trying only to keep them from stacking up. Every so often I would count how many stitches and make any corrections if I'd forgotten to make an increase at some point. I've knit it to 180 stitches, and have now started a mosaic pattern using the silver-white. This pattern is from "Mosaic Knitting" by Barbara G. Walker, Band 29, page 110. I'm also using Walkers book "Knitting from the Top" to figure out my "pattern" for the sweater. All of Barbara G. Walkers books are available from Schoolhouse Press. I couldn't manage without these, and many other books Schoolhouse carries! No affiliation, just a satisfied customer who is glad Elizabeth Zimmermann's legacy continues!

At 4.25 stitches per inch my yoked sweater is coming along fast. With luck maybe I'll finish it before really cold weather hits!

Silver CVM - Spudnick

The hand spinning has been going wonderfully. I so much enjoy the process of making yarn, the feel of the fibers sliding into the twist, flowing through my hands. The dark silver CVM (California Variegated Mutant) type wool I've been spinning is now in 2 huge skeins ready to be balled and knit. They are 6 7/2 and 6 3/8 ounce, respectively. I ended up with 5 bobbins spun on my Mazurka which I plied into a 2-ply using the jumbo head on my Lendrum.

I'm now working on 4 drum carded batts of a silver-white from the same fleece. I'm about a quarter of the way through spinning that to match the dark silver. I expect about a single bobbin of this silver-white, which I expect to use as contrast on whatever garment I decide to knit of the dark silver.

Spinning this fleece was a bit of a challenge for me, as I've not had much experience spinning from carded batts, and because I wanted to spin it worsted weight. My usual spinning is very fine, so allowing so many more fibers into the twist, making a much thicker yarn, meant I had to slow way down. It worked, though, and I'm totally thrilled that I was able to stay pretty much in range of my target sample through 5 whole bobbins of yarn!

When I get a chance I'll get some pictures.

Spinning again

It's been a while since I've posted and a lot has been going on. Now that things have settled down just a bit I've gotten back to handspinning. I spun some Targhee, then decided it was time to spin some CVM I've had waiting for just the "right time". This fiber was from a fleece I'd purchased, washed and then carded up on a drum carder. It's been waiting for quite a while.

I spun up some samples, which was a bit interesting, as I've not spun from carded bats much. I settled on a 2-ply worsted weight yarn. The singles are spun on the 6:1 ration of my Mazurka spinning wheel, with about 21 degrees of twist, about 17 wpi. The finished 2-ply is 8 wpi. I've been using techniques I learned from Rita Buchanan in a spinning for knitting class to match my sample.

I've spun 4 bobbins, and have enough more fiber to do another bobbin, possibly 2. I'll ply it up mixing up the bobbins so the first is plied with the 3rd or whatever is the middle one, and so on.

I'm still deciding how to knit it up. I'm thinking a from-the-top, seamless sweater ala Barbara Walker. This CVM is a medium silver-gray, too dark to show cables all that well. The yarn is a bit randomly heathered, so should be quite interesting enough without much fussiness.