Project Spotlight: Karen’s Pampa Loom Vest

We’re starting something a little new, a project spotlight series! Every few weeks we’ll check in on the progress of a project and hear how things are going. The project we’ll be following first is Karen’s Pampa Loom vest!

Karen is our Order Fulfillment Specialist here at The Woolery and she is quite the accomplished fiber artist. She attended Berea College for ceramics and is generally a very awesome crafty person!  Karen is currently working with the Pampa Loom VESTO Kit, which is a unique kit that allows you to weave a garment. You get a front piece, back piece and sleeve loom. These looms can be sized to 5 different sizes to get a good fit. Then you just crochet up all the different pieces and you have a completed jacket or vest!

Karen has half of her vest warped up and has started weaving away. After warping the loom Karen highly recommends that you watch the videos that come as part of the kit before warping. She threw caution to the wind and went right for it but after watching the videos she felt like they definitely would have helped her if she had warped after seeing them.

The yarn she is using is her own handspun from a blend of Romney and Welsh.  She even made the blended rolags herself using hand carders, that’s a lot of carding for over 900 yards of 2 ply yarn! We’re super excited to see how this project grows in the upcoming weeks!

 

Measuring & Keeping Track of Spinzilla Skeins

How much yarn will you spin during Spinzilla?

Spinzilla is here! The spinning frenzy has begun as each team vies for the Golden Niddy Noddy. We’d like to take a few moments to share some of our best methods for measuring handspun yarn during this week’s event; there is sure to be an option listed below which works best for you!

Some common ways of measuring yarn include:

• A Swift or Niddy Noddy which measure by the yard – click here to view our video tutorial on using a Niddy Noddy.
• Using a Yarn Balance – click here for a photo tutorial on our blog archive.
• Using a Yardage Counter  – click here to read more on our blog archive.
• Don’t have any of the tools listed above? Find an object you can wind your yarn around (such as a chair back, long piece of cardboard – anything you can easily remove your yarn from once you’re done winding!); measure the distance around the object, then multiply the number of strands to find out the total length of your skein. Click here for an inches-to-yards converter widget to make your measuring easy!

Also, don’t forget that that this year, plying will count towards your total yardage. The formula for calculating your plied yardage is:

plied yardage + [plied yardage x # of plies] = yardage for which you can claim credit

Note: chain plied and navajo plied yarns count as 3-ply. 

Label those skeins!

We’d like to make it easy for our fellow spinners to keep track of their finished Spinzilla skeins by providing some handy free printable labels for your finished handspun yarns! Not only can you view the yardage and number of plies at a glance, which will make it easy to calculate your grand total at the end of Spinzilla, but you can also make note of the tools, settings and fibers you used for future reference!

Click here to download your printable PDF labels!

Join us for the 2014 edition of the Fiber Toys of Christmas

Have you heard about our annual holiday promotion, the 12 Fiber Toys of Christmas? Each Friday, we will feature a favorite fiber toy with a special deal and a chance to win that particular toy (tool). Weekly specials and giveaways will be posted on our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and it will also be included in our newsletter.

These are weekly specials which expire every Friday (when the new one starts), so be sure to check the links above so you don’t miss out!

All the best,

Chris, Nancy, and the entire Woolery team

Handspun Heaven

Many handspinners raced to the Tour de Fleece finish line on Sunday with several beautiful skeins of handspun yarn added to their stash. Below are just a few from Team Woolery – click here to view more in our Ravelry group!

Do you find yourself wondering what to make with your handspun creations? We have a few suggestions in today’s blog post, and there are also some great reference books such as the Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs or Spin to Weave to come to your rescue! 

We’ve come across some lovely weaving projects using handspun yarns on Weavolution recently – below are just a few ideas to inspire you!

L-R: Sofa Pillows, Saori Scarf, Twill Blanket, Ruana.

For handspinning knitters, Knittyspin is a really excellent source for free patterns – you can view all of their pattern archives here!

Ravelry is another great source for patterns and inspiration. If you’ve only spun a small amount yardage-wise, look for small projects such as scarves, hats, mitts, or baby items:

L-R: One Row Handspun Scarf, Handspun Slouch Hat, Handspun Fingerless Gloves, Crochet Handspun Baby Socks.  

You can also mix small amounts of your handspun with a commercially available yarn for colorwork and stripes, or use it as an accent edging on a special project. Finally, if you’ve spun enough to make a sweater or socks, there are patterns for that, too!

L: Handspun Sweater; R: Simple Handspun Socks.

Plus, you can always sub in your handspun yarn for any pattern if you are able to calculate WPI correctly. Not sure how to do that? Don’t worry, we’ve got an easy video tutorial on our YouTube Channel!

Now that you have a little inspiration, we can’t wait to see what you’ll create with your handspun yarns. Happy Spinning!

All the best,

Chris, Nancy, and the entire Woolery team

 

Summer Spinning!

Kariina1’s Grey Shetland

Summer is a great time to step up your spinning – you may recall our recent post about a unique event happening in our Ravelry group last month called the Tour de Fleece. Our event was inspired by and coincided with the Tour de France cycling race.

We’re amazed at the incredible projects our customers shared with us throughout the event and would like to share a few with you this week!

We’ll begin with the winner of our prize drawing, Kariina1, who spun this Shetland fleece. Shetland are a hardy breed with a soft, insulating undercoat and a coarse yet sturdy outer coat. Their fleece is warm and long-wearing, and depending on where it came from, it can be quite soft – even on par with cashmere!

Helloforest’s Bluefaced Leicester

Bluefaced Leicester is a popular breed amongst spinners, prized not only for its lustrous fiber but its ease in spinnability. Commonly referred to as BFL, this fiber takes dye beautifully, as you can see in Helloforest’s finished skein at left.

Skeller’s Undyed Romney

FarrahW’s Targhee

If you’re no stranger to spinning with BFL and looking to expand your horizons, consider giving Romney a try.  BFL and Romney are both considered longwools, a category of sheep breeds that originated in Britain.  Romney fiber is as versatile as the sheep itself, and the finished product is ideal for outerwear.

We’ll round out our spinning survey with a relatively new sheep breed, the Targhee.  These sheep were developed in the early 20th century in the United States and bred to be the “ideal sheep.” What does that mean exactly? They are naturally hornless (often referred to as a “polled” breed) with a white fleece – no brown or black is tolerated within the breed except for small amounts on the face, ears, feet or lower legs.  There are very exacting standards for the fleece itself (which you can read more about here), resulting in animals with uniformly fine, dense fleece that are well-suited to a variety of spinning methods.This is just a sample of many projects our talented customers shared during the Tour de Fleece – click here to view more in our Ravelry group & be inspired!

Chris, Nancy, and the entire Woolery team