Sweater From Scratch

So I'm going to try a project, completely from scratch.  I barely know what I'm doing, but I'm just going to jump into this.

My plan is to get my hands on some raw fleece, wash it, blend it, card it, spin it, and knit it into a sweater.  I know a bit about processing raw fleece and spinning...and I "technically" know how to knit.  I know the knit stitch, the pearl stitch, and I can knit a square panel!

I figure this will take me months to do, maybe a year.  If I start now, maybe I'll have something to wear next winter!

So step one is to figure out what kind of sweater I would like to make.  After some shopping, I decided on a pattern that I purchased on Etsy.  My original idea was a cable-knit sweater -- and I did successfully do a cable-knit panel years ago -- but I like this design, and it looks like it might go a bit faster than cable-knitting.

I'm not very particular about the color, I just want to go for "not white."  That should be pretty easy to do.  I'm not going to dye the wool, because I'd need so much that it would take multiple dying "sessions," and we all know you never get exactly the same shade in every session.

So I'll just go with a natural fleece color, that isn't white.  I might hand blend some white and not-white, or I might do a ply of white and not white, something to add a bit of interest and uniqueness to the sweater.


NOTE TO SELF:  After reading through the pattern, I'm going to have to take a week or two in order to just be able to interpret and actually knit the stiches that are being called for here.  Something for the early spring, after the wool is dyed and spun.


Since I'm hand-spinning this, I really want to make sure that I have plenty of yarn before I start working on the sweater.  I'd have to have to switch gears between processing/spinning and knitting.  Once I start knitting, that's all I want to focus on.

The pattern calls for 24-25 balls of wool, 50g each.  I'm going to go with 25 balls, which is a total of 1200 grams of wool.  Of course this is washed and processed wool.  Historically, I lose about 20% of the weight of the fleece when washing.  So...I want to have at least 1500 grams of raw fleece before I start washing.  So...carry the one...I need 1500 grams / 28 grams per ounce / 16 ounces per pound, or 3.5 pounds of raw fleece.

So what kind of wool?  I like spinning wool with a longer staple.  And the sweater doesn't have to be "soft."  I want a sweater that is durable and warm.  I'm not going to wear it against my skin, so the actual texture is secondary.  I'm thinking Jacob, or even Icelandic wool might be just what I'm looking for.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Heather Ridge Farm (www.heather-ridge-farm.com).  They have a good deal of raw Icelandic, Dorset, and Romney wool, as well as others...and they are rather close to me (have you paid for shipping lately??).





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