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 Tip
Time to ramp up for tonight’s PLY Spinners Guild Third Thursday foundational spin-in!
Here’s a tip to tide you over until the spin-in starts! This is something I’ve observed time and again during my years of teaching spinners.
When we first begin spinning with a short forward draw, many of us struggle to get a thin, even yarn. Much like a toddler who needs to master the chunky crayons before they can move on to the pencils, new spinners will spin lumpy, bumpy, chunky yarn until they master the fine motor control needed to get those lovely, even singles. Then comes the second part of this problem.
Once spinners master the thin, even single… it becomes really difficult for them to spin a thick yarn again. It is a skill they have to learn all over again and is often a shock when they realize they’ve lost the ability.
To work toward getting that thicker yarn again, pay attention to what each of your hands is doing as your spin. One hand manages the fiber supply (the fiber hand), while the other hand forms a pinch point and controls the twist (the working hand).
When you spin a fine single, you might notice that your pinch point stays near the very tips of the fibers and draws only a few fibers at a time into the twisted yarn. While not always the case, you might also notice that your fiber hand holds the fiber supply with a somewhat firm pressure.
To get a thicker yarn, move your pinch point deeper into the drafting triangle so that you are drawing up more fibers into the twist zone. To complement this new motion, your fiber hand should have a very loose grip on your fiber. If you hold your supply tightly, fewer fibers can be drawn into the twist zone.
Test this out at the spin-in, tonight! Make sure that you have joined the guild to get the Zoom link!
Ask Jillian: Parallel Drafting Tips
Dear Jillian,
I am having the worst time parallel drafting! My fibers don’t draft well, there’s clumping, and one color frequently falls away. Can you give me some tips to make it easier?
~Tess (and others) in Jillian’s class at Maryland Sheep and Wool
Hi Tess,
Parallel drafting may be my favorite color spinning technique, but it was super awkward for me when I first started. I felt like I was trying to spin with my toes!
Here are my tips to create an even marl in your singles so you can have wonderfully speckled and blended colors in your ply. I hope one or all of them work for you to make parallel drafting easier!
Fiber
It helps when you are first learning to parallel draft to use fibers that are close in staple length. Corriedale and Falkland or Merino and Polwarth are great places to start, and when those feel comfy, move to combos like Corriedale and BFL or Merino and Merino/silk. Keep practicing and you’ll get to the point where you can parallel draft almost any fibers together.
Preparing Your Fibers
This may be the most important tip: use less fiber than you want to. Not what you want to hear, I know, but it makes such a difference.
I measure my fiber with my fingers. I use two-fingers’ width of fiber, after it’s been fully fluffed.
I open my fibers horizontally and measure the strips of fiber to use. If I am drafting two braids or two solid colors together, I use a finger’s width of each color; if I’m using a natural color and a braid, I use 2/3 of my two-finger’s width of the braid and 1/3 of the natural color.
It’s easy to try to parallel draft without opening your fibers all the way, but that leads to less-than-smooth drafting and clumping.
After I open and strip my fibers, I hold them side by side and pre-draft them together. I slowly, vertically attenuate them, which helps the fibers grab onto each other before drafting at the wheel even begins.
You can do it just with your hands, or you can pull them through a diz, using a handcard or comb to hold your fibers.
Tension and speed
One of the rudest things to say to a spinner is “slow down.” We want to get our yarn done fast so we can bask in its gorgeousness and get on to our next yarn. But if you slow down overall while you are learning to parallel draft, it makes a huge difference. Slowing down helps you draft more easily and keeps both fibers together.
Once you feel like you have the technique down, you can move back to Speed Racer mode.
Finding a way to equally tension the pieces of fiber will help keep one fiber from falling away while you are drafting. I’ve found that putting a finger from my fiber (back) hand in between the two strips of fiber allows me to tension them equally, change the tension between the two if one strip feels fatter, and notice quickly if one strip falls away.
Want Jillian or Jacey to take a stab at your question? Tell us what you want to know:
Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild: Preserving the Ancient Art of Handspinning
by Ron Tyler
In the nineteenth century, the Genesee County area in upstate New York had many individuals spinning wool and flax to provide textiles for their families and for the barter system that provided many goods and services. Spinning was done on great wheels and saxony wheels that many pioneers brought with them across the state from the New England states. The main purpose was for clothing and to supply linens for their daily lives. Nearly every household was spinning for garments and weaving for textiles.
Upstate New York saw many heritage breeds of sheep, which were the main source of their spinning fiber–producing animals. Many farms in upstate New York also had many acres of flax growing. There were approximately 46 thousand acres of flax produced by families in upstate New York. That process was labor intensive to get linen for clothing and bedding.
In 1985 a small group of like-minded individuals formed the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild. They had the tenacity and skill to develop their craft. The guild mission statement was to preserve the ancient art of handspinning and to educate themselves and the public on the history and skill of spinning fibers into yarn. Their skills expanded not only to spinning but to weaving, crochet, and knitting. In reality, it birthed a generation that used fibers for many arts and crafts today.
The spinning guild became the launching ground for many to become modern sheep farmers and mill owners to process wool. They educated many to work in textiles and in local museums to preserve that history. I, like many others, are the products of those wonderful individuals who formed the guild and educated their members in spinning, weaving, and the skills necessary to be successful spinners of wool, flax, and other fibers.
The early years of the guild saw many natural-colored sheep wool and fibers. The dawn of color and dyeing fibers brought many skills to spinning. Many spinners saw the creations of colorwork sweaters, garments, blankets, and many socks and shawls. This led into indie dyers and the frenzy of color in the hands of skilled spinners.
In 1995 the guild created The Finger Lakes Fiber Festival held at the local fairgrounds. This yearly festival ran for 25 years, eventually growing to offer over 80 venders and to attract thousands of people. This festival included many opportunities for demonstrations and educational classes. We have since scaled back and now offer The Shepherd’s Wool Market, which is a smaller event. We continue to offer demonstrations and educational classes to support our mission statement.
Our guild programs have been focused on the skills needed to be successful at individual endeavors, teaching skills in drafting techniques, fiber preparation, spinning wheel maintenance, and use of color. We have incorporated a sheep breed study that has delved into the breeds available and their uses for different textiles. We are gradually building our knowledge on the use of color, especially how to manipulate color at the spinning wheel with braids and the use of stash wool with parallel drafting techniques. We continue to strive and provide education for our members and the public. Occasionally our monthly meeting will consist of us sitting and spinning as a group with no agenda.
The Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild continues to this day, recently celebrating its 40th anniversary. We continue to be like-minded individuals preserving this ancient art of handspinning. Modern day spinning provides many guild members yards of yarn. Spinning provides a sense of pleasure, joy, therapy, and self care to the modern spinner, our guild members among them.
The challenge that the guild faces is bringing this craft to the next generation. We are using our collective experiences to encourage and refresh the guild’s presence in the next generation.
Ron Tyler, a retired nurse, is president of the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild. He has been spinning for close to 20 years and is an avid collector of antique spinning wheels. He is also a historical interpreter in textiles at a local museum with an expertise in the history of flax.
Are you part of a fiber guild with a great history or a guild that is doing truly innovative work? We want to know about you!
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