Pattern Eldfell Pullover by Bridget Pupillo.
Fiber Mill-processed carded roving from coated fleeces from assorted sheep breeds.
Wheel Ashford Traditional with jumbo flyer.
Ratio 4.5:1.
Drafting method Short-backward draw.
Singles direction Z-twist.
Wraps per inch Finished 2-ply yarn was 12 wpi with 6 ply twists per inch.
Total yardage About 2,600 yd.
Yarn classification/weight Light worsted.
Needles Size 10 (6 mm).
Gauge That’s a long story.
Finished size From a 2XL sweater to a size M felted jacket.
I was raised by a family that had recently emerged from the Great Depression and World War II. One of our favorite family mottos was “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” I learned it early, as it was a matter of daily life. This is a cherished heritage that invites creativity and resourcefulness.
So when I accidentally knitted a handspun yoke sweater three sizes too big, I was inspired by my family’s resourcefulness and decided that the sweater just wasn’t quite “done” yet—maybe if I felted it, I could shrink it to a usable size. I had knitted this sweater for myself, as a precious keepsake of my small spinner’s flock of sheep. All of the yarn in the sweater was my own handspun, created while tending my flock of wethers. It was the yarn that I had spun while learning to be a spinner, using wool from the sheep that taught me to be a shepherd.
The flock’s handspun natural shades (from left): Leicester Longwool, Tunis, CVM, Wensleydale, Romney, and Finnsheep
How It Started
In the fall of 2015, I was gifted with an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel for my birthday. By the next spring, my hobby-farmer husband and I brought our first sheep home—a Tunis lamb named Oliver. We immediately found three new lamb friends for Oliver, and by the end of the next year, we added another three wethers of different breeds to the flock. The flock of seven wether lambs consisted of Tunis, Leicester Longwool, Romney/Border Leicester, California Variegated Mutant (CVM), Finnsheep, Wensleydale/Bluefaced Leicester, and Teeswater/Bluefaced Leicester. I’m happy to say that they enjoy quite a pampered life with us in exchange for wool.
Soon, I had enough wool to have it processed into roving by a fiber mill, and I began spinning in earnest. The miles of yarn started to add up, as I spent hours practicing and perfecting a balanced two-ply, woolen-spun yarn. As the years passed and my stash of flock yarn grew, I began to consider how to use it. When I saw Bridget Pupillo’s Eldfell Pullover pattern, I fell in love. I could visualize my flock’s natural colors in the yoke.
Despite my best attempts at gauge and selecting the proper needle size and pattern size, the finished sweater was three sizes too big. After two or three cycles of washing and drying, it fit me perfectly, except for a tight but not impossible neck opening. It was thick like outerwear and super warm—definitely not an indoor sweater. I wasn’t using it nearly as much as it deserved, and I loved it too much not to use it more often.
Despite being nervous to cut her sweater lengthwise, Lisa ended up adding a zipper and lining for a more finished jacket.
Next Steps
I planned a way to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” I would turn it into a zippered jacket! I would steek the center (cut the knitted fabric vertically from hem to neck edge), sew in a zipper, and then maybe add pockets; it sounded simple enough.
Then I decided to line it with thin, woven fabric to make it easier to slip on and off. Having no dressmaking patterns for a lining to fit this particular sweater, I created my own. Before making any cuts to the sweater, I took measurements, created a pattern using kraft paper, and sewed a mock lining from an old sheet. Satisfied that the lining was accurate, I sewed the real lining. Then it was time to work up the nerve to pick up a pair of scissors and steek the sweater!
I first applied a strip of fusible lightweight knit interfacing to the underside of the center front and marked the center cut line. For good measure, I sewed a straight stitch on either side of the cut line and then started cutting. It was very scary! But it was also very anticlimactic. There was no raveling because it was so heavily felted and interfaced.
From handspun pullover sweater to zippered jacket
With the sweater now open, I slipped in the lining that I had sewn and, to my amazement, it fit perfectly. Before I could attach the lining, though, I had to turn my attention to the collar that I was envisioning for the jacket, which turned out to be the most challenging part of this endeavor.
After considering several ways to give the jacket a collar, I decided to upcycle a flat 6-by-24-inch lock-spun, knitted cowl that I had made previously while learning to spin “coreless core spun” yarn. I folded it in half longwise and sewed it together along the edge, making it 3 inches by 24 inches. This gave twice the fullness and a nice rounded, finished edge facing outward that didn’t obscure the yoke. Next, I used bias tape to finish the collar edge and attach it to the sweater. To finish the job, I sewed a zipper up the front, securing all the layers.
Lisa gets a few kisses from her first sheep, Oliver, a Tunis, while wearing the sweater before it was felted.
As I finished the final stitches in January 2022, we lost our first sheep, making this handspun keepsake even more precious. My heart sings every time I put it on. I’m glad I didn’t give up when things didn’t turn out right at the beginning. I intend to “use it up” and maybe even pass it on for the next generation to wear out.
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This article was published in the Winter 2023 issue of Spin Off.
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When she’s not handspinning, knitting, weaving, or tending sheep, Lisa Pohl Davis enjoys competitively growing giant pumpkins and working in the field with her husband and his team of draft horses. There’s never a dull moment at their Michigan hobby farm, Davis Dirt Farms.