Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
Ok this is the last one for now
Laddered down to fix the issue, because I felt it'd probably bother me even after it was completed and even though it was quite a few rows, it'd be more difficult to do later. As I suspected, there was more than one issue - it looked especially off to me because I knitted in a float somehow. If I let the float free I think it'd be obvious on the back because that float would be extra loose, so I fixed it with the float included. The overall effect isn't too noticeable; it's at least less noticeable than the original mistake was.
Going back up was difficult...and I ended up missing one stitch entirely, so I replaced one mistake with another. HOWEVER this one bothers me less, because I had to examine it closely to even notice that one vertical stitch was missing. It's only really visible on the back, and because there are floats everywhere, someone would really have to be looking out for irregularities to see it. Since I don't want to stress the yarn more (it was already sticking to itself when I laddered down and had to pull the fibres apart) I think I'll just accept this one mistake.
On to the third mosaic part - delayed because of Deltarune. But it's turning out nice. I realised there's one part in the previous section where I seem to have purled instead of knitted...I'm not sure what happened, maybe I was trying to fix something and didn't quite do it right. It's not terribly obvious, but it bothers me, and I'm not sure if I should ladder down to fix it...
Finished first mosaic part, starting the next. Working off charts as it's easier to see which stitches line up. So far, so good (aside from that one row where I slipped a stitch and had another weird accident later); I'm wondering if I'm going a bit too loose with the mosaic because it's a bit more see-through than the plain garter, but it uses up more yarn and the pattern looks neat so tentatively I'm going to continue this way. Enjoying the colours and the fabric continues to look fairly consistent. Loose ends have been woven in but not fully trimmed yet.
Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise with these yarns' grists but it feels surprisingly light for its size. The yarn I used for Drachenfels is thicker and denser so it shouldn't be surprising but that one turned out quite weighty, and maybe I was subconsciously expecting this to weigh similarly to that. But no, it's lighter than expected...I think that's good, considering it's a fairly large shawl.
Started knitting, haven't got to the mosaic part yet (currently start of section 2). I don't have 3mm needles so I'm using the cheap interchangeables, which I've been getting used to, but it's annoying when the yarn catches on the joins. I'd like to switch to the bigger needles soon (which I do have circs for, so the joins are smooth) but still have some more garter rows to do...
Unfortunately I think I accidentally slipped a stitch so I think I will need to ladder down to fix it. Thankfully it's not too deep in...colour-wise, contrast seems perfectly fine. Fabric is not as consistent as it would be with commercial yarn but in the grand scheme of things, is remarkably even-looking. Blocking will probably fix some of the issues and I think it'll be worth trying to figure out how to do that with my limited space...
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
Seems dry enough so I took in the yarn and did a quick remeasure. It did shrink, but...
289 rounds x 2.3m = 664.7m
664.7m/160.4g ~= 414.4m/100g
The grist is more within a normal ballpark, though still light for Polwarth. It's puffed up a bit I think. It feels lighter in the hand than the MC, even though the entire hank should be heavier...also, while it's still squishy, it's more drapey. Feels surreal to be holding both of these hanks and thinking that I made these. They're not perfect, but I got to the point where I can spin the yarn within the range of what I want to use in a project in about 6-7 months of learning this skill. Though, the real test is in how it knits up...
I think about 1/3 of this yarn isn't going to be used, which is a fairly large amount of colour I'm going to be missing if I start from one end. I'll take another measure tomorrow and think about how I'll try to remove it (the main issue is identifying the continuous loops enough to remove a certain amount of it). One possible way is to just wind it as I normally would (not on the swift) while weighing the remaining amount. OR, I can weigh the ball cone and use that to obtain the weight of the yarn removed, which seems less fiddly (and I can use the swift in this case). I should need to remove at least 28g (assuming there will be an extra 28g at the end that will be unused/a buffer), then the rest can be wound into the actual working ball. My main worry is that this might remove most or all of the Ginger... For the MC I think I can just wind up the entire thing since the lighter end is preferable to the darker end.
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Balled up - the swift didn't work because the diameter of the yarn loop is way too large. Figures. I had to wind it the normal way which came with its associated tangles.
Ball 1 (MC) is split into 2 balls, because the yarn got caught in the mechanism of the ball winder which got some oil on it and I'm not going to knit that into the project.
Ball 1: 136.4g
Ball 2: 8.9g
I highly doubt I'll dip into ball 2, but it's from the darker portion of the yarn and comes after ball 1.
Ball 2 (CC) is also split into 2, with the smaller one being the lightest part of the gradient that I needed to remove in order to let the project hopefully reach the darker part of the gradient.
Ball 1: 129.4g
Ball extra: 29.6g
I'm unsure what to do with the extra - even if I made a cuff I'm unsure if it would use up a significant portion of it, but I guess I can figure that out later.
So, I'm ready to start knitting - gonna see how much progress I can make on it before Deltarune drops. Otherwise I could probably finish this in a week or two of intensive knitting...
So I did end up spinning up the last dark bits. Split them by weight per ply into 2 bobbins (removing the bits I knew wouldn't spin well), which actually turned out to not be necessary...
Plying took ages. It was also kind of unstable, some bits kept breaking and other bits where I tried to fix bits that were too thin ended up bunching up, so the yarn feels...........a little rustic. Also, the colour bits didn't quite line up the way I hoped - there's a fairly extensive section where the copper mixed with the darker browns so there's a fair bit of marling. The second ply turned out to be so long that both the extra bobbins on the dark end went onto the first ply and I still had some left over to bracelet ply. BUT as a whole I think it looks good.
Counted twice (was surprised) so the round count should be correct.
289 rounds x 2.5m = 722.5m (!)
160.4g, though this includes ties
The grist is nuts:
722.5m / 160.4g = 450.44m/100g
By WPI it should be around fingering weight after finishing, so the length is terribly mysterious and I'm genuinely worried I won't get to the dark brown bits in the knitting, so uh...debating if I might want to go up a needle size just to use more of this yarn. Or, to spend some of it in a knitted sample. I'll have to see how much it shrinks in washing; it feels weird to be praying that it shrinks much more than expected. If the shrink % is the same as the first skein's, it'll come down to 602m (375.312m/100g) after finishing, which is still like, 200m longer than I strictly need. I suppose I shouldn't have added in the extra orange without taking anything out? Since I want more of the dark end I suppose one option is to gradient dark to light rather than light to dark, but I dooooo want it more bottom-heavy since that's the part of the pattern that's more visible when worn.
I guess since I can roughly guess the length of yarn there is by counting the rounds, I could try and reduce it to around a safe amount, around 450-500m? And align this to be in the middle-ish of the gradient so I can grab all the colours and still have some left over in case it somehow isn't enough.
Still, the grist is rather a lot better than I might've expected. Even though the yarn weight kinda looks similar to the yarn weight of the MC before washing, it's a lot higher. I think it might be a little underplied, but it might tighten up as it shrinks? I was a little bit pressed to finish it because of bedtime, so. It looks like it has a lower angle of ply twist than the MC, but in photos the pre-washed MC does seem to have a lower angle than it currently does so it might just work out. Didn't manage to match the grist of the first yarn (and it has more breaks and bunched up bits than I'd like), but it'll probably be fine and it's also nice and squishy. Can't wait to get it washed up.
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
Finished the second single...or at least, as much of it as I could manage. There was still a tuft left before it started collapsing off the edge and I decided to stop. It probably wasn't as optimally packed. Total weight minus bobbin weight is 77g, slightly less than the other. I considered spinning up the remaining tufts (6.1g after removing the especially neppy bits, split 2.7g + 3.4g) to add to the ends in plying...but didn't really have the time, and I really don't think I'll even need that for the main shawl, so...any reason to do it would just be to make it look a little nicer in the skein. It would delay my plying by a day or two though, so I feel like it's not really thaaaaat necessary...I mean I guess I could just do it, it's a Tuesday anyway and I'm not going to have as much time at night to do anything else and I'd still like to draw. Or I could just use the fresh singles in plying anyway. Sigh.
Anyway, right after I finished that last section I also figured I wouldn't have time to settle in and do anything else (that is, draw) so I rewound the bobbin right away. Took about an hour. The gradient definitely looks a little shifted compared to the other bobbin, which was the intention. I wonder how it'll look. At this point there's about 154.7g between both bobbins...it should definitely be enough length to complete the shawl so I'm not terribly worried. If anything, a little uncertain if I'll get enough of the dark end in the colourwork, so I guess I can afford to leave loose-ish floats for better stretch and anchor the floats diligently...
Nintendo Direct today; took the time to rewind the first bobbin. It took all of that time (50 mins) and then some, with some annoying snarls particularly during the overflow portions...but I'm glad I dealt with it then and not when I'm trying to ply it. It looks nice like this...this braid has been turning out very lustrous, almost metallic in parts, and if I thought the first yarn was shiny...I think this'll be beautiful when freshly plied. Makes me want to try spinning a silk blend and it's been terribly hard resisting that Fossil Fibers preorder...but anyway.
I also started on the second ply. Not too much, since I started late due to the Nintendo Direct. It's been bothering me that spinning this takes several hours out of my time per night and I want to draw/have to prepare for the weekend, so I think I might go slower on this, or at least not force myself to sit through an entire 20g if I don't feel I'll have the time for anything else, much as I'm antsy about seeing it done. I don't anticipate having the time or energy to do the plying on Saturday and winding on Sunday, anyway.
I really want to wind up the first ball so I can get familiar with using the swift/see if it'll work out fine, but I'm having such a nice time squishing it and also don't want to compress it before I'm ready to start working with it...I suppose ideally I should wind both balls at the same time so I don't have to fiddle with the swift setup twice.
Finished first ply - squeezed as long a single as I could manage onto the bobbin, but it started overflowing before I could finish the last tuft. Total weight minus bobbin weight (started labelling them) is 77.7g. The Colombian Roast bits didn't have a lot of colour variation at all and were more neppy, which I guess is pretty much what I expected...thought about adding in some orange but it was a bit annoying to spin to begin with so I didn't want to complicate it further.
I think in order to preserve the expected alignment of colour changes, I'll need to rewind the bobbins to ply from the lighter end. I'll probably wind them into balls in that case, since I don't have an efficient way to wind onto a different bobbin without applying some amount of twist? The ball winder does apply some twist, though... Otherwise it'll have to go onto a 6.1 bobbin because the overflow looks like it's going to catch on the lazy kate needle. I suppose if I'm patient I could work out something really stupid and wind it by hand.
Finished 3rd part of first ply. So far, for mixing in the orange, it seems to be ideal to take a narrow strip of orange and lay it in the middle of the top and draft normally (as normally as possible, anyway), which will cause a little blip of orange every time I pass through. For some bits I just went without adding the orange. My expectation is that it will be fine...debating if maybe the other ply shouldn't have any orange in it, since I won't be able to know how it works with the first ply.
I'm quite pleased with the Chestnut portion of the gradient - it has the most contrast with itself, with some very light areas and some very dark areas, which should give some visual interest.
Been picking out bits of neppy fibre so there's a bit of loss but I feel it's still an overall weight gain with the orange added. At 3 of 4 parts done, the bobbin is at just about normal full capacity, so there's still the chance that the last bit will involve a bit of actual bobbin chicken, though the last chunk is lighter than the bits I've been doing the past 3 days. The bobbin end looks very pretty though. I think on this schedule I'll be plying next Saturday, although since it's LIFC, I might return too late to finish the plying at a reasonable hour. I guess I'll see. I would hope to be able to finish plying on Sat and wind/wash on Sun. Few days to dry, so...maybe around next next Wednesday to Friday I can start knitting.
Starting on first ply. Not pre-separating the fibre but just roughly grabbing ~20g to do per day. Going to yolo the yarn weight; I'm removing little bits of the original fibre here and there where it feels too much of a pain to try and spin in. I'm not quite sure how the mixed bits are going to turn out when plied...I think it'll probably be less weird due to the slipped stitches in the pattern but I'm still a little worried. The braid itself has some variation in the colour but after spinning it really does even out, so while there's a little bit of hue shifting, there aren't any contrasting bits save for the bits where I combination drafted the orange. I expect after plying, even those will be less obvious, but I hope that the distribution of these bits will be...not too weird, since I'm adding them randomly. I do wish I could just spin this normally though, and it's tempting to just...do that...
The combination drafting is a pain because it's harder to estimate how much fibre I'm drafting, so the singles are turning out kind of uneven. Doing my best. I feel this might turn out a bit denser because the twist keeps getting stuck, but I'm overcompensating the other way by spinning thinner when I have control...so it's hard to say. Though...I feel it's ok if this one's a bit denser/thicker since it's the CC...so I'm trying to correct the thin bits. Man, it's so hard to tell how it's going to turn out. The only thing I have to go off is the amount of time I'm taking to spin...I know I spun faster when I was doing the FCK samples because of the density.
What's good is that the singles are contrasting enough with the MC yarn. I don't think I needed to worry about it; the Ginger part is probably contrasting enough with Mouse to be visible but I think it was still worth doing it the way I did it for the slightly more neutral tone.
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
You can tell how emotionally invested I am in a project by how much I write about it
Took the yarn in; I'll likely still let it hang in my room for a little bit but it's mostly dry now.
Remeasured length: 103cm x 2 = 2.06m. 228 rounds +- 1 round.
Final length: 469.68m.
I think it shrank way more than I thought it would (lost almost 100m...??), but this is still a very safe amount for the shawl!
Final grist: 318.8m/100g
It's definitely still a fair bit denser than millspun, but it's within expectations, and the length is a very conservative estimate anyway. Depending on how I measure it it might be 110cm rather than 103, which still puts it over 500m. It's not exactly bouncy, but has a bit of stretch to it.
Pre-wash I think it was closer to 25WPI, but now it's about 14WPI according to the spin card. Definitely has the irregularities of handspun, but it looks fairly even. I think it'll even out some more in the fabric.
With this information, I think I can start spinning the gradient now. I'll likely be working at the same pace (roughly one colour a day), so I'll be done in another week and a half I think, and then I can start knitting the shawl itself.
155.1g after the compacted tips were removed. Each half should be 77.5g. Need 75g each.
Accidentally removed the entire extra dark bit after intentional misalignment, divided into 2 to add to the main halves...but honestly if I'm adding in some more orange, maybe I should leave it out. I'm still keeping it because I want to have more dark brown, though...also I think I won't be adding a whole lot of orange. I'm thinking just combination drafting every now and then; I think the main braid itself is varied enough that it'll be interesting on its own and if I add much more I'm not going to get to use much of the darkest colour in knit. The remainder of the orange I'll spin for a shawl cuff.
71.0 + 5.5, got 76.3g
Has the extra dark bunch attached to the dark end.
I think this is the one with less Ginger.
70.9 + 7.1, got 77.8g
Has the extra dark bunch attached to the light end.
Both plies are above 75g so I won't sweat the details, but the lighter one should have a little more bright orange in it to make up the extra weight. I think I'll start this one first. I'm not sure how I'll blend in the orange, but I'm thinking that I'll just use it to emphasize the bits in the braid that are lighter...typically these get averaged out with the rest of the colour due to how the fibres are pulled so a bit of intention should get closer the effect I want. In testing the look of combined drafting with the Duck Hunt braid (plyback test) it has a nice mottled/heathered look, so I think it'll look nice and the 2-ply should prevent it from being extremely noticeable.
To make up for the extra weight being added...I don't know, actually. Logically I should remove a bit of the fibre on purpose in order to not exceed the target weight by too much. Maybe I can afford to be a bit more picky about bits of fibre that are a little harder to spin smoothly (compacted bits, slubby bits). Or maybe I can remove fibre equivalent to the amount being added and put it towards the shawl cuff.
Excited to start...
Ran into some unexpected issues with the DIY niddy noddy - mainly that the horizontal pipes did not fit the way I hoped they would (would not go through the pipe connector). I have a few options to fix this:
(Update) Decided that I would get less use out of a saw than more pipes (because the random PVC pipe I've had in a drawer has been more useful than I would've expected) so I decided to buy pipes. Welp.
Well, this can't stop me from trying regardless, so I used those knitting needles that I almost never use as knitting needles as horizontal bars. This was a little bit iffy because there's a lot of tension under the yarn and I could see them bending - was very worried they'd snap halfway, but thankfully they held until I was done. I'll say...this would've taken a LOT more rounds if I'd been using the smaller niddy noddy. It still took a while but not like 5 hours.
After getting it off the niddy noddy I was was immediately struck by the subtle sheen...it was very nice. I thought I might've overplied it quite a lot but actually, it was only very slightly overplied (as desired). The difference in colour across the gradient is more apparent now laid out this way. Once it's knitted it'll probably be difficult to see unless the opposite ends are brought together though.
I'll still need to recount since I might've messed up a couple of times before I started counting out loud, and of course re-measure after washing, but...
229 rounds x 2.46m = 563.34m
Any shrinkage can't possibly reduce this below a safe amount for knitting the shawl (most probably won't go below 500m), so...yay! Dry weight including yarn ties is...147.1g. Sample grist for 2-ply Polwarth fingering is 384-387g/100g, so expected quantity of fingering weight is ~569m for 147g. That's.............astonishingly close to what I made. 1% difference in length. Whoa. Of course, it appears to be finer than fingering weight and it'll likely shrink after washing but dang. I feel like I've broken a curse or something...
Very very pleased with this yarn.
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Washed, now letting it dry, which will take a few days probably. Snapping was kind of difficult because of how long each round is, but it's within my physical reach. I think I'll leave it downstairs to dry faster so I can get full measurements, although technically, I can already start on the next braid because it'll certainly be enough yarn. Immediately post-wash it appears to be ~14WPI based on spin card, which is great. I'm not fully certain it's small enough for the swift's max diameter but I'll deal with that later...
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
Ply 2 done, also hilariously large although I didn't really need to chicken since I knew roughly how large it was going to be. Feels like it's a little compacted and I forget that I can steam them in the bathroom...but anyway, at least this one's done. I think the second ply has more thin spots, but I'm hoping it gets evened out in the ply, which I'll do tomorrow. It'll probably take forever, considering how much yarn there is...honestly I'm happy as long as I get it roughly consistently fingering/light fingering weight and with enough length.
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Done with the plying - took several hours and had a bit of a mishap when it got to bracelet plying (it coiled badly and took a while to fix). The result looks pretty good though. Definitely some bumpy parts but I feel most of it is consistent. The gradient is subtle but visible from the side of the bobbin...only because I know it's there, though. I didn't see any bits where I thought there was a colour change happening so I think the blending is fine. Noted that the singles were sometimes visibly different but somehow didn't look marled when plied. Waiting for the pipe parts to come in so it might be a couple of days before I can wrap this up for washing. Still a little concerned there's not enough contrast between this and the gradient braid, honestly...and also been thinking about how I'd blend the orange bits in, and thinking that maybe I'll end up using very little of it because I don't want to mess up the gradient accidentally. I don't know yet. Have to wait and see how much yarn I'm getting out of what I spun, and then make up for any insufficiencies...
The bobbin with yarn weighs 248.6g, an empty bobbin weighs 101.6g. Not exact measurement but this should hold around 147g of yarn, which appears to be around 25WPI with random measurements. I expect it to puff up a little after washing. I was also worried Polwarth might not be universally skin friendly enough but it feels very soft. Not as airy as the Fun House 3-ply and didn't take up the whole bobbin but it's a 2-ply anyway so it's kind of expected probably. Praying for between 450-500m of yarn; judging by project pages it's probably enough.
First part of ply 2 done. The colour difference with the last part of ply 1 is actually quite noticeable. I feel like I'm losing consistency, but visually on the bobbin it doesn't look far off from the first bobbin. I think it's sloppy though and some of it might be denser/more twisted than intended. Debating if I want to rewind both bobbins before plying...I don't have a good way of doing this, so maybe I'll try plying across the room to even out the twist. Mostly bothered by that this prep really makes my pinching fingers hurt. I guess at least after I'm done with this bobbin and plying I'll need to take a break for a few days to finish it...
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
Finished ply 1 and split out the fibre for ply 2 into bags, to start spinning tomorrow.
Ply 1 was definitely not that evenly blended - saw some spots that were definitely lighter than others, but overall I think it won't be a problem after plying. It's hard to see the gradient from the bobbin ends, but it's there if I look for it, so I think it's at the right degree of lightness. Also, it all fit onto a Nano bobbin with a little space to spare, so I can probably spin the rest of the singles for this project on my Nano. I'm unsure if the length will be enough - I'm quite sure it will be, since that's what I calculated with a wide buffer - but just in case (there's an estimated 70g of yarn on this bobbin instead of the 75g I thought it would have), I'll finish this yarn before I do the second, in case I need to adjust the way I'm spinning and/or spin up some more of the Mouse to make enough yarn.
Since I've had trouble winding less yarn on my niddy noddy, decided to get a bigger one...but following the advice of other spinners, making it out of PVC pipe and connectors. New one should be longer and have wider arms, extending at least 40cm per loop (>60cm vertical, so each loop is at least 2.4m)...since the pipe is removable I think it should also be easier to get the yarn off. Still not looking forward to winding >400m of fingering weight yarn and having to ball it up afterwards, but it should at least be more manageable than on the smaller niddy noddy. Also caved and got a swift finally - I really hope this saves me some time and energy because it takes forever to wind yarn and my arms hurt so bad afterwards. Going to yolo the "where am I going to set it up" part because there's technically enough air space for it to turn around in...
Done part 1 of ply 1. It's very hard to see if there's any colour difference between this and the 1:1 (I probably won't see it until the next part, or even until it's knitted), but that's OK. Went with the carder but not the diz and it kind of went faster, though I'm not counting the amount of time I spent fluffing up the wool while waiting for work assets to build. Also, doing it on my Nano. Might require bobbin chicken, but it seems a lot more consistently spun than my 6.1 singles to me, at least where it drafted consistently...definitely a bit neppy from the prep but not too awful. This is the shortest section I think so there'll be more to do on other days...
Finished knitting both samples. The mixed sample isn't extremely evenly-blended; it's possible to see bands of parts where either Mouse or Mist is a little more dominant. The end where I buffered with some Mouse is just slightly darker. I do have to look for the colours to notice, though, and the bigger issue is consistency which is why I want to spin on my Nano...
The colours are quite hard to distinguish but I do still feel like the mix is juuuuust slightly better for at least the first half or so of the colour progression. It would be better to go with more Mist in the first quarter. There's 0 chance that the plies lined up perfectly but I can't see any marling so I don't have to worry too much about it, but both plies will need to be blended. I also don't want the background to be very obviously gradiented nor clearly a different colour in a different section, so this is going to be a little bit of a troublesome blend, but...
For each ply, going:
Ply 1:
Ply 2:
54g of Mist, 96g of Mouse.
I think each section of each ply is enough of a volume to do in a day, but the fibre prep will add a fair amount of time onto that. All in all, probably about a week and a half's work maybe...it would help if I could prep all the fibre first and just spin but I'm not sure where I'd store it.
Encountering a problem, which is that I actually like the 50/50 blend of Mouse/Mist. The knitted sample of Mouse came out close to the base fibre colour even though it looks a little lighter as a yarn. A little up in the air if I prefer Mouse/Mist to plain Mist, but I think Mouse/Mist would be my pick out of the two although I wouldn't mind 100% Mist. Mouse reads as a light tan/brown, 50/50 reads as a warm off-white/grey.
Unfortunately I don't have enough Mist left for more experimentation before it gets impossible to put together enough Mist for the full spin. I might have to work this out on the fly. I'm thinking of maybe trying to roll the fibre off the handcards horizontally instead of dizzing because it's the dizzing part that drafts them out unevenly...I mean, I could still painstakingly blend everything the same way...it's just that getting 10g of fibre last night took ages, and I need 150g...the alternative is to just buy another braid of Mist and do 100% Mist. But I don't wanna spend more money and I do like the blended shade. One option is to do a single ply of each I suppose, but I think it just looks better blended uniformly especially since the handspun inconsistency makes the stitches look uneven. I might just have to do this the hard way...
I do still think the colour difference isn't super strong though - the bits of the 50/50 where I started with 100% Mouse are difficult to tell apart (in the ball at least; I don't know how it'll look knitted up) so transitioning into 100% Mouse is still an option. Maybe there's an argument here for doing the singles on the Nano. Joining multiple bobbins in plying wouldn't be hard I would think...the gradient would probably have to be all done at once though, or I'd have to reverse direction for the second bobbin to join properly/rewind one of the bobbins to get at the inner end.
Update: apparently Tarndie's sold out of Mist tops, so that's not even an option. Welp!
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
(Skipping some internal debate about colour decisions. The gist of it was that I asked Ginny from Fat Cat Knits for a custom gradient for the CC.)
Fibre has arrived - took it out to touch and see.
180g Mouse - expected 170g
155g gradient - expected 141g
62g small gradient - expected 56g
Mouse is...a bit darker and more saturated than I expected. I don't think this is the neutral I was going for, but I did have some contingency plans in case it didn't come out the way I hoped. I think Tarndie Mist makes a better pair with this gradient, actually. Since I have so much of Mouse now, I'll still try to make use of as much of it as possible, but I'll likely blend it with Mist to lighten it up. 1 ply of each could work but I'm not sure if that's too noisy; I might just do the handcards thing so they're more evenly blended. That said, I think it's a nice colour for subtlety. I'm just mostly worried the lighter end of the gradient will lose contrast, and it doesn't really mesh with the yellower part of the gradient since it tends redder.
Since I do a very rough conversion to grams when I think in ounces, and Ginny tends to be very generous, I ended up with rather a lot more than I thought I'd have. Hmm...I might even have close to 100g left over after blending with Mist. I guess I can make a shawl cuff with the remainder.
The gradient itself is very pretty. The Copper Penny bit is such a nice colour. I think it'll be dark enough for the colourwork. I was expecting to have about 125g and expecting to need 150g for the entire CC, so this is actually enough even without the addition of the orange.
And as for the tiny little gradient - a little more subtle of a brightness change than I was hoping but it's fine. Plan was to use about half of it to make 6oz for the CC, but I can afford to use less of it for a more subtle look I think.
Excited to start. Currently, the plan is--
Sampling...
Post-sampling (just spun, not yet knit)...both skeins don't look very different from each other. There's enough of a visual difference that I can tell which one is which without any labels, but not significantly enough to convince me to do the fibre prep - it takes a long time to get the fibre ready and gets kind of inconsistent with the drafting, so I'm leaning towards just doing a lot of fluffing and sticking to the one colour. Or at least something that doesn't require a whole lot of prep. I do still think Mist is a better match for the start of the braid, but maybe it isn't worth trying to integrate it. As it is, it should be contrasty enough for the colourwork to be visible either way.
...I actually wish I could do the singles on my Nano. It feels more consistent than the 6.1, probably because I have more experience with it (and also because the switch just works instead of me having to tap the foot pedal several times to stop). Nothing's stopping me from trying regardless, but since I went through the trouble of getting the 6.1, I would like to get used to it too...
Incidentally, wildly inconsistent spinning but the resultant yarns post-washing:
It took a while, but Ginny sent me some pictures aaaaaaaaaaaa........there's only one photo of the relevant gradients since it's an easier one to do (the custom sky gradient I asked for was a little more involved) but it's so pretty.
I was sort of expecting Ginger/Copper Penny/Chestnut to have a bit more of a brightness gradient, but actually it's pretty nice that it mainly looks like a hue shift - has a bit more subtleness. I'll be putting in bits of the orange anyway, so the starting end should turn out brighter (and a little less yellow, though I suppose that gives the orange a bit of character). Since the brightness doesn't change a whole lot I think it makes sense for me to just get the same colour throughout for the background.
Looking at Ravelry I was getting doubts about Mouse being light enough to contrast, but remembered I have quite a fair bit of lighter Polwarth that I can easily blend in to make the Mouse lighter if I need to. Or, if I decide that undyed is ideal, I have a decent amount of it that I can blend Mouse/Tarndie Mist into to make the required amount of yarn - either way I should have enough Polwarth to deal with the background.
Posted 30 June 2026 (Tue)
I'm afraid I got very rambly on this one, splitting it up...
Even as I start having doubts about whether I should do this...I'm worried about the shipping situation. It might get expensive to order from the US, so I'm thinking it might be a good idea to push things up and order whatever fibre I foresee needing sooner. So I plied the 6.1 bobbins, and spun up 4.3g each of Tarndie Mist and FCK Specter and plied them together. The 6.1 stuff is resting, but I wanted to see how the Mist and Specter ply will look like knitted up. I need to weigh again later, because things feel a little odd.
First thing, I spun both the Mist and Specter plies the same way I did the original FCK sample singles for Polwarth. I kept track of the target grist, did some plybacks that looked great, tried to keep the twist loose without falling apart (although the Specter side did fall apart a little when plying the extra singles on itself). It's still drying but comes to roughly 34 x 89cm. That comes to 351.86m per 100g. Which, somehow, is higher than my initial spinning sample by about 100m even if I drastically reduce the length of a round for my calculation for that sample. How...?? I thought maybe it's because the first sample is finer, but honestly they're pretty similar. If there's anything at all that might've affected it, it's maybe that most of the current sample used the tail end of the Polwarth braid which is a little more felted/compacted but I'm unsure if that's a big factor. It's maybe also possible that for whatever reason, the Mist top spun more densely. Honestly, even though I tried to work towards a particular amount of twist in this new sample, there are bits of the original that I think look really nice. Perhaps I should be going for a higher singles twist than what I was doing. And also, the yarn weight is finer than what I'd comfortably call a normal fingering weight, so...I don't know how a fingering weight yarn manages to be a fingering weight.
Also, I'm worried about the 6.1 bobbins because they're SO uneven. Some bits of the singles were really thick and it was drifting apart in some points though I put it together in the plying, hopefully will remain stable in the yarn. 32 rounds of 88cm x 2 unwashed = 56.32m in 21.5g (this includes a short length of yarn used to tie the hank). Comes to 261.95m per 100g. Somehow, this is about 13WPI unwashed. (Well, depending on where I take the measurement, it goes down to 10WPI.) It's definitely not fingering weight, but for all that effort I do wish it turned out longer. Maybe I'm just not quite used to the 6.1 yet.
I suppose it's fortunate that the weight of the finished shawl isn't particularly crucial. It can be a bit weighty without causing issues (thinking about this as I work on my Drachenfels which is Heavy), and no matter how I slice it I should end up with enough fibre to do the project with some left over, so what's most important right now is whether I think it looks good with the marling. And then, whether I think it's wise to commit to such a project...I mean, I guess whether or not I end up giving it, it would be nice to do a spin to knit and it's a pattern that I've wanted to knit anyway.
It's just a little frustrating that I tried to control the variables and it still ended up feeling like nothing really changed; it feels entirely random. On some level I was afraid this would happen and anticipated it but it's still kind of disappointing, I guess? Practice is definitely a big part of it, but I wish I had a sample of what I'd be trying to spin. Like, one that is real and not a simulation of what I think it should look like...I don't think it's even a worsted vs woollen problem, it's a drafting problem. I have a good feeling about the Fun House fractal I'm also working on, but I think it will be reliant on me being able to spin the other two singles consistently...
As a little update on the sample which is no longer a useful sample - finished spinning that little bit from the fold. Still difficult. Plying is next...
Thinking I'll use the Fun House fractal as a reference here - if I did manage to make it longer, I can get a grist estimate out of it, and then I'd be able to spin my default yarn and get the required length. I'll probably do a better/more consistent sample again though...especially if the sample does turn out to be pretty long.
Starting by beginning to spin a sample yarn. I don't have the fibre yet, I want to make sure I know how much I need/whether I can get the yarn I want before I buy. Sampling using 10g of Tarndie Polwarth (cream) on the 6.1 since I will be spinning this on the 6.1.
...Well, I attempted to meet my handmade sample's standard...and the plan in my head was to spin from the fold...but it was difficult. I thought I'd try to do a 20 degree spin angle to reduce the yarn density, but I couldn't get it consistent - the thickness was inconsistent, the yarn kept drifting apart. I wonder if the 20 degree angle is too shallow? 30 is my optimum I think. Anyway, it was frustrating to try and get both the drafting quantity plus angle correct (there might have been something in there about learning how fast the 6.1 goes too), and the folded fibre kept getting bunched up as I was trying to fix things, so eventually when I needed entertainment I rolled up one staple length into a rolag (as fluffy as I could get it with my hands) and spun that.
I think it was fun...well, when the rolag was easy to draft. I think I was starting to understand the mechanics of long draw, unsupported, even. But it will need more practice and possibly hand carders to get it evenly carded. The yarn was still drifting apart and one time when I tried to pull the single off the bobbin it broke like 3 times. I don't think this 10g will be a useful sample for anything (I'll still finish a 20g sample to see how much length I get out of it) but I guess it's a learning experience...even though I didn't intend to spin this shawl woollen. I should probably try again with my default twist angle but from the fold and see how much yarn I can get out of that...honestly as long as I can get about 400m out of 100g I'll be happy.