Transcript for
Episode 95:
3 Tips for Knitting with Handspun
If you've knit with handspun yarn, you know that handspun is just wonderfully different from commercial yarn, in lots of ways. In this episode, I'm going to give you three tips that will help you manage the unique characteristics of handspun yarn and get great results.
Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 95 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.
To me, handspun yarn feels almost alive, especially compared to most commercial yarns, which, for all their consistent perfection, feel kind of flat. Commercial yarns mostly do what they're told, but handspun definitely has a mind of its own. Mostly, though, knitting with handspun is different from knitting with commercial yarn for me because, having already touched every inch of my handspun, it feels like I'm hanging out with an old friend. It's an opportunity to reacquaint myself with it and learn more about it in a whole new context. Working with my own yarn also allows me to see the effects of all the choices I've made in designing the yarn, and to see whether those choices have paid off in the way I expected. Finally, every time I knit or weave with my handspun I deepen my understanding of fiber by seeing how it behaves under different conditions. Using my yarns has taught me so much.
That said, there are particular characteristics of handspun yarn that require some consideration. You handspun is likely less consistent than yarn made by a machine, and it's useful to know that and plan for it going in. So here are three things that I like to do when working with yarn I've made myself.
Before I get into it though, a little caveat. I'm not going to talk much in this episode about whatever yarn design decisions I might have made in the initial planning stage. That's a whole other discussion, involving fiber choice, spinning method, and so forth. So I'm going to focus here on situations in which I'm using handspun that I didn't spin with a particular project in mind.
Thing 1: Measure the length of your yarn carefully
For years, I "measured" the length of my yarn by just counting the loops on my two-yard niddy noddy and multiplying by 2. And I kept running out of yarn, or finding myself in nail-biting yarn-chicken situations. I think I have a little post-traumatic yarn-chicken disorder. But I brought it all on myself because I was measuring my yarn wrong in a way that systematically overestimated my yardage.
The yarn on your niddy noddy is under tension and it hasn't been washed yet. But when you knit with it, it isn't under the same about of tension and it has been washed. And, depending on the fiber and to some extent on the finishing method, your skein may be quite a bit shorter when it's off the niddy noddy and has been washed and dried.
So I still count the loops, but here's what I now do instead of blithely assuming that each loop is 2 yards long: I actually measure it. Imagine that.
After my yarn is finished and dried, I lay it flat and measure how long the skein is in inches. Then I multiply that number by 2 to get the length of each loop. I then take that number and multiply by the number of loops, and divide by 36 to get the total length in yards. This gives me a much more accurate number, which is usually anywhere from 20-30% less that the number I get by just multiplying the number of loops by 2. Quite a difference! No wonder I was running out of yarn all the time. There's a freebie for episode 22 of the podcast that walks you through how to measure everything about your yarn; I'll link to it in the show notes.
I've found that measuring in this way consistently gets me a number that is very close to the number I get when I use my yardage counter from Dreaming Robots, which, by the way, I highly recommend.
Thing 2: Even things out
Some of the issues that arise when knitting with handspun yarns have to do with inconsistencies in your yarn, both within a single skein and from one skein to the next. And I have a number of tactics I use to mitigate any inconsistencies.
The most important of these is that I always, always, always spin all of my singles before I ply. As I go I rewind my singles onto storage bobbins (see episode 12 and episode 36) and then I ply them together randomly. This ensures that any inconsistencies are spread out over all the yarn in the project.
If you have spun some singles and plied them and then spun some more singles and plied those, the two skeins are more likely to be more different from each other, and in this situation, I would probably alternate skeins as I was knitting to make that difference less noticeable in the fabric. I find alternating skeins to be a bit of a pain, but this is a situation in which I would absolutely do it.
Thing 3: Knit a bigger swatch
When I'm working with a handspun yarn and gauge is important, I will often make a bigger swatch than I do with a commercial yarn, again because my handspun is less consistent, and I want the best possible gauge measurement.
In addition, I usually swatch with several different needle sizes to ensure that I'm getting a fabric that I like and that's right for the intended use. I don't make multiple swatches; I knit the same swatch with different sized needles so I only have to cast on once. I try to start with the largest need I think might work, knit a couple of inches in stockinette, and record the US needle size by knitting the corresponding number of purl stitches in the middle of the row with the right side facing me, then I'll knit a couple of inches in stockinette, do a purl row on the right side to divide the sections of my swatch, and switch needles. I usually know which direction I want to go in when I've tried three or four different needle sizes.
If you're planning to alternate skeins, obviously you want to do that in your swatch as well.
So, we've talked about measuring the length of your yarn accurately, some steps you can take to make inconsistencies in diameter less evident in your final project, and I've given you some swatching tips. I hope these have been useful to you.
What tips and tricks do you swear by when knitting with your handspun? There's a post in The Flock, Sheepspot’s free online community for inquisitive hand spinners, where you can let me know and discuss this episode with other listeners. I'll link to that thread in the show notes, which you can find at https://sheepspot.com/podcast/episode95.
That's it for me this time. I'll be back next time with an episode about how to use Ravelry to make better projects with your handspun. While you're waiting, spin something! And then maybe even knit something! It will do you good.