The Cupcake Fiber Company

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Handspun for sale!

Handspun lace weight BFL/Silk will be listed for sale in the shop this weekend:

Cookie, of Shut Up & Knit fame spun this 2 ply yarn.  Each skein has 500-700 yards.

Yarn! And Fiber!

The 3ply SW Merino/Nylon sock yarn I have been working on is finished:

Each of the two skeins has just over 350 yards of nice, bouncy yarn.

The past few weeks have been busy with restocking the shop with more SW Merino/Nylon batt sets and introducing our new Merino/Cashmere/Nylon, Panda Blend and Mixed BFL/Silk blend. 

Cookie spun up a batch of the Panda Blend:

And is almost done spinning a set of the BFL/Tussah Silk:

I'm really looking forward to knitting with this lace weight.

Next up will be a Merino/Tussah Silk blend which will be stocked in sets of 4 - one ounce batts:

They still come in an eco-friendly and protective Cupcake Batt Box. 

I will be test spinning some of this fiber soon and hope to have the first 6 sets listed sometime next week.

 Also, we have worked out most of the technical issues with Facebook and would love for you to like our page.

 

It's our Month-iversary!

The Cupcake Fiber Company shop is now a month old!  

It has been a lot of fun, mixed with hard work, but sales and interest in the batts have exceeded our expectations.  The most gratifying part is seeing the cupcakes spun up and knit!

Over the next month, we plan to branch out a bit and introduce a few different blends. 

Soon the shop will list Panda fiber (SW Merino/rayon from Bamboo/Nylon), a blend that is ideal for summer sock yarn.

Right now, our test spinner extraordinaire is working with these batts:

We are also cooking up batts of the luxury blend Merino/Cashmere/Nylon.  These batts may be listed soon:

We will continue to offer both the Merino and BFL blends, including a permanent collection of colorways that will be listed each month, and there should be something for lace spinner/knitters soon.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this venture!  And don't forget to join our Facebook (link at the left) and subscribe to our Twitter feed.

This just in:

Click over here and look at Anne's spinning.

I can hardly wait to see the socks!

 

Time to ply!

I have enjoyed spinning the first three ounces of singles from my Cupcake Fiber Sock Batts. 

I found that the singles spun evenly and quickly.  None of the singles snapped and the batts drafted smoothly.

Yesterday, I loaded the three bobbins on the lazy kate, loaded an empty bobbin on my flyer and grabbed my plying template:

The plying template is the wooden piece with four holes (I purchased mine here after Cookie sang it's praises).  It allows the spinner to thread the singles through very smooth holes - keeping the singles from twisting too soon and keeping the tension even as the plying twist does it's magic.

I threaded the singles and tied them to my leader and turned up the take up tension on my wheel.

The singles coming off the kate:

The twist entering the yarn:

And less than ninety minutes later, a full bobbin of 3 ply sock yarn:

My 3 ounces were so even that very little was left on on the kate:

And when I wound the yarn onto the niddy-noddy, I ended up with 350 yards:

Now it's time to spin the other 3 ounces.

 

If you do not have a plying template, no problem - just keep the singles separated (I use the four fingers of my left hand) as evenly as possible.  It helps some spinners to lightly tension the bobbins on the lazy kate.  This fiber blend is tough enough to be plied under tension.

I also recommend putting a little more plying twist into a 3 ply sock yarn than you would a 2 ply yarn.  Yarn for socks needs to be bouncy and resilient so you can wear your socks for years.

Spinning sock yarn from Cupcake Batts

Today I started spinning these SW Merino/Nylon batts:

When I spin from batts, I usually put a sheet of tissue paper on the floor next to my wheel (because the rug can velcro the fiber) and unroll the batt:

From there, I split the batt lengthwise into 3 or 4 strips.  I pull these strips just a little bit - keeping my hands about 6 inches apart - and then split the strips into manageable pieces:

This takes only a few minutes and I am ready to spin.

I use a short forward draw and my singles are smooth and even:

About 20 minutes later:

I should be plying the first skein in a few days and I'll take more photos then.

In the meantime, did you see the BFL socks that Cookie spun and knit for Norma?

 

 

Our product and our plan:

After months of development, The Cupcake Fiber Company Shop is open for business.

Here is a sample of a kit listed for sale:

It contains 6 individual one ounce smoothly blended SW Merino/Nylon batts.

Each batt unrolls into fiber that is ready to spin and the packaging becomes a place to store your singles until you are ready to ply:

The finished yarn and a sock in progress:

Our plan is to udate every Sunday with a new assortment of kits.  The fiber blends will be Merino/Nylon or BFL/Nylon - all superwash fibers. 

This site will provide spinning and sock knitting resources and will contain shop announcements.  Soon there will be monthly giveaways and contests.

Please let us know what you think and leave questions in the comments.  We hope that you enjoy spinning and knitting from Cupcake Fiber.

Welcome to the Cupcake Fiber Company

The Cupcake Fiber Company was created to provide the perfect solution for spinning soft and durable sock yarn. 

Hand spun sock yarn, made with three piles of superwash fiber blended with a small portion of nylon will knit into socks with a bouncy and smooth hand.

Most spinning fiber is sold in four ounce braids - measuring and dividing four ounces into three pieces requires a scale and because hand spinning tends to create yarn that is denser than commercially spun yarns, the resulting skeins may be too small for a full sized pair of socks.

Our kits contain six - one ounce portions of hand dyed, hand carded fiber batts.  The batts are designed to easily spin into two separate skeins - one skein for each sock.

We do the measuring, we do the blending, you spin up the yarn you have been craving.