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Knitting Patterns for Handspun Yarn

Although you can use handspun yarn in almost any knitting pattern, sometimes there are patterns that work better than others for handspun. This is especially true if you have limited yardage, have any inconsistencies in the yarn, or aren’t sure about what gauge you should be aiming for. 

With those ideas in mind, finding patterns that allow for variations in gauge and yardage are the most helpful to make something you’ll love that allows your handspun yarn to shine in all its glory. 

Variable gauge 

One of the places to start is to look for patterns that can be adapted based upon your gauge. That way you can find the needle size that creates a fabric you like with your yarn and use that gauge for the pattern. If you’re searching for patterns on Ravelry, for example, in the advanced search options, you can select “any gauge” under Weight to help find these patterns. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye (note: all links are to Ravelry). 

Musselburgh Hat by Isolda Teague: This has been one of my go-to patterns for hats because it’s adaptable to various yarns with tables that give you all the stitch counts based upon your gauge (which you take by casting on the hat and measuring when you have an inch or two of fabric—no gauge swatch needed!). It creates a double-sided hat, which you wear by folding one side into the other, so you’re making two hats in one. This allows for using two different yarns (switching at the halfway point of the knitting), stripes, or even adding in stitch patterns. (Pictured is my in-progress handspun Musselburgh.) 

The Traveler Cowl by Andrea Mowry: This cowl is knit on the bias (flat and seamed), which makes it a great candidate for handspun yarn of any size as you can adjust the final size of the cowl as you go. In fact, the designer had handspun yarn in mind for this pattern. 

Boomerang shawls, various designers: Another great option is to look for boomerang-shaped shawls. These shawls are not quite crescent shawls and not quite triangular shawls but somewhere in between, and the idea is to keep working on them until you run out of yarn. So they’re great both from a variable gauge standpoint as well as from a yardage standpoint. I’m currently working on the Handspun Boomerang Shawl by Natasha Sills and have also made a Quaker Yarn Stretcher Boomerang by Susan Ashcroft (pictured). 

Speaking of Susan Ashcroft, you should check out more of her patterns (Stichnerd Designs) because she has several other “yarn stretcher” or “boomerang” patterns that can work wonderfully with handspun. She has a whole bundle of her patterns that she’s made specifically for those patterns that work well with handspun yarn. 

Tensfield or Langfield by Martina Behm: These two hat patterns (the second is the slouchy version) have a fun construction that will showcase your handspun yarn. Even better, because you adjust the size as you knit, it doesn’t matter what weight of yarn or gauge you use. I haven’t made one of these yet, but I’ve just added the pattern to my queue! 

Aunt Maggie by Shilo Weir: This free knitting pattern was created after the designer received encouragement during a spinning class with Maggie Casey to make sure to knit with their handspun. Written with a variety of yarn weights in mind, from sport to bulky, the pattern information includes a note about how much yarn you’ll need to complete the cowl. 

What if you don’t want an accessory but instead want to make a sweater? Designer Elizabeth Felgate has several sweater and cardigan patterns that can be made using any weight of yarn. Even better – you don’t even have to calculate your gauge! The construction of the garments has you measure your progress as you go (in inches or cm) to get the size you want. 

What other patterns have you found that work well with handspun? Share them in the comments! 

The Power of Creation!

Words and photos by Cat Ellen

 


The power of creation. The very phrase could conjure up poetic descriptions of galaxies swirling into being or an intimate up-close look at new generations born and raised, whether children or small animals. For others, the word creation evokes the craftroom and the workbench, raw materials, stash, tools, and supplies. It can mean warm kitchens and bubbling hearths, comfort foods, and innovative new ideas.

Those of us who create handmade textiles have a strong sense of what it takes to process a fleece; spin a thread; weave a cloth; create a reliable dye bath from natural materials; hand-stitch, design, and knit a garment; or otherwise keep our families and loved ones in blankets and clothing or protected against the elements. We can recognize a handknit scarf at 20 paces and have probably held long discussions explaining the differences between crochet, knitting, and woven techniques.

If we focus on the word power, for some this means electricity, new gadgets, and space-age technology, manufacturing, and automation. How can I rev up this engine faster? More efficiently? How fast can I cook this meal? How soon can I get this delivered? Or more broadly, can I have power over my bills, my email, my social media, my laundry, my education, my retirement?

Sometimes, I find myself pondering whether every advancement is really worth it. My social media feed is filled with memes asking, “Are you old enough to remember?” featuring pictures of tools for home repair, home production, or manual handiwork. And I have friends dedicated to home sufficiency in gardening, canning, woodworking, and sewing. They joke about the zombie apocalypse and disaster recovery planning, including who needs to be part of any recovery team. The crafty, textiles friends are tagged to help clothe us when we need to rebuild civilization.

Simply creating things with my hands is power. It’s power over the capitalistic, consumer world I live in. Rather than be a passive victim and slave to the current fashion world, instead I make design decisions based on my own artistic preferences. I choose what color is in this season, possibly based on how my friend’s crop of dyestuffs grew in her garden. Or maybe I’m supporting a local dyer I only know over the internet, but we’ve commiserated over bouts with the flu or celebrating who just finished and defended their PhD thesis. All the while, we’re knitting for the holiday season or we’re spinning for a wedding shawl or we’re fermenting an indigo pot out back.

If you’ve been raised in a western textiles tradition, you may have only been taught about tool-based solutions. Which wheel should I buy to spin bulky? Do I need a new flyer to spin for this lace project? Which vendor has the best dyes for my protein fibers? Which loom should I buy, and how many various dents do I need? Can I use this loom for my tablet weaving project, or do I need a different-sized, different-shaped loom? Should I buy a warping board and a niddy noddy and a spinning weasel?

But what if my solutions were process based rather than tool based? Could I learn to spin with simpler tools? Could I weave with nothing much more than a few sticks, dexterity, and quite a bit of practice and memorization?[1]

When you think about weaving at its core, it is simply a matter of wrapping strings around a collection of sticks and then manipulating strings among other strings. If you describe your loom, you’re telling me what shape your sticks have been arranged in: backstrap loom, inkle loom, rigid heddle loom, warp-weighted loom, four-harness – all are just descriptions of the shape of the sticks where you’ll manipulate the strings. I needed to demonstrate this description in a park one time, so I gathered a handful of sticks. I made some string on my drop spindle and proceeded to warp a small sampler. Need some heddles? Make more string. I didn’t need money or a large piece of equipment. I can make fabric with sticks and string.

I am still learning how to manipulate strings – whether described as backstrap weaving or card weaving, the weaving complexity is not defined by how many thousands of dollars I spent on tools nor how large a workshop I need to dedicate to my craft. The power of my creation is limited only by the hours I put into my skill development, the research put into learning from those who have come before me, and the creativity of my own innovation.

Recently, a musician friend passed away. In lieu of a memorial service, we held a Life Celebration event. Dozens of friends showed up to sing, play music, and celebrate our friend’s life. I’d left the house without any spinning, but another friend was destashing art supplies from her home. I arrived at the event, and she handed me 4 ounces of wool. All I needed was a stick, which we found on the grounds of this industrial park. I spent a happy 5 hours twirling a stick and some fluff and making yarn.

Go ahead. Take all my worldly spinning goods. I will bounce back immediately. There’s always another stick somewhere. The power of my creation, of my creativity, is not limited by my possessions. Instead, I find an exciting challenge in taking scraps and creating something new. The problem fleece someone thought was only good for mulch? I can soak it in cold water, pick it clean, spin it by hand, and dye it with cochineal, and you would never know the wool wasn’t originally the best in the stash.

Rather than allowing ourselves to be disappointed at the limit of our budgets or our current collection of tools, we have the power to do more than just be a consumer. We are makers.

That’s the power of creation: making something greater than the sum of its parts.

Cat Ellen has been spinning for about 20 years and prefers a drop spindle over anything else. When not teaching people to make string from sticks and fluff, she can be found teaching American Tribal Style bellydance or copyediting performance material for the Santa community.

[1] I credit Abby Franquemont for teaching me to distinguish between tool-based and process-based solutions at PlyAway 2 in 2017.