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3 comments:
Okay, if you realio trulio want to spin your own Kureyon, here's what
I've figured out. Several years ago, one of the knitting magazines (oh,
which one? Can't remember) had an article about Noro yarns and the man
who invented and designed their yarns. He is known for using up to 56
different colors in a particular colorway. One picture in the article
stuck with me and is the basis for what I'm giving here, as well as my
experience knitting a Kureyon yarn sweater this past summer.
I agree with others that the fiber is probably something springy like
Hampshire, definitely not Merino and not a longwool breed. The fiber in
the yarn is spongy with a diffuse crimp and not lustrous. After washing
(more later) the yarn has almost a felted feel.
Plan to card and spin more fiber by weight than you think you actually
need. Handspun yarn regardless of spinning method is nearly always
denser (and heavier) than commercial yarn. Plus you want to make sure
you have enough yarn in your colorway to make your project without
running out, because you are *not* going to be able to duplicate the yarn.
The picture showed a long table on which the entire carding run of
fiber was spread out before being made into yarn. So, card individually
as many different batts of colors as you want. Six, ten, 56 - knock
yourself out. Some colors you will want to be more dominant, so you may
card several batts of that color and only one thin batt of another color.
Okay, here's where you are going to have to work to "see" what I saw.
Split your batts CROSSWISE, not lengthwise, into whatever length you
want - 6" for a dominant color is probably about right. Take the same
color and lay out the split sections along the long edge of the table
with the carding parallel to the short edge. Facing the long edge of
the table, you should now have a strip of fiber, all of the same color,
running all along the long edge from left to right but the fibers are
pointing away from you. Like this: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Take your next color and split the batts again, maybe not so wide (3"?)
and lay those short pieces in another band on the table just above the
first strip, same way, overlapping slightly into the first strip. Now
you have two strips of color running left to right across the table.
Do the same with the remaining batts in whatever color progression you
choose. You should now have a table full of fiber, color bands running
left to right and fibers running front to back, looking like a giant
wide carded batt.
Carefully split the resultant fiber from front to back on the table into
equal size/weight and number of strips, so that each strip has the same
progression of fiber colors. This is similar to splitting a batt
lengthwise. Now (and here's the tricky part) - predraft each strip down
to thin pencil roving of the same length. If you can find a way to
insure that each strip drafts to exactly the same length, let me know
and I will stand up and applaud you. Somehow this is something that the
machines do better.
A Noro yarn looks like a fat singles yarn but it is in fact a two-strand
yarn, similar in construction to Brown Sheep yarns and Manos del
Uruguay. So you want to ply two strands of pencil roving with minimal
twist to make your finished yarn. You don't spin or twist the pencil
roving first, just ply the two pencil rovings together at about 2 to 4
twists per inch, generally Z, but I don't think it matters which way as
long as you are consistent with all of your plying. That's why your
strips have to be pulled or predrafted to thin pencil rovings of the
same length so that they come out the same at the end and the colors
meet up at the same place on the yarn. Noro yarn does tend to bias
slightly when you knit stockinette but that can be blocked out carefully.
If you have managed to suffer through the explanation above (including
the thought of using up to 56 colors), you might appreciate why I have
never tried to do this, but have simply bought Noro yarn instead. I
save my spinning for fibers where I don't have to be so precise and I
want to achieve a different effect. If I think in terms of time =
money, it costs about the same for me to just buy Noro yarn. Plus I
love the colors that Noro uses which are often in combinations that
surprise me and are combos I wouldn't always think of putting together,
but they work.
On VM in yarn - There seems to be just two ways to get rid of all VM in
fiber:
1. Comb the hell out of it. That's limited to certain sheep breeds such
as Merino, and combed Merino top can be a joy to spin. But there are
plenty of very nice sheep breeds whose wool is unsuited to combing.
2. During washing and processing, treat the fiber with extremely strong
acids (like sulphuric acid) that dissolve all of the plant materials.
This is what most large commercial mills do. I think that's why many
yarns feel harsh regardless of how they are spun. Sure, I picked VM out
of my Kureyon, just like I've picked it out of Candide and Barlettyarn
and Chester Farms and other less chemically processed yarns. But rather
than get annoyed, I just think to myself, "Hey, just goes to show that
this came from real sheep" and continue on. My Kureyon sweater after
washing softened up considerably and, as I mentioned above, has almost a
"felted" feel. No, it wasn't as soft as Merino but I didn't expect it
to be as soft as that. It is definitely softer than the Plymouth Galway
sweater I knit, 100% wool and not a single piece of VM in it. I've worn
the Kureyon sweater with long sleeves over a sleeveless shell and was
perfectly comfortable, but I can't wear the Galway sweater next to my
skin at all. Before knitting, the Galway yarn felt softer than Kureyon.
Just MHO.
Sockie
Wow, I did wonder how, and I would have sworn it was a single Z twist yarn, but there you go. I was knitting and crocheting swatches to settle on a needle size and guage, and kept unravelling ( guess you just say 'raveling'? I'm UK ;) and thought I'd gently steam the kinks out of the skein I made - no pressure or contact with yarn. Wow, it crept in at least 10%, shrinking the length. Yes, I know that was steam, and it says cool iron and so on, but does it shrink when washing in cool water? I have visions of hardly daring to move it in the washing bowl for fear of felting and shrinking. How bad is it? I wondered about skeining it all and steaming it to pre-shrink, as it didn't felt it, just shortened it! I'd be interested to hear any thoughts!
This yarn clearly shrinks. You should be gentle when unravelling or ripping out. I believe that with washing, even in cold water, you should expect some shrinkage. This yarn will continue to tangle with itself over time. On the other hand, if you make things large and just wash them hard, you get this lovely fabric which has melded together and integrated both stitches and color. Very nice airy fabric.
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