Tips on Drafting

From River’s Edge Weaving Studio’s newsletter, are some good hints and tips when drafting your fibers to spin. Go to their site for even more info: http://www.weavingstudio.samsbiz.com/

Fiber length – pull off a few representative fibers, and determine the longest length.
The longest one plus 1 inch (especially if a blend) is the minimum distance between your hands when drafting, aka attenuating.
When spinning blends it’s very easy to end up with a lot of one fiber of one length going into your draft, and none of the other length of fibers.
When your hands are the minimum distance apart, various blends of fibers will remain suspended within each other and therefore draft easier.
To create a softer fluffier yarn, you may wish to try taking your forward hand (closest to the orifice) and when you are ready for the twist to go into the drafted fiber, let go with that hand, bring your hand back, pinch and start over. By not sliding your fingers along said newly twisted fibers, you will end up with a softer, more natural type yarn rather than one that is stringy without much life to it.
For example: One of our blends is 50% cashmere/50% bombyx silk. The bombyx is long, smooth and straight (although silk does have a “tooth” to it) while the cashmere is shorter with a totally different crimp-like texture. As this blend is as soft and light as air, a softer handling by you will result with a luscious halo effect when using the previously described technique.

Three things can occur if you slide your hand closest to the orifice over the newly twisted fibers: heat-moisture-pressure. These are the very same principles that create felted fibers.

Next Pattern:

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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