Mixing Things up for a Sweater
words and photos by: Johanna Carter
I always admire those who are able to spin mountains of yarn for a big project, ready to knit a wonderful sweater or cardigan. It is a satisfying feeling when you finish all that work, especially if you started with washing and combing the wool or even raising your own sheep.
Mixing spinning and knitting
The typical way to work through a larger project is to spin all the singles first and ply them in a particular order so you get the yarn even throughout the whole project. I don’t have so many bobbins, but my bigger problem is that I am quite impatient and want to get on with knitting once I have an idea. And normally, my brain is full of ideas for fibre work and the limit is the time, as I am a musician and teacher. I can’t sit at the spinning wheel for a long time if I’m not on holiday, so during the school year I mostly knit, and during the holidays I can dye, spin, use my drum carder, and do lots of fibre work. The only time I was able to produce bigger quantities of yarn before I knitted them up was during the Tour de Fleece in the two years during the pandemic, when we did not go on holiday at the beginning of July.
A highly photogenic collection of naturally dyed fibres.
I like to finish knitting one big project like a sweater or cardigan before I start the next one, or at least until I can’t carry it in my bag easily anymore, so I have an excuse to begin the next one. Sometimes it is good to have a second project on the go – I call it mindless knitting, where I don’t have to look very much – which I can keep my hands busy during Zoom or other meetings, which helps me listen.
Mixing colours and fibres
Usually I dye my yarn with plants which I collect in the woods or get from garden flowers. I also use cochineal and indigo, which I buy, to get lots of different colours. I really love the greens and blues I get from dyeing with indigo. I have lots of dyed wool, and all those colours give me inspiration for further projects.
Beautiful greens and blues dyed by the author using indigo and other natural dyes.
Blending the wool on the drum carder I can get even more shades. I like to blend with fibres like silk, alpaca, or plant fibres, and I love sari silk, to get those little bits of colour in my yarn.
Fibres of different types and colours are blended on a drum carder for elegant results.
When I have an idea for the next sweater, I start carding, and then I can begin to spin. Once I have spun enough yarn – say, for one day – I cast on and start knitting, usually top down, so I don’t have to decide too much in advance about length and width.
An idea for the author’s next sweater in the gathering stages.
When I spin on my wheel, I have to sit at home, but while spinning I can read a book or talk to others during online meetings. I also like to spin on my spindles, and that works on a walk, or a museum visit. I take them on holiday as they don’t need much space, and when I spin for a lace shawl, I don’t even need much wool either. At home there are spindles all over the place; I can spin when I am waiting for the kettle to boil, when the computer is slow, when I am cooking. Like that I can make good use of a short time and the yarn still grows.
Knitting as soon as the yarn is spun helps the author complete sweater projects in a timely manner.
I can take my knitting almost everywhere, which is why I don’t want to wait to get started until I have spun all the yarn for a whole sweater. I knit at home, on the bus or train. The only thing I have to make sure of is to be one step ahead with the yarn.
I love to knit Fair Isle sweaters. My favourite method is to use only one bobbin, which I don’t even fill, because I need smaller quantities of lots of colours. Then I wind a ply ball and ply it on itself. For that I put my thumb through the ball, so I can tension the two singles with my fingers and they don’t get tangled, as long as my thumb (or a cardboard roll or a pencil) stays in the middle. I don’t have any leftovers from plying, and it is quick when I suddenly need more yarn.
Several charming sweaters dyed, spun, and knit by the author.
I have never had problems with the yarn not being consistent enough throughout a project. I just know what yarn I want and my fingers seem to remember what to do. I am sure it is good advice to have a little card tied to the spinning wheel with a bit of the singles you are aiming for, so you can check and make sure you are spinning a consistent yarn.
Mixing breeds
There are so many different breeds, but some of my favourites are Shetland, BFL, and Jämtland – a Swedish breed. After dyeing them, I often forget what I have used, so when I do a new project it often turns out that I have used different breeds and fibres just to get the right colour. For the Fair Isle knitting I want to juggle lots of colours, which is more important to me than making a sweater out of only one breed.
Recently I made a pullover for my husband using about 12 different breeds and colours, even mixing short and long draw. For me it was a breed experiment and a way to use up lots of smaller quantities of wool I had in my stash. For that sweater I used combed top without blending.
Mixing in knitting during the spinning process is a wonderful way for a spinner to avoid being overwhelmed during a sweater project.
My feeling is that some people don’t dare to start spinning for a bigger project because they get overwhelmed by the quantity they have to spin and then all the knitting there is to do, especially when you want to spin the yarn entirely on spindles. Mixing the spinning and knitting for the same project is more interesting; you get more variety and more freedom to choose what you want to do next as long as you don’t run out of yarn. It breaks the project down into smaller, less daunting parts. The only thing you might want to plan is to have enough fibre at the start, but even that is not necessary, there is always a sheep growing more wool.
Third Thursdays Guild Tips
As we ramp up for tonight’s PLY Spinners Guild Third Thursday foundational spin-in, we’d like to take a moment to feature some tips from one of our wonderful PLY Guild spin-in leaders, Terri Guerette.
What should I bring to a workshop?
Although not something to bring to a workshop, one of the reminders I often offer to people taking my workshops is to make sure your tetanus shots are up to date. We work with a lot of sharp tools that are sometimes used on raw fleece. So we really need to make sure we protect our health!
There are a lot of factors to consider when taking a workshop. How long is the workshop? Where is it being held? But the most important thing is to pay close attention to the class description for the items you should be bringing to class. If there is anything in the description that you are unsure of, please don’t hesitate to contact the instructor.
My next recommendation is to make sure your items are clearly marked with your name since many of us have the same or similar equipment.
Beyond that, you can consider bringing a myriad of things, including but not limited to a repair kit with the items you may need for your specific wheel; documentation supplies (notebook, pen/pencil, labels, bags); and personal care items (hand sanitizer, snacks, water bottle, throat lozenges).
Last but not least, it’s usually a good idea to have one or more of your shawls/sweaters with you because workshop environments can be quite varied. Besides, it’s so much fun to share the things we’ve made with our friends, old and new!
For a more in-depth discussion of this topic, see:
“The Ultimate Spinning Toolbag,” PLY Magazine (Winter 2017): 44–48
“Power Learning,” PLY Magazine (Autumn 2018): 34–37
Also, if you haven’t already seen the news…
Season two has begun!
The first episode of the second (worsted) season has dropped and is ready for your viewing pleasure!
- Four spinning segments
- Three teachers: Maggie Casey, Heavenly Bresser, and Jacey
- 2 hours of spinning content
- Jacey has included a new intro to the guild (which you should totally watch, it has lots of new info)
- And two teacher teas (from last year) for the teachers in this episode (which if you haven’t seen them yet, they’re delightful)
It’s a great episode filled with lots of worsted drafting, and it will get you ready for everything else we’re going to do this season.
Also a reminder! Sunday, April 20 there will be no guild spin-in!
This is Easter Sunday so we’ve decided to not hold the spin-in, but don’t worry, we’re going to make it up with a fantastic giveaway at the next Sunday spin-in. (Remember when we spent that whole spin-in looking at a fancy new carder? Well…)
Ask Jacey: How Do I Improve My Joins?
I’ve heard lots of people talk about how there are different joins for different kinds of spinning. I’m not even super good at the one join I do (I kind of tease out the fiber at the end of my new yarn and then lay new fiber over it and hope it all gets twisted together when I start treadling again). Is that a good join and are there better ones? Will you cover these in the guild? ~Melanie, PA, USA
Dear Melanie,
Joins are something many spinners struggle with, so you are absolutely not alone. There are several different types of joins and lots of ways to do each of them. What you want to learn (and practice) is a good join for the types of yarns you spin (and yes, we’ll cover every join imaginable in the guild).
Before I get too far into different joins and how to do them, I want to say this to newer spinners: Don’t let this get in your head. If you’re new to spinning and you are getting any join to stay together, rejoice and keep spinning. Joining can be hard at first (I promise it will get easier, automatic even). Come back to expanding your joining repertoire later, when you’re comfortable and ready. This is not something you must know right now. Okay, for Melanie and anyone ready to work on joins, here we go.
Different joins for different yarn
I’m not sure what kind of yarns you spin, but maybe you spin enough different types of yarns that one join doesn’t suit them all. If you sometimes spin woolen and sometimes spin worsted (or even sometimes semi-woolen and sometimes semi-worsted), you’ll want a join for each of those. After all, a woolen yarn is fuzzy, airy, and lofty, and you probably don’t want smooth flat spots at each place you had to join new fiber (which you’d get if you use a worsted join on a woolen yarn). Conversely, a worsted yarn is smooth, lustrous, and dense, and you don’t want a fuzzy, airy, matte spot standing out wherever you joined, right?
Things that are true for every join
- You are always joining fiber to fiber, never fiber to yarn. If you don’t have a bit of fiber opened at the end of the yarn you’re spinning, stop and tease a bit out.
- Your new fiber and old fiber should not act like they are new or old. They should act like the same fiber, as if they’re all from the same fiber source.
- The area of yarn with the join should be the same diameter as the rest of your yarn. If that’s not possible – and we’re not machines so it’s often not – it should be thinner than the surrounding yarn. Twist goes to and stays in thinner areas of yarn, so if the area with your join is thinner, it’ll hold together better. If it’s thicker and your join isn’t perfect, it won’t hold.
A worsted join
I’ve seen worsted joins done so many different ways, but a few things should be true:
- Allow no twist between your hands
- Smooth and compress fibers after you make the join
- Keep both the old fiber and the new fiber under equal tension
- Do a short forward draft during the join, even if you’re otherwise spinning short backwards
As long as you do those things, your worsted join will look just like the rest of your worsted yarn. The key now is making sure your worsted join is secure. That key is mostly in those last two points plus the points that are true for every join – equal tension, using a short forward draft, joining fiber to fiber, treating the new fiber like the old fiber, and making the area of join the same or a thinner diameter. I made a short video to show you what I mean (remember that this is just one type of worsted join; there are others).
A woolen join
I find woolen joins to be a bit easier than worsted joins. Woolen yarns are more grabby than worsted yarns and also not quite as picky. There are several ways to do a woolen join, but they all have a few things in common. Those things they have in common are the things that make these yarns woolen instead of worsted:
- Let twist between your hands
- Don’t smooth the fibers
- Don’t compress the fibers; leave that air in there
As long as you’re doing those three things, you’re making a woolen join that won’t stick out in your woolen yarn. But just like the worsted join, you also want to make sure it’s secure. Since woolen yarns are a little more in chaotic than worsted yarns, the process for making a join is less specific. You just need to get the two fiber sources together, thinking they’re one, and introduce twist to them. My favorite way to do this is to take the new fiber and fold it around the last little bit of yarn I spun (making sure there’s some unspun fiber at the end), draft it forward or backwards just a bit, letting the fibers catch, then continue drafting. It sounds easy because it is! I made a short video of a woolen join here (again, remember that this is just one way to do a woolen join).
Experiment and find your joins
So that’s it! But not really, right? These are just guidelines (and one video example of each join). As long as you follow the guidelines for each type of join, experiment and see what works for you. You can still tease your fiber end out and then lay them together. In fact, that could be the start for either a woolen or a worsted join. Just make sure that the amount of fiber you have teased out won’t twist together and make a bulkier section in your yarn.
From there, you just have to change what you do next to fit the yarn you’re spinning. If it’s woolen, let twist enter those two teased-out sections without straightening them out or aligning the fibers. Resist smoothing your hands over the join (I say resist because I always want to). If it’s a worsted yarn you’re spinning, you do want to straighten out those teased fibers and keep your hands surrounding the fiber, one in front of what will be the join and one behind it. Slowly let twist enter the two fiber sources that are teased together, smoothing and compressing as you also start to draft again.
It might feel like a lot of things happening at once, but that’s the nature of spinning, right? Everything is happening all at once but you’ll get it, and don’t worry if it doesn’t work the first time – it’s only two inches of fiber, so just break it off and start again. That’s the beauty of spinning. We make it inch by inch, and if we’re unhappy with a particular inch, it’s just an inch.
Good luck,
jacey
Mood Board: Summer 2026 – Purpose
Mood Board: Summer 2026 – Purpose
Proposals due by: June 1, 2025
Final work due by: December 1, 2025
Although spinning up a gorgeous skein of yarn seems like a project in and of itself, ultimately most handspun yarn is used to create something else. So how do you spin with a purpose in mind? We want to hear about it!
What crafts do you use your handspun yarn for? Knitting? Crochet? Weaving? Embroidery? Macrame? Rug making? Mixed media art? Each one can have specific needs for the yarn, and we want to explore those qualities in this issue.
What makes a yarn a good knitting yarn? What are some changes in that yarn to make it better for crochet? Does it make a difference if you’re using knitting needles, working on a knitting loom, or cranking a sock machine? Does Tunisian crochet have the same yarn needs as crochet?
What about weaving? What are the qualities that work best for the warp vs the weft? Do you want to use different yarns if you’re using a rigid heddle loom vs a table loom? What about tablet weaving?
Do you use handspun for embroidery or visible mending? What kinds of yarns work best for those crafts?
When you have a specific project in mind, what kinds of questions do you ask yourself before you start spinning? How do you determine what characteristics a yarn needs? What are those characteristics? From the technical (twist per inch, ply structure, wraps per inch) to the yarn qualities (drape, shine, warmth, sturdiness, loft), how do you know what decisions to make?
What about repurposing? Do you use recycled materials in your spinning? Have you used handspun yarn to upcycle or modify something already made?
Tell us about your spinning community. Do you have a group that spins for a cause or a charity?
What about tools? How have you used something else as a spinning tool or used a spinning tool in an unusual way?
And this issue wouldn’t be complete without some patterns. We’re always looking for knitting, crochet, or weaving patterns, but we’d like to see an embroidery pattern or another craft pattern for our readers to make with their own handspun.
Proposals are due by June 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in July 2025, and final articles are due December 1, 2025.
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