Swatching My First Wheel Spun Yarn
It's a bit "all spinning all the time" around here right now. I'm not sure if it is generally interesting, but I find that I have days that I just want to spin all the time, or days where I want to knit like a fiend and do nothing else. I actually find it hard to have a day where I do both, even when I have a whole day to tackle several projects. And lately, inspired by the thought of a new spinning wheel, I am finding it hard to pull myself away from the spinning.
I did solve the "spinning wheel chair" problem by drafting my trusty desk chair into service. When I lower it to it's lowest level, it works well with my Ashford Traditional and gives me a comfortable angle for both working with the fiber and treadling. Thank you to all of you who suggested I see what my desk chair could do for me! Once I got myself all comfortable and situated, I proceeded to make a small dent in my pound of natural colored fine wool/silk noile.
As it turns out, washing this stuff makes quite an impact on it. It's much brighter after a little swim. Although you can't tell it by looking at the roving, there must be some light dust in it. The tags are a little trick that I stole from Leigh after I saw them on her blog. You can buy them at almost any office store and they are pretty handy for labeling yarn. I'm not very good at remembering fiber details when the ball band is gone and since I'm likely to spin many things at once, it seemed like a good idea to make sure that what I did spin up got labelled for future reference.
I also took the time to swatch up a little of this yarn, to see if swatching would give me some inspiration as to what this yarn is supposed to become. As it turns out, those little tags are also handy for labelling swatches. I used my wraps-per-inch tool to figure out that the yarn is about 16 wpi. That puts it right on the border between fingering and DK. So I decided to try swatching on US size 5 (3.75 mm) needles (mostly because I couldn't find a pair of size 4 needles, which was what I wanted originally). The result is about 5.5 stitches/inch and 8 rows/inch, and a swatch with just a little touch of a rustic quality, which I like. While I like the feel of the fabric, it looks a bit open to me, so I may try another swatch on the 4's, just to see if it I like it better (and to justify the new size 4 Addis that I purchased over the weekend).
So far, the yarn still hasn't told me what it wants to be. But I'm beginning to get a teddy bear vibe from it. Looking through Amazon, I came across two books on Teddy Bears that look interesting to me:
Anyone have any experience with either or both of these books and have an opinion about the quality of the bears and the patterns?
Thanks for the tag tip.
Beautiful swatch. It's very satisfying to see your roving turned into knitted fabric, isn't it?
Those skeins are screaming for a dye job.
I have both these books. I have not done anything from the Debbie Bliss book, but have done a number of bears from the Knitted Teddy Bear. They are cute and quick, for the most part. I have at least one photo on my blog. I did a bunch of them b'fore Christmas, but then got involved with other things. Now I seem to have gotten myself into this Knitting Olympic insanity...like I need another project!
I love the tag tip too - thanks - I don't spin but I will use it for my slowly growing stash...
I have Knitted Teddy Bear. I only made one pattern, because they involve so much seaming, and I don't like seaming. I accept that some amount of seaming is intrinsic to teddy bears, but the pattern I did could easily have been rewritten to involve a lot less.
I love how that yarn just shimmers and shines out of that first photo.
What an accomplishment! It must be such a good feeling to see that swatch. Amazing.
I have the Debbie Bliss Book and I'm posting a mini-review over at Two Friends Collect Books!
I have both of the books, too. I prefer THE KNITTED TEDDY BEAR as I think the bears differ from eachother more than in the Bliss book, but the Bliss book has a lot of outfits for the bears. Try Interweave Knits Best Friend Bears pattern in the WInter 99/00 issue,too. The short row shaping of the face turns out great.
I'm working on the Sleepy bear in a bunny suit in the Debbie Bliss book. I was planning to get it done for my neice for Christmas, but it will end up being a birthday present (mid February) instead, because working on it made me want to strangle myself (or something equally fun). So much breaking and rejoining the yarn... ends everywhere! Now granted, you can just weave them in a little to secure them and then cut them to an inch or so long, since they'll be inside the piece, but still! It probably also didn't help that I'm using a cotton yarn, instead of wool, so there wasn't much stretch to accomodate making the increases. The seaming is what killed me, though. I got one piece done (well, done to the point of stuffing) and had to set it aside. I think I'll have to do like one piece a night or something. I'm still excited about the finished piece.
That's rather a run on paragraph... I apologize for that.
Like Ariel mentioned above for the other book... I do think that the pattern could have been rewritten to eliminate a lot of the seaming, and I rather consider it a flaw in the book that the designer wrote it to include so much unneccessary work.
Even if the Knitted Teddy Bear patterns were easier to do, though... I would choose the Debbie Bliss book over it, because I think her teddy bears far cuter. Part of that, if I remember correctly from my short perusal of the KT, is that a good hefty portion of the bears in that book are garter stitch, and I'm really not a fan of the way that looks. I also prefered the shaping of the faces in the DB book.
I have the Knitted Teddy Bear book. I like several of the designs, but when I decided to knit a bear for a friend's new baby, I bought the baby bobbi bear pattern from Blue Sky because it didn't involve seams. I think the patterns in the KTB book tend toward the less suitable for infants, although I'm sure they'd be fine for medium-small children (or adults...).
Hi, I'm the fellow Trinity alumni who's written to you before.
I have the Knitted Bear. I made one of the tiny bears for practice. It was easy to knit and seam, but I couldn't figure out how to attach the legs and arms. It's been sitting in my basket for 6 months!
My mom bought the yarn for me to make one of the big bears, so I will be tackling it soon. I think the patterns are easy to follow, and for someone who hates to sew, I didn't think the seaming was awful. I just can't figure out the jointing!
I have the Knitted Teddy Bear book. I like the variety in it. I don't like seaming a zillion teensy pieces (but that's just a personal prob, eh.) Here's a pic of one of the bears finished:
http://whimzknits.blogspot.com/2005/05/presenting.html
I have The Knitted Teddy Bear which includes bears from 4" to 21" and LOTS of cute clothes. Patterns include some jointed bears. The thing that makes bears cute or not is the face -- if the eyes and nose aren't in the right place the whole effect can be awful.
They're fun to make -- good luck with yours!
Joanne