How to Use Your Handspun

It is all well and good to know how to spin and to be able to spin beautiful yarn… But what happens when you are just drowning in handspun yarn? What if you have made so much handspun yarn and you don’t even know what to do with it? What do we do with all that yarn?

I’ve been spinning since 2006 and over the years have literally created a mountain of handspun yarn in my home. So in today’s video, I’ll show you many of the projects that I’ve made with my handspun. I use my handspun yarn in knitting, weaving, and now also machine knitting projects.

Why it’s important to use your handspun yarn

The goal of using handspun yarn in a project is to get information out of that yarn — what does it feel like as knitted fabric? or woven fabric? If it feels stiff or rough, maybe I need to lighten up on my drafting technique. Or if it feels too fuzzy or soft, maybe I need to spin with a tighter twist. I need to feel the finished fabric and use that sensation to go back and inform how I will spin the next batch of fibre.

For years I was spinning very fine and dense worsted yarn. Then after actually knitting with my fine and dense handspun yarn, I discovered I didn’t like the consistency of the fabric that that yarn would make… at all! The fabric felt too wiry and crispy in the end. Only after having that experience of knitting it up and feeling what that fabric felt like, then I could go back and then change the decisions that I made about spinning it. So everything that is involved in the process of spinning:

  1. FIBRE SELECTION: choosing the fibre blend or the sheep breed that you will spin
  2. FIBRE PREPARATION: whether it is combed, carded, made into a batt, or made into a rolag, etc.
  3. DRAFTING TECHNIQUE: whether you spin the fibre with a worsted or woolen draft. If it’s worsted, then is it short forward worsted draft or short backwards? If it’s woolen, are you spinning long draw from rolags? or spinning from the fold?
  4. SPINNING SINGLES: how thick is this yarn? How thin are my singles?
  5. PLYING: When I ply my singles back, what does it look like? How much ply twist?

There’s so many considerations that go into how to spin a handspun yarn. It’s spinning and then using your handspun to learn about your spinning, then going back to more spinning… this is how we get better at spinning.

Weaving with Your Handspun Yarn

How can we work with it a little bit faster so that we can get that feedback about our spinning? You can absolutely hand knit and crochet with your handspun yarn. For me, I also enjoy the efficiency that comes from weaving and machine knitting with my handspun yarns.

A while back we worked with Debbie Held on this idea of running a make-along or a weave-along to take all of your like little bits and bobs and scraps of handspun yarn that you’ve spun by like playing with different colours and textures on a weaving loom.

Dressing my loom with a mixed warp of random handspun yarns
So much fun seeing how handspun yarn weaves up in a simple plain weave!

Consider using your handspun yarn as warp, weft or both!

Machine Knitting with Your Handspun Yarn

One of the reasons why I’m so interested in machine knitting is the ability to make things a little bit quicker so that I can get to that fabric feel.

Handspun CSM Sock
Handspun yarn knit into a sock on a circular sock knitting machine (CSM)

I have plenty of handspun yarn that has been earmarked for CSM socks! But in terms of machine knitting, I also have an LK150 from Silver Reed. It is a flat bed knitting machine that is the perfect, perfect size for working with hand knitting yarn — everything from sport weight, DK weight, or worsted weight, that is the perfect sweet spot for this particular knitting machine.

And so I’ve been knitting some of my handspun into the WPI (wraps per inch) Hat designed by Rachel Smith. I’m using the original pattern and kind of converting it into machine knitting instructions. The first thing that you need to start with is your wraps per inch measurement!

Then using my wraps per inch measurement for my handspun yarn, I check the chart for what size knitting needles to use and what category my yarn is (sport, dk, worsted, etc) and then knit a swatch on the knitting machine with settings that are suitable for the size of my handspun yarn.

To knit the WPI hat on the flatbed knitting machine, I basically had to open up the pattern to knit it flat back and forth rather than in the round on knitting needles. I cast on with waste yarn and knit a few inches of stockinette, then added one row of ravel cord and used a double e-wrap cast on with my handspun yarn. I knit about 2 inches of stockinette then manually reformed the stitches to create a 2×2 ribbing. Then I knit the body of the hat in stockinette, switching between two balls of handspun yarn every 6 rows. Then it was easier to work the crown decreases on knitting needles, so I transferred the stitches onto a long circular needle and finished up the decreases. Finally, I cinched up the top and sewed the sides of the hat together.

Here are some project ideas and inspiration to get you started with using your own handspun yarns:

Flicker
Flicker & Flame Hats
I loved this project so much, I knit it THREE times (so far)! A bit of handspun for the contrasting colourwork and our hand-dyed BFL+Silk DK for the main colour yarn.
Check out this project
Wraps per Inch Hat by Rachel Smith
WPI Hat
Use whatever size handspun you have! Take a "wraps per inch" (WPI) measurement and use this to determine your knitting needle size and potential gauge.
Check out this project
Colourful handspun yarn by Felicia Lo Wong with fibre by SweetGeorgia Yarns
The Shift Cowl
Knit with sportweight handspun yarn, this slipped stitch pattern uses multiple batches of handspun yarn in a fun way!
Check out this project
Handspun Nightshift Shawl with SweetGeorgia BFL+Silk
The Nightshift Shawl
Knit with dk to worsted weight handspun yarn, I made mine with 3-ply fractal and gradient spun yarn.
Check out this project
Alpine Bloom Sweater
Alpine Bloom Sweater
Handspun yarn used for low-contrast colourwork yoke
Check out this project
Handwoven scarves that have been made with handspun yarn.
Stash-Busting Handspun Scrap Yarns on The Rigid Heddle Loom
Want a sure-fire way to use up those precious scraps of handspun yarn, without investing dozens of hours into pattern scrolling?
Check out this project
Handspun CSM Sock
Handspun Socks Knit on a CSM
One of my absolute favourite things is cranking socks on my CSM using handspun yarn. Handspun socks are amazing!
Check out this project
Handspun WPI Hat, knit on LK150 flatbed knitting machine
Machine Knit WPI Hat
Knit your handspun up into the WPI Hat using a LK150 flatbed knitting machine
Check out this project

If you want to learn more about spinning, fiber preparation, working with blending boards, working with handpainted color, all of those things, please come and join us inside the School of SweetGeorgia. We have an All-Access Membership where you can join and watch all our classes OR we actually have a new offering where you can focus on just the spinning classes in our Spinning Membership.

I would love to hear about how you are working with your handspun yarn. What have you made from your rolags? What are you planning to make from your handspun yarn? I’d love to hear about it here! Just comment below…

The post How to Use Your Handspun appeared first on SweetGeorgia Yarns.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crocheting Granny Squares for the Jethro Cardigan

Image
Crochet Granny Squares are just so much fun to make! Just… one… more round… one more square… For today’s Taking Back Friday episode, I talk about the crochet granny squares I have been making at every possible moment for this past month. I’ve recently been inspired by the Jethro cardigan design by Tanis Lavallee from Tanis Fiber Arts. The Jethro cardigan combines both knitting and crochet in one project. You start by crocheting a bunch of classic granny squares, and then join them all together. Then, you pick up for knitting the sleeves and trim. It’s a really fun and easy way to play with colour, especially with making your own palettes and colour combinations. Mini-skein sets work perfectly to allow for fun colour play with these granny squares The goal of making these granny squares is to play with colour, but I didn’t want to go and buy 6 to 10 full skeins of DK-weight yarn in order to get enough of each colour. And so, I feel like the answer here is DK-weight mini-skeins . ...
Read more

What Is Good Cloth?

Image
When you come and sit down at your loom, what are you focused on? Are you obsessing over a perfectly balanced cloth? Perhaps you are a fastidious sampler out to find the perfect sett for your dream project? No? Maybe your inner monologue runs a bit like mine—I worry that if I don’t focus on all the technical aspects, then the cloth I weave won’t be any good. I also worry that if I overthink things, then I will lose hold of that joyful spark that makes weaving oh-so-fun. Oh, quite the conundrum! One advantage of learning in a community like the School of SweetGeorgia is that I know I’m not alone in thinking like this. In the recent weaving study group,  Weaving Twills on Four-Shafts ,  Felicia Lo asked us, “ What is Good Cloth ?”. True to form, I dug deep and channelled my inner philosopher. I looked at  Good Cloth  from a couple of different perspectives: the creation of cloth and the consumption of cloth. Made on the rigid heddle in 20/2 wool yarn, this scarf wa...
Read more

Joining Crochet Granny Squares – It’s Easier Than I Imagined!

Image
I recently learned how to continuously “join as you go” (JAYG) for crochet granny squares and I LOVE this technique. And so on today’s Taking Back Friday video , I want to share an update on my Jethro Cardigan project and how I joined the granny squares. As I shared in a previous vlog episode , I’ve been making crochet squares out of three different sets of our Superwash DK Party of Five mini-skein sets. I finished making the 36 granny squares needed, which no two are identical. However, after crocheting all of the squares, I was stuck on how to join them together. They simply sat finished in a pile for a couple of weeks. Luckily, Tanis provided resources with her pattern and one of them was for the “Join as You Go” tutorial. It was fantastic. I’m so proud and excited that I’m almost done. I love how it is turning out, and playing with colours has been the most fun part of this project. If you’re interested in making your own Jethro Cardigan, I want to give you some encouragemen...
Read more