Heartbreaker
Apparently, when it comes to my spinning, I lack a certain amount of resolution. Especially when faced with the prospect of experimenting with some special fiber. What you see above is clearly not a skein of the CVM that I am supposed to be working on.
You see, on Sunday night, I decided that no harm would be done if I pulled out my Franquemont Fibers "Heartbreaker" and just weighed it. You know, so that I would know how much I had to deal with. But then it went a bit farther. I decided that, since I wanted to create striping intervals of my own design, that it would be good to know just how much of each color I had. So I opened up the little batt-buns and separated out the colors and weighed them. Then I got a bit carried away. I decided that I would "sample" a little bit, just to see what the superwash/silk/nylon blend spun up like, since firestar nylon is a new fiber to me. And then I realized that if I was going to spin just a bit, I might as well think about the color progression. How to make stripes that would knit up well in a pair of socks? And then suddenly I was separating the colors from one of those little batts into multiple small bits in a particular order and telling myself that one ounce of fiber really wouldn't take all that long to spin.
Which did, of course, turn out to be true. I can spin an ounce of fiber in about 3 hours. Especially when it is as well prepared as this fiber. No pre-drafting necessary on this stuff. It just slipped effortlessly through my fingers and into a single.
My goal with this fiber was to try to create two singles with similar color intervals, that, when plied, wouldn't barberpole very much. I've spun enough sock yarn now that I am pretty consistent within a particular range. So I wasn't too worried about my ability to get similar lengths of single out of equal weights of fiber. What I was concerned about was getting the equal weights of fiber. My scale, while okay for amounts above 5-10 g or so, doesn't do very well in the 1 gram range that I needed. So in the end, I decided that I would just have to wing it and use my eyeballs to "measure".
My results were mixed. On one hand, in most cases I did get the color bands that were supposed to over lap to over lap. And I did get pretty equal amounts of single on each of the two bobbins. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I ended up with a good deal more barberpoling than solid region once I got past the halfway point. I did contemplate breaking the singles and adjusting, but the nylon added some tensile strength that made this stuff harder to break and join easily. So after trying that once, I gave up and just spun my way on through.
Although the final result is not as close to what I initially envisions as I would like, it's hard to be disappointed in these colors, or in the resulting yarn after plying. I will tell you that this yarn is somewhat overplied (i.e. not balanced) and I will probably have to run it back through my wheel and remove some of the twist (or maybe not... it is for socks after all, and I don't think it's unbalanced enough to have a sever bias in a garment knitteed in the round).
From the 31 g that I spun, I ended up with 110 yards of 2 ply yarn -- pretty respectable, I think. Since this was about a quarter of what I ordered, I should have plenty of yarn for a pair of socks when the project is finished. When I soaked the yarn after plying it gave off no dye whatsoever, and it has a nice soft hand now that it is dry and skeined.
The nylon didn't turn out to be a problem to spin, but I did notice that the fiber was a little rougher on my fingers than straight wool or wool silk blends have been in the past. I can only assume that this is due to the nylon being a bit more durable than my skin. But this is sort of a minor quibble when I think about the added durability that will be present in the final yarn and knitted product. And it in no way detracts from how nice this fiber was to spin or how nice it will feel when worn in a sock.
I am not sure how I am going to handle the next three batts. A part of me would like to find a more precise weighing device, but given that I have just made another rather large purchase (more about that on Friday) I am not really prepared to invest in an expensive gram-sensitive balance at the moment. So, more than likely, I will end up using the eyeball method again. Any suggestions out there from anyone else who has tried this sort of thing?
You could weigh it ounces and then use the handy converter (http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_common.htm)
I have a postal scale that weighs down to .1 ounces and then I convert. The scale cost about 30 bucks and the post office shipped it to my house.
I know there are easier/more expensive ways, but I don't really need several scales just hanging around.
Oh, how I love the colors you've spun. I know it isn't what you were aiming for, but it is so gorgeous. I'm still learning so much about spinning and I love reading of your experiments, adventures, and experiences.
Oh that yarn is beautiful! I was looking at Abby's batts online last night and had to make myself turn away from the page. I am still waiting for my wheel to be delivered so I don't think now is the time to be thinking about such beautiful rovings - I'll wait until I have got to grips with the wheel on something a little less precious - I have some corriedale pencil roving on the way from Crown Mountain Farms - Still beautiful roving , but I suspect it will be a little easier to learn with :-)
I use a Cuisinart food scale that weighs in 1 gram increments up to 5 kg. It wasn't very expensive.
Add a coin or two or some other object to the scale while weighing. Then you have a constant weight on the scale, and then add your fiber. You said it weighed more accurately over 10g. Might work for you.
Those colors are gorgeous!
I love it!
So, the Franquemont fibers are tempting! But they are a little pricey. Good value in the end you think?
I'm impressed that the dye was well set and that they were well prepped.
looks very pretty. those colors go great together. i'm afraid if i had the means to create my own sock yarn, i'd never leave the house again!
:)
I us a Salton kitchen scale that switches between ounces and grams, and it weighs up to 11lb (I think), was only around $30 a year or two ago. If they are near you, you could check Bed, Bath & Beyond or Linens & Things--I believe it was in one of those places, plus they always have a 20% off coupon or something. And gah! That's some purty yarn.
Just beautiful! I'm still spinning my Tamale Pie batts - going to make chained singles because I was worried that barber poling would muddy the colors. I too am using the "eyeball" method and keeping my fingers crossed!
Beautiful! It is so easy to be swayed by fibery goodness. My eyeball methods are less than perfect:-( I'm ready to buy a scale.
Just wanted to say that I only found your blog recently, and I'm enjoying seeing your projects. It cracks me up that there is another female biologist/knitter/quilter/spinner out there... FYI, I've used the teensy scientific scale at work to weigh sock yarn...
I should really try much, much harder to stay awake later than my son's bedtime so I can work on the spinning. That's some beautiful stuff.
Hello,
Lurker here.... just had to comment today because of the amusement factor. It blows my mind how detailed you are about your spinning, the laugh factor comes from how opposite I am from you. Don't get me wrong, I think it is great all the work you put into your yarns. This past year I have spun up in the neighborhood of 150 pounds of fiber, (110 pounds of it was Sock Hop),as long as the yardage, size and weight is in the neighborhood I don't worry about anything else, the joy for me is in the repetitive motion. If I went to all the hard work you do, I think I would still be on the first pound. Keep up the excellent work. It brings a smile to my face on how different spinning methods can be and each brings joy to the spinner.
Absolutely gorgeous stuff. I think it was a great sampling. I am really enjoying watching you strive for your idea of perfection.
If anyone really needs a drug dealer's scale, its you. ;-)
The yarn looks fantastic to me. And for socks, I would think the overplying might be a good thing.
The yarn looks amazing, I wouldn't know where to begin when combining colours for striping yarn - I have so much to learn!!
That is gorgeous. Is it telling that it made me think of various (micro)biological stains? Crystal Violet and Coomassie Blue, oh my.
It's really not fair that you are such a wonderful knitter AND an amazing spinner AND becoming a quilter to boot. :)
Lovely lovely spinning.
Pretty! I love it.
Lovely yarn, I could live with the barberpoleing (but then I'd probably have made it a navajo ply)
I'm hoping you bought yourself a drum carder as your "rather large purchase" because I think that I want one myself and I'd love to see someone else play with one.
Bah, sorry if it posted my other comment multiple times, I just had a nasty Firefox cookies incident.
That's lovely yarn you made. Eyeballing it seems to have worked well from what I can see.
I know I've got to wait til tomorrow to find out for sure but I'm betting that big purchase that is putting off the precision weighing instrument is a new sewing machine. If I'm right I hope you'll tell us all about your decision making process because I really should get a new one myself.
The quilt is looking lovely too btw.
Over(or under)twist really doesn't matter or create biasing as long as your twist is "set", i.e. either steamed or washed. Think about the commercial singles yarns we buy (Manos del Uraguay, for instance)and have no problems with. It's just steamed to set the twist. Fret not.
That came out well. My scale weighs in 0.1 grams, and wasn't all that expensive. I bought the calibration weight with it, and it came to about $80. I love your color separation. I may try that when my FF gets here.