I worked up 1000 yards of singles the other day.

I wanted to use them as singles so I had to treat them a little differently. When spinning for a plied yarn we add a little more twist to the singles. If we were to take them off and use them without plying, they would be defined as “energized singles”. There is nothing wrong with using these so long as you understand how to use them.

Energized singles bias. If you are using them for lace you really don’t need to worry much unless they are super crazy biased then they just won’t be any fun to work with anyway. If you want to make socks or something like that from biased singles, just be aware of what you have and make use of the bias. Knit through the back loop to straighten it out for parts like the heel and make a rounded toe. A hat you don’t need to worry about making it straight at all. There is a place in the world for energized singles if you know how to use them. I’ll talk more another time on using them but today’s singles are not energized.

My singles are thin and low twist, when hung up, they don’t twist back on themselves.

Set your wheel up for a faster intake and a lower twist. That’s not to say you want the intake so fast that it rips the fiber out of your hands. You know what you are comfortable with and how your wheel works. If you are using double drive, use a smaller ended bobbin and a larger ended whorl and a higher tension on the drive band. With an Irish or Scotch Tension, you want to tighten the brake a smidge more than average. And don’t treadle quickly. It’s not a race. Take it slow.

Your fiber - I think you can use any well prepped fiber but a combed top might be a little easier at least in the beginning. You want your fiber pre drafted well and have a bunch of it ready. I also find using a handpaint helps for your first time. The variation in color will help you see the twist better than using a colid color. Using a long draw method will help to keep your singles even. The rules change slightly depending on the thickness of your yarn. Of course the rule of “the thinner the yarn, the more twist you need”, still applies to low twist singles. Therefore you will need a little more twist in your thin yarn than you would if you were using a bulky low twist single.

This takes a bit of practice. Each wheel has it’s own settings that it prefers to be at for this maneuver. My best suggestion is that you grab a scrap piece of fiber that is similar to what you want to work with, predraft it properly, and then monkey with the setting until you get it to the right setting. Just be mindful of what you are doing and you can do it. I think it takes a bit more concentration for most when they’re first trying this and then it gets easier each time you sit down to do this.

To see if you are getting the right angle of twist I’m going to point you to an article that PippiKneeSocks wrote for Knitty. HERE is the article. It’s for a different type of yarn but I think she accurately describes the angle and gives you a good idea how to check the twist angle yourself.

Now your yarn is made - how do you finish it? I like to full my singles yarn. It gives it a little more strength and a finish that doesn’t seem to want to immediately pill. Especially if you are using Merino. That’s not to say this method will guarantee it not to pill, singles yarn is more prone to pilling. All I’m saying is that it will be a little hardier and less likely to pill quickly.

I prefer not to full yarn in the washer - it’s too fast and it can easily get out of control in a short amount of time. Fill two sinks with water - one with hot soapy water and one with ice cold water. Make sure your yarn is tied in at least 4 spots. Not tight, but tied so it’s not going to some undone. Wearing good kitchen gloves, I dunk the yarn in the hot soapy water and rough it up. Smoosh it around and rub it between my hands. I squeeze out the water and dunk it in the cold water. I pick out and squeeze out the water and do it all over again. I do this several times until the strands are just starting to stick together. I don’t want them to be felted together entirely but just a beginning gives me the idea that they’re fulling right and it’s time to stop.

I do the thwack, whack, or snap and hang it to dry. That’s all there is to it. I know the directions seemed a bit long but it really condenses once you are doing it. Soon I’ll show you what I’m doing with my multicolored skeins. I dyed up extra in case one is interested in this particular set, just email me.

Up next is this dreamy set of CVM batts I created from my Rhinebeck fleece

There are a little over 12 ounces. I’ve been thinking shawl….but then I’ve been thinking if I card up some plain CVM in its original grey I could do a fair isle band and make a lovely cardigan….. It will all have to wait to see how the yarn comes out. I’m spinning for a sport-DK weight 2 ply.

Do you remember a while ago I mentioned I wanted to talk about a give away. I haven’t done one in a while and I wanted to make this one a good thing for charity as well.

Here’s the scoop:
1.You knit or crochet hats or slippers for the Ship’s Project. They mainly need manly colors of things in manly sizes. You can use your own patterns but try to stay within the size and color guidelines on the Ship’s Project Page

2.Mail them to me and I will deliver them to the Ships project. If you want to deliver them to me at the shop that works too.

3.The one that sends me the most will get a $40 gift certificate to the shop. All other people (even if you send just one hat - every hat helps) will get put into a number generator and at random, I’ll draw 3 more names and each of those will get a $20 certificate.

4.The one catch is that I’m delivering the items at SPA which is the 22 of February. I need the items to be here around the 20th so I have time to count them. The item guidelines can be found on the page I referenced. Oh, and a pair of slippers will count as 2 since there is as much work knitting or crocheting 1 slipper as there is in 1 hat.

If you want you can string all your items on a thread and write a note to the Ship’s project people. I won’t be taking credit for all the good work that you guys do, I just want to see that they get more stuff this year if I can help it.

What do you say? Wanna knit and crochet hats with me?

And I’m not talking about the herbal tea you generally find from Celestial Seasoning. I’m talking healing herbs. There were many comments and a few emails about my herbal asthma tea. I’m always hesitant to give out too much info here. To those that aren’t familiar with herbal therapies or don’t have a Naturopath, a little herbal info can be worse than no info. So what I’m saying is that if you are one of those and even if you are familiar - please don’t stop your meds and check to see if the herbs are a dangerous combination with the meds you take. Herbals are medicinal and can make other meds ineffective or dangerous. Just know what you put into your body. ok?

With all that, I’m going to give you a few recipes. If you are new I suggest you check out your local health food store. There are many medicinal teas out there that are just as good as stocking up on a bunch of herbs to make your own. That is if you’re new at this and don’t really want to play with herbs. I’ve only taken the respiratory ones when I’ve been out of herbs and waiting for a new order to come in. Yogi Tea makes “Breathe Easy” and Traditional Medicinals makes “Respiratory Health”. Both taste a bit better than the tea that I make and work just as well.

Asthma Tea
1 part of each in dried herb form - Chamomile flowers, Passionflower, and Echinacea Root
1/2 part each in dried herb form - Licorice root, Elecampane root, and lemon verbena leaves

If the herb is too big I crush it up a bit. I mix it all up in a jar and I make it fresh by the cup. Steep 1 large teaspoon of the mix in 1 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes.

Sometimes making a tea from one ingredient is helpful as well. Lemon Verbena is known for stopping wheezing. Making an infusion of equal parts of nettle and thyme work for some. Skull cap is another one that is good for respiratory health. And then some people find that just chamomile is enough to help.

Chamomile really is a wonderful herb. It’s a relaxant, anti-allergenic, antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory. Many people find that their asthma is triggered by stress as well as the usual triggers. As in, if you are stressed then your asthma will be worse than it normally is.

When I started down the path of treating my own asthma (I still have my rescue inhaler, I would be stupid to give that up) I started to read lots and lots. I wasn’t online then but I read all the articles I could find in magazines and in books. It’s the reason I first became a vegetarian. I was a strict ovo-vegetarian 12 years ago and it helped. It helped immensely. It really was the first step to becoming healthier. Since that time I’ve had times of eating meat and then back to being vegetarian. If I had to describe my diet these days I’d say it was Macrobiotic. No sugar, No dairy or eggs. The only meat I occasionally eat is fish.

I had sugar over the holidays. On slip and then one more and another….. Until I made myself sick. My digestive system is still feeling it. My poor stomach hates me these days but I’m treating it right. I suppose we need those times of eating bad to remind ourselves of why we eat the way we do. I’ll talk about other ailments and other reasons for dietary changes in another post. Really this could get very long but there has been interest in knowing about non western meds so I’m happy to share.

If you are really interested in learning more then I suggest you go out and get a GOOD book on herbs and healing. There are many good ones out there. I suggest you start with an encyclopedia - like “Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine” by Andrew Chevalier.

Edit: I forgot to also add that Caffeine has an effect on asthma. In this case it’s a good effect. Though you have to take into consideration the rest of your body. If the rest of you is effected negatively by caffeine it’s probably not a good idea to start to ingest it for it’s effect on the asthma.  I also want to add thta eating Gralic is a good thing.  You might already like it, if  not you can take garlic tablets.  Garlic helps reduce chest infections but it’s also good for colds, flu, ear infections and reducing mucus. So eat more garlic.  I know I didn’t put everything down. Asthma really is a personal illness. What triggers my attacks may not trigger yours.  Once you really know what your triggers are, you can work towards lessening the effects or removign the triggers.

KNITTING:
I spent half the weekend daydreaming about new designs. Which isn’t all bad. I wrote out the skeleton design for 3 shawls and a vest. I need to make my way to the shop to card the fiber for one of the shawls. It’s the one I want to do the most even though I have the yarn on the wheel for one already. Since all of this is at the shop, I really have nothing to show you.

I did do one sock and am workign down the heel of the other. I can’t show you those either because they’re for a game that’s being put on by The Knitting Experience. I’m not playing the game so I volunteered to test out a pattern. If any of you that are playing the game are reading this, it’s a good one. I can see this is going to be a good game. I can’t wait to sit back and watch it happen.

And so I’m going to leave this post without photos. I hate to do that. No photos is always so boring. I promise to have some good spin ones next post.

I saw many people making a few of these and I didn’t realize until I made my first one that I too would be making a few. They take no time at all once you remember the pattern and the pattern is easy to remember. It’s the perfect beginner’s lace project as well as the perfect brain candy project for those with a little more experience under their belts.

I blocked it to be about 8 feet long at the top and about 4 feet at the center spine. It is the most comfy and warm shawl I have ever made. I’m totally in love with this worsted shawl. I have never used such thick yarn for a lacy shawl before but now I want to use worsted for every shawl. They are so comfy warm.

Details:
Pattern: Forest Canopy By Susan Pierce Lawrence
Yarn: Spunky 220 Classic in Joshua Tree and a bit of white
Needles: US 8
Mods: I made 3 extra repeats to the pattern and pretty much knew I would run out of yarn at some point. When I was close I knew it was the turning point - get another skein and make more repeats or get another yarn and use it for the last 2 rows. Which is what I chose. I like the contrasting end. I did the last row and the bind off in some white yarn I had in the stash.

I recommended this shawl to people before because it’s a really easy and nice lace pattern. Now I can say if you’re afraid of using thinner yarn for lace, use the worsted. It’s a fantastic shawl in worsted. I’m wearing it all the time. It’s so much warmer than any other shawl I have. Which usually get bunched up and used for scarves.

I was thinking A is for Alpaca of course. Then as I took a quick stroll around blogland and saw other A posts having to do with medical things, I realized there is an “A” in my life that figures more prominently than the Alpaca…..Asthma. Most importantly my Arsenal Against Asthma.

I drink 2-3 cups of a special herbal tea each day. Each ingredient is suppose to help Alleviate some of the Asthma symptoms in some way. Also part of my special diet is in place to fight my Asthma. I’ve had it since I was a teen and I used to take 2-3 meds each day on top of the rescue inhaler. When I’m at my healthiest (which I haven’t been since I had my second child), I don’t even need the rescue inhaler. I’ve had several good years and that’s when I’m running daily and eating properly. I’ll be in that place again some day. Until then, my inhaler goes where I go.

In Knitting news - I finished my Forest Canopy Shawl. It’s blocking on the rug at the shop. I figured that was the safest place for it. Hopefully I’ll get photos today.