handspinning fingering weight Crepe and Cable Plied Yarns for socks: Part 1
I have been intrigued with spinning for long lasting socks since 2021. Very early in my journey, I spun 2 ply and 2 ply combo spin yarns from durable wool breeds thinking that should be good enough. Just prior to the knitting part, I decided to ask the lovely, Karen, of Gift of Grace Fiber Arts for her advice. She kindly told me that traditional 3 ply yarns with extra twist have worked out well for her. With that valuable knowledge, my handspun socks have been handknitted with 3 ply traditional and 3 ply chain plied yarns. The yarns were combo spins using gorgeous advent fiber morsels from Woolfiend that include sheep breeds that are durable (high 20s-low 30s micron count) and some fine wool blends that include silk or nylon. Personally, these socks are worn on rotation during the chilly and colder months here in Texas along with my other socks, so they have been holding up very well with no darning repairs yet. My newest pair is scoured, flicked, and spun from the cloud as a chain ply. It is from Lex’s 2023 fine fleece Shetland lambswool that included his britch wool, which I am looking forward to wearing very soon.
Recently, I came upon the blog on yarn construction at Knit Better Socks and immediately went down the rabbit hole of wanting to try and spin crepe (3 ply) and cable plied (4 ply) yarns. Another very helpful post that I found by Jillian Moreno is on knitty.com explaining all about spinning crepe and cable plied yarns. From there, I read the article Knitting with Cable Plied Yarns and learned that short staple fibers spun this way are stronger and less prone to pilling, while still providing an elastic, soft, but textured yarn, including plant fibers.
After absorbing all of this info, I was ready to get spinning. There are so many beautiful natural and hand dyed fibers available. I love the feel and idea of 100% non-superwash sheep wool socks after my latest spin, so I want to continue with that mindset for this part of the project. In the final phase, I will consider adding mohair, silk, or alpaca to the mix. I want these handspun sock yarns to be nylon free.
Reena from Knit Better Socks mentioned Romney as being the most durable wool for her so far. She also spun up a beautiful crepe yarn that had 2 plies of brown Jacob and a ply of her hand dyed Shetland wool for some added softness, but there wasn’t an update on the wearability factor. I followed her guide for spinning crepe yarn and divided up the fiber in the proportions that were recommended using an unknown sheep wool breed from my stash (3.8 oz of hand dyed fiber in the colorway Fizzy Grape Soda that was purchased early on in my spinning journey). It feels like it is in the high 20s, possibly 30 micron range. I had a good amount of leftover overplied 2 ply, so I will have to tweak my process to reduce leftovers for future spins. I ended up getting 283 yards to knit with. I had wanted an “S” twist yarn according to the instructions, but I was too far into default spinning mode when I realized I was supposed to be spinning counterclockwise for this particular single. So I just let it be, continued on, and now have a finished “Z” twist yarn. I could have still gotten an “S” twist yarn, but I didn’t want to mess with the color play I had already envisioned.
Claudia at Clo Tricots is kindly helping me out with the 60ish g cable plied “S” twist yarn samples. Youtube suggested her sock video during my deep dive into socks. She is a very experienced sock knitter, knitting teacher, and spinner who is very hard on her socks. She sounded like just the right person to help me out in this endeavor, so I reached out to her with my project and she graciously agreed to partake. I spun and sent her two combinations of 19 micron/long staple Superfine Merino (Kinglet colorway hand dyed by Three Waters Farm) and 29.5 micron Corriedale (Korra colorway hand dyed by Woolfiend) . One mix is a skein of 25% Superfine Merino/75% Corriedale and the other is a set of 50% Superfine Merino/50% Corriedale. This is the micron range and maximum softness I want to work with to gain a better understanding of this style of yarns. Part 2 will showcase the socks, have initial thoughts on how the yarns feel to knit with, and how the socks feel when worn. Later on, updates will be added about the wearability factor. Other sheep breeds that I would like to spin this way include the Norwegian White Sheep (a composite breed), Cheviot, Perendale, and Polwarth. I hope y’all found this interesting and decide to spin up some of your own versions. In the meantime, happy spinning, knitting, and creating!
