How To Knit Unspun Rovings
And make a beanie
Knitting with unspun rovings is quick and fun. I have done beanies but you could
extend this to anything that you want, a lovely soft scarf for example.
I was asked the question "would it felt when washing", my reply was all wool
garments should be hand washed with care but over a long period of time it might.
But also if you are into the felting craze you could knit your garment extra large and
than felt it on purpose with lots of agitation and the hot/cold water treatment.
So how about you give it ago and be amazed with the results.
Firstly choose your roving
This one is called "Dazzle".
Unplait your roving, mine are all one
long length.
Divide your roving into thin pencil rovings, this is
done by gently pulling sidways at the top of the
roving. Don't worry if it wants to split too thickly,
once you have divided right to the end, you can
repeat this until you have a thinner roving.
You are looking for the thickness of about 12ply
yarn. The trick is to go slowly and hold the roving
gently as this allows the fibres to part.
Once you have a pencil roving ready you can start
knitting or you can prepare all the pencil rovings
before you start.
I use a basic beanie pattern for 12ply yarn as I think the colours speak for themselves.
At this point you should knit a sample square to
check your tension. I use 6.5mm needles. Once
you are happy with your needle selection you
can undo your sample square and use this.
A word on holding the roving while you knitting,
hold it firmly as you knit and it won't come apart,
if you are gentle then it will ease apart as when
you were splitting the roving.
Cast on required number of stitches according to
your pattern, I used 90.
Begin ribbing as per pattern, I do a K2 P2 rib.
If you find the roving is abit thick then gently
lengthen it by pulling either side of the thick
section, you will soon get the feel of the
thickness you need.
To join in another length over lap the two
thinned ends by about 5cm, hold together and
continue knitting.
The little tail that sticks out from your join can
be trimmed off when you have finished or as
you go if you like.
Rib for the required length of the band, I
do 25 rows of rib in all.
Then change to stocking stitch and knit for
the required number of rows, for me this is 16.
This give you a good idea of what the stitches
will look like, I think the pattern made by the
colours is just glorious.
Next is the decrease sequence of your beanie,
follow your pattern. I do K1* K2tog K9, rep
from* the the last st K1. Purl the next row.
Then K1*K2tog K8 rep from* to the last st
K1, purl next row. Continue decreasing in this
manner until there are 26sts remaining, then
next row (P2tog) 13 times.
Break off yarn and thread through the
remaining stitches
.
To sew up the beanie I use a matching spun
yarn or thread as it is easier.
Guess what! You now have a beanie.
It took only one 100gm roving to make this
beanie.
