I made yarn! Now what?

[CrazyCatLady]

So I went to the local Fiber Festival over the weekend and was seized afresh with a burning desire to spin my own yarn. After a frankly embarrassing amount of shopping, I came home and settled in to give it a shot with a tiny little 1/2 oz batt I bought on a whim because it was cheap and I loved the colors (chocolate and rose, with just a tiny bit of gold nylon in). Now it's spun and scalded to set the twist and dry and ready to work with.

It's a tiny amount, and it's what a generous-minded vendor at the festival called "highly textured," but it's sure-enough workable yarn and I made it with my own little hands. Pitiful as it looks in places, I'm proud of it and I want to make something with it that I can put up and keep. But I'm having a hell of a time finding a project that's small enough for it. A half ounce of double-ply (it's about worsted size in most spots) isn't much yarn at all. Anybody got any ideas what I can do with it?

[freckafree]

I bought a small amount of yarn and roving because the colors were so durned purty, but it's really not enough to do a whole lot with. What I decided I'm going to do is knit, crochet or felt (or some combo) a strip wide enough to show off the colors and textures and use that to embellish an article of clothing, like edges of a cardigan or the neckline of a pullover sweater. Could you do something like that?

[Sattua]

Knit a pair of mitts? I think you should have enough for that as long as you don't knit it too tightly.

freckafree--you could use it to knit the insides of folded-over, sewn-down hems on a sweater. I've always thought that was a nice touch.

[Kimstu]

Yay you!! Are you knitting, crocheting, or either? And how many yards is it?

Hmm, maybe I can answer that; a half-ounce is about 14 grams,* and a 100-gram ball of worsted-weight wool is about 150-200 yards, so let's say you've got, mm mm mm, about one-eighth of that or....20-25 yards.

No, that's not very much, is it? Uh, let's see, you could make a coaster, or a small clutch purse, or a decorative flower, or a headband or a bracelet or a coffee-cup sleeve, or how about a nice Christmas ornament?

Are you on Ravelry? (ravelry.com) I don't recognize you among the sdmb yarnies group members, but maybe you have a different username there. Anyway, join Ravelry if you haven't already, and you can use their amazing customizable search feature to find patterns that require a specified range of yardage and specified wool type and specified everything else.

Good luck, and when come back bring pix!






* You know, if you type "half-ounce grams" into Google, you get VERY different hits from what you get if you add "worsted weight" to the search terms.

[freckafree]

Originally Posted by Sattua

Knit a pair of mitts? I think you should have enough for that as long as you don't knit it too tightly.

freckafree--you could use it to knit the insides of folded-over, sewn-down hems on a sweater. I've always thought that was a nice touch.

I did something like that to a really ugly, shapeless Shaker knit sweater that I turned into a cardigan. I like the way it turned out!

[freckafree]

And, I'm sorry, but I also have to add that I keep reading the thread title in LOLcat: I made a yarn!

[minionkat]

I read the thread title/user name and thought "how long has she been saving the cat hair?"

I admit, it was wishful thinking. Good luck with your project!

[Eureka]

My first yarn is still waiting to be made into the trim for a hat or something.

My latest yarn, well, one of them, is a 3-ply sock yarn, more or less fingering weight, and the first skein is already a sock. The sock is actually done, but I didn't get a picture taken today.

Bee sock and yarn

My greatest triumph as a spinner would be a colorwork hat I spun and knit in Feb- March.

I've been spinning for a few months more than a year. And probably went to the same Fiber Festival that CrazyCatLady went to, and doubled my collection of spindles, and bought an assortment of fiber.

And Minionkat there really are people who spin cat hair--I am not catlover enough to be one of them.

[adhemar]

my suggestion is to knit or crochet it as the end of a scarf. start with the pretty stuff and then change to a complementary color and go until you have a length you want. Did you spin with a drop spindle or just using you hands or what?

I love to spin and I make balls of yarn. I tell people they are things of beauty unto themselves. I like to put a pretty wooden bowl on my table with balls of differnt yarns in it that I have made.