Spinning Yarn for a Sweater
It wasn’t actually too long after I got into knitting that I also took up spinning. There’s something immensely satisfying about knitting with handspun yarn, it’s so much more “alive” than most mill spun yarn.
Though unlike knitting and sewing, my spinning mojo seems to come and go more with more frequency.
Because of this, I tend to spin accessory quantities of yarn, and I’ve never knit a sweater entirely out of handspun before.
*the main exception being the yarn I knit the swatches for the first Shawl Geometry book – that was about 1,000 yards of spindle spun lime green light fingering/heavy lace weight…
This sweater started when Michele offloaded a a giant ball of camel colored alpaca fiber on me – I figured it was about 8 oz or so and started spindle spinning it into a 2ply lace weight – which is my favorite yarn to spin (as well as knit).
3 oz of lace weight spinning later, I hadn’t made a dent. I was sick of the project, and it turns out that ball of fiber was closer to 12 oz.
(I know, I should have weighed it.)
Thankfully Michele had recently gotten a Hansen miniSpinner and she let me use it to finish spinning the last 9 oz. (Which I don’t have photos of – booooo!)
So, I have 3 oz of very thin spindle spun camel colored alpaca (about 250 yards/228.5 meters), and 9 oz of much thicker miniSpinner spun camel colored alpaca (about 500 yards/457 meters).
750 yards (686 meters) total – not enough for a sweater, and too much for most accessories. At this point, I kind of had my heart set on knitting a sweater out of this handspun yarn.
So, enter 2 oz of beautiful grey BFL,* which I spindle spun into 250 yards (228.5 meters) of lace weight yarn.
*BFL is short for “bluefaced leicester,” which is a type of sheep.
All together everything added up to approximately 1,000 yards (914.5 meters) and 14 oz of handspun yarn. I would be cutting it super close, but I might have just enough yardage for a handspun & hand knit sweater.
In the end, I cut it super close, I only had a couple grams left over, but I knit a sweater out of handspun yarn!
Since this post is already getting a little long, I’ll save the nitty-gritty sweater details for tomorrow.
203 days of handmade clothing – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 29
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s sort of a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels.
DAY 197 – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13th
Deconstructed Sweater
Not-So-Straightforward Basic Purple Sweater
Black Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
I’m still chipping away at my second purple sweater perfect for layering. I’m into the second sleeve, and hoping to steal a little bit of time for it this weekend – but we’ll see how that goes.
DAY 198 – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14th
Boring Black Sweater
Black Tank Top
Black Scarf
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
Each time I wear this sweater I consider making a second lace weight black sweater – and then remember how boring it was to knit – before deciding that (for this year) I can live with only one thin black sweater.
DAY 199 – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15th
Boring Black Sweater
Black Tank Top
Cascading Flowers Skirt
Black Tights
Robot Clock Necklace
Various Rings
Day 199!!!
DAY 200 – MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16th
Blue & Green Archer Button Up Shirt
Black Tank Top
Black Scarf
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
Day 200!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck yes!
It’s like day 100, but twice as good.
DAY 201 – TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17th
Deconstructed Sweater
Not-So-Straightforward Basic Purple Sweater
Black Tank Top
Black Scarf
Khaki Scarf
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
Yes, I’m wearing two scarves. Yes, I look a little bit crazy. But at least I’m warm.
DAY 202 – WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18th
Deconstructed Sweater
Versio Sweater
Black Tank Top
Black Maxi Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
(I wore two scarves this day too…)
DAY 203 – THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19th
Deconstructed Sweater
Not-So-Straightforward Basic Purple Sweater
Black Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Black Tights
Brown Boots
Various Rings
(and this one.)
(and I’ll probably wear two scarves today as well.)
Here’s to 203 days of handmade clothing!!
I also wrote December’s wrap up over on the old self-made wardrobe blog. It’s here, if you want to check that out.
A Black Maxi Skirt – super easy to wear, damn hard to photograph
At the beginning of the self-made wardrobe project there were a couple of days when I would make a new piece of clothing in the morning, and then wear it out that afternoon – this skirt was one of those projects, I made it on Day 12.
The projects that I often end up wearing the most are these sorts of straightforward, simple to sew and easy to wear projects – and were often made at the last minute (the graphic silk circle skirt, and the cascading flowers skirt.)
Fun fact about this skirt: If you look closely, you can see a bit of navy thread peeking out at the top of the slit. All of the internal finishing and inside seams are sewn with navy blue thread, because I was almost out of black – the only black thread in the skirt is the stitching on the hem and slit.
MATERIALS:
-An unknown quantity of an unknown fabric. I think it’s a rayon? Maybe?
-Black thread
-Navy thread
-1” wide elastic
PATTERN:
Super straightforward & improvised. It’s a very simple maxi skirt made of three rectangles of fabric and some elastic for the waistband. It has rolled hems, and a mid-thigh high slit to make walking possible.
I sewed the two rectangles together at the side seams for the main body of the skirt (leaving one side mostly open for the slit), attached an elastic waistband and hemmed the bottom hem & sides of the slit with a rolled hem.
WHAT WORKED WELL:
The simplicity of the project. It was fast to make, it’s easy to wear, and these are the types of projects I wear all the time.
WHAT I’D DO DIFFERENTLY:
Remember to buy black thread. Seriously.
Black thread is one of those things I use all the time, and never remember to buy, which is not the best state of affairs – especially for someone who does a lot of last minute and middle of the night sewing.
PS. Fun fact about this post: photographing a matte black skirt in any sort of potentially interesting manner is really damn hard. (Kind of like a boring black sweater.)
