Tag: spinning

Woven Tencel

On By CarynIn Craft

I was only able to get three swatches from my Tencel sample, knitted, crocheted, and woven. I wove this swatch on a Clover mini loom, with the warp doubled. To finish it I ran the warp back up through the weft passes. I like the edge the method makes, but I don’t like how wonky this piece came out.

Photo description: plain weave swatch made on a Clover mini loom with three ply hand spun Tencel yarn
Photo description: same woven swatch after blocking, but still wonky

I’m going to blame the spin on this one.

P.S. Sorry if you received this post twice by email. I usually schedule my posts about three days out, and I hit the wrong button, tried to retract it, and put it on the proper schedule. I wasn’t fast enough and the email went out. It bothered me to have this series of posts out of order, so I fixed it for the blog, but those emails may have a duplicate or not resend. Ah, technology.

Crocheted Tencel

On By CarynIn Craft

I did my go-to coaster crochet pattern for the Tencel swatch using a F hook. The crochet handles the unevenness of the yarn much better than knitting.

Photo description: crocheted coaster made from three ply hand spun Tencel yarn and a F (3.75mm) ergonomic hook by Clover
Photo description: crocheted coaster after blocking

The openness of the lace stitch also is complementary to the uneven yarn. I think if I had done an even crochet stitch, such as a single crochet every row, it wouldn’t have looked as nice. That is a good thing to know: lace or sculptural crochet is a good choice for imperfect yarn.

Knitted Tencel

On By CarynIn Craft

I knit my hand spun Tencel yarn with size 4 Prym needles. I like to do a stockinette stitch with garter stitch border to help it lay flat since stockinette alone likes to curl.

Photo description: knit swatch of Tencel with the knitting needle because sometimes I forget which size I used
Photo description: same swatch after blocking which only improved the shape slightly

My knitting tension is even, the wonkiness of this swatch comes from the uneven spin of the yarn. Tencel was a tricky fiber for me to spin. It is shiny and lustrous, but likes to clump and doesn’t draft evenly. The finished swatch is soft and has a lovely sheen, but I’m distracted by the strange pooling of uneven yarn.

Tencel Top

On By CarynIn Craft

My chain plied Tencel yarn sat on my niddy noddy for (ah hm) awhile. I am deliberately not counting the number of in progress projects I have right now. I finally rolled it up into a center pull ball, and it is very shiny, but more uneven than my usual spins. I think I have said it before, but Tencel will not be on my spin-again list.

Photo description: three-ply Tencel yarn wound nostepinne style on a rolled piece of card stock, black dog in the background staring up, her very own ball not pictured

Mint top

On By CarynIn Craft

I finished the first spin of the mint top fiber from my plant fiber sample pack my sister gave me almost two years ago. I am down to three packs from the original set. I’ve spun the rest and made up fiber pages for all of them. I may need another book to hold all the pages!

The mint top is “cellulose fiber infused with mint”, which is supposed to make the fabric feel cooler. I didn’t notice any cool feeling when I was spinning it, and it doesn’t smell like mint. It is a pleasure to spin though, and spins fine easily.

Photo description: fine single spun mint top fiber on a wood drop spindle

My plan is to three ply the single to give it some weight. I’m contemplating whether to chain ply or divide the fiber onto three bobbins. If I chain ply I don’t have to remove it from the spindle, or can transfer it to a single bobbin if I’m worried about the spindle jumping around. If I divide, I’ll have some single left over and I’ll have to transfer it to three bobbins. The risk of breaking lies in transferring to different bobbins and potentially losing some twist and weakening the single, or applying too much stress when making loops for chain plying. I think I’ll think on it some more.