Next step...

[zcat_abroad]

So, what's the next step? Here, I have three hanks of spun yarn - the first straight alpaca, and the other two alpaca and silk mixed.


You can see the gradation of colour which I was aiming for, but it is very subtle. I'm thinking I might not end up with 100% blue, but instead have a dark blue/white ply. I've still got HEAPS of alpaca, and it looks like I've got plenty of yarn.

So, I guess I have to wash this, to set the twist - which is scaring me, because I don't want to wet this! Then I should start crocheting it up. Here's my test swatch:


This is using a needle about 3 sizes up from the one in the pattern, but it's nice and dense, so should be good and warm. I'm aiming to make this:


(Yes, I'll have to keep a close eye on sizing. I rarely follow patterns as they're written though...)

I was planning on gradually going darker as I worked my way out, showing the development of my spinning as well. Now, I'm wondering if I should just work a range of stripes, so it comes out as a light version of this:


Any suggestions? Also, how should I roll that spun yarn into a ball? I'm not sure I want to over-handle it - I guess I'm not entirely trusting my spinning yet!

Comments

[untonuggan]

Gorgeous! *drools*

OK, so bear in mind that I have been spinning for ~1.5 months. However, I have "fulled" (or set the twist) on a fair number of balls of yarn in that time and it has always gone okay. Sometimes I have kind of had to work a couple of the fibers apart, but that's usually if I also dye it too. Also bear in mind that I have always done it for wool, never alpaca/silk.

Basically for fulling you want to do the things you would not do for a knitted garment that you know and love. You make the water warm/hot and soapy, stick the spun yarn in there, and agitate it for a little bit after letting the yarn soak. This opens up the fibers in the yarn and encourages them to stick to one another, so it doesn't come untwisted when you're knitting. Then you thwack it against a hard surface (I may or may not have gone outside to do this against a lawn chair at 11 pm when I didn't want to wake anyone inside, but I think most people use their bathtub). That generally gets rid of some of the water, and helps set the twist. At this point I usually squeeze it between a towel. Then you let it hang dry.

After it's dry, you can roll it into a ball the way you would roll any yarn into a ball - either by hand or with a ball winder.

I don't know if there's a different method for alpaca/silk but you could always try a very small section of it as a test batch.

[zcat_abroad]

Cool, thanks. I hadn't really worked out the point of washing it before. I don't think alpaca needs anything terribly different.

And I do LOVE the bit where you went outside to thwack!

[untonuggan]

Thwacking outside keeps the neighbors guessing. ;)

[visual_syntax]

Setting the twist will make your yarn more durable so don't be scared to set it. I usually set it for 30 minutes in a warm soapy soak and then 30 in a cool rinse. Hang to dry. It will also shrink the yarn so you will have less to worry about after the garment is made.

You should have a niddy noddy to make a skein. I got a ball winder and "umbrella" from knit picks and use that to knit into a cake.

[zcat_abroad]

Thanks for the info!

I have been slowly building up my collection of spinning/yarnmaking bits over time - haven't got a niddy-noddy yet, so those hanks are hand-to-elbow, as you probably guessed.

Things what you probably know, but just in case...

[untonuggan]

The bonus of a niddy-noddy, besides avoiding answering the door when you are entrapped by yarn (yes I have done this, too), is that you can measure how long your yarn is. Each twist around the niddy-noddy is usually somewhere between .5-1.0 yards long, so then you just count the number of loops, do a bit of math, and bingo! You know how many yards of yarn you spun. Genius.