Teach me something about fibres, please!

[chiroptera91]

I've been an avid knitter for years, but it's only recently that I've really started taking this hobby seriously. In the last couple of months I've produced two half shawls (one of which was frogged to provide yarn for the other, which is nearly finished), one brioche beret, and one Fair Isle tam (or hat - I haven't decided how to block it yet). In

Comments

[lynedd]

-ply refers to how many strands of yarn are twisted together to form the finished yarn, so it's not necessarily a good means of determining the 'weight' (thickness) of your yarns - I've knit with 2-ply bulky yarns and 2-ply lace yarns, for example

[chiroptera91]

Ooh, that's very useful! It's something like what I imagined for wpi, but different/less complicated. I'll muster up my patience and be as thorough as possible (but yeah, I hear you: swatching is a pain!).

Thank you!

[reapermum]

And if it wasn't entirely clear from the previous post, wpi stands for wraps per inch

And one inch is 2.54cm.

[lynedd]

*grins* Thanks for that ">

[kroker]

aaah! :)

[kroker]

tjipp!

Norwegian garnstudio http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php
has most of their patterns translated to both swedish and english, so if in doubt, you can use them to compare terminology.

Apart from that, I recommend Elisabeth Zimmerman's Knitting without tears, or Debbie Bliss' How to knit,

[vivalamusica]

It doesn't look like anyone's said anything about fiber yet, so I'll take a shot. It looks like both of your yarns are mostly sheep wool, which means you have a lot of flexibility in what you make. Wool is good for just about anything you might wear in winter, although if it's a rough wool you might not want to wear it close to your skin. Angora tends to create a fuzzy "halo" and shed a fair bit, so you're not going to want to use that for things that get a lot of wear, like socks. In case you're not already aware, washing wool in a machine, and especially drying it in a machine, will make it felt and shrink. It is possible to buy "superwash" wool though, which will not do this. To figure out what needles to use for your homespun, you can either look at the ball bands of yarn at a similar weight, or make a few swatches on different needles and pick the one you like best. There are also tons of patterns and good information on the website ravelry.com if you want to know more. Sorry for the novel!

[torrilin]

Handspun angora will not behave the same way as the average commercial angora. If the spinner used an appropriate level of spinning and plying twist, the fibers will be well anchored, and it will take fairly vigorous yarn abuse to bring out the halo... which then will stay put fairly well.

The amount of shedding will also depend on *which* angora the spinner used. Plucked angora is the finest quality, and it's supposed to produce the most stable yarns. A good quality sheared angora (with no second cuts and fairly long fibers) will be the next best. A lot of commercial angora preparations for handspinning use sheared angora, and it's often quite short or was damaged in the processing.

The quality also depends on the breed... and the most productive rabbits tend to produce fiber that isn't as nice. Producing a really high grade of angora is a lot of work!

[chiroptera91]

*shift* I did abuse the first one of my skeins, because I messed up, but I like the "halo" a fair bit, actually. And judging by your description of what's good and what isn't, I'd say that this yarn is of a high quality. I know the people who made it, and ... yeah. Shiny!

[chiroptera91]

Thanks for the tips! =)

[kroker]

oh, and never mind ply, it' a rubbish way to describe thickness, imo. look at the recommended needle size, that'll give you a better estimate, and then knit a swatch with a couple of different needle sizes, to determine which one works for you and what your gauge will be for the given yarn.

[reapermum]

never mind ply, it' a rubbish way to describe thickness

YES! It was fine when I learned to knit over 50 years ago when all we had was wool. As soon as you move into something other than 100% wool and then fancy yarns (bouclé was the first I came across) ply becomes meaningless to describe thickness.

[kroker]

kinda rubbish for wool too, since it depends how loosely the yarn's been spun, how fluffy it is (mohair...), etc.

like a laceweight mohair which needs 4-5mm needles.

and don't even get me started on non-metrically sized needles... :)

[reapermum]

don't even get me started on non-metrically sized needles

With me it depends on which non-metric sizing. The old UK sizing (before we went metric) was fine. It was the same as the Standard Wire Gauge which is still used for some metal rods and most reels of wire. So I'm still using it at work, though there it's the range 24 - 40, rather than 7 - 14 for my knitting needles.