Produced by
Patti Moreno
Contributor to:
How to Hand Spin Wool
Did you know that you can make your own garments with your own hand spun yarn?
You can because I do it all the time. Today you are finding me in the “Tiny House” which is my favorite place to spin yarn. It is a miniscule building on my property and I snapped it up as the place for me to do what I love…spin.
The yarn that I spin comes straight from the animals that I have raised on my farm. Today, I’m working with Angora (rabbit) and Pygora (goat) fibers as well as Merino wool.
I won’t say that what I am about to teach you is easy, but I will say that it’s totally worthwhile.
I am spinning on a single treadle Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel which you can buy for as little as $400 to $450 dollars. It may sound like a lot, but think of the priceless pleasure you will gain from making your own yarn and garments.
What you see me doing is working clockwise with my spinning wheel, drafting the yarn as thinly as possible on two bobbins Then, I work counter-clockwise to ply the two fibers together. Then I use a ball winder to wind up the yarn for knitting. This is all the yarn you need to make a simple garter stitch scarf. There’s no specific number of stitches to cast on your knitting needles. Figure out the gauge (number of stitches per inch) of your yarn and cast on as many stitches to make at least a 48” scarf. Then knit every row until you have enough yarn to bind off all of the stitches. You’ll be knitting the scarf the long way. With the different color yarn going the length of the scarf you’ll be creating a striped pattern. This is a great pattern that can be made pretty quickly and will always be unique.
This is just a teaser for you to see me doing something that is pretty cool. There’s much more to share and learn about spinning. If you like what you see and are interested in spinning yarn and knitting your own garments, I suggest that you take a class.
You may walk into the class simply a “knitter”, but you will leave a fiber artist! I assure you. And, that is cooler than cool.
