Monday, June 21, 2010

6.21 Spinning, of a sort

I acquired some Malabrigo lace recently, and as I started looking into suitable projects for it, I realized that there are a fair number of people who are complaining that it felts in the skein, or as it is being knit up. (That is, there are enough people complaining that there are a fair number of people mocking the people complaining.)

There are also a fair number of people who claim they had no trouble and have no idea what the complainers are talking about.

Closer examination of the facts in the case: Malabrigo lace is made from baby merino, is a single, and is loosely spun. As a spinner, I would expect a singles yarn to be loosely spun (it has no balancing force of a second ply (or more) and without the balance, the fabric would tend to bias) but making a singles yarn with merino wouldn't be where I would think to start.

malabrigolace

So... I modified it just a bit. I ran it through the wheel and added some more twist (turning it from a low twist single to a moderately twisted single) then plied it back with a single of silk I had laying about.

mlaceandsilk

Part of the skein was felting in the skein, so I'm glad I did it. When I get round to knitting with it, I'll report back on the felting (or not).

4 comments:

Diane said...

Very interesting idea and I like the way your skein turned out. I have a single skein of Malabrigo lace in stash, might be fun to try the same thing.

Cookie said...

That's brilliant!

Now I want to copy you.

xo

Manise said...

Visually it looks like the merino shrunk and the silk did not giving you that look. Or do you mean the Malabrigo was already felted before you started to ply it?

gayle said...

Nifty idea! I've always shied away from singles - they just seem *wrong* to me...