WnS Ep. 206: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Wensleydale
WnS Ep. 206: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Wensleydale | We will be spinning at the wheel! Looking at samples from the Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit from the School of SweetGeorgia, which is the kit from my new workshop!
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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!
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)
Spinning On The Wheel || Wensleydale
We will be spinning at the wheel! Looking at samples from the Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit from the School of SweetGeorgia, which is the kit from my new workshop – link here (affiliate link). This week, we will start off with the first couple of breeds in the kit and work our way through the entire set over the coming months – which will take us into the summer! Exciting!
On & Off the Needles
Finished – Knitting
Magnolia Bloom by Camilla Vad – Custom Woollen Mills CVM 4-ply; 6.00mm & 6.5mm // US 10 & 10.5
In Progress – Knitting
Enchantee by Emilie Luis – Bowmont/Alpaca blend 2-ply, held double with Mohair-Silk lace; 4.5mm & 4.00mm // US 6 & 7
Community Inspiration // Participation
For July, the month of Tour de Fleece, tell us what your goal is for this year’s tour! Ravelry Episode thread here.
June’s fibre will be mailed out to Jan Atherton from YouTube! Send me your mailing address & I’ll pop that in the mail for you!
New Breed & Colour Studies information released on Thursday – Link to Wool n’ Spinning Radio here!
Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland
Maria shares via Ravelry: Finished up my breed and colour study just in the nick of time… I started off with 4 braids of Shetland,( one moorit, one fawn, and two white ) I decided to kettle dye each one using the same colours , but then I took one of the dyed white braids and overdyed it in grey to tone it down a touch. Each braid was split in half to try out 2 different spins. The first halves were split down and fractal spun using short backward draw. I plied each colour and base on itself. This yarn is fingering weight and should make some interesting colourwork yarn. I’m really liking the earthy colours. The white base is a bit too light for my liking but could add a couple of interesting ‘pops’ of colour if used in moderation. The second set of fibres were spun in much the same way using similar wheel ratios, but I plied as a 3 ply making a nice squishy double knit yarn to use in a colourwork yoke. I’m planning on a neutral spin for the main body of the sweater. Perhaps a grey? In summary, Shetland is one of my favourites, I love its handle, soft, yet rustic. Great for colourwork..I definitely lean towards the darker of the skeins , basically anything with grey or brown undertones works for me. Thank you Wool n Spinning for the inspiration to try this study.
Maria shares via Ravelry: This Stephen West shawl has several of my 51 yarns. There is teal and purple and purple brown from my semi study. Smaller skeins from my fractal BFL and Shetland Stripes. I especially like how the fractal yarn gives life to these sections.
Tour de Fleece 2021 starts on Saturday, June 26, 2021 and runs until Sunday, July 18, 2021
Robin shares via Ravelry: Ready to continue my spindle spinning for the first day of TDF! Two spindles on the go. My Russian and Tibetan spindles. Orange fibre is untreated Merino from Fibre Pusher Fairy and the rolags are from Fairy Tale Wool.
Sidselsvane shares via Ravelry: I would like to join. I’m spinning a Rambouillet fiber from Woolfiend
Crystal shares via Ravelry: I had intended to start with my BFL fleece, but alas, I’m not finished combing. I’m close though and that counts for something. So first up for me is some corespinning from a truly heavenly batt from The Spinner’s Stash. I’m such sucker for anything orange, turquoise and white. If it looks like a koi pond, I want it. Debating whether to thread ply it or coil it. I’m kinda leaning coils.
Denise shares via Ravelry: Day 1: 1st ply in a 3-ply for socks!
Maria shares via Ravelry: My TDF started with combing and today I spun the first 32 g single. I watched football instead of Tour, but that is Ok, I think.
Dana shares via Ravelry: I started the tour with plying this skein from Hello Yarn. Today I started spinning my last braid from the B&C study. Bobbin 1 of 3 finished.
Spindle Spun Summer (SSS)
Spindle Spun Summer – Starting on the Summer Solstice! Co-hosted by Marce of Hay Brown Berry Podcast
Amy shares via Slack: Learning how to ply on the fly with some fibre from Spindles and Stitches in her ‘Bird of Paradise’ colorway. Quite a learning curve, not helped by strong winds whenever I attempt to do it outdoors…!
Carissa shares via Slack: 100% Targhee by Katrina, bought a few years ago. Split it up last night for fractal spinning on my drop spindle (Turkish), that was made by her husband.
Charlette shares via Slack: The little brown piece of batt, that made me jump because it looked like a bat, was a dream to spin on this Spanish Peacock supported spindle. Wish I had info on the fiber because it was lovely – fine and soft. I would like to imagine that it has some bison in it. I’m also enjoying the little dimple in the bottom of the spinning bowl, also from S.P. It’s the little things . . .
Christine shares via Slack: I’m spinning a little bit of cotton everyday on my tahkli. I found the little bowl in a second hand shop for $2 which is perfect – molded into the ceramic underneath it says – we live like this. I like that… a lot
Christine also shared a ‘hack’ in the Ravelry group to help with storing and plying singles off a spindle: I am fortunate in having a Lazy Kate, and a bobbin winder. As I like to spin all the singles for a yarn on the same spindle, I make paper ‘slips’ that go on the shaft of my spindles, then when each single is finished, I can slide the paper slip/tube off the shaft and onto the lazy kate and then re-wind the single onto a storage bobbin (I like to ply starting with the first spun end of the singles – Rachel’s spoken about doing this in a few of her vlog episodes). I started making the paper slips/tubes for my spindles three years ago when I took my drop spindle with me on a short break to Amsterdam and realised that if I finished a single while I was there, I’d need a way of keeping it safe until I got home so I could start spinning the next one. You can see the paper slip on the spindle shaft in this photo, and also on the lazy kate.
Lulu shares via Ravelry: Excited to get started today. I have no idea what I am doing… I am a brand new spinner with no mentor, but I am just gonna dive in. I just finished my first ever yarn… spindle spun shetland in natural moorit. It was a great learning experience but didn’t turn out at all like I thought it would. Today I will start spin number 2 and see what I learn this time. All comments and critiques are gratefully accepted! edited to add this turned out to be 62 yards and 46 grams – and I thought I was spinning for fingering lol. The twist seems a bit wrong also.
Mary Jo shares via Ravelry: The last few weeks have been very busy but I’ve been spindleing every day even if it’s only for a few minutes. Since the solstice I have been spinning rolags from FellView fibers called bursting buds on my favorite spindle a Snyder Glider.
Kimberlee shares via Ravelry: I have been spinning along with the spindle spun summer but have not posted yet. My favorite drop spindles are spindle woods and I am spinning forgotten stash. First up is a Sweet Georgia 6 pack of BFL SW in 1 oz. each of 6 colorways.
Dana shares via Ravelry: New here but I spin primarily on spindles, and for TDF I have a support spindle project and a drop spindle project going at the same time! I look forward to joining other spindle spinners here.
Laura shares via Slack: My first 4 oz of 70/30 Alpaca Silk singles. 16ozs to go. I’m expecting around 2k yards of 2 ply for the end result if I continue on this way.
Liz shares via Slack: Working on a Gotland spin on a rainy day. Fiber from Border creek farm.
Kelly shares via Slack: The first four of my Long Way Homestead Breed of the Month fibres are done! I’m so glad @ollycob helped motivate me to get these done, because I had been in a bit of a spinning rut and these totally jump started me again. The two on the left (Icelandic and Border Cheviot) I shared previously. The two new ones are Wensleydale and Tunis. All of these were spun long draw, and I’ve really improved at that over these four skeins. I can’t really do long draw without some support because I have Scotch tension, but I can do it almost without any support. It’s really made me want to get the magnetic flyer for my Sonata though so I can convert to long draw as desired. I started spinning these on May 29, so in under a month I got them all done, and I’m somewhere around the 900 yd mark combining all of them. The Border Cheviot, Wensleydale, and Tunis will all be split up into 4 mini skeins to be used for natural dyeing experiments that are on-going. The Icelandic I’m not sure what I’ll do with yet, but I feel like it’d make a great textured toque.
Elizabeth shares via Slack: Six bobbins of Shetland spun up for the body of my breed and color sweater. I’ll start plying tonight. I wanted to have it all plied before tour de fleece started but I am running behind.
Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings
Sue shares via Slack: Two and a half months of spinning. The white Shetland is waiting for me to be brave enough to dye it in five different colours. The brown corriedale is ready to do a 3 ply. I may need more, but this is a good start to what I need. I’ll finish it and measure it. Then I’ll know if I need more. This is all for Sterntaucher by Kate Davis.
Eve shares via Slack: 3 bobbins ready to ply!
Ruth shares via Slack: Since the beginning of April, I have been working with premixed blends of Wool, Silk and Flax. This sweater is the result of that exploration.The fawn is a Shetland, Tussah, flax tow blend from Hip Strings; The colors are a blend of Merino, Tussah and Flax from Inglenook, where I took the base color (the turquoise) and blended with additional merino in tans and yellows, for the green, and purples for the dark, with hand cards. My questions now center around the combination of wool and flax and the handling of, what seems to me, extremely different care needs. You certainly would not want to boil the finished yarn to get the best from the flax and gentle washing of wool leaves the flax in a long timeline to become its best. The sweater is (Surprise!) my own pattern based on gauge and percentages. I took basic instructions from the Shoulder Yoke recipe in the Book Knitting in the Old Way, by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts. The colorwork was a rift on the Purl Soho “Falling Snow” chart. All the above, and so many more lessons were learned. And at the end I have this lovely, unique cardigan. Cheers to the experiments we undertake as makers! Link to project page here.
Maria shares via Ravelry: I’m super happy with my latest knit: The Weekender by Andrea Mowry. I recently bought a drum carder and had fun carding up some tweedy batts in various colourways. Some of the base fibre was raw fleece I processed myself, some commercially prepped fibre. Mostly Shetland and bluefaced leicester, with some merino and a sprinkling of sari silk. I carded twice, then dizzed off roving. I mostly used short backward draw when spinning, resulting in a semi woolen yarn.. the skeins had a bath in fairly hot water with a good thwack to finish. I ended up with about 1500 yards of worsted weight yarn, in mixed colours , but wasn’t sure of the best way to use it? I have had the weekender in my queue for an age and thought it might work in stripes? It worked out better than I could have imagined. The fit is great and I love the play of colours together. I love knitting with handspun. Each stitch is an adventure of colour and texture and I enjoy the element of surprise . I especially like the pops of orange in the sleeves.
Sample Spinning // PLAY
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. – Carl Jung
Nicole shares via Slack: Finished up my first four ply yarn! I quartered and then split up one red braid of Polworth from Abstract Fiber and one orange and black braid of Targhee from Deep Dyed Yarns (under the supervision of my very strict boss), and then spun up it up randomly on my Lendrum DT into four plies using continuous back (although I tried to not have too long stretches of one color). The main skein is 390 yards, 222 g, for a grist of 796.85 ypp, and a little over 11 wpi. I really love how round it turned out! I’m thinking that I’m probably going to spin up some CVM I have in my stash and then see what sweater patterns match up with the yardage I got.
Vikki shares via Slack: This was an exhaust braid I dyed earlier this year. I forgot to take a photograph of it before started spinning it so I’ll post the same picture I posted when I originally dyed it. Spun fractal with a short/ continuous back draw. 2 ply, sport weight, 600yds, 105g of merino yarn; Dang is this soft. How did I get 600yds of yarn (with a sport weight) from 100g?!? Seriously asking lol In all my years spinning, I have never gotten this kind of yardage.
Barb shares via Slack: Is this spinning, weaving, or sewing? What!?! All three! Hahaha
Kat shares via Slack: And because I have the attention span of a slightly demented goldfish I have started this crochet project, inspired by the work of Sophie Digard. I have a bunch of hand dyed merino singles I dyed for a shawl MKAL that I ended up not liking, and they have languished ever since.
Dana shares via Slack: I finished up a couple of hats using some leftover handspun. The colorful handspun was used in two Shift Cowls and now two hats and I still have some leftover! This is Flicker and Flame from Andrea Mowry.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
