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. 

Enjoy the show!

UPCOMING Yarn Substitution Content – May – August 2020

Our mini-series trailer was released back in January and I have been working on this content in the background for a long time! I hope you will watch the TRAILER and find out more. An Intro video will be released at the end of April/early May to get you started.

Q&A Sessions for our YARN SUB content! On May 1st at 8am PDT, a new tier will become active on Patreon for those wishing to participate in Q&A sessions for the YARN SUB content! These will occur twice per month for an hour with LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE. The sessions will run Saturdays, May 16th & 30th @ 8:15am PDT. They will repeat in June, July & August for those wishing to continue to participate! Dates TBA.  

Be sure to sign up for the Wool n’ Spinning Newsletter at welfordpurls.com. 

For softcover copy of How I Spin: A Sock Study, check here. 

Unbraided: The Art & Science of Spinning Colour – EBOOKS available here & book orders can be made here. 

Community Participation

For April, James and I have been carding up a storm and we would like to send out a batt made from the Friesian wool to someone in our community! It is a spongy, downy wool in dark brown and spins like a dream – more on it in the show today! What do you love about the Down breeds?

PLEASE NOTE THAT SHIPPING WILL BE DELAYED FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE DUE TO ACCESS ISSUES.

For March, I’ll be sending out another 4oz of Shetland in pin-drafted form from Disdero Ranch in Tappen, BC. Please enter in the March Episode Thread and answer: What is your favourite YARN you’ve even spun & why? Post no. 6 in the thread – MPTANG – Mary! Congrats! 

For February, we’re still looking at the answers to Amy’s question: what is the item that you made that you love to wear the most and why?

Book Club

#booksbooksbooks channel on Slack

As a community, we are delving into a Jane Austen Book Club. We will be reading Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen. Reading can begin anytime and @bethy40 (Becca) in our community will be coordinating Zoom Book Clubs for us to meet within to discuss chunks of the book at a time. 

Made with Love – ALONG

Community-wide call to everyone in the community to participate in our Crafty Jaks Along to honour some of the people in our community! Cast on date: April 1st, 2020 with cast off deadline July 31st, 2020

Prizes! There will be fun prizes! Read the post linked above for details!

This is a time to do what we do best and get creative. This is the time to make and lift up others – please read Rebecca’s blog post to learn more about this Makealong and event if you would like to learn more about the creation of this amazing event.

Excited to be casting on with Katrina’s B-fabu-licious yarn in an OOAK that she had in stock (that I love) and making Anker’s Cardigan by PetiteKnits, a PURELY selfish knit at this time!

Rebecca (@rebbiejaye, post no. 134) shares:

Wish granted!! I still need to post nicer pics of it. The top skein is fractal and the lower right one is traditional 3-ply with colours lined up in plying. I think they will make very fetching fraternal socks. But I won’t let myself start them till I’m through the Ringle that’s been languishing.

#zerotohero Make-Along – Spinning from fibre -> yarn -> item

Christina (@louisette47, post no. 232) shares:

I have cast on my fleece to garment project which is a mix between EZSY sweater based on percentages plus have calculated shaping with the use of custom fit and will do the yoke colour work as per the Noux sweater. I have an extra 7 stitches for the steek. I dyed the light silver yarn a gun metal grey but made the mistake of rinsing each skein separately which has resulted in an almost imperceptible colour difference so am knitting in a helical fashion just in case it is noticeable. I have changed my mind for the colour work so many times but have now settled on one colour only and am glad I took my time as I was going to dye the silver polwarth but instead have selected the creamiest locks to blend with tussah silk to dye the mustardy gold colour in pic. (think the silver gray would dye up dullish – if that’s a word)

51 Yarns SAL – Community-Wide Participation (2019 – 2022)

51 Yarns – Group A – True Woollen

@palmikkopuu (post no. 801) shares:

I tryed to make true wollen with Kainuun harmas locks that I handcarded first and then spun trying to get the rythym of long draw. I got nice, soft yarn. It is more thick and thin than my short forward, but it was fun to try….

51 Yarns – Group B – 

Linnea (@Lbmbirds, post no. 355) shares:

51yarns – #4 Down wool /Down like wool.

My sample here is not a true down wool, but a down like according to the books. I do not have a true down in my stash, so I went for the Kent Romney. I do not know why it is called Kent, but I can imagine that the wool is from the Kent area. It was spun from a commercially combed top with a short forwards draft. The Kent Romney is such a pleasure to spin, it almost spins itself. I spin to 3 bobbins, breaking the fiber in 3 equal parts, splitting it to make it easier to spin, and also pre drafting it a little. I spun worsted, short forwards draft, trying to keep the loft and poofines while spinning. not squeezing all the life out of the singles. Put In a good amount of twist In The ply. It back twisted 4 times before washing and snapping. It came out balanced, bouncy and poofed up. With 9wpi and a twist angle of 40. Grist 500m/kg And I am very eager to knit my sample. I think this could be a great yarn for a very warm and cozy garment.

The knitted sample shows my inconsistent yarn and knitting, but it is a nice overall yarn. Very bouncy and airy. I knitted the sample with 3,5mm, 3mm and lastly 2,5mm. I do not know which I like the best, the 2,5mm has too much stiffness to it to my liking. My sample is made of the 20m yarn I winded off to make my measurements.  In this case if I decided to make a bigger project I would knit a bigger swatch. Never thought I would say that out loud.

Thanks so much for sharing Everyone!

Make NINE Progress – Image Capture on Product View

Making some changes to my projects that I would like to make this year, based on some purchases from ‘Fibres West’ last weekend & thinking about what I would like to make, wear & add to my wardrobe. Many recent changes have resulted in some major purging of my closet so I have been thinking about what I’d like to add & make! Thoughts have lead me to some simple, cropped sweaters & some really lovely lace, open-front cardigans that can double as ‘jackets’ in the Spring and Fall

Make Nine Ravelry page Part I and II – changing & fluid project page as things progress, my thoughts solidify & I think about what to commit to going forward

Work in Progress – Knitting

Stonecrop Pullover by Andrea Mowry

• After much, much reflection on the yarns I spun for the Ashford article – featuring Crafty Jaks fibres & colourways – decided to utilize them separately
• Have always felt this pull to always use yarns together in big projects but I’m finding more and more that this doesn’t always work out in real-time
• Obtained gauge on 3.75mm needles – called for in-pattern
• Working with Katrina’s Tough & Tender Targhee yarn so that I had a ‘matching’ yarn to compliment the Targhee/Bamboo/Silk handspun in ‘Fractured Dawn’ 
• Feeling very excited about this yarn & knit! Lots of actual knitting in it though – many hours ahead!

Ramona Cardigan by Elizabeth Smith

• Custom Woollen Mills 4-ply Sock, tightly spun, heavy worsted weight
• Knitting well on 5.5mm needles for this pattern 
• Deconstructing button band and bottom ribbing after sleeve knitting finished to make body longer, use up all yarn! 

Works in Progress – Spinning

Three Waters Farm & Unlabelled 100% Falkland – Combo Spin

• Ashford eSpinner – mindless spin
• Aiming for 18WPI for a finished 11WPI DK yarn
• Don’t want tons of yardage – would like to make a good-sized shawl
• Stash busting – #groomyourstash with Sasha of Sheepspot

Pivot project: CHEVIOT from stash – Gentle-Morning by Trine-Annalie

• Unable to knit with Romeny/Gotland on 4.00mm needles without a lot of pain in my right hand
• Decided to save yarn, will re-skein – think about knitting with 5.00mm needles or weaving
• Cheviot – short backward, smoothing very gently, 24WPI singles (finished yarn: ~12WPI DK)

Friesian Fleece – Sampling for the Shore Cardigan by Carrie Bostick Hoge

• James is helping me to card it all — very downy and spongy
• Lovely dark brown with heathering from the lighter tips
• Spun to a DK (11 WPI) and very light to the hand – sample is just a few grams
• Knit sample on 5.00mm, 4.5mm, 4,00mm needles

Finished Objects – Spinning

SweetGeorgia Yarns BFL + Silk in “Pacific Spirit” 

•  Carded colourway up in 2016, following Spinzilla 2016 (was feature colourway)
• Spun singles, never got around to plying — needed to free bobbins for Cheviot spin
• Plied, thwacked & hung to dry – amazing yarn!
• Same colourway as this yarn here – spun with different colour management techniques

Thank you so much for joining me today! 

Until then, Happy Spinning!