Part II: Blues Time Test Two Ply Yarn

I have to admit that I've lied to you, my friends.  Several posts ago, I promised a post about a hat I made for a friend.  But I mailed it last Saturday and I'd like her to at least receive it before I post about the details. Hence the delay.  Aside from knowing it's a hat, she has no idea what it looks like, unless she happens to read my blog and saw that post with the teaser photo.  From this post forward, no more 'next times.'  Stop by and find out what's next time. 

This entry is part 2 and the end of the story about my One Ounce Yarn Test, first post being the Blues Test, Part 1. The short recap: I wanted to record how long it takes me to prep, spin, ply, and knit 1 ounce of 2 ply yarn using 50% New Zealand wool in blue and 50% blue faced Leicester in natural/undyed (nearly white). The result was it took me 2.25 hours to go from prep to 2 ply skein.  

One side comment about the fibers - they were well-prepared roving purchased my local weaving store.  Well prepared meaning commerically scoured, dyed (for the blue) and carded into lovely batts, er sliver...  I apologize to the spinners as I'm afraid I use the terms roving, sliver, and batts interchangeably.

I washed the yarn to set the twist and check dye-fastness in hot water with a nice dollop of unscented dishwashing soap.  Unscented because I happen to like smell of wet wool and because I was too lazy to walk downstairs for the bottle of Dr. Bronners.  I followed the wash with two hot water soak/rinse (no dunking or swishing, just fill sink soak skein, hold skein & drain the sink, then repeat). The dye is fast.

Once my skein was dry, I took the yarn specs: 0.95 total ounces, approximately 98 yards, 1650 yards per pound and 20 wraps per inch, a lace weight. Half ounce more than the previous post, but my scale needed a battery and that may account for the diffence.

This is only my second 2 ply yarn to come in at lace weight, post washing. The knitting commenced on size 4 needles because I didn't feel up to working with smaller needles and I wanted to see what it would look like.  Cast on 40 stitches, provisional cast on.  

BTW, if you haven't tried a provisional cast on, 'cuz the directions seemed inexplicable (of course, that could just have been me) here's a tip: it's actually a long tail cast on using two yarns.  Holding the yarns in your left hand, the waste yarn is hooked around your thumb and the working yarn around your index finger. Work the long tail cast on as usual, and Bob's your uncle! 

But I digress.  I worked in my favorite stitch, seed, until the yarn ran out, or nearly so.  There's a wee bit left, as you can just see in the photo.  The fabric (pre-wash) is somewhat lacey and is quite fluid. It took 3.5 hours to knit.

I washed the piece as I had the skein, squeezed out the water, blocked, measured.  12.5 inches/40 stitches wide by 13.5 inces/86 rows long. For a gauge of approximately 3 stitches by 6 rows.  This test took a total of 5.75 hours to take 1 ounces of roving to a knit swatch. 

Now you may be thinking, well, that's just great, but...um, lady, so what?

So this, my friend:  now that you have all this information, put it to use for a pretend project:  determine the yardage and time needed to make a basic v-neck pullover in a size 44 chest.  According to the Knitter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements, by Ann Budd, you'll need 933 yards of yarn at the guage of 3 stitches per inch.  The sample skein came in at 98 yards, which means 9.5 ounces (933 total yards/98 yarn yards) of finished 2 ply yarn, is 57% of the 1650 yards per pound or, the finished sweater will weigh just over 9 ounces.

I asked an experienced spinner how she figured out how much fleece to buy and her answer was to weigh a similar item (in design and construction) and add 10% for luck.  Turns out, she had a good way to guestimate, but I wanted to test her theory for myself.  

Accounting for extra for luck and 10 ounces of roving are needed for this example project.  In my fiber-hood, New Zealand wool goes for $1.25 an ounce and BFL goes for $1.60 an ounce.  Five ounces of each, for a rounded up total of $17 of prepared roving.

We lucked out with a simple multiplier of 10 (1 ounce for the sample, 10 ounces for the sweater).  For the spinning, 2.25 sample hours becomes 22.50 sweater hours.  For the knitting, 3.5 sample hours becomes 35 sweater hours.

There you have it.  In a mere 55.50 hours and replicating this particular yarn, I can card, spin, ply and knit myself a basic v-neck pullover.  

Furthermore, you now know why there are no hand spun, hand knit sweaters for sale in my shop.  I would have to price this example sweater at $600 for what amounts to $10/hour plus materials.  Just for giggles, if I wanted the v neck in cashmere, the roving would cost $170, plus $550 for labor. 

Happy crafting!