Friday, May 21, 2010

Handspun Friday - Polwarth Fiber

I've finished HALF of my FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings Fiber Club Spring/Summer 2010 fiber. This first installment was Polwarth fiber, VERY nice to spin, and I love how it feels as yarn too. Polwarth fiber comes from a mixed breed, Saxon Merino and Lincoln, and is over a hundred years old. For me that says, it's almost as soft as Merino, but hopefully will hold up better with wear. Because - I made a sock out of my spun yarn. So lets hope I'm right!

FCK Mixed Blessing Fiber Club Spring/Summer 1st installment

I was drawn to the red colorway, but liked the purple colorway also after it was spun. As I said before I've only spun half of my 10 oz so far.
At first I thought I was going to do a cabled yarn again. Make a 2-ply with each colorway and cable those together. While I was spinning the singles however, I remembered something Dave, a fellow spinner and knitter showed us in FatCatKnits forum some time ago.
He made lovely yarn, navajo plied, with TWO strands held together. He was very patient with me, asking again, and again, how it's done.

This is also my first spun and finished yarn after Denny arrived on the scene. Part of the spinning time he slept beside me on the sofa, once both of them slept beside me on the sofa. Yep! Nice!

1st sock done, need to spin for the second one

Anyway, I finished the purple singles second, and was so eager to give this plying method a try, that I let it sit only over night. It started out very well, and I thought, oh wow, that's not so hard, but soon I was entangled in a big mess. The purple singles had so much life in them, and of course so much twist, I had to break it off.

You see the small finished skein, up in the mosaic, that's the "4-ply", navajo plied yarn with 2 strands held together. It's not much, but I got the idea, and I will definitely try this again, with well aged singles.

So, I could still make the cabled yarn, but I didn't want to any more. I navajo plied the singles, and I was glad, because I liked both finished yarns in the skein very much, again the red a little more than the purple.

As you can see in the fiber, the red colorway has some colors which are the same as the purple colorway. This told me, that if used together there was not much contrast. I wanted to know for sure, and cast on for another Burning stripes sock right away. Well, no surprise there. You can hardly see stripes, you'll have to look very carefully were one colorway ends, and the other begins.

FCK MB S-S-2010-purple and red colorway - half of fiber-sock 1-3

I've knit each colorway for four rounds. The contrasting stripe in the back is not very much contrasting at all. I knit the heel flap and heel turn with the red colorway only, as well as the toes.

FCK MB S-S-2010-purple and red colorway - half of fiber-sock 1-4

I think I would have liked to use the red colorway on its own very much. Oh well, too late now.
Now that the first sock is finished, I need to spin the yarn for the second sock. How long is that going to take me?

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22 comments:

Cloudberry said...

I think the sock turned out beautiful! The two colorway looks great together.

Have a great weekend :)

2paw said...

Your handspun wool is gorgeous and your socks are so lovely, all the spinning terms make me want to go La la la as I don't really understand them at all. I don't try either.
Oh Happy and Denny are good boys!!!

Juli said...

Ich bin begeistert von deinen wunderschönen Socken!!! Diese Farben - herrlich.

Es wird Zeit, dass ich mir die Anleitung endlich kaufe - der nächste Herbst kommt bestimmt ;)

Liebe Grüße, Juli

MiA said...

Those socks are absolutely stunning! I love love love your yarns. How I wish I could do that myself :)

Walden said...

The handspun looks lovely! Hmm, never even thought of doing Navajo Ply with two singles held together. Will have to try that next time. I really like how the socks look.

Donna said...

It's gorgeous - really nicely spun. I'm looking forward to the pair!

momsue84 said...

Gorgeous colors in your handspun. Love the socks! It is wonderful to have your two sweeties snuggled up next to you on the couch. We do it here all the time!

Sharon v said...

I think the sock came out pretty nice and I applaud you the courage to go in and do the same thing again to get the second sock.

Maybe I should give my only braid of Polwarth a spin and see how it goes. Thanks for the inspiration!

knottygnome said...

love the sock and i really love polwarth! lucky you :P one day i will order some fiber from fck

Päivi, Lankakomero said...

Beautiful yarn and socks. I prefer the purple colorway.

Michelle said...

Very pretty! I still haven't decided how to spin mine up. I like the red but I'm not too keen on the purple so I might ply together.

T-Mom said...

I LOVE the socks!

Susan said...

I have never thought about doing n-ply with 2 strands at a time. I can see why you'd want to have very well-rested singles for that.

Those socks are so pretty!

Charlene said...

YAAYYY!! Handspun Fridays!!! I'm such a dork :)

Anonymous said...

Those socks are gorgeous!

Donyale said...

I'm guessing it's fairly logical to do (ie hold two strands together and navajo ply as one) but do you know a link? Would love to have a look.

Linda said...

I look forward to your Hnadspun Fridays, so inspiring! I have some Polworth locks someone gave me, I must spin them up.

Beverly said...

These are some of the prettiest plain socks I have seen in a long time. You really did well to use the two colorways together. Hope the boys give you time to spin for the second foot.

Gloria Patre said...

I really love the color variations! So bright and cheerful! 4-ply Navajo, eh? Of course I'm going to want to try that!!! I assume your singles have to be pretty fine? Every time I read your blog there's something to admire and amaze me!

Anonymous said...

LOVE the handspun socks...
margieinmaryland

Even though you can't see the stripes, I think that using the 2 colors gives the finished socks a richness of color that one color alone would not have had.

Tina - omme i London said...

The yarn AND the socks are amazing. I love the "seam" down the back of the sock. :)

SissySees said...

Impressive! I would never have thought to hold two strands together and navajo ply, but now I want to try...