Expat knits and crochets

I’m having so much fun learning to spin. I thought it might be a good idea to collect some resources for spindle spinning here, so that other aspiring spindle spinners would not have to do so much digging for themselves.

Starting points

The following sites are good starting points.

• Ispindle.com has a series of videos showing every step of the spinning process.
• Joy of Handspinning has written instructions and a couple of videos devoted to spindle spinning.
• Interweave Press’ Spin Off magazine has online guides to starting spinning with a spindle and making your own drop spindle with a CD.

Learn from the experts

Several spinning instructors blog about their knowledge. It can be challenging to navigate blogs and you won’t learn in a linear way, but there are tons of useful tricks here.

• Abby Franquemont
• Ask the Bellwether
• Spinning Spider Jenny
• Spunky Eclectic / Boogie Knits

Community Support

Once you start learning, you’ll want to talk about spindle spinning *all the time*. Save your family and friends - join a spindle group.

• Ravelry has a great Spindlers group, with a very active group forum and great people. There is also a forum for beginning spinners (both wheel and spindle).
• I’ve heard good things about Yahoo’s Spindlitis group, but haven’t joined it myself.

 Spinspiration

The ancient craft of spinning has certainly found its way onto the internet. Here are some places to go for spinning inspiration:

• Drop spindle videos on YouTube / Support spindle videos on YouTube
• Flickr search
• KnittySpin

Do you know of spindle spinning resources that I haven’t included? Please, send me the link!

It’s been two years since I started this blog. A small sampling of what I’ve been up to in those two years:

I’m a little amazed at all the different things I’ve tried and learnt since starting this blog, and how many projects I’ve finished (not to mention the projects I’ve started and HAVEN’T finished, but it’s my party and I don’t want to think about that!)

Maybe it’s just Ravelry craziness that’s spilling over into my mood, but I just checked my WordPress stats, and something is bugging me. The number one search phrase directing people to this blog is “fat bottom bag” or “fat bottom bag PATTERN”, and it’s been this way ever since I posted my FBB FO post.
Of course, maybe people are just curious about this pattern, but I suspect something a little more troubling. Anyone who participates in a crochet forum like Crochetville knows that if you proudly post an FO picture of a popular, bought pattern like the FBB, you’ll be inundated with forum replies and personal messages asking for a copy of the pattern. Sometimes the poster will clearly reveal that they know what they are doing is not allowed, and pretend to be “cheeky” about it. I get really seriously annoyed with this behaviour. Not because I’m a copyright freak (In Norway, which I know better, copyright rules are actually more relaxed with regards to fair use, sharing and crafting uses than what it seems to be in the US), but because this behaviour is rude and gives crocheters a bad name by openly requesting that others break forum rules and copyright law. I have never experienced this type of behaviour on knitting boards, and I’ve often seen knitters claim that crocheters don’t care about copyright or designers’ livelihoods and only want freebies as a result of this behaviour (and I don’t blame them!)

So: If you come here wanting more info about the Fat Bottom Bag: Welcome! It’s a great little pattern and I highly recommend it (although I made numerous changes to it, and you should be aware that there is important errata for the pattern). You can buy the pattern in a useful little book called Stitch & Bitch Crochet: Happy Hooker, which is available on Amazon. It’s cheap for such a large number of patterns and well worth the price. If you can’t afford the book, have a look at your local library. I’m sorry, but I will not provide pattern copies, as I do not wish to infringe on copyright rules or cause problems for the great crochet and knitting designers out there who make all these great patterns for us to use.

/rant. God, that feels good.

I’ve read several places that it is useful to have a wristaff/wrist distaff for spindle spinning. A wrist distaff is a tool which sits on your wrist and hangs down, on which you can coil your strip of roving or fibre. This keeps the fibre organised and away from the spinning spindle. It takes about two minutes for the beginning spindler to see the attraction of this gadget, when the loosely flapping roving is sucked into the path of the spindle and you end up with a huge cloud of fibre half attached to the single. I have seen some wristaffs that are knit or crocheted, but I thought the fibre would easily get stuck on those. Then I saw an ingenious solution on Spinning Spider Jenny’s blog. She’s using a yarn keeper bracelet as a distaff. The piece holding the yarn (or in this case, fibre) rotates, so the fibre feeds off easily. It’s slick, so the fibre slides well, but the arms keep the fibre from sliding to the floor. The yarn keeper bracelet is available online, but I’m impatient and loth to spend money on shipping from the US. A trip to the hobby store later, and voila (or “woe la”, as I recently saw it spelled on a blog):

The wire is not quite as large-gauge as in the original, so it looks a little fragile, but the wire is holding up surprisingly well. I’m amazed at how well it works. Not only does it eliminate the risk of my fibre being “snarfled” (that sounds like it should be a word, doesn’t it) up by the spindle, but my wrist is so much more relaxed and rested when I have less fibre wrangling to do. Also, I can spin longer lengths of roving, because I can fill up the distaff with more roving than I could hold on my arm.

In case you want to make it, I used a pack of 0.8 mm silverplated wire (my pack holds ten metres, but you won’t need nearly that much), four Czech glass beads, a swivel hook, some universal glue and a pair of jewellery-making pliers.

I’ve blogged about knitting podcasts before, but I have changed my preferences and habits a little, and new podcasts have popped up, and I figured it might be time for an update.

First, an apology of sorts. After going through the Cast-On and Stash and Burn archives at lightning speed, I tried the Knitpicks podcast again, and I actually really like it. The content is more professional and more to-the-point than most other knitting podcasts and Kelley Petkun is very knowledgeable and encouraging. I still prefer her normal episodes to her interviews with authors and designers, but in general this is a very good podcast.

I’ve just discovered Stitch It!, which I also really like. The main reason is that Meghan is a new spinner, who talks about spinning with infectious enthusiasm in every podcast. While the Knitpicks podcast could be an audio component of a distance-learning course in fiber arts, Stitch It! is more like a long phone conversation with a knitting friend.

But my favourite new podcast is YKnit. I like the two-host concept for podcasts, it makes the show more dynamic. The hosts are also good at sticking to an overarching theme.

I received my long-awaited package yesterday:

Two Bosworth midis, the top in maple (25 g/.81 oz) and the bottom in bocote (39 g/1.34 oz) and 500 g of BFL Humbug - a striated blend of three natural colours. I love them! I ordered from P&M Woolcraft, which I can heartily recommend (the delay in receiving spindles was not due to them, but to an earlier order with another firm, which fell through due to a backorder).

I started trying out my new spindles immediately, and I got to thinking about something. If a viking-era woman were to enter my home, chances are she would be completely mystified by it. Nothing we have would be recognisable to her (we don’t even have a fireplace) - except this little tool, with its tail of unspun, fluffy fibre. For some reason I like the feeling of having something, even so little as this, in common with my foremother. Spinning is a fairly obvious source of symbolism, and the Norse mythology is no exception. I was very fascinated with Norse mythology when I was younger, so you’ll have to excuse a little lecture:

In Norse mythology, the ash tree Yggdrasil is considered the centre of the earth, and its branches encircle the heavens. Its three roots run from three different well springs - one from Mime’s well, one from the Norse hell Helheim and one from the dwelling of the Norns (Urd’s well). The Norns are Urd, Verdande and Skuld (the past, the present and the future). They spin the life thread of every newborn baby as well as the gods (who are not considered immortal in Norse mythology). Skuld spins the thread (birth), Verdande plies it (life) and Urd cuts it (death). Considering that the Norse myths were mainly told by and for men, it is interesting to consider the power which was attributed to the Norns and their spinning. Were women and their activities considered mysterious and incomprehensible by the men at the time?

I’m very taken with spinning right now. And I love playing with colour - here is some merino wool I bought at Panduro - it’s 150 grams of merino wool in three different red nuances.

I’m not very happy with the CD spindle, I haven’t managed to secure the CD properly, so it starts wobbling and shortens the spin time. I’m hoping to make this a two-ply, maybe with one single having long colour repeats and the other with shorter repeats. But so far I’m concentrating on drafting the merino - it’s not so easy. I have to draft very short lengths, which makes it harder to be consistent, and the fibre floats apart easily and is very hard to join securely.

Spinning has also helped me finish a long-neglected project. In the summer of 2006, I crocheted and fulled a bag from Dale Heilo, but I thought the all-white bag was a little boring, and decided to embellish it. I couldn’t come up with the perfect embellishments, though, so it languished in a drawer at my parents’. Now, while I was at Panduro, I picked up a tiny, 10 gram bag of rainbow wool in green-blue nuances, spun it up a bit thick-and-thin and needlefelted it onto the bag in a spirals pattern. I like it!

I still haven’t received my learn-to-spin kit from Webs. That hasn’t stopped me from experimenting with spinning, however. I’ve been using a homemade spindle and some 3- and 10 gram packages of needle felting fibre from the local hobby store. It’s clear to me that drafting is the real crux of spinning technique, but it is perhaps the part that is least clear just from watching video clips online. How far apart should your hands be, how much force should you use, etc. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I think maybe the drafting part clicked for me yesterday.

These two skeins were spun over the last few days, using the same fibre. In between the two skeins, I tweaked my spindle (removed the sewing thread bobbin I’d been using as a whorl and added a cd) and it went from 1.5 oz to 1.2 oz. The increased spin time allowed me to concentrate on my drafting. I specifically paid more attention to staple length and became more conscious of trying to draft the same amount of fibre with every new length of fibre I pulled. I also lightened my grip, which is a double-edged sword: It made it easier to draft, but I sometimes let the twist escape into the roving. The bottom yarn is (consciously) overplied, inspired by a comment on Ravelry from Abby Franquemont, who argued that twist can sometimes be lost when the twist is set, and slight overplying helps even out unevenness in the singles.

I’m still not too impressed with my homemade spindle, and I can’t wait for my proper spindle and instruction book to arrive, but something has changed, because the whole thing has gotten a lot easier in the last two days.

I have seen spinning mentioned on knitting blogs since I started reading them almost two years ago, but I’ve always thought it looked a bit silly, kind of like making your pasta from scratch. However, the spinning pictures on the {by elin} blog have finally pushed me over the edge. I have ordered a learn-to-spin kit, but it will be a little while before I get it. In the meantime, I have been experimenting with a crude homemade spindle and some needle felting fibre I found at a hobby store. The fibre is not ideal for spinning, as it is short and very curly, so it’s almost impossible to draft it well. However, I was determined to see if my first two handspun lengths of yarn (about 10 grams each) could actually be used in a project. It’s a good thing I’m stubborn, because this was just about the most unpleasant knitting experience I’ve ever had.

Project: Felted coin purse, my own pattern.

Yarn: Two strands of Sparkjøp Safirgarn in brown and my own handspun “yarn” in colours red, sunflower yellow and grass green.

Needles: Knitpicks Options 7 mm. I could have used a larger needle, which would probably have eased the felting process a little.

The handspun was quite a lot thicker than the commercial yarn, so the purse is a little bumpy, but mainly the rose design sticks out a little, which is an effect I kind of like.

Do you have a few yards of lumpy handspun you’d like to use? You, too, can have a felted purse:

You need some handspun (colour B) and some commercial yarn of a different colour (colour A), both should be feltable. Needles of a large size for the yarn’s gauge.

Using A, cast on 42 sts and join to knit in the round. Follow the below diagram* (shows one side of the purse).

(click the diagram to go to the Flickr photo page, where you can find larger versions).

After completing the diagram, work a three-needle bind off to seal the bottom of the purse. Work a round of single crochet (UK: double crochet) around the open edge to avoid curling.

Lightly secure ends (felting hides a multitude of sins) and felt/full the purse in your washing machine. I had to use 60 degree water and wash it with a load of towels to achieve proper fulling. Remove from the washing machine as soon as the program ends and shape, lay flat to dry.

* I didn’t have enough handspun “yarn” to work the diagonal lice pattern, so I worked only the eight-petal rose design, placing it according to the diagram. This isn’t ideal, because the floats on the back get a little too long and unmanageable.

It worked!

Pattern: Minisweater/boobholder by Glampyre (Stefanie Japel) 

Yarn: Sandnes Alfa (teal), Gjestal baby ull (brown), Anny Blatt fine kid (brown). I used three strands of the Gjestal held together with the Anny Blatt. Total yarn consumption 278 g.

Needles: Knitpicks Options 7 mm 100 cm circulars.

Mods: Cast on fewer stitches for the fronts (six instead of nine), worked the sleeves in the round rather than flat and decreased four stitches in both side seams in the garter stitch waist band to get it to sit snugger. I may move the button slightly, because it still gapes a little in the back. Now I get why so many people double-breast this sweater!

I’m tolerably happy with this knit. It was quick, and provided a good break from my secret deadline knitting with very thin yarn on tiny needles. Working the brown stripes with four strands held together, one of which was brushed mohair, was slightly crazy-making, and I don’t think I’ll work much with brushed mohair again. I’ve worn it most of the day, and it’s a good way to stay warm without having sleeves or jacket fronts get caught or dragged through food (my, this makes me sound graceful, doesn’t it?)

I’m not the only one in the family with a slight chocqua fascination at the moment: