‘How long does it take to spin enough yarn for a sweater?’ people sometimes ask me. So far, I’ve always given rather vague answers, along the lines of ‘It all depends…’ Now, for once I’ve kept a log for a more concrete answer.
It all started with a gift of 200 grams of spinning fibres from my knitter, spinner and dyer friend L.
A very soft, fine and slippery silk-merino blend from Ashford, in a shade called Salvia.
It would have been enough for a shawl, but I wanted to turn it into a sweater quantity and added some Harvest Hues top from John Arbon – a blend of zwartbles, bluefaced Leicester and merino, in a shade called Woad.
I spun and spun – sky blue and lime green…
…frog green and navy blue…
…more blues, and also a hint of white and a touch of black.
Spinning 200 grams of Salvia and 365 grams of Woad took 19 hours.
Then I plied those blues and greens together – 2 plies of Woad, 1 ply of Salvia.
565 grams, 4 hours and 25 minutes of plying.
After that, I had 235 grams of Woad left. With those, I spent almost 8 hours in Spinners’ Lane.
Finally, I plied three plies of Woad together, 1 hour and 45 minutes of plying.
Adding everything together, I spun for 27 hours, plied for 6 hours and 10 minutes, and ended up with 800 grams of a worsted-weight yarn in total.
The yarn is approximately 200 m/219 yds to 100 grams, and knits up at 17.5 sts to 10 cm/4” on 4.5 mm/US 7 needles.
So, how long does it take to spin enough yarn for a sweater? About 33 hours and 10 minutes. At least, if you spin a 3-ply worsted-weight yarn from a blend of different wools and silk, and spin at my not-so-fast speed.
And if you want a bulky singles and are a beginner spinner? Or a DK-weight made up of 2 plies? Or an alpaca, hemp or yak yarn? Sorry, I have no idea. All I can say is, there are quicker ways to get yarn than hand-spinning it. Only none of them have the same meditative quality, and none of them will give you a yarn quite like hand-spun.
En nu is het tijd om de uren voor het breien erbij op te tellen!
Prachtig garen, zeg!
You always amaze me with your many talents. I love reading all about your thoughts and processes. Thank you.
Grand! Thanks for documenting. Add raising the sheep and shearing and people just wonder why we do it all.