Dear Spinning Circle,
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 with me. You are most welcome. I hope you feel most welcome because you are welcome here.
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Direct YouTube Link here.
Enjoy the show!
Spin Together starts today! Getting ready to spin up CVM fleece in light grey that I had processed by Liz of Kingdom Fleece & Fiberworks.
There is a lot going on in our community! It’s a lot to cover and remind you of each week. If you are curious about what happens in our community, please click the links below, reach out to me: rachel @ welfordpurls (dot) com, or reach out on Instagram/Ravelry/Slack (if you are a Patreon member, @welfordpurls_admin).
Housekeeping
- Be sure to sign up for the Wool n’ Spinning Newsletter at welfordpurls.com.
- For a softcover copy of How I Spin: A Sock Study, check here & e-book link here
- Unbraided: The Art & Science of Spinning Colour – e-books here & book orders here.
- Tin Can Knits ALONG Ravelry thread here & use #sweaterspin channel on Slack
- 51 Yarns SAL Group A here & Group B here
- Book Club – for more information, check the #booksbooksbooks channel on Slack (patrons only)
On & Off the Needles & Bobbins
Finished Objects – Spinning
Spunky Eclectic August 2020 Club ‘Last Huzzah’ (60% merino, 33% Mohair, 17% Nylon)
- Autopilot, default yarn for our final month’s 51 Yarns Study – Yarn no. 44 (default) & 51 (speediest)
- Majacraft Suzie Pro, 28:1
- Continuous backward, 3 counts with full draft, slightly higher twist singles
- Intention to ply with 30-35-degree twist angle = lace yarn
Works in Progress – Spinning
WestCoast Colour Karma – Merino & Yak
- Prepped last week, spinning continuous backward, 3-4 counts, ½ draft
- Lendrum Saxony, DD, nice pull on 8:1
Works in Progress – Knitting
Love Note by Tin Can Knits
- Small Bird Workshop 80/20 CVM/Mohair pin-drafted roving (handspun page here)
- Spun on Ashford e-Spinner 3 – continuous backward draft, full draft & minimal smoothing
- Knit swatch – 16 stitches per 4 inches with yarn HELD DOUBLE
#07 Tunic Cardigan by Joan Forgione
- Vogue Knitting 25 Year Anniversary Issue
- Juniper Moon Farm Patagonia Organic Merino in Sand & Smoked
- 4.00mm/US 7 for Mosaic knitting & 3.75mm/US 5 ribbing
Community Participation
September Community Participant: Congrats Jeannine! @jannineish, post no. 19, shares: I’ve got 16oz’s of (matching) 50%merino 25%nylon 25%bamboo fiber in my stash… Dreaming of getting that on my wheel! I’m hoping to get a sweater’s quantity of 2ply out of it! But I’m still too green a spinner to guarantee; my gauge/grist isn’t always as intended. It’s a really beautiful olive and dusty pink and brown colors, Cider House by Greenwood Fiberworks. I’m hoping the blend will be cool enough to wear 3 seasons in my pretty temperate climate (Coastal Northern California).
For October, tell us about your spinning plans for the rest of the year? What are you looking forward to learning, exploring and making?
Episode thread here or comment below here on YouTube!
Tin Can Knits Along #tincanknitsalong
Martha (@marthamew, post no. 11) shares: I’m so excited to actually take part properly in a project here! So I spun this yarn maybe a year ago now, and had no idea what pattern to do with it, just that it needed to be something with a colourwork yoke of some kind. And when Rachel suggested this I knew I had to join in! So I spent about 4 hours working on a Strange Brew chart and I didn’t mean to start so soon but I couldn’t help myself! It’s all Falkland Merino that I bought undyed from my LYS which has sadly now closed down (they still have a branch but it’s now an hours drive away), and I dyed the pink-y skein in the wool and spun it up, and then went back and got some more to spin to work with it! I dyed the blue-y skeins after I’d spun them. I’m not sure there’s really enough contrast between my MC and CC, but I think when I’ve done a bit more it might come through a bit more, and honestly, I’m enjoying it so much as it is, I don’t know that I care enough to do anything about it! The general idea in my chart is that I have started with the CC as my main and gradually switch it around. The patterning is lots of diamond and zig zag shapes.
Breed & Colour Studies
Megan (@lykkemeg, post no. 106) shares: So I had a crepe yarn where I separate the lights and darks. The lights went in a gradient from pink to white to yellow to green, and then the darks I alternated the dr green and dr pink in strips. This gave me a sort of color gamp yarn where I had both the dark colors running against the light gradient background. I have wanted to weave with a crepe yarn, so I did! I used the 12dpi heddle on my kromski harp loom. I made a color gamp with this as well. So, I divided the yarns into light colors, (pink, white, yellow, and green) and then warped some of each of those. Then I wove some of each of those as the weft so that all the colors were crossing each other at some point. I love the texture of this cloth!!! It is so interesting to look at for just plainweave. I will definitely weave with crepe yarns again. This is such as cool thing about spinning yourself as this is something you can’t buy! I made my cloth into a pillow. A spinning pillow to be exact since I learned I need some more back support from Carson Demers. And finally I was tickled pink to find some matching Anne of Green Gables cloth for the back of my pillow. Overall I am very satisfied with this project. I think I put the most technical color management planning into this project more than any other project I have done. It combined techniques of colored crepe, dark vs light contrast, a gradient, some striping, a “color gamp” yarn (I just made that name up) and a color gamp weaving project. I love using these breed and color studies to challenge myself to do something that I normally might not do. Thanks Katrina and Rachel!!
Catch up with Megan on a recent Wool n’ Spinning Radio Episode here.
Jada (@daffodillysun, post no. 108) shares: Oh boy! I just started spinning my batt, and let me tell you, I feel like a new spinner again! This is the first time I have spun from a batt (I mostly spin commercially prepared combed top, I think), and really only know what I’m doing from what Rachel showed on the show, and from looking up other videos on YouTube. I first unfolded the batt and started by tearing off strips from the dark green end to spin. That didn’t work well at all. It looked like when I first started spinning 13 years ago, very thick and inconsistent. I spun up all of the dark green and decided to break the rest of the batt down the middle across the colors and roll each side into a rolag, like Rachel showed on the show. That seems to be better for me. I was able to spin thinner, but still not as consistent as I’m used to. I will spin the second rolag later tonight and ply them up, then I’ll post a picture. It should end up a sort of gradient. It was nice to spin the rolag, no breaks, so no joins. Well, it’s not very pretty, but here it is: It’s quite thick, though I haven’t measured wpi yet. I bought the batts because it is new to me, but I’d have to try another fiber in batts before I decide if I like them or not.
How I Spin: Exploring Blends
Upcoming How I Spin content to finish off the year in November & December exploring how the recent explorations of blends resulted for me, thoughts for the future & kicking off luxury fibres for the new year. For more information, please head to the Co-Executive Producer or higher on Patreon.
Rebecca, @rebbiejaye, shares a recent blend she carded, spun & knit into a sweater project: I think I am a broken record because I keep talking about the same yarn, but my best blend – one of the only blends I’ve made myself, let alone that I’ve completed into a project – is my shetland/alpaca blend. I just finished knitting a sweater from it. The surprise to me was that, despite the completely woolen nature of the yarn – hand carded into rolags and spun long-draw – this yarn is very sturdy. It’s hard to break with my hands. I think that’s because of the alpaca, which was still in fleece form (not even washed) when I carded this blend. It was a longer staple, maybe 4” on average, with almost no crimp. So even though it’s very smooth, and adds softness to the blend, it added strength as well. Supposedly it adds drape, but I don’t read it as drape in the fabric; it feels more like… “substance.” The yarn has more weight and substance than I would expect from a 100% shetland yarn of similar construction. Sweater: Evergreen Mountain Pullover by Bonnie Sennott
Thank you so much for joining me today!
