Socks in 100% wool - a 4-ply knitting yarn from Rauma that feels promising

I have for a very long time been in search of a 100% wool sock yarn. When I grew up my mother knitted socks for the whole family using a rather coarse yarn. The socks were called ragg socks and we used them all winter in our shoes as well as at home. Originally ragg socks were knitted with yarn where the wool, when spun, was mixed with fibres from goat to make it really strong. I don´t think that that was what my mother used, I have no information regarding the mix of her yarn. But I am pretty sure that it was 100% wool.

This is the "Rauma 4 tr. Strikkegarn" (4-ply knitting yarn) made of 100% wool from the Spelsau breed. It is coarser than most yarns and it is supposed to be very strong and well suited for socks. In other words: it feels great!

The Spelsau sheep (also called Spaelsau, Villsau or Old Norwegean) almost died out in the twentieth century. Sheep resembling the Spelsau have been around for about three thousand years - amazing! Nowadays a "modern" Spelsau also include genes from other breeds such as Icelandic, Faroese or Finn sheep. It has two coats: the undercoat is quite fine and the outercoat is much coarser and twice as long as the undercoat. This Rauma yarn feels as if they have used fiberes from the outercoat in the yarn to make it strong. It also has a nice lustre, probably due to the long strong fibres from the outercoat.

Socks are finished. I will use them this winter to see if the yarn is as strong as I hope.

A visit to Solkustens Spinnverkstad

Today we visited Solkustens Spinnverkstad together with some friends. Solkusten is a small mill in Roslagen that spins yarn from Swedish wool.

We had booked a tour and we were guided by Ingrid. Ingrid is one of the owners and she told us about the mills history, the move to Roslagen and the wool used for different yarns.

We were also shown the machines and guided through the process of making yarn, from the sorting of the wool to the finished product.

The machines are old, but still going strong. One advantage with these machines is that they are gentle on the wool while processing it. This means that the finish of the yarn will be more lustrous and the wool fibres are damaged less during the process.

The carding machine

The spinning machine

The plying machine

After the tour we visited the shop, I have rarely seen a a more picturesque shop - really inspiring!

Adding to the stash was a perfect end of our visit. If you want to read more about the mill you can visit their home page here. Their information brochure (Swedish and English) is found here.

Bandweaving - New start

It is now a year and a half since I took a band weaving class at Sätergläntan. A couple of weeks after the class I tried weaving at home, but got very frustrated with my poor result.

I do know that there is no "quick fix" when learning new skills - but sometimes there is just not enough patience available.

These last weeks I have been thinking about making a new try. I bought a yarn better suited for band weaving than the ones that I used a year ago. I searched through our "wool/yarn room" to find the necessary tools and started to warp the yarn.

I even spent a couple of hours  weaving. It felt much better than the previous attempts a year ago.

I chose a simple pattern from the Sami-tradition. I have to start with something that is not complicated so that I can focus on the basics of the weaving. I especially like the colours - so typical for the Sami bands.

Autumn has come and today was a beautiful day. We took a walk to the Iron Age burial site nearby.

Huckleberry Lace Scarf

This scarf is a birthday present for someone in my family. It is smaller than a regular shawl and just the right size for warming your neck in autumn. Measurements after a slight blocking are 210 x 35 centimetres (84 x 14 inches).

The yarn is almost all of what was left of my yarn dyed with Jeaba cold water dye after I knitted the Bertha Lace Shawl. It is a rather special blue colour with some green in it and very close to the recipients favourite colour. The design is by Evelyn Clark and as always well written and easy to follow. I would recommend this as a nice and easy lace project that will not take long to finish.

I used in total 115 grams of 2-ply wool. Knitted on a circular needle 4.00 mm. I followed the pattern as written and made no changes. I made 8 repeats of chart 2 and 3.

Lord Grey - More crochet and more wrist-warmers

 

These are crocheted wrist-warmers in wool. I now have to admit that crochet can be fun and extremely inspiring. I find the fabric very nice and dense. With this technique I will be able to make crocheted items that are both nice looking and warm.

For this pair of cuffs I used a stitch pattern from a Russian sweater. I did not use it in its original shape since that was far to wide to be suited for cuffs. I charted it and then I split it in two. After that I turned it 90 degrees and repeated it until I got a match for the required amount of stitches for the cuffs.

The yarn used is 2-ply wool (the red is my own dyeing) and a crochet hook Boye 2.