Some Surprise News from Sock Summit

Did you get to go to Sock Summit?  Because I didn’t and I was just soooooo jealous of everyone who did.  All weekend long (all weekend? no, for four days), it seemed like everyone I follow on Twitter was at Sock Summit… and having the time of their fibery lives…  and tweeting mercilessly about it.  Mercilessly, I tell you!  Oh, how I wanted to be there.

…And then, I found out, I kinda was.

At The Summit, by © TAAT Designs, Used with Permission

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Well, not me, but my colours.  And not just there, but actually there as part of the winning submission in the Design for Glory competition!  Ok, a tiny part, but a part…  About a week before Sock Summit, my friend Abigail emailed with the news that she and her knitting partners at TAAT Designs had submitted the winning entry, a sock called At The Summit.  The design requirement was for a sock that could be knit modularly — in pieces and then assembled at the last minute — by a team in the Fleece to Foot Challenge.

At The Summit, by © TAAT Designs, Used with Permission

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And, for their entry, TAAT Designs chose yarn hand-spun from SpaceCadet Creations fiber!  When Abigail gave me the news, I sqeeeeeeeeeed so loudly, I think I scared the neighbours!  I remember when she bought that fiber and…  well, just to think that braid of wool had risen to such heights in the sock stratophere, it kinda blew my mind!

And while At The Summit is a beautiful design and the good ladies at TAAT  — Tesia Walker, Allison Janocha, Abigail Horsfall and Trisha Paetsch — are clearly a very talented bunch of knitters…  I have to admit, I like to think it was the gently undulating shades of SeaFoam that really made the difference in the end.

The Braid of BFL Fiber in SeaFoam

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The pattern for At The Summit is now available on Ravelry, or you can buy it directly by clicking here.  TAAT Designs is donating proceeds the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, in honour of Tesia’s husband Ryan.

Congratulations to Abigail, Tesia, Trisha, and Allison on their beautiful design.  Thanks for choosing SpaceCadet colours!  And congratulations also to Meridith Todd, who spun such a fantastic yarn.

And congratulations to that braid of SeaFoam fiber.  Every single time I pack up an order and send it out, I wonder what that yarn or fiber will become.  Never did I think anything I’ve dyed would become something so… Glory-ous!

The Braid of SeaFoam

Spinning Up Clouds of Baby Alpaca

So while I was waxing lyrical about the new cashmere in the shop, I never said a word — not a word — about the little something I had up my sleeve for the spinners.  Why?  Because the holidays are all about surprises!

And this was a surprise worth keeping: the most amazingly soft combed top made from 50% Baby Alpaca and 50% Superfine Merino wool.  It’s incredibly light, incredibly soft…  It feels like clouds in your hands.  And it dyes up beautifully.

50/50 Baby Alpaca/Merino blend in Evening Fog (left) and Tarnished (right)

For those of you who’ve never tried alpaca, I turned to my friend Natalie — a more experienced and excellent spinner — for some advice.  She said, “Alpaca is warmer and lighter than wool.  For knitting, a worsted weight yarn would make an awfully warm sweater – possibly too warm for daily wear.  On the other hand, if you want outer gear like hats and gloves, a thick, woolen spun alpaca would be like carrying around your own little furnace!

“Alpaca is a little more difficult to control than straight wool because it has a shorter staple length and feels sort of slippery.  I hold my hands closer together when I’m drafting to adjust for the shorter staple length.  I also try to get twist into the fiber more quickly than I would usually do with wool.

“Also, remember that alpaca has practically no memory.  So, for knitting, it often works better blended with other fibers that will give it a little bit of elasticity and memory.”

50/50 Baby Alpaca/Merino blend in Rhubarb and Custard (left) and SeaFoam (right)

The blend of superfine merino and baby alpaca together will give your yarn the elasticity and memory that you need for knitting.  And the extra lightness and warmth that the alpaca gives you yarn will be perfect for warm winter mittens and hats.

And as I was in a mood for dyeing fiber, I went ahead and did a batch of Blue-Faced Leicester as well.  Enjoy!

Clockwise from top left:  BFL Combed top in Spice Trade, Sweetpeas, SeaFoam, and Sweetpeas.

Cooking Up Something Special

In every home across the country this week, the scene will be exactly the same…  There will be mixing bowls filled with the most amazing treasures, and pots gently bubbling on the stove.  There will be the old favourites and new recipes, last minute changes and quick saves when things go wrong.  A pinch of this and a dash of that…

And it’s been no different here.   Well…  ok, then, maybe a wee bit different here in the SpaceCadet house.  Here’s what I’ve been busily cooking up this week…

Stella Yarn in Spice Trade

BFL Fiber in SeaFoam

Stella Yarn In Funky Ballet Shoes

Celeste Yarn in Frost

BFL Fiber in Flock of Parrots

 

Celeste Yarn in Iris

…Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

 

Great Tools for Beginning Spinners

Note from the SpaceCadet:  My friend Natalie (npeace on Ravelry) is a prolific spinner who creates amazing handspun yarns almost exclusively on spindles.  She’s been kind enough to write about a few of her favourites here.

A while ago, I wrote a bit about resources for a beginning spindle spinner.  Since writing that post, a couple of people have come back to me saying:  That’s all well and good, but what are the actual tools that a beginner needs?

It’s a good question.  One of the appeals of spindle spinning is that it really doesn’t take much.  A spindle is basically just a stick and a weight, in one configuration or another.  Get one of those and add in some fiber – preferably prepared for spinning, but even that’s not completely necessary – and you should be good to go, right?  Well, yes… and no.  Yes because, well, yes; at a minimum that is what you need to spin.  No because, like most activities, having good tools makes the process easier – especially in the beginning.

I recommend a high-whorl spindle to start with.  There’s nothing intrinsically better about high whorls compared to low-whorls, or any other kind of spindle for that matter.  All types have their advantages.  However, the current spindle resurgence, in the US at least, has centered around the high-whorl spindle and this type of spindle is the most readily available, and the most generally used.

For a complete beginner, I suggest a spindle between 1 and 2 ounces.  Something in this range should suit most beginners nicely, and will continue to be useful as a plying tool even if the spinner decides with experience that they prefer lighter spindles.

Whorl diameter is also something to consider.  Generally, the broader the whorl is, the longer the spindle will spin.  For a first spindle, look for something between about 2.5 and 3.5 inches.

With these basics in mind, let me show you the spindles I most often use to teach beginners to spin.  These are only the tools that I have found to be effective – there are many other good spindle makers out there, and this list is by no means exhaustive.

My absolute favorite teaching spindle is this is a 1.3 ounce Kundert:

This spindle has a long, level spin that makes it easy for beginners to control as they first learn to draft.  It also has a nice broad whorl which lends stability to the spin, and the shape of the hook captures yarn well, minimizing slippage.

With many of the advantages of a Kundert spindle, but at a lower price point is this spindle from Spinsanity:

This spindle does not have the hand-turned elegance of the Kundert, but it is well crafted and has a very similar kind of long, easy spin.

Another maker I often recommend to a beginner is Jonathan Bosworth:

His spindles come in several size ranges, but a beginner would probably do well with a midi.  The whorl here is much narrower.  However,  the way it is shaped still keeps the weight distribution towards the rim, which makes for a long, steady spin.  The narrower whorl also makes it easier to carry around with you, so if you plan on spinning  when you’re out and about, this might be a good choice.

Finally, on the high end of the price spectrum is Golding Fiber Tools:

Golding craftsmanship speaks for itself.  If you’re one of those beginners ready to commit whole-heartedly to this spinning thing from day one, a Golding learn-to-spin kit would be an excellent way to start.

There are many other good makers out there and this list is just something to get you started.  If you try one of my suggestions and find that it doesn’t suit you, by all means try something else.  Check out the Spindlers and the Spindle Candy groups on Ravelry for other ideas.  Your spinning will only be improved by experimentation!

How Thin Can You Spin?

Do you remember this?

This is the bombyx silk I was going to spun for the second half of the Tour de Fleece, but…  life intervened and I didn’t manage to get that far.  So, running just a wee bit late, I’ve finally got it on my wheel now, and it is a dream to spin.

Not that silk is always a dream to spin…  Bombyx silk generally has a very long staple length, and that can make drafting a challenge.  The distance that you’re used to holding your hands for drafting wool simply isn’t far enough apart when you’re spinning silk, and it can easily become a struggle as you start tugging at both ends of the same fibers.

A few months ago, I spun pure bombyx silk for the first time in many years and, even though I’ve spun a lot of silk in the past, I realised that my hands had forgotten what to do.  It seemed to take forever to retrain my hands (…or more likely, my brain) and until that moment when it finally clicked, I was pulling and tugging on that silk as if I’d never spun in my life.  As a result, the yarn came out much thicker than I’d wanted and lumpier too.  There’s no doubting it’s beautiful to look at, and the colours ethereal, but because I spun so much thicker than I intended, I just didn’t get the yardage I was hoping for.  It’s come out to a measly 143 yards and I’m really not sure what I could make with it.

So now, as I begin spinning this second braid of silk, I am really focusing on spinning as thinly as I possibly can.  And, it turns out, I can spin pretty darned thin!  Now that my hands (and brain) are back in the groove with spinning silk, this is how it’s coming out…

That is, as long as I don’t get too involved in a scary movie on telly and forget to spin super thin (see the occasional thick bits in the photo below?  Yeah… that was when the film hit a tense spot…).  But overall, this is coming out exactly the way I want it.  And now that I’ve got the hang of it, it is just sooo much fun to spin.

And this time, I hope to come out at the end with a really good length of some truly beautiful, smooth, pure silk yarn.

Shiny, Green Treasure

I get so stinkin’ excited when one of my items in featured in an Etsy Treasury!  And so I was squealing quite loudly when I read the email yesterday telling me that the fiber I had listed only a few hours before is now included in RonitGolan‘s “Natural” Treasury.   My silk combed top in Freshly Cut Grass is in the lower left-hand corner.  Take a look….

Get Ready to Spin your Wheels…

Because the Tour de Fleece is nearly upon us!  For spinners, it’s one of the biggest events of the year — a chance to really challenge ourselves and encourage each other.  Oh, and watch a bit of cycling as well.  In honour of the Tour de Fleece, I’ve spent this week dyeing fiber.

If  you don’t know anything about the Tour, don’t worry — Monday’s post will explain all and give some links to help you get started.  In the meantime, what sort of spinning would be a challenge for you?  To spin more? Or to spin finer?  Maybe to try a new fiber, or a new technique?  And please cast your eyes over this week’s fiber porn, all going in the shop today and over the weekend…

Bombyx Silk in Freshly Cut Grass

Tussah Silk

Merino combed top in Garden In Spring

BFL combed top in Garden In Spring

Tussah Silk in Freshly Cut Grass

Bombyx Silk in Pond

BFL combed top in Underfoot

Merino combed top in Freshly Cut Grass

Dyeing Disasters and Silver Linings: Take Two

I dyed some fiber in the Sailor’s Warning colourway, but I wasn’t happy with the way it came out.  Don’t get me wrong — it was beautiful — but it just wasn’t quite Sailor’s Warning to me.   It wasn’t different enough to be its own new colourway, but I wasn’t happy putting it in the shop when it didn’t look exactly as I’d intended.

…But how can I waste 4oz of beautiful, soft-as-clouds merino fiber?!?  I can’t!  And besides, I know that, even though it wasn’t exactly perfect as fiber, the colours will blend and soften when it’s spun and it will look gorgeous.

So I am spinning it up, and it will go in the shop as hand-spun.  Keep your eyes open for it!

How Much Yardage to Expect with Handspun Yarns

A customer recently wrote to ask me how much handspun yarn she could expect get from a braid of my hand-dyed fiber and, to be honest, I was at a bit of a loss.  How much yarn you’ll get varies from spinning style to spinning style  …and from spinner to spinner.  The thicker the yarn, the less yardage; the thinner it’s spun, the more yardage.  Beyond that, it’s a very hard question to answer.

Hand-dyed BFL Combed Top, in Garden in Spring

And especially for me, because I hardly ever calculate the yardage on my handspun.  I have no idea why — I just never do!

So I turned to my friend Natalie who is a more experienced (and excellent) handspinner and posed my customer’s question to her.  She replied, “It’s usually 20 – 30 % less yardage than you’d get from the same amount (grams/ounces) of commercially spun yarn of the same weight (worsted, dk, fingering etc) because handspun tends to be denser. From 4oz, I’d expect 300-400 yards fingering; probably 200-300 of a dk/worsted range.” A much more technical and useful answer than mine!

The yarn spun by my friend from the Garden In Spring BFL

And then she added, “Hard to judge though… It’s all very variable.” Which made me feel a bit better!

The Lure of Yarn Photography

There is something about photographing yarn…

I just love to do it.  I don’t consider myself much of a photographer, but when it comes to yarn, it seems so easy to get really stunning photos…

To put the macro lens on and then get in there nice and tight, really get the detail of the fiber,  so close you can almost feel it…  almost smell it…

And when the light is soft, the sun setting at the end of a glorious summer day…  And when the yarn is pure silk that grabs that light…

And reflects it straight back to the camera, so the light seems to float, the yarn fairly glows before the lens…

Well, I find it really hard to stop taking pictures…

There’s a reason it’s called Yarn Porn!