Fall Growth

I finished plying my SPAKAL yarn.  I have 7 skeins of 3-ply, and they’re all a little different.  The way I estimate yardage is a little rough (just by counting the number of rounds on the niddy noddy and multiplying), but it seems to be working well enough so far.  I have about 1200 yards total.

It’s not always even (here’s a closeup), but I think the inconsistencies won’t be as apparent in the finished sweater: I plied random bobbins together and I did notice that bobbins with higher numbers (spun later) were more consistent.  I was so pleased by that.  Practice really does help.

I’ve decided to NOT knit the official SPAKAL sweater (Eadon) because I was afraid it might be really heavy on me.  My default spinning style is worsted, which makes a denser yarn than woolen spinning.  And that sweater is long.  Also, long sweaters aren’t so great on my figure – at least not heavy ones.  I could wear one of those light, drapey longer sweaters made out of fingering weight yarn much more successfully than Eadon.

Instead, I’m knitting Leaflet (photo from the knitty.com pattern):

I might make the sleeves long instead of short… but I don’t have to decide just yet.  We will see.  One thing I know for sure… the leaflet pattern on the back will seem narrower on my version.  My 3-ply gauge swatch gets 17.5 st/4”, and the pattern gauge is 15 st/4”.  I did some math and determined that I need to knit the size marked 1X in order to get a size M in my yarn.  So… more stitches and a narrower motif.  This is knit top down – I just finished the first leaflet (my sweater will have more than 3 leaflets, too, because of size): I wasn’t sure I love love loved the yarn after I plied it.  It didn’t feel nearly as soft as the roving did… and I’m not very good at figuring out how to preserve softness.  I like tight twist yarns and that doesn’t help.  But I wish we had touch-o-vision on the internet, because this fabric feels so much more squishy and alive than I expected it to.  It’s really very pleasing to work with!

I’d like to get a green shirt to wear under this purple sweater.  Jess, remember the other roving color I seriously considered buying?  It was called “lima.”  That’s the color I want for the shirt so that the leaf motif will really pop.

I’m so happy to be knitting with my handspun.  I really need to strive to do this more often.  And I’m also itching to spin more… but time is very short at this point in the academic year and so I haven’t begun.  A new spinning project will take time away from Leaflet.

AND… the beads I ordered to make Laura Nelkin designs came last week. 

What I need is a whole week of hooky from work!