New Year -- New Fiber Adventures
The New Year is bringing new fiber adventures. I got a set of knitting looms for Christmas -- and some yarn to play with. The yarn is Lion Brand Color Waves in the Sunset Red colorway. It's a boucle-like yarn in acrylic and polyester. Synthetic yarns don't compare to handspun alpaca, but I like to use them for new patterns and new techniques.
I like the knitting looms because they are easy and relatively mindless to use. Anything that allows me to knit without furious concentration is a good thing. Part of why I so enjoy spinning is that I don't have to concentrate so hard.
The big drawback of knitting looms for me is they have these great big pegs -- something between a size 8 and 9 knitting needle or between a size L and M crochet hook. These pegs are fairly widely spaced and seem to make great big stitches. Big stitches are great if one is using super-bulky yarn. In fact, the instructions for my loom suggest working with two strands of yarn held together. I'm going to have to play with my looms to figure out how to take advantage of these great big stitches without using super-bulky yarn.
I have spun some beautiful super-bulky alpaca, but it does have limited applications. Alpaca fiber is much warmer than wool and doesn't have as much fiber memory. Heavy garments made from alpaca fiber can be too warm to wear and may lack the fiber memory necessary to maintain shape.
As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I want to learn to take advantage of the warmth and weight of alpaca, to make fairly open garments, and to learn to knit lace. It occurs to me that I can somehow take advantage of the large stitches created by the knitting loom to make open garments using approximately sport-weight handspun yarn. With a little experimenting, I'm sure I'll come up with something nice.
The Lion Brand Colorways turns out to be perfect yarn for loom knitting -- large diameter and very squishy. I wonder if I can figure out how to do something similar in handspun alpaca -- without taking a year to make a skein.
I like the knitting looms because they are easy and relatively mindless to use. Anything that allows me to knit without furious concentration is a good thing. Part of why I so enjoy spinning is that I don't have to concentrate so hard.
The big drawback of knitting looms for me is they have these great big pegs -- something between a size 8 and 9 knitting needle or between a size L and M crochet hook. These pegs are fairly widely spaced and seem to make great big stitches. Big stitches are great if one is using super-bulky yarn. In fact, the instructions for my loom suggest working with two strands of yarn held together. I'm going to have to play with my looms to figure out how to take advantage of these great big stitches without using super-bulky yarn.
I have spun some beautiful super-bulky alpaca, but it does have limited applications. Alpaca fiber is much warmer than wool and doesn't have as much fiber memory. Heavy garments made from alpaca fiber can be too warm to wear and may lack the fiber memory necessary to maintain shape.
As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I want to learn to take advantage of the warmth and weight of alpaca, to make fairly open garments, and to learn to knit lace. It occurs to me that I can somehow take advantage of the large stitches created by the knitting loom to make open garments using approximately sport-weight handspun yarn. With a little experimenting, I'm sure I'll come up with something nice.
The Lion Brand Colorways turns out to be perfect yarn for loom knitting -- large diameter and very squishy. I wonder if I can figure out how to do something similar in handspun alpaca -- without taking a year to make a skein.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 8:35 AM
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