Rounding Up The Reinforcements

Today I had a nice exchange with Mingo08 on Ravelry. She wrote to ask about the Russian wool I mentioned using as reinforcing thread in yesterday's post about the Marshlands Lace Rib Socks. I've been meaning to blog about reinforcing thread, so I'm grateful to Mingo08 for her nudge!

I reinforce heels and toes in all socks I knit. "Always" -- which means it's my rule (but exceptions can be found).

Back when I first started knitting socks, I considered it mission critical to buy the little cards of reinforcing thread sold in a range of colors to match most yarns. I was in graduate school when the passion for sock knitting really took hold of me. And with a grad student's income, it wasn't long before I decided that, relatively speaking, reinforcing thread was expensive. Too expensive.

Pictured above are just the cards I have left. The sticker prices range from $2.50 to $3.50 per card (the last I bought would have been at least four years ago, so those are old prices). At two cards per pair of socks, reinforcing thread tacked an additional $10-$14 onto the cost of my "affordable little projects."

About four years ago, I picked up several skeins of Moscow Yarn Company's wool in two lace weights Ksenia (cobweb) and Lydia (even finer cobweb). I found them at A New Yarn, the non-profit yarn store I adored which sold both new and donated yarns -- you could find amazing things there until they closed in Spring 2009. I didn't have a project in mind, but at $1 per skein figured I'd come up with a nice shawl pattern someday. The wool went into my stash, where it sat for awhile.

One day I wanted to start a pair of socks but didn’t have matching reinforcing thread on hand. I was looking around for somethind else that might work and remembered the Moscow Yarn Company wool. At such a light weight and with a nice twist, it held up in comparison to the cards I did have on-hand and seemed like a good substitute.  

I've never looked back. The darker, Lydia, is my favorite. In fact, I use it pretty much exclusively now. And whenever I teach sock classes, I invite my students to wind off enough for their projects, too. It’s performed really really well and saved me a ton of money. I haven't even finished off one skein's worth yet. Plus, because it’s already put-up in a center-pull format, it’s really convenient for me to pack two skeins in with my sock project pack and just knit off what I need.

The darker grey color works equally well when in contrast to the base yarn...

On Stripes of Sunshine I experimented with reinforcing toes only 

so I could see how well the Eye of Partridge heel stitch 

holds up on its own. (The answer is "very well.")

 On the Pagewood Farms' Butterfly colorway,

I expected it to show up more and was surprised

by how little contrast it ended up having.

On the Twin Rib socks I made my Mom in December, 

the contrast is more apparent yet still looked 

as if it had been designed expressly to go with the Regia Bamboo.

... as when in harmony with the base yarn....

 I can't even see it on the Country Garden socks, can you?

 The only thing giving it away on the Marshlands Lace Rib is the denser fabric

where the reinforcing wool is used. I suppose you can see a hint 

as if outlining some of the lighter colored stitches on the heel.

It wears like iron. I haven't worn through any of the toes or heels on socks reinforced with it yet -- and unless I'm wearing gym shoes, the only socks that go on my feet are handknits. I may have mentioned before that as a die-hard fan of heeled boots, I'm pretty hard on my socks. Toes, especially.

But there’s nothing particularly special about the Moscow Yarn Company wool for reinforcing except that it's what I have in my knitting bag at all times and that the dark grey truly does blend nicely with everything I’ve made. I don't even bother to take this yarn out of my bag. It's always at-the-ready.

As far as I'm concerned, you could use just about any nice lace-weight wool and be happy with it. You probably have something sitting in your stash already that’s left-over from another project and more-than-enough to keep you in toes and heels for awhile. 

In fact, I have another couple of wools that I also picked up from A New Yarn once I figured out this little trick.

As you can guess, I haven't felt the need to use them yet, so I can't say how the 2/20 weaving worsted performs. I can say that the mustard one held up remarkably well to the playful assault of my cardboard-chewing cat, Mouse, when the tube skidded under the bed during the week of our move... although it did lose its label!

Happy Guilt-Free Birthday & Mother's Day To Me!

[Warning: Really long post with lots of pictures.]

I'm a year older. Friday was my [mumble-mumble]th birthday. Once upon a time, my birthday totally rocked my world. A friend and I, both born May 9, would celebrate with a major party and all our friends and theatre colleagues would join us. That was half a lifetime and half a country ago. These days things are much more subdued. My daughter loves making every little thing special, though. Friday morning, I woke up to a smattering of post-its with little love notes wallpapered all over my chair at the dining table and this:


We eat together as a family every morning, so the breakfast itself wasn't a surprise, but the pretty tissue-wrapped goodies and the use of J's special Microsoft sustainable world plate were. J's team of co-workers all went to a paint-your-own place to make their own dinnerware for use at lunch each day rather than consuming so much throw-away paper/plastic products. About a week after they all started using them, catering services nixed the practice as a violation of health code, so all the dinnerware got sent home with the employees. Oh the joys of our litigious culture.

Yes, that's a knitting project I'm working on just visible at the right of the picture. More about it later...

Here's just one of the special notes from The Girlio.


There were many, many more with many sweet-nothings she'd come up with without prompting from her dad, too, but that one killed me. She also made me a cute key chain in her jewelry making class at YMCA's Kids University.


Didn't she do a nice job? I'll either use it for my scooter keys or for the orifice hook on my spinning wheel.

After putting C on the school bus, I made coffee. Decaf iced soy latte. 7 ice cubes. I'm just not a hot-drink kind of gal. Give me iced drinks year-round!


That's the pretty LaPavoni espresso maker we got ourselves for Christmas last fall. It's copper and brass and about 20 years old. We upgraded from the Starbuck's Barista espresso machine, which I still need to sell. The LaPavoni was another great Craigslist find. Where would we be without it? I can't begin to tell you how much I love this espresso machine. It's so nice to put the art back in my morning coffee ritual!

Checked out Ravelry while I drank my latte and enjoyed the blooming cherry and apple trees in the back yard.


See that bag the coffee's sitting on? Yes, it's a cafe bag. Thursday evening on my way home from work, I popped by Diva Espresso for some no-bake cookies. My favorite! Figured I should have them on-hand just in case I decided to lay around all day for my birthday.


The cookies would be in the pictures, but I had already scarfed them down by the time I thought to grab the camera. See that?! I hadn't even made a dent in the latte before the no bakes were gone! I know, there are many more sophisticated bakery options out there. For some reason, it's the no bakes that drive me mad. I also know I could make them, and I have a great recipe perfected from many fine years' use. Problem there is that I also eat them... all... better to indulge only on more special occasions!

I promised myself a guilt-free day of knitting, spinning, napping, and no dissertation or work. Couldn't quite manage that last one, so I did do a little work. But I also spent some time spinning before I came up with a great idea for birthday fun in the afternoon! First, the spinning.

The roving came from Village Yarn & Tea more than a month ago.


It was on the clearance rack. The label only said "Topknot" and the price. The woman at the store said it was 100% wool but a mix of some kind, and they weren't sure what. I'd been saving this one and was really looking forward to working with it. The green seemed perfect for today's indulgence since the emerald is my birthstone.

I used the spinning wheel (now named Kingston—my wheel is male gendered) for this one. Turns out it wasn't the most pleasant wool to spin. I had some trouble getting consistency on the singles, so I decided this was the perfect time to try the Navajo plying technique, since I'd never done it for more than a couple dozen yards at a time.

Here's what I ended up with:


Two skeins, each is 67 yards. Total weight: 4 oz. The first skein has more twist than the second. I adjusted between the two when I realized I was over-twisting and figured out how to get more comfortable with this 3-ply technique.


I haven't checked wpi yet, but I'm betting it's worsted. Of course, I only spun half the singles on Friday afternoon, the other half and the plying happened later that night and the next morning.

As for the rest of my birthday afternoon, I picked up C from school and took her for an afternoon water battle on the bumper boats at Funtasia ("Where a kid can always be a kid"—and a mom can pretend she's still a kid!)!!!


We had a blast! C's wicked with the squirter but indignantly insists I got her more wet than she got me. My camera might beg to differ. On the way home, we swung by Village Yarn & Tea. I touched everything and spent a lot of time fondling spindles and roving. I really, reaaaaaallllyyyyyy wanted to get something, but I resisted.

[gasp!]

That's right, I didn't buy any fibery goodness on my birthday.

Why? Remember... the spinning wheel was my birthday present, even though it came early. When you purchase off Craigslist, you look for a long time so there's no question and you can jump at the perfect deal when it comes along. My deal happened to come along a month ago. And I've gotten so many good things to go along with Kingston already, that I felt anything more right now would be irresponsible.

I know, I know. I can't believe I was so strong, either!

Fortunately, my mom (who's back at her house in Ohio for the summer, after spending 7 months in New Orleans with my sister) bailed me out. She sent a card with a birthday check and strict instructions to spend it on something for spinning.

Next day during C's 45-minute Irish Step Dance class, J and I went to Weaving Works for a spindle. All the local yarn stores carry spindles, but Weaving Works has the best selection and the most careful display. Of course, I had totally forgotten that it was their Mother's Day sale weekend, so the place was a madhouse. Everything on the shelves was 10% or more off. Call me crazy, but I resisted everything. I had set my sights on a spindle, and I stuck to my mission.

Imagine my disappointment when the only spindles out were the learner's variety! The specialty spindles had been put in the back room because they weren't part of the sale. Fortunately, one of the women took J and I back and waited patiently while I made my selection.

Although I really love all the gorgeous Cascade spindles I see around, for weeks I've been yearning for the Katherine's Cup or Damsel Monique by Greensleeves Spindles. Weaving Works had both in stock, but at the last minute, I made an unexpected switch to the new Ethan Jakob, a smaller, lighter version of the Damsel Monique but with a longer shaft.


The longer shaft length is what sold me. I spin fairly large cops, and I flick-spin off the bottom so I wanted to make sure the shaft was long enough so I'd have room for my fingertips.

The Ethan Jakob weighs 0.4 oz. It's crafted from redwood burl and purpleheart, with a mahogany shaft. It is gorgeous, and has an incredibly fast spin. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a very long spin. Bummer. I'm hoping I'll get used to it. I tried it out Saturday night on this pretty, multi-colored mystery fiber that I got from A New Yarn a few weeks ago (remember, A New Yarn is the non-profit that sells both new and donated stuff).


The roving's so silky. At first I thought it was mohair. It was pretty tricky to spin. The roving itself kept pulling apart. Very unusual experience for me. I started spinning around 9:30 at night. J and I had planned to watch The Kite Runner, but he was really tired and crashed out early.


Left to my own devices, I stayed up until 2:30am, by which time I'd spun the entire lot of roving into a fine thread. Reason did persuade me to resist plying it until morning, but I was at it again immediately after breakfast (a lovely, soaring German Dutch Baby made special for Mother's Day!). Before church, I had produced this:


See how pretty and fine it is? The way the colors plied, the pinks, lilacs, and silvers got plied together while the gold fell smack in the middle of the skein and plied back onto itself. I used the Andean hand wrap technique, which I really love. However, I can see the benefit of other techniques for greater control of the color combinations.


That's 83 yards, produced out of just shy of 1 oz of roving. Interestingly, when I took the yarn off the niddy noddy and skeined it up, it became readily apparent to me that this is not, mohair. In fact, it's probably not animal fiber but, rather, protein fiber. It smelled reedy when I was winding it on the niddy noddy — which I hadn't noticed at all during the spinning. And there's a certain stiffness to the finished yarn that I wasn't expecting in a yarn so fine. See how it kind of stands out on its own? I have to take this stuff to Weaving Works to compare with their fibers. Right now I'm thinking flax/linen. (Note, it hasn't been washed yet in the pictures.)

If any of you can tell from the pictures what this fiber might be, by all means please let me know!

After seeing how much yardage came off the Ethan Jakob with that last project, I decided it was time to ply some Merino/Silk (70/30) blue/multicolor I've been spinning off-and-on for the last few weeks on Fang, my Schecht Hi-Lo. The cop was at least half again as big as for the one above.

So after church and a trip to Trader Joe's, as the family sat down to watch The Water Horse, I started the Andean hand wrap. Seventy-five minutes into the movie, I finally finished wrapping it all onto my hand and started plying. No pictures of the massive bulk of thread on my hand, but I can tell you it took a couple hours to ply it all off.

Here's the yarn:


Believe it or not, that's 176 yards of gorgeous, squooooshy, silky, and [party time] consistent yarn out of just shy of 1.5 ounces of fiber! It's more blue than it looks in these pictures. I did the blue a disservice by trying so hard to show the other colors in it, as well. Here's what the roving looks like:


That's more than 10 ounces of this stuff! Yet another happy find from A New Yarn.


I didn't think I'd be saying this for a long time, but I'm going to be knitting socks from this handspun! I've still got about 9 oz of the roving left. Once I ply it up, I'll have more than enough for a pair of socks and then some. Definitely going into the mix for Summer of Socks 2008!

And lest you think I've been ignoring my knitting...


This is a stealth project, so I won't say what exactly it is since I don't know if my non-knitting friend (whose birthday is coming up) is reading this blog, but I will tell you that I'm totally psyched about the project because it uses twined knitting (aka Tvåändsstickning, which is Swedish for two-ended knitting).

See how the stitches sit on both sides of the circular? It's making a double-thick fabric with air between (no connections except the cast-on). This is two-fisted knitting so far, so I'm brushing up on my Continental style. (Yes, I'm a longtime thrower, not a picker.)


The part I've completed in these pictures is the "ribbing," which looks like the purl-side of stockinette stitch on both the front and the back. It's not garter stitch. here's a picture of the cast-on edge — it's invisible.


Definitely looks and functions like a hemmed edge. I'm totally going to use this technique for some sweater or mitten edges in the near future!

The project, which I'm not going to go into more detail about until I've gifted it, is a smaller one. The reason I'm so psyched about it is because it's also a stepping-stone project for me as far as technique goes. Twined knitting is a good introduction and practice run for my ultimate goal: extreme two-at-once knitting. After reading the Fall06 Knitty last fall, I knew I needed to learn how to knit two socks at once on DPNs. There are just too many socks that I'm interested in knitting but want to work on DPNs rather than magic loop [gasp!] but I'm worried about second-sock syndrome. I do so much better when they both come off the needles at once.

So there you have it. A massive report on my (mostly) guilt-free birthday and Mother's Day. Lots and lots of fiber fun. More than I ever expected. Much appreciation to my family for loving me through all of it!

And now, I'm waiting with baited breath for a reply to an email I sent responding to yet another Craigslist post. This time for a used drum carder. I've been looking and researching for awhile. This one's a respected model at a great price. I responded within minutes of the post going up. Oh please let me be first in line — the birthday may not be completely over!

Getting The Family In On The Act

In the course of the last week, both J and C have expressed an interest in learning how to spin. Not one to miss such an opportunity, I made these:


Two CD drop spindles. These made up quickly Saturday night, in just a couple of hours. I have enough materials to make two more, but I didn't want to do all four at once to leave open the possibility of tweaking my design a bit. I originally planned to dress them with abstract geometric images, but I decided at the last minute to take a different approach. I though the Seattle skyline was a good starting point, since that's where we live and I thought the colors would look pretty from above as the spindle whirls. The other is a close-up image of Ukrainian pysanky eggs (another of my crafty pastimes). They do look spectacular from above as they spin!

I'm particularly proud of the way I use the image to support the design and assist the spinner. I selected images with a strong vertical line pointing to 5 o'clock. This is important because the hook opening is at 12 o'clock, which means the vertical image points the spinner to the exact place where she (or he!) will want to place the yarn before running it through the hook. On Seattle Skyline, that line is created by the Space Needle. I did also put a notch in the CD for this one (thanks, J, for letting me call upon your muscle power for that part of the task!). Pysanky Spinner, whose visual orientation line is created by the black area that points like an arrow to the right spot, sports no notch.

The visual orientation line works so well that even without a notch to control the yarn, I was able to acclimate really quickly — to the point where I don't have to think about how far to turn the spindle when I'm winding on. It's brilliant! (Yes, I do say so myself.) With my Schecht Hi-Lo, I have to pay closer attention during wind on so I can "find" the notch. But with these spindles, I don't have to think about it as much because (1) my brain wants to orient the image vertically and (2) my eye wants to follow the strongest vertical line. Perhaps even most impressive is the fact that I place the yarn in the best spot every time so the fiber doesn't slip.

Here's what the spindles look like from behind.


Pretty normal. The dowel is 3/8-inch diameter, 12-inch length. I used rubber grommets, clear painter's tape (as a shim to fill in the gap between the grommet and the dowel), 180- and 220-grit sandpaper, a CD, cup hooks, and lemon oil. And yes, they do smell lovely!

"What's that fiber already spun?" you ask.


That, my friends is (on left) the next installment of my Song For Dalai Lama yarn (100% wool) and ... [drum roll] ... (on right) ... J's first handspun singles! Check it out!!!


That's right — my newly knitting husband spun himself some awesome looking singles! As soon as I finished making Seattle Skyline and gave it a little test, he had me teach him. He learned quickly and was spinning the entire time I worked on Pysanky Spinner. Truth be told, he did best once I stopped yammering at him with my running monologue of "helpful" little tips and tricks from my own, not-too-distant, learning process.

He's using the 100% Merino wool roving I had gotten from A New Yarn. (Sorry, B. This roving had been destined for you, but the man needed something to learn on, and I knew you'd be so psyched about him spinning that you'd forgive me... as long as I find another yummy roving to send you!)


I have to say that I'm really impressed by how well these spindles work! They spin forever. I spin yarn noticeably quicker on this spindle than on my Schecht Hi-Lo. And they're much more balanced than I ever would have expected.

The only unfortunate thing I might say about them is that they don't work too well for spinning in bed. They get a little wobbly when I'm lounging in bed watching TV because of the angle I use to hold things.

As for finished product, my Song For Dalai Lama singles pictured above are every bit as fine as the original singles I had spun on my Hi-Lo.

Now I know you're probably doing some math here and saying, "Hey, if she was making these spindles so J and C could learn, and then she started using one of them herself, that leaves one little 8-year-old girl without a spindle."

Never you fear: C and I picked a lovely image of a mommy and baby horse to put on a spindle for her. C was in bed by the time I started making these first two on Saturday night, and I wanted to include her in the process. She'll have a spindle of her very own soon. That's why I bought this:


Plain, white, beginner's fiber. I'm pretty sure it's the same stuff I used to learn on. I now know it's Coopworth fiber. C doesn't know it's for her yet. I figured that once I make the spindle, I won't push her to start using it. I'll just have it laying around with this ecru fiber to be at-the-ready for that magical moment when, overcome by curiosity and the lure of her pretty Mommy-Baby Spindle, she decides it's time. She can't resist anything mommy-baby oriented.

I did, however, involve her right away in another experiment I'm conducting now: She helped me select colors for some roving I'm going to spin together. Here they are:


Top Row (L-R): lavender, teal, lime green. Bottom row (L-R) Barbi pink, berry, tangerine. Her only instructions were to limit her selection to five colors. Now, you mathematicians, I know darn well there are six colors pictured, not five. That's because after C picked her five colors, I asked her what color she wanted it to be mostly. She said pink. I picked up the berry as my own addition to her selection.

Despite how it looks in the picture, I do not have equal amounts of each. The fiber is New Zealand Carded Wool from Weaving Works. I started spinning the singles on the wheel last night. This is my first time working with that particular wool, and so far I'm finding it wonderful to spin.

C's proud to call herself a yarn designer! I'm proud to call J a drop-spindler. I'm proud of myself for making such awesome spindles — for well under $2 each. And I'm thrilled that my family can share this with me!

Song For Dalai Lama

My family and I were part of the 1,600-member Seeds of Compassion choir that sang for the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle earlier this month. I took my drop spindle with me and spun throughout one of the events. No surprise why I named this most recent handspun "Song for Dalai Lama."



This is 150 yards, 2-ply, spun top-whorl up on my garled Schecht Hi-Lo. You would have first seen it in this post. I haven't used all the roving in this colorway. There's enough fiber to make another skein this same size, so I will eventually have a respectable 300 yards of this song!


I used the Andean hand-wrap technique for plying. The cop of singles was so big it took me nearly an hour just to wrap all the fiber onto my hand and another three hours to ply it all. Quite a daunting proposition!

I've developed a technique to avoid cutting off circulation in the middle finger when doing the Andean wrap and will post a blog about it soon.

Have You Any Wool?

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the massive wool haul I scored at A New Yarn, but I hadn't gotten around to taking pictures yet. At long last, I can share with you the glory that is my MIL's early birthday present to me!

First up, the darker wool I've already posted pictures of in some spun-up skeins.


As you can see, the 5 ounces I spun barely made a dent in this >5-pound monster, which I had selected as my learn-to-spin practice fiber because... well... with such a luxury of fiber, I knew I wouldn't be hurting too much if I royally messed up a bunch of it.

There's a nice silver/grey in with all that dark brown. See?


It's really a joy to work with this wool. In perusing fiber at Weaving Works last week, I decided that it's probably Romney. I'm open to being wrong about that, though. It would help if I took samples of each of these fibers in for comparison's sake.

Up next, the pretty fawn-colored roving of unknown origin:

This weighs between 3 and 4 pounds. My scale stinks, so that's the closest weight I can get until I make my next trip to the post office.


It's the softest, smooshiest of the lot, and I love the color. I'm excited to work with it but plan to wait until my spinning gets a little more consistent. I'd love to make this into a sweater for myself. Even have an idea or two in mind!

Third up is this gorgeous white stuff:


It's between 1 and 2 pounds, and it's decided not to stay in any kind of neat, tidy formation like its darker cousins.


I really like looking at it...


...but I'm not sure what it will be like to spin...


...because it's not nearly as soft and squishy as it looks. In fact, it's the scratchiest of everything I've shown here. I don't have a clue what kind of fiber it is. Again, a sample taken to Weaving Works should clear up that question.

That was "the good." Now for "the ugly":


I say ugly only because the locks aren't all spiffed up into roving. There are some really pretty colorations here. Dark brown at the base (is that what you call it?) with redder tips. I don't have any cards or combs yet, so I'm not quite ready to tackle this project. Someday! It weighs about 2 pounds.

So there you have it: The most amazing, fortuitous fiber find I could possibly have imagined. Strike that... I couldn't have imagined it. We bought this fiber before I got my spinning wheel. In fact, it's what inspired me to "take a peek" at what was listed on Craigslist that lucky evening.

Yessiree, this fiber has already made a wonderful wonderful impact on my life—and I still get to spin it!

First Off The Wheel

Haven't had much time for fiber this week, but I did ply, wash, and skein up my first two attempts at yarn on the spinning wheel. I'm pretty proud of how they came out.

First up, 5 ounces of the big roving score from A New Yarn a few weeks ago. I shared the singles in my previous post. I'm now fairly certain that this is Romney wool, and I've got about 5 pounds left to spin after this batch. Here it is in a 2-ply:

I haven't quite gotten the hang of judging how much is on the bobbin when I'm spinning singles, so I didn't have equal amounts for plying. Between the 3 total skeins of 2-ply, though, I've got about 165 yards of surprisingly consistent and well-balanced yarn! At an average of 11 wpi, this is a heavy worsted, almost bulky weight yarn.

There was a little bit left on one bobbin after I'd finished the other, so I tried my hand at the Navajo 3-ply method:


That's a little more than 8 yards, and it's way over-twisted. I'm going to have to practice more on this technique!