WnS Ep. 199: Spinning Alpaca Unicorn
Dear Spinning Circle,
Please note the show may start slightly late as I am presenting for the OHS Demystifying Flax series prior to our Live Stream!
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!Live Chat Assistance here.There is a lot going on in our community! It’s a lot to cover and remind you of each week. Have a look here for more info!!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).
Unboxing – Spinning Sheep Breeds Workshop // School of SweetGeorgia
On & Off the Bobbins
Bowmont & Huaycana (Alpaca // pronouced: waa-kai-yah) on Lendrum Saxony; long-draw
On & Off the Needles
In Progress – KnittingFanel by Orlane Suuche – Disdero Ranch 100% Romney; woollen spun; Ashford eSpinner3
Community Participation
For May, tell us about your favourite food & why! Ravelry Episode thread here.Breed & Colour Studies – ShetlandMegan shares via Slack: Finally finished one of my breed and color skeins! This was the moorit natural, red, and orange and then a few streaks of black put through the drum carder one to get a heathered effect. Love the depth of the color. I have 2 other skeins on 2 different wheels, if only i could spin both at once!Bridget shares her weaving!Kristen shares via Slack: I finally got out of my perfectionist headspace when looking at my breed and color study. It’s my first time participating and I had very high expectations but was so stuck with planning. After watching the most recent spinning purls, I realized that I have the skills to sit down at the wheel and just feel what the fiber wants to be. I have a finished yarn in mind that I think would work well as the CC in the throwover when paired with a commercial yarn in my stash and if it doesn’t work out exactly to plan, then I can adjust. Sometimes we just need to put planning to the side and just enjoy the process. I’m stopping every so often to measure my single as well as using the ply back test to keep an eye on the finished yarn.Natural Shades ALONGJackie shares via Slack:Here is my latest spin. I bought this Romney from Lopez Island, WA. We spent our summers boating in the Washington San Juan Islands so this wool is very sentimental and much of the island came with the fleece with all the VM! I got to know my new Hansen spinning this quantity. I tried to spin with a low twist and low ply. I am becoming a convert to 2 ply. It isn’t super soft, but could see it as an outerwear garment or maybe a hap. 1675 yds 15oz 2 plyMarce shares via Slack: Finished my Manx spinning project! This skein is a 2-ply weighing 70g, ~132 yards with 57 degree twist angle (intentionally a high twist ply). It has 5.5 twists per inch and I am eyeballing it at a worsted weight. I am grateful for all the firsts: first double-coated fleece, first hand carded project through to a full skein, and first supported long draw project. The yarn was soaked and snapped and it bloomed a lot – as predicted. It is elastic and lofty and this caramel brown shade is addictive. Not sure I am a full convert yet to manual fiber prep, but this feels like an accomplishment that helped me work with the fiber’s inherent properties. Project plans are not set, but a cowl or some colorwork is likely.Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethingsSample Spinning // PLAYErica shares via Slack: I am spinning for a deep dive into twist direction and weaving! I’ll combining S/Z and Z/S yarns in a variety of ways to see if there is any difference.Hanna shares via Slack: From batt to finished yarn! The batts were a blend of various fibre, such as alpaca, shetland, camel, silk, mohair and romney. The finished yarn is a 3-ply, about 910 meters and 16 WPI.Kat shares via Slack: And the finished skein, not much blooming, WPI is almost unchanged. 150m from ca. 100g, that’s a bit short for a pair for me, I may have to find something for toes and heels.Dana shares via Slack: I had some fun on my drum carder one day and had to spin the yarn right away. It’s 50% two colors of Shetland and the other 50 a mix of the scummy green which I’m pretty sure had some silk and alpaca in it, a merino/silk blue grey and some brighter blue/greens not pictured. I made two 50 gram batts, running them through twice. I spun them on my Jensen Ashley wheel, continuous backward ending in 11-12wpi. The yarn feels soft and exactly what I was hoping for!Thank you so much for joining me today!Until then, Happy Spinning!
