Slightly Sassy Rambouillet- Finished!

I finished this up on Friday afternoon and blocked it right away.  I did I-cord bind offs on all of my edges using the Lilac skein that I had.  I didn’t quite use up all of my handspun, but I did use up most of it.  It is a nice t-shirt, very comfy.  I did screw up a bit on the neckline when I added the extra rows to increase the armhole depth.  I should have done the last two neck increases right away, joined to work in the and then worked the rest of the armhole increases.  I sewed the neck edge together where the slope changed to make a little key hole.  The top still fit without that mod, but it fits a bit better with the mod.  I made a note on my pattern modification in case I knit another one, which I just might do.  It is an easy pattern, and seems to work great with handspun yarn.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet 

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) for the body, and US 4 (3.5 mm) for the I-Cord.

Slightly Sassy Rambouillet - Raglan Shaping Done!

The raglan shaping is done, and then some!  Yeah, this one is just hard to put down, knitting my handspun Rambouillet is just so nice.  At this point I’ve knit up two skeins and started on a partial third.  I have some partial skeins from frogging the tank, which I will use on the sleeves.  I did make a modification to the raglan shaping, which for my size ended on row 54, after several rows with raglan shaping on every row.   I’m not exactly crazy about that every row shaping as it makes a run of tight stitches that I think are just not that attractive, plus I needed more depth for my armholes.  I ended up ripping back those rows, which was easy to do with this yarn as the stitches do not disappear making it pretty stress free to just pull the needle out, rip back, and then carefully put the needle back in to the stitches.  After I got all my stitches back on the needle I reknit those rows but only worked the increases on the right side rows, adding six more rows to get the armhole depth that I need.  Unfortunately I may have done something screwy with the neck shaping in the process (adding those extra rows changed the slope a fair bit), but it looks like it will be easy to deal with when I work the neck edging.  The fit is absolutely perfect, and I am very much looking forward to finishing this one up.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Slightly Sassy Rambouillet - Cast On!

After the disaster that was the Tarahi Tank.

I frogged that project and reclaimed the yarn.

Using the Tahari Tank as giant gauge swatch I went searching for a better pattern and found the Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher, a top down raglan top that is easily adjustable for body and sleeve length.  This is my handspun yarn, the first spin from the Breedschool that I started almost exactly a year ago.

It was an amazing fiber to spin, and it is so nice to knit with.  I dyed it up using WoolTincture Dyes.  Even though I frogged the Tahari Tank last November, I didn’t cast on this top until May 3, after finishing my Copenhagen Cardigan.

Pattern:  Slightly Sassy V by Aimee Sher

Yarn:  My handspun Rambouillet

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Garter Stitch Scarf - Finished!

One of the things that the Sheepspot Spinschool recommends is immediately starting to work with your handspun.  As mentioned in a previous blog post I had spun up some roving from Zen Yarn Garden.  It still wasn’t consistently spun, but there were sections that were very good, and I decided to knit it up into a simple garter stitch scarf.  It was very nice to knit with, even with the inconsistent thickness.  I used a US  6 (4.0 mm) needle.  It relaxed a bit when I blocked it.  Here is the pre-blocking picture.

And here is the yarn that I used.

Pattern:  None - just cast on 35 stitches and work until all the yarn is used up

Yarn:  Handspun from Zen Yarn Garden Superwash Merino Roving

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

 

I Made Yarn!

About a decade ago I bought a spinning wheel - a Kromski Polonaise (a good investment as it turns out as the price has doubled since then) - but never learned how to use it.  I tried at one point, and we just fought each other.  Oh the mysteries of tension and drive!  Along the way I also picked up some spindles and a friend taught me the basics of park and draft, but I never really got good at that either.  Then along came the Mighty Network and a community called Sheepspot.  I joined it with the thought that I might finally learn to spin, but never had the time to really dedicate to it until I retired.  I had re-upped my membership in The Sheepspot Guild last year (after letting it lapse for a while), and then Sasha offered a Spin School for beginners starting November 5.  Conveniently I had started my terminal leave leading up to my retirement on October 21 so I signed up and I am very glad that I did.  The skein on the left is the first skein that I plyed.  It is the most inconsistently spun of the bunch, and it is too loosely plyed.  The middle skein is the second one that I plyed.  The spinning on that one is more consistent.  The skein on the right is my latest one.  The singles are still more consistent and also thinner.  My niddy noddy creates one yard skeins so I am able to determine the yardage of each skein.

Skein 1:  47 yards, 57.8 grams

Skein 2:  38 yards, 43.8 grams

Skein 3:  60 yards, 44.9 grams

Sasha promised that she would make me besties with my wheel, and she delivered.  I love spinning, and will be doing more.  At this point I have been focusing solely on my short forward draft, just trying to be consistent.  Once I have mastered that to my satisfaction (basically spinning consistent singles) I’ll go back to the videos and work on the short backward draft, spinning from the fold, and the supported long draw.  I am using Heinz 57 from The Woolery to learn on (this is the fiber that Sasha recommended as being easy to spin) and it definitely is.  She will be starting a free class for intermediate spinners next week that is supposed to help you continue to improve, which I signed up for, and in March it looks like she will be offering the Breed Study course, which I will also take.  I may also dabble a bit in dying, just to add color to these skeins.