Handspun Sweaters and Fixing Cuffs

Two items in my mending pile are sweaters. Both are knit from my handspun and are probably the first two sweaters I knit from it. They are my everyday favorites, but the edges of the cuffs are fraying. 

These are everyday sweaters and so get a lot of wear in winter.

That sent me on a hunt to see if I had any of the original yarn I used for them. And that meant going through and organizing my boxes of handspun. Not a bad project, and useful for reacquainting me with what I have in my stash. 

One of several totes of my handspun yarns.

Much of it is remnants from various projects, and there's quite a few one-of skeins from various fiber breeds I've sampled. I saved it all, even the small bits because who can discard their handspun? Most of it I had taken care to label, but I didn't notate the project it was used for which would have been helpful. 

I found some things I had forgotten about . . .

My very first handspun yarn, a spindle spun thick single
 (4 wpi), because I didn't know I could split the roving.

Some of my sample cards. I kept samples of every sheep breed I spun.

I compared the yarns I found with the sweaters, but none matched color, size, and hand. It's amazing how many nuances of brown and white there are amongst sheep. Even so, it was a useful exercise because I sorted through four sweater totes of yarn, separated the handspun from commercial yarns, and put these in their own totes. 

In the end, I selected the closest matches I could find. 

Since they are everyday sweaters, I reckoned it probably doesn't matter all that much. As my grandmother used to say, 'who will notice from a galloping horse?' The important thing is that they aren't allowed to unravel and fray more than they already are. 

One thing this exercise did, was to get me thinking about getting those handspun yarns out of storage and into projects. I'm thinking weaving, although I'm not sure what. Something else to think about and plan as I try to finish up this month's mending.

Handspun Sweaters and Fixing Cuffs 

© Jan 2024    by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal