For the first time I am going to keep track of all the specs of creating a sweater, from fleece to finished object. (Or at least try)
I’m going to be doing a handspun version of Tuin, by Tori Seierstad, with some modifications. I’m knitting the body on all one color, and will do the yoke design in duplicate stitch rather than stranded.
I might also use the contrast colors to add some stripes to the bottom of the sleeves(?)
The fleece was already washed, so I’ll have to estimate the time involved based on the total weight of wool used and my standard washing procedure.
So, starting with the carding, here we go!
The base color of the sweater is going to be a 50/50 blend of Felix/Frank and Griff.
I’ve found that it took me three passes on the drum carder to get the two colors blended completely.
The batts I made averaged 2 oz, and took me about 10-11 minutes each.
I love the color. It’s a nice soft creamy golden beige.
The Frank/Felix is really soft, and Griff has wonderful crimp. They work together very nicely.
The F/F length makes it a little bit challenging to get off the carder, but means I don’t need as much twist in the singles, so I’m happy to deal with it.
So the next challenge was to figure out what kind of yarn I needed to spin to get the gauge specified in the sweater pattern (or close enough!)
The first try was completely off.
The yarn is great. Soft and squishy. Bouncy and beautiful. But way too big.
1.8 oz= 65 yards. approx 3.25 stitches/inch on size 8 needles (after washing)
Don’t know what I was thinking. The pattern suggests size 8 as the larger needle size that you would use for most of the garment.
Which seems really weird now that I think about it. How in the world do you get 4.5-5.5 stitches/inch on size 8 needles? Oh well.
The seconds try was more successful.
Getting about 4.75 stitches/inch, and I think I can work with that.
1 oz = 48 yards
Took approximately 30 minutes to spin the 1 oz of singles, and 10 minutes to ply them up.
My current plan is to create the designs on the yoke in duplicate stitch after knitting the yoke.
I’m only doing that because I really want to do the designs in different colors- though i’m not sure exactly how I’m going to arrange them yet.
Here’s a little sample duplicate stitching I did on the swatches to make sure the yarns are compatible-
Looks like it’s going to work!
So I’d better get spinning.
Based on my sample processing times, it should take me about 10.67 hours to spin one pound.