Episode 139 Live: Falling Leaves *finished* Handspun & Planning
Thank you for being here today, especially those who were able to make it to the Live Stream. I appreciate your time spent here in this place and me. I hope you feel most welcome because you are welcome here.
In today’s show, we chat about our community’s contribution to our ongoing Breed & Colour Study on Organic Polwarth – the yarns and projects are so inspirational! We chat about the new tier, Spinning Group with limited space available! Finally, I share my finished yarns in SweetGeorgia’s limited colourway, Falling Leaves. Such great and fun yarn! Enjoy!
Live Chat Assistance here.
NEW! Virtual Spin Group! There’s been a call from the community for many months (ehem, years) for a virtual spinning group! There is LIMITED SPACE and the link is here (look to join the “Spinning Group” tier!) to learn more. We hosted our first one yesterday and we had a great time!
Attentive Spinners! Be sure to sign up for the Doodle to be part of Wool n’ Spinning Radio in the new year! We will be working on Word Prompt episodes and if you are a part of the Attentive Spinner tier – you are invited to join!!
Community Participation
Giveaway
For February, I’ll be sending out ~4oz of Shetland in pin-drafted form from Disdero Ranch in Tappen, BC. Please enter in the February Episode Thread and answer Amy’s question: what is the item that you made that you love to wear the most and why?
Want to feature the amazing projects people have been sharing in the episode thread! Will do so from now through March! Giveaway will be drawn in March!
@chellekjones (post no. 2) says:
In response to Amy’s question:
I’m still a new knitter (started in December of 2018), but out of the items that I have made my most recent FO is my most worn and not just because it’s new! The Shift Cowl by Andrea Mowry is an excellent pattern.
I am really enjoying finding what items work best for my wardrobe, and while I want to make all.of.the.things, some items are not practical for my life style/personality. Cowls, however, are very useful for me! I can throw on a cowl for warmth and not have to worry about it being fiddly or falling off.
I want to continue to make things that I not only love, but also become staples in my wardrobe. Definitely more Shift Cowls! (different weights and colors!)
Breed & Colour Studies
In December’s newsletter, I shared the beginnings of my Breed & Colour Study thoughts that will be vlogged about in the How I Spin content beginning January 2020. For the initial thoughts, please have a look here (YouTube).
Tamar (@2ndzephyr, post no. 118) says:
So this is my finished spin for our breed and color study. The Graffiti Interrupted braid (left) was spun from the fold and chain plied. The braid was split in four lengthwise. Initially my vision for this skein was some heathering with short pops of bright color repeats, but the final product did not meet expectations. The heathering is too severe for my taste, muddying the skein into a chaotic mess. The skein on the right was spun across the top and chain plied with the braid split in three nests lengthwise. All in all I see this as a win. I practiced spinning across the top with consistency, and I learned a few things about color management.
Becca (@bethy40, post no. 113) says:
After months of trying to finish other stuff and having very little inspiration as to how to spin the study fibre I finally got to it. I only got half braids so it went fairly quickly once I actually sat down to the wheel.
For the standard colourway I went pretty standard myself (traditional 3ply) with one variation. I decided to flip one of the three strips of fibre and switch the colourway order. I got the idea from Jillian Moreno’s recent sample-along and I’m really pleased with the results. It makes for a lot of mixing but not overly so if you see what i mean. The skein is quite lively but not too visually busy.
For the space dyed version I totally copied @tomatl (Kelly) and did a 4ply cable. I hadn’t yet done a cabled yarn on a wheel yet and I like the confetti look with a randomly dyed braid like this. I found many things to work on for the future. When trying a new technique on the wheel, don’t spin such fine singles It made it harder to see what my twist was doing. Cable construction is going to result in a firmer denser yarn so choose fibre like Polwarth that can handle the twist and not get overly hard in the hand. Multiple steps of plying like this are not as forgiving of variation in twist so keep consistent as much as possible. This is certainly a yarn I will make again.
Maggie (@nestingmag, post no. 120) says:
I finished the cowl I was working on with my yarn from the Graffiti Interrupted fiber. I’m so happy with it. I’ve posted the details for the spinning on my project and I’m pretty sure I already posted it here in the group as well. I still need to knit up the Graffiti yarn and am hoping to cast on a project soon.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Finished Objects
SweetGeorgia Yarns Alpaca/Merino/Silk
- ‘Falling Leaves’ colourway from UK’s Spin Together in Fall 2019
- High ratio – 27:1 for high twist singles due to multiple staple lengths of fibre & quite short staple lengths overall (fibre probably cut in commercial processing)
- Divided fibre into 6 nests and spun end-to-end with very little prep or attenuating as fibre began to drift apart (no coarseness of fibres – alpaca and silk are smooth – to keep fibre together even with small twist)
- Spinning with a distaff — managing hands and placement learning curve
- Enjoying fineness of spun yarn — keeping medium twist
- Ashford eSpinner 3 – getting to know the wheel & breaking it in
- Lots of pull on spinner – find I am adjusting quite a bit to get used to it again
- Stripped braid ~8 times and spinning end-to-end with pre-drafting the fibre gently
- Lovely draft – easy & methodical
Work in Progress – Knitting
The Shift by Andrea Mowry
- Felt inspired to try the pattern with Finn yarns
- Finn Study yarns from Fall 2018 – Fractured Dawn (colour B), Lakeside (colour C), Arctic Berries (colour A)
- Spun in different ways to highlight the individual ways we can handle colour in 2-ply yarns: centre-pull ball (Fractured Dawn), 2-ply fractal (Lakeside), traditional 2-ply (Arctic Berries)
- Note the changes in colour as the Arctic Berries moves through the colour repeat
Housekeeping
Be sure to sign up for the Wool n’ Spinning Newsletter at welfordpurls.com.
For softcover copy of How I Spin: A Sock Study, follow here.
Unbraided – EBOOKS available here & book orders can be made here.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
