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Knitting and other yarn carfts - Yarn making & use: spin, dye, knit, weave etc.
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Posted by Vintage Purls on October 18, 2006, 1:38 am
Hi all,
I seek some of your fantastic advice. I've recently taken up spinning,
I've had my grandmother's wheel for many years gathering dust. I
cleaned it up, oiled it and have spun a couple of hundred grams of
sliver so far. My first efforts where with corriedale and not pretty -
lumpy and hard. But then I spun some merino - it was fantastic and I
have a 100g skein of a fairly consistent, reasonably fine yarn. Now one
of the reasons I decided to attempt spinning is that I like to knit
from vintage patterns and it's quite hard to get a good selection of
the finer yarns needed for many vintage patterns locally (i.e. that
won't break the bank and comes in more than just 'baby' colours). So
I'm trying to produce a yarn that's about the thickness of a commerical
3 or 4ply (which my merino effort is). I can get some Alpaca sliver but
I know very little about it. I've read that it's hard for spinners to
work with but I've also read that about Merino and I thought the merino
very easy to handle and really enjoyed working with it. Can anyone
share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable fiber to
attempt a fine yarn with?
Many thanks!
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Posted by enigma on October 18, 2006, 5:44 pm
show/hide quoted text
>. Can anyone
> share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable
> fiber to attempt a fine yarn with?
alpaca yarn has NO memory. it stretches, bags & gets
distorted. it's great to spin, great to knit, but i would
*never* give an alpaca project as a gift... well, maybe if it
was just a scarf, where the stretching & refusing to go back
to shape doesn't matter.
if you ply it with the merino, it might be ok, but i'd make a
really big test swatch before knitting a fine vintage sweater
from it.
show/hide quoted text
lee <and i raise llamas...>
--
Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
there be
one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded
fear. - Thomas Jefferson
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Posted by Vintage Purls on October 18, 2006, 6:04 pm
enigma wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> alpaca yarn has NO memory. it stretches, bags & gets
> distorted. it's great to spin, great to knit, but i would
> *never* give an alpaca project as a gift... well, maybe if it
> was just a scarf, where the stretching & refusing to go back
> to shape doesn't matter.
> if you ply it with the merino, it might be ok, but i'd make a
> really big test swatch before knitting a fine vintage sweater
> from it.
Hmm, okay I think I'll stick with the merino for significant projects
then (it's cheaper than Alpaca and plentiful here in NZ anyway). I just
thought Alpaca might be a little special. Thanks!
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Posted by Georgia on October 18, 2006, 7:09 pm
It's true that alpaca yarn has no memory, but because it's so lightweight,
I've never had the problems with it that I've had with cotton (or silk
noil)--I gave away the sweaters I made with those because they kept falling
off my shoulders, LOL. But my alpaca sweater (2nd row, far right at
http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm) is one of my favorites.
Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's so
lightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.
Georgia
show/hide quoted text
> >. Can anyone
> > share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable
> > fiber to attempt a fine yarn with?
> alpaca yarn has NO memory. it stretches, bags & gets
> distorted. it's great to spin, great to knit, but i would
> *never* give an alpaca project as a gift... well, maybe if it
> was just a scarf, where the stretching & refusing to go back
> to shape doesn't matter.
> if you ply it with the merino, it might be ok, but i'd make a
> really big test swatch before knitting a fine vintage sweater
> from it.
> --
> Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if
> there be
> one, he must more approve the homage of reason than that of
> blindfolded
> fear. - Thomas Jefferson
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Posted by Vintage Purls on October 18, 2006, 6:56 pm
Georgia wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> It's true that alpaca yarn has no memory, but because it's so lightweight,
> I've never had the problems with it that I've had with cotton (or silk
> noil)--I gave away the sweaters I made with those because they kept falling
> off my shoulders, LOL. But my alpaca sweater (2nd row, far right at
> http://www.georgiamorgan.net/html/knitting.htm) is one of my favorites.
> Neither loose nor tight, and my first choice for travel because it's so
> lightweight and compresses (and recovers from it) so well.
Well I have ordered a little fibre to play with - I had thought of
making my man some winter gloves from it if it spun up okay but Lee
changed my mind on the glove front. It looks like I'll just have to
experiment. Thanks.
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> share their experiences with Alpaca? Is it a reasonable
> fiber to attempt a fine yarn with?