WnS Ep. 182: Happy New Year!

Dear Spinning Circle,

Direct YouTube link here.

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.

Enjoy the show!

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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).

On & Off the Needles & Bobbins

Works in Progress – Spinning

West Coast Colour Karma – 50/50 Merino & Yak (video)

• Combed preparation, Yak short so holding fibre very lightly to avoid the fibres separating
• First skein needs a bit tighter plying – will sample when 2nd skein finished & re-ply
• Plan: All-over colourwork sweater or Shifty

Finished – Spinning

Kingdom Fleece & Fiberworks Advent Calendar

• Columbia/Dorset fibre, multiple colours
• Spinning each day, trying to keep up!
• Advent Vlogs Playlist here

Longway Homestead Rambouillet (video)

• Pin-drafted roving, beautifully prepared from November 2020’s fibre club
• Spun long-draw with double-drafting as needed
• Crazy yardage: Over 600 yards of true woollen yarn (handspun page here)

Community Participation

For January, Tell us about your most recent spin — share in the episode thread here or comment below here on YouTube!

Breed & Colour Study – Charollais

Kellie (cocojanehandmade) shared on Slack: The new breed and colour study coming up motivated me to finish the second half of my Charolais batt. Spun short forward, one half spun red to green straight, and the other split in two for a 2 ply fractal. My daughter had requested mittens!

51 Yarns ALONG – Double-Coated Wool

palmikkopuu shares: My samples of white Åland sheep wool was 2 coated wool. This breed is often 2 costed, but not all of them are. I washed the locks in lingerie bags as I usually do. I have wool combs and I separated the outer and inner coats just by pulling the longer ones first and combing them separately later. Here is the inner coat in nests and outer laying on the table.

Natural Shades ALONG

Fairyringfarm shares: I had made this as a shawl a couple of years ago but found it too cumbersome to wear so I decided to turn it into a throw blanket instead. It is a bit of a memory blanket in that it’s made mostly from fibres from my own animals with samples of experimental spinning. It’s spun on drop spindle, supported toonie takhli, Baynes spinning wheel and my new (to me) Lendrum DT. There is black, brown and white alpaca from a neighbour, black, brown and white from my (departed) shetlands, our dog Caper, several shades of Satin Angora, white French Angora, natural, green and fawn cotton. It’s a variety of spinning styles and yarn types. I’m a fairly new knitter so it’s been fun experimenting with the different stitches.

rebbiejaye shares: I finished! I’ve been slowly slogging through the body and sleeves, and have been marooned on sleeve island for like a month, but I was bound and determined to finish this thing before the end of 2020. I cast off yesterday, blocked overnight, then I put it on for pictures and haven’t taken it off since. (No outdoor pictures here folks… it’s -20something, wind is 50 kph gusting 70, we’re on day 3 of a blizzard… I could go on.) I’m sure some folks would find icelandic “scratchy” but it just feels cozy to me. I’m glad the neckline is wide, though, and my undershirt collar is high. It doesn’t bother my hands, though. Yeah I may have cast on another natural-colored handspun sweater today. Not because I’m hopeless, just because that’s what I have in stash…

palmikkopuu shares: My natural shades beanie went as a xmas present to my nice. The tweedy charollais yarn did not work with this pattern.

Zero to Hero 2020 – Thread for 2021 is here

Kelly shared on Slack: Technically finished on January 1st, wove in the ends today.  My 2020 Zero to Hero is all done! I used a Tunis fleece from a farm about 2.5 hours southwest of me.  Scoured (Orvus Paste for those interested!), picked with my wool picker, then carded (each batt went through 3 times).  Then I spun short continuous backward, and did a simple soak and snap to finish.  Those who have followed a long a bit know I had planned Derwent by Sarah Cooke. The yarn was too darned thick, so I created a semi-knock off.  Fits wonderfully and despite bumps along the way this year for my raw-to-finished-garment project, it all worked out in the end! For those extra interested in fine details: The finished yarn was about 9-10 WPI, grist was 740 ypp, and I used 902 yds total. The WPI of my singles was about 14. I cannot for the life of me find my sample card, but if memory serves I did about 2.5 TPI in the singles and the ply (since that’s pretty standard for me for a medium wool and I didn’t do anything special in that respect).

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!