Making Yarn: Tools I Didn't Know I would Need

There are lots of things I used to take for granted when buying ready-made yarn from a store. For example, I never asked how one would figure out the yardage of yarn on a skein, or the weight of the yarn. As long as the yarn came with a label that had this information printed on it, I felt content that I had all the information I needed. Until I started shopping outside of Joann's and Michael's I didn't even know that not all yarn comes in a compact, easy-to use ball or center-pull skein, and that many shops sell it in twisted skeins that need to be wound into a ball!

Since I began spinning my own yarn, I have learned a lot not only about how yarn is made, but also how it is prepared and measured. 

For example, this scale (which you saw a few months ago) is perfect for estimating shipping on tiny items, and for measuring how many grams or ounces of yarn you have!

If you want to transfer your freshly spun yarn from your spindle to a skein, it is helpful to have a niddy-noddy, which is a funny name for a tool that looks like this and makes a nice even skein when you wind your yarn around it. I have yet to aquire a niddy-noddy, so I wrap my skein around the back of a chair, which works okay.

One of my friends gave me an electric yarn ball winder for turning that skein into a ball, once it's all washed and finished. I ordered a swift (that blue thing on the left) from Joann's to assist with the ball-winding process.

When it's done, this ball of yarn looks pretty professional for only my second batch of homespun.

When I bought my yarn in Guatemala, I learned a couple other yarn measuring tricks. For the most part I felt pretty successful at communicating in Spanish, but when I asked the lady who sold me the yarn how much was on the skein, all I was able to understand was that they don't measure in meters. Maybe they use yards, but I assumed they didn't so I didn't learn the word for that. When I returned to los Estados Unidos, lamenting the fact that I had no idea how much yarn was on the skein, one of my friends taught me a neat trick:

1) First, stretch out your skein of yarn, similarly to how it appears in the chair picture above. 

2) Measure the length of the skein from one side to the other.

3) Count the number of strands 

4) Do a little math: (The length of the skein) x (The number of strands) x (2, because the skein was folded in half when you measured it) = The total lenth of yarn on the skein! 

Thanks to this trick, I now know that one of my skeins from Guatemala has about 827 yards on it! 

My friend also taught me a useful trick for measuring the weight of the yarn. I tend to estimate weight by sight a lot but if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can measure wraps per inch. This means wrapping your yarn around a ruler or other measuring device and counting how many wraps it takes to cover 1 inch. Next, find a chart to tell you how many wraps per inch equals which weight. It frustrates me that every chart seems a little different, but I guess that's why we always check our guage, right?

This yarn took 18 wraps to equal 1 inch. According to this chart on Craftsy that's a thin sportweight, just barely above fingering weight. I'm using it with a pattern that calls for fingering weight and it's working well.

I hope you find some of these tricks and tools useful, I know I have!

-Assunta

Princess Leia Baby Hat

Okay, I admit I'm on a Star Wars kick. Crafting and nerd culture just go so perfectly together and there are so many cool Start Wars patterns! I love this "Space Princess" hat pattern that I found for free on Ravelry. It was super easy and looks great! And, perhaps best of all, it called for the kind of yarn that I already had on hand (not that the designer could have known that, haha).

I made the baby size for my little neice, but the pattern has directions for sizes all the way up to adult!  I just might have to make one for myself too...

Virginia, my 18-inch doll, is modeling the hat. It's really too big for her, though!

The pattern is here if you want to try it. Again, it's free, and I really can't recommend it enough. If you've ever wanted your own Princess Leia hair, this is a great way to do it! Especially if, like me, your hair isn't long enough for it otherwise!

This is the hat on the end of my arm, not someone with a long, skinny neck!

Happy space travels,

Assunta

The Stormtroopers are Coming!

I added another Star Wars character to my desk collection at work. I love the way this stormtrooper's mask makes him look like he has chubby cheeks! Bad guys probably aren't supposed to be this adorable, but that's okay.

Yoda and this Stormtrooper used all the yarn that came with the kit, so now I have to start buying my own yarn again if I am going to make all the other characters, which I hope to do.

I don't have much more to say in this post, but I hope my amigurumi Stormtrooper made you smile!

-Assunta

Guatemala's Tradition of Textiles

My recent visit for Guatemala was wonderful, for many reasons. The food was simple but delicious, the people friendly and kind (though some of them can be very aggressive sales people!) and the bathrooms cleaner than I would often expect in the US. But for me the best part was that everywhere you look you can buy handwoven works of art, and even learn a little about how they are made!

One day, we visited a weaving cooperative, where twenty women make woven works of art by hand. Here are all the things they need to make yarn: 

All of the white and brown fluffy stuff is cotton. The little black spots in the bowl near the top left are cotton seeds that are picked out before the fiber is spun into yarn. Next, they spread out the cotton as shown above and beat it with one of the forked sticks to soften it up. Then it is ready for spinning!

This lady is spinning the cotton into thread on a spindle. I got a chance to try and it seemed much more difficult than my drop spindle, because it kept wanting to spin right out of the bowl! The women who work in the cooperative are pros at it, though.

Once there is enough yarn for a skein, it's time to dye! Just about any color can be made from plants, tree bark or even bugs! It's pretty amazing. In order to help the color stick, the yarn is first dipped into a bowl of clear stuff (which I think was banana sap, but I don't remember for sure) before being soaked in the dye. The darker you want the color to be, the longer it needs to soak. Then it is hung up to dry!

I was inspired so I bought two skeins of yarn at the cooperative. Two skeins was only 30 Quetzales, which is less than $4! It's a very thin lace weight but there is a lot on a skein, perfect for a lace shawl.

On another day we visited a pueblo, or village, called San Antonio Aguas Calientes. They are considered the best weavers in the country because they are the only pueblo whose weaving is double-sided! Backstrap looms, like the one this lady is using, are very common. There are also big floor looms, but those are mosly used for weaving very large pieces.

Everywhere we went in Guatemala we saw women wearing traditional hand-woven garments like what you see in these pictures. I loved all the bright colors! Unfortunately, it is much less common to see a man in traditional clothing.

Where do you like to go when you travel? Where have you met people who inspire your creativity? 

-Assunta