Image-knitting

The three-foot-square blanket is coming along. It seems to have acquired a cornerstone (purple leaf in center) and will have sashing elements holding the squares together, like a quilt.

The ability to make images using yarn would make a good focus for future projects -- there is much to learn!

Four squares will be connected by sashing (where table top shows through) to make a 3' x 3' blanket

Sashing (just below leaf) being knit in yellow and turquoise

It is nice to have lots of different yarns to try -- the color that brings things to life is often a surprise

How Long Does It Take?

Starting with raw fleece and ending with a skein of two-ply yarn, I timed each processing step for four ounces of wool, with the following results:

separate, wash, dry = 15 minutes;
dye = 15 minutes;
pick, card = 90 minutes;
spin, ply, skein = 3 hours.

Conclusion: It takes $1.00 in materials (see previous posts) and five hours of time to make four ounces of finished yarn.

Why would one spend so much time making yarn by hand when it can be purchased easily and cheaply online? (My favorite vendor, KnitPicks, has many yarns costing less than $10.00 for four ounces.)

First, one can't purchase the sort of yarn I need, at all! It is spun from a class of sheep, the luster longwools, whose wool is unsuitable for commercial carding and spinning. My main interest is in making rugs, for which the luster longwool breeds are stellar. (Most commercially processed wool is designed to be worn next to one's skin and would not be tough enough for rug-making.)

Second, spinning and dyeing by hand is a great learning opportunity if one intends to create one's own weaving palettes from scratch.

Third, hundreds of women living within 100 miles of me share my enjoyment of this craft and regularly gather to learn from one another. What could be better than making something you love in company with like-minded folk?

Unwashed, washed, and dyed locks of Border Leicester wool

Carded wool with a ball of finished yarn

Unwashed locks, dyed and carded wool, and completed yarn. Time to process = 5 hours for 4 ounces.

Into the Dyepot

To dye a one-pound batch of fleece, it takes less than $1.00 worth of chemicals and an hour or so of time, spread out over a day.

I purchase dye in 2 ounce jars. A jar will dye 8 pounds of wool, and costs between 4 and 7 dollars, depending on the color. You also need citric acid, as the dye will only strike in an acid environment. Vinegar works just as well, but leaves an undesireable odor.

When the dyeing is done, the water is quite clear -- all the dye is locked onto the wool. This transformation at the molecular level seems like magic.

Dye powder is toxic, so mixing requires a few safety precautions

Fleece purchased last week goes into the dyepot

Yarn from an unravelled sweater is going in, too

Dyed fleece spread out to dry

Wash Me

I weighed out one pound of fleece and timed the work of washing it.  Over the course of a couple of days the pound was picked over, soaked, rinsed, and put out to dry. (Rather like doing laundry, one works in five minute increments.)

I found that cleaning a pound of fleece takes about an hour, all told.

One pound of raw fleece ready for soaking

Fleece soaks in hot, soapy water overnight

One pound of fleece laid out to dry in the sun

Fleece after washing, compared to just-shorn locks from the same ewe

Raw Fleece

Yesterday I attended the Aurora Colony Spinners' Fiber Show and purchased a fleece.

If one is going to document the cost of stash-building, time and expense of spinning yarn "from scratch" must be recorded, starting with newly sheared wool and working through to finished yarn.

On the non-recordable side, I have to say that buying a fleece is one of my favorite parts of yarn-making. I find the lushness of newly-shorn locks quite exciting, even though they are in desperate need of a good wash!

Seven pounds of raw fleece

Closeup showing cleaner, cut ends of the locks on the left and dirtier tips on the right

Vendor's label, including sample of washed locks

Unravelled and Skeined

Stage Two went more quickly than expected:  After 90 minutes of unravelling two sweaters, I had 9 skeins averaging 4 ounces each. A piece of each was left intact for photographing.

Based on the time it took to de-seam and unravel the two sweaters, four ounces of yarn can be prepped and skeined in 20 minutes. If one adds travel, shopping, dyeing, washing, drying, and winding into center-pull balls, I reckon each skein requires about an hour of labor.

(This assumes applying dye in one pound batches. Will post time and cost information for dyeing later this month.)

Pieces of the two sweaters

Skeins average about four ounces each

The white yarn is going to yield more yardage, as it is thinner.

The skeining tool is called a niddy-noddy

Reclaiming Wool, Stage One

Friends continue to ask about the "true" cost of stash-building. Accordingly, I'm beginning to document time and expense for reclaiming wool.

One way to obtain yarn is to purchase and deconstruct cast-off sweaters. The Goodwill "Bins," where tons of unsold items are offered by the pound every day, is a dependable source of wool sweaters.

Yesterday, I bought two wool sweaters (cost = $1.59/lb, combined weight = 2.66 lbs) for $4.23.

The Bins are 9 miles from my house, a 30 minute drive in "medium/light" Portland traffic. I spent 30 minutes in the store.

Removal of all seams and unusable edges for two sweaters took 90 minutes. Two pounds of sweater parts are now ready for skeining.

The Goodwill Outlet Store has dozens of bins. Each is changed-up every two hours

Customers crowd around when bins are changed-up

Two wool sweaters purchased at the Goodwill  Outlet Store for $1.59 per pound

The same two sweaters with seams removed -- ready for skeining

Spinning in the Park

Once you have blended some batts of interesting colors, time to take a spindle to the park and spin!

Roving for spinning (slender strand at the left) is pulled from a carded batt

Box of roving and drop spindle -- ready to get outside and spin

Log Cabin Knitting

Let's say you have some square swatches of various sizes. They would make an interesting patchwork blanket if their dimensions were compatible.

Using "log cabin" knitting, a small square can be enlarged by picking up stitches along each edge and knitting a series of bordering strips.

In quilting, the log cabin motif often begins with a small red square to symbolize hearth and home being at the center of things.

How would that translate when knitting experimental swatches? Creativity itself as the central theme?

The borders of darker yarn give uniform size to random handspun swatches

Adding borders will unify these "mosaic knitting" swatches

The original 10" square  is having its bordering strips knit in order to match 18" square swatches

Layers of bordering strips were added to the central red squares to make these "log cabin" blocks

Drum Carder

The drum carder shown below produces batts of carded wool, which can then be spun or felted. With its feed tray and rotating drums covered in carding cloth, it saves a lot of time compared to hand-carding.

You can feed several colors of locks at a time to custom-blend colors. The knitted yarns in the backdrop were blended on a drum carder.

Picked locks to be fed into the carder

At the top, you can see the many teeth of the carding cloth covering the two drums

Green batt on left came from yellow and blue locks. Green knitting in background came from such mixing.

Close-up of blended batt, with original dyed locks in the feeder, on right