WnS Ep. 202: It’s all about the process … amiright?!

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.

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. 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

There is nil this week unfortunately … nothing got done! But maybe something will be done by the time we go live on Saturday morning!

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 Fingering 100% Wool in colourway 9680

Minimalist Cardigan by Ruthie Nussbaum – whim cast on when I needed something easy and simple! Cascade 220 Heathers in Straw on 4.5mm // US 7 needles

Aurealis by Jennifer Steingass – 100% spindle spun sweater in Gotland; Spunky Eclectic ‘Thread Box’ (December 2020 club colourway) with 100% undyed Gotland; Turtlemade Turkish Spindles (~35g); sample swatch finished!

Community Inspiration // Participation

Spindle Spun Summer – Starting on the Summer Solstice! Co-hosted by Marce of Hey Brown Berry Podcast 

For June, tell us about your plans for the summer as we approach more opening & gathering! Ravelry Episode thread here. Winner of May’s giveaway is Christina (@louisette47) who loves apple crumble!

Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland

Maggie shares via Slack: I feel like May has been a blur! But I’m finally making progress on my B&C spins. The first picture is the moorit braid which I spun as a 2-ply fractal. I still need to rewind and calculate yardage and measure but all of the finished yarns are around 16-18 wpi. For the white braid I decided to break up the colors and I blended them. I kept the waste fiber from the combing and carded it and am in the process of spinning that now. Then on to the gray braid!

Jenny shares via Slack: I did the Moorit and white as a 2 ply fractal, splitting in half, and the other half  halved again spun end to end. It was really fun to see how much the white pops and brightens the darker colours versus the moorit toning everything down a step or two. For the grey braid, I did a 2 ply fractal again, but the half that I split in 2, I spun opposite ends. Just for kicks. It ended up being my favourite as the grey shines through and feels balanced in tone for my taste. This was so much fun. I haven’t made much time for “playing” in my creating, and this reminded me that it’s an integral part of the learning process.

Spindle Spun Summer (SSS)

Many have started clearing spindles for our summer spin-along! Here’s what they’re working on:

Angela shares on Slack: My current SSS warmup is coming along. I’m hoping I might get this one finished and then perhaps squeeze in one more before we begin!

Megan shares via Slack: Spinning while hiking in the colorado national monument today!

Sarah F. shares via Slack: I finished the 1st ounce on my warm up for SSS. This is the most I have ever spun on one spindle. I’m going to wind this off onto a spare bobbin so I can start on ounce 2.

Charlette shares via Slack: Spindles yay!

Natural Shades ALONG

Rebecca shares via Ravelry: Finished finished finished! Fawn: Fawn shetland + Fawn alpaca. White: White merino/silk + White alpaca. I don’t know the exact percentages, but it’s more than half wool. Goodness I’m so happy with how it turned out! I reflected on it in a blog post today. The TL:DR is that this was one of those projects where everything went perfectly according to plan, from start to finish. Some of that was luck, some of that was taste, some of it was skill/experience (especially sampling, swatching samples, trying things on, and willingness to rip and make size adjustments). I know this is a bit puff-puff-toot-toot, but I can’t help it. Deeper reflections will have to wait as I have three kids who want lunch. Cheers friends.

Luxury Fibres ALONG

Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings

Samantha shares via Slack: Finally got round to taking photos of my Sian jumper – I love this one!! Yarn is Rambouillet Baby Camel and Merino for the pink, colourway is Singapore Sling from Hilltop Cloud and the blue us Merino and Tussah Silk. Spun over the fold. Two ply. Spun on Ashford Traditional.

Dana shares via Slack: I just finished this shawl from Romi Hill called Leaves in a Stream. I used some 50/50 merino and silk handspun from deep stash along with the dark teal from Zen Yarn Garden. I love the results!

Sample Spinning // PLAY

Liz shares via Slack: I have a new project, My dad dropped off my grandmother’s rug loom this weekend. She was born in 1901, my dad was born in my 1944 and he said her looms were in the house growing up as long as he remembers. It’s just a 2 harness, we need to replace a leg and the harnesses are just cotton so those need to be replaced too. It’ll be really nice to see if we can get it all restored and working.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!