WnS Ep. 201: Weaving Adventuring

Dear Spinning Circle,

Live Stream: Saturday, May 29th @ 8:30am PDT

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).

On & Off the Bobbins

Bowmont & Huaycana (Alpaca // pronouced: waa-kai-yah) on Lendrum Saxony; long-draw

On & Off the Needles

In Progress – Knitting

Florence Tank by Sari Norland – Drops Lace Unicolor (70% Alpaca/30% Mulberry Silk)

Cruiser by Kristen Finlay – Small Bird Workshop CVM/Mohair held double with Cascade 220 100% Wool in colourway 9680

Community Participation

For May, tell us about your favourite food & why! Ravelry Episode thread here.

Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland 

Elizabeth shares via Slack: I finished my breed and color yarn!  I had a half braid set.  I divided the braids into piles of similar colors to get distinct colors. I spun them into a fingering weight two ply. I was trying to recreate a Jamiesons type yarn. I think I succeeded pretty well. This will be a colorwork yoke for a sweater. I need some help deciding on the main body color. I bought brown and gray Shetland top for the body. The brown was too dark – there wasn’t enough contrast so I carded brown and white together to get a lighter shade. So, brown or gray for the main color?

Debbie shares via Slack: I finished before June! Go me. Lol I learned a lot and made progress from the first skein to the last. The first was the white. I lied to myself when I split the braid. “I’ll remember which end I started from. “. No Debbie you won’t. The moorit I was going through was a ton of stress at work and it is totally over spun. But I tied a knot in the end of the braid so I started from the right end with both bobbins. Go me. The third was the grey. This one was just right. Colors lined up, spun consistently, soft and bouncy. I totally enjoyed this experience. Thank you for hosting this!

Sarah shares via Ravelry: I am making progress! I have had to slow way down with spinning and knitting. I am dealing with tendonitis in my wrist and shoulder as well as tennis elbow. I have just tried to savor and be in the moment when I do spin and focus on the process. All of these pictures from the study are so beautiful!

Ruth shares via Slack: Shetland/Always Believe in an almost finished garment. I paired with a gold wool/flax blend and a white Shetland/Silk blend. All are my own handspun, no commercial yarns. I had promised myself to steek a garment this year so I could get over that fear. In the close-up you can see the pink thread I used to crochet the steek edge. On one side you can see the pink has unraveled but the wool hand spun has not! While that is exciting, I don’t trust it and will probably be covering my cut edges with a ribbon. I’m not thrilled with the fit. The shoulder feels wide and I may pull out the icord and cut my knitting again. Or not. The color palette is out of my comfort zone. But as I said before, Always Believe is like a chameleon. It seems to change with whatever color you pair with it. I can imagine it looking very striking against a charcoal gray. Despite my little self-criticisms I am overall pleased with the project and even though I may fuss at it a little bit more I’m sure it will find a happy place in my wardrobe.

Natural Shades ALONG

Luxury Fibres ALONG

Kathy shares via Slack: I did the silk box a couple of months ago hoping it would help inform how to spun this silk lap that has been lurking in my closet (and occasionally reached out to ‘grab’ things). I wasn’t particularly pleased with the results, but the lap was such a cruder prep, I decided to spin it anyways (first pic). I think I will weave something with it (500 yds). In the meantime I ordered the East meets West box to get another shot at some of these fibers. I still struggled with the Bobby’s – mostly because the twist tended to travel back into my fiber hand and create a mass of jumbled fibers behind my hand. I figured out if I wrapped it around my pinkie, I could help control that a bit. Still, I much preferred the Eri, and was really stoked with my second attempt at that (supported long draw) – 130 yds from 30 grams.

Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings

Jennie shares via Slack: My latest spinning FO—approx. 1000 yards of a bouncy 3-ply at a sport/DK weight. I spun three colorways of Hipstrings’ Buoy base (BFL/Shetland/Manx Loaghtan)—one colorway per bobbin—and plied them together for a beautiful marl of natural shades. I am thrilled with the result—especially as this was my first large spin in a couple years! This yarn is destined to become a garment, most likely the Westerly by Elizabeth Doherty

Greta Lyn shares via Slack: It’s been a year of on and off work but my zero to hero project is done! Fleece was a Nistock Farm’s Cotswold, yarn is a two ply fingering weight and the pattern is Fleuriste by Sari Nordland. Most of the unruly stitches blocked out to work nice with each other.

Sample Spinning // PLAY

Sarah R. shares via Slack: I started a fun little project that comes in small, easily digestible bits. This is a HHF grab bag that I bought with a voucher that my mum gave me. I didn’t ages stripping it down last year then didn’t touch it. I currently think it looks kind of ugly on the bobbin, but the idea is to spin a crazy marled yarn then eventually weave it into a scarf (this is going to be a long way off).

Shauna shares via Slack: I bought this fiber back when I ordered my first drop spindle. That was years ago. At the time I was having a hard time finding merino nylon fiber and I knew I wanted to spin for socks some day. I’ve finally started this spin on my EEW 6.0 and I’m attempting my first fractal spin ever! So exciting. I don’t know why I let myself think something is too precious to use. Regardless of it will work for socks or not, it will be yarn!

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!