In a previous post, I told you about thespinning wheel I got for Christmas. I don’t know how to like back to my previous posts so if anyone can advise me, please do? I also got two lessons. The first thing I made was a cushion cover. A picture of that is at the end of this post. Then I bought some roving and made some skeins. I’ll write more about making skeins later.
When I had a lot of skeins, I started knitting. Before you can start knitting, you have to check your tension, otherwise the garment comes out too big or too small. Since the skeins were made with wool I’d spun myself, I needed to see what my tension was so using size 4.00mm needles, I knitted up a sample square of 50 stitches to 50 rows and then counted the number of stitches and rows to one inch. That way I could make sure that the pattern would come out right. I found that the yarn I spun myself was very slightly thicker than the English double knit wool yarn I am used to knitting with so I changed to a smaller needle and then it came out just right. In America the usual thickness for yarn seems to be what they call Worsted. We don’t have that expression over here (that I know of) and it is slightly thicker to knit with than our D.K. yarn, so popular in England.
Back at Christmas time I bought some brown Worsted and made a garment with that. It felt thicker than I am used to. So knitting with my own spun yarn is akin to the Worsted over there. However, I would like to get it a bit thinner so I am working on that. With my spinning I am trying to make a thinner, finer yarn and I think that will come with practice.
So here we go… This is the start of a sleeve for my cardigan.
This is the back of the cardigan. I think the colours are just gorgeous, don’t you?
This is the front. It’s not quite complete. I have to find some buttons in the right colour and then give it a gentle press.
The wool yarn is so soft to knit with and will be so warm to wear. Here in England we wear woollies all winter and our winter starts at the end of October and sometimes goes on till the end of March.
Because I am a bit wacky and I like things which are a bit different and individual, I spun in some of the roving from a cushion cover I made previously. Only a little mind, just enough to notice.
The roving for the cardigan was purchased from MissBabs hand-dyed yarns and fibers of Mountain City, Tennessee. It is composed of Blue Face Leicester (BFL) and Tussah Silk top. It spins and knits beautifully. It is 80% white BFL/20% Tussah Top.
It comes in 4 oz lots and for the cardigan I used 2.5 lbs plus a little of the plain green at the top of the sleeves.
Miss Babs has her own website at www.missbabs.com and a blog too. Click to visit her blog here.
Oma 
It is indeed beautiful, Star! I love your wonderful yarn and your whimsy. Not to mention your talent! 🙂
I love the colours of this roving D-Jan. It’s like something under the sea, isn’t it. I was also surprised at how warm the cardigan was over a summer dress. Within minutes it felt all snuggly and cosy. Must get a pic of me in it soon.
How beautiful! I’ve never knit anything more complicated than a hat or scarf, to be honest. And the spinning is excellent! How fun to have something you can get everyday use from, that you made entirely yourself!
As a new spinner, the challenge for me is to get the yarn consistent. It doesn’t really matter, I suppose, because the beauty of hand made garments is their individuality. However, a little bit of consistency doesn’t go amiss. A lot of it is adapting to the circumstances. For example: I bought the roving when I was in America. As you know, because you make it, it is difficult to get enough of one sort of roving to make a complete garment. The colours etc. lend themselves more to smaller projects. I bought 10 packs of roving (4 ozs each) and found it wasn’t quite enough. Hence I had to search for a corresponding colour and came up with the dark green that you see on the sleeves of the cardigan. I’m happy with that. In fact, I think it adds interest to the design. Do you agree?
Hi Star, I left a comment here yesterday but I see it’s not shown. I did wonder at the time if it had been accepted, you know what it’s like when things freeze and leave us ‘not knowing’. Blowed if I can remember what I wrote though.
No, I haven’t seen it yet Valerie. However, I can see this one. Not to worry. Thank you for visiting me over here. I appreciate that.
Star
It’s very easy to link to a previous post. Up by where you add your photos, there is an icon that looks like two links of a chain. Highlight a word that you want to make the link from, click on the icon and enter the address of your previous post. Hope that helps!
And the sweater is quite lovely!