140 yards weighing in at just over 16 ounces. I used a lightly dyed targhee wool blended with some little pops of sunrise inspired colors with tussah silk and soy fibers. Added in a few teeswater locks.
This was an approximately 1.7 lb Lincoln Longwool fleece I bought off Facebook from a farm in Minnesota. I separated out the locks by color, scoured, combed, and spun them.
They’re spun to about fingering weight. I got about 108 yards of black, 460 yards of grey, and 722 yards of silver. It’s about 1 lb of yarn, so I lost a bit less than ¾ of a pound in grease, dirt, and combing waste (some of which I’ll card/comb again and reclaim).
I actually love finding that *one piece* of VM in an otherwise immaculate top... it's like YES THIS CAME FROM A SHEEP 🐑😍
Spinning in Isle of Palm, SC. It’s not really a vacation, it was a memorial for a loved one but spending time with family is always a good thing. Kinda glad we had project bags in the van. Do you guys bring a wheel or spindle with ya when on vacation?
I got this caribou hide.....at first I was frustrated that it was shedding the guard hairs, but now I want to experiment making yarn with this exotic fiber.
I had some Facets yarn by Loops and Threads leftover from a few projects, so I decided to make new yarn with it. I took enough twist out to draft it and spin a thin single and added dyed locks and a few beads for texture. Then I plied it with some sparkly amber merino/firestar I had sitting on a bobbin. Got 432 yards total!
I just got some 1oz samples of a ton of different fibres so that I can learn what I like to spin. I touched this rose fiber and it’s SO SOFT!!
Has anyone worked with it and seen how it wears? I’m curious about long term durability and pilling (I’ll mix it with wool most likely). Thanks!
im trying to figure out when electric spinning wheels were first made/popularized. i found plenty of good info on other kinds of spinning wheels (plus spindles) but I cant find anything specific on e spinners
I was at a fiber festival recently and got my hands on some rooed Shetland fleece from a ewe named Big Mama. I’ve been wanting to spin and knit up my own traditional Shetland wedding shawl, and this certainly felt like the time to try!
I suppose I still have to wet finish it.
This is a singles and was spun up with a Spindle Shop Medium-Heavy weight Russian support spindle, and I wasn’t able to go much finer than what I have. I have a lightweight Tibetan spindle coming in the post and I’m curious to see how fine I can go.
Sometimes I don't want to spin a big skein, I just want to play. Just a little bit of experimenting. Nibbles of spinning. Luckily I have a patchwork project that gives me the perfect excuse! I spun the colorful singles (wool/silk), and plied it with a lace weight fluffy baby alpaca/silk yarn I had on hand.
This is my first time making and using a handspun for the purpose of knitting socks. I was feeling pretty worried going in that there would be too much grist variability in my handspun to make consistent fabric for the socks, but I'm a few inches into the knitting now and I'm feeling really happy with how consistent it looks!! I've been spinning for about ten months and it feels incredible to know, hey, maybe my yarn is viable to actually make things I'm proud of from it versus just to enjoy the act of spinning in itself. Just wanted to share since I'm feeling pumped :)
(And pls ignore my tension issues around the joins of my needles lol. My philosophy is that it all shakes out in the wash 😂)
I just finished spinning this gorgeous Shaniko Tweed fiber from HipStrings in “Exhausted Pigeon”, which is the BEST colorway name! Really nice prep and a fun, easy spin, which is never guaranteed with a tweed.
It’s a 2ply sport, 367 yards at 114g.
So I am researching myself in circles and need input from people with more knowledge than me. I have 4 fleeces in my apartment that need carding. I’ve decided to buy a brother drum carder, but I’m stuck on TPI.
I’m between the 72, the 90, and the 120. I was considering the 90, but I’m wondering if it’s better for me to buy the 72 and then the 120 additional drum at a later date (I would be able to afford this in another couple months). Relevant considerations:
I primarily deal with medium wools and long wools, but will eventually want to card alpaca and merino. Current fleeces that need processing are Icelandic, California Red, Romney, and Llama.
Not currently into art batts, but might move that way into the future.
I would like to be able to blend in cat and dog fur.
Please help, I’m about 30 seconds from pulling out my eyebrow hairs one by one.
There aren't usually many wheels for sale near me, so I'm very tempted by this one. But I've never actually used a spinning wheel before and I'm not sure if it's just a SWSO. Can anyone help?
I got her for $20, and I am new to this, so I wasn’t sure if she was fake. Either way, I love her and she sits lovely in my living room 😍
This was my first attempt at dyeing a roving. I also have no other experience with dyeing.
Question 1: Unfortunately, quite a few things went wrong during dyeing, and in the end the water was strongly coloured. I had to rinse it about 10 times until the water became clearer, and now the roving is of course slightly felted. I can still spin it. Not as well as with undyed wool, but it works. Does this have any other disadvantages because it is felted? When spinning, plying, washing, and later knitting? Or is it not that bad since it is still spinnable?
Question 2: What did I do wrong during dyeing? I did it in an oven using a stainless steel tray. Before that, I soaked the wool in vinegar for about 30 minutes (60 g wool, 10 ml vinegar). Then I mixed the dyes without vinegar, a total of 1.5 g per 60 g wool (Luvotex) – I wanted strong colours. The wool was lightly covered with water, but not so much that it was really “floating” like in a pot of boiling water. In the oven I then struggled for 1 hour and 50 minutes, gradually turning up the temperature and later adding more vinegar because the water was still strongly coloured until the end. At first I tried 45 minutes at 85°C, and in the end I reached 140°C, and the water didn’t even boil (I know it shouldn’t – it was a desperate experiment). I did it that long, because I hoped, the water will clear up. During rinsing, especially the cyan bled out. Then I tried a second roving, this time with 20 ml vinegar at the start, twice as much water, and 105°C in the oven. It improved slightly (i.e. less bleeding afterwards), but the water was still strongly coloured. What did I do wrong?
I spun a blend of 85% polwarth and 15% silk on my drop spindle, and now I've just finished knitting it into a lace scarf! I sorted the original braid of wool into clean gradient sections to achieve a smoother transition between colors even at a tiny scale and mostly avoid any striping.
Unfortunately, no pattern to be shared, as I was making it up as I went along and wasn't charting anything. I wanted to try out a bunch of different things when knitting this, and I learned a ton by seeing what did and did not work!
Shout out to Fine Shetland Lace by Carol Christiansen, the Shetland Museum and Archive online photo library, and Þríhyrnur og Langsjöl by Sigrídur Halldórsdóttir for serving as major inspirations.
Also, apologies that the full length photo is a little wrinkly - I was too excited to wear it and didn't photograph it from top to bottom before I wore it!
I started this project back in February, and I'm so so delighted to finally have seen it to fruition 💛
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Fiber base: Firefly Squid 85/15 Polwarth/Silk by Fossil Fibers
Spun on: Bosworth drop spindle, 16g Ailanthus
Pattern: None! Just had fun with different motifs :)
I'm relatively new to spinning and have been wanting to purchase a spinning wheel. Came across this one on FB Marketplace for a fairly good price, but wanted to confirm if it's an actual spinning wheel or a SWSO?