WnS Ep. 207: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Romney
WnS Ep. 207: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Romney | Spinning Romney to the crimps per inch & breaking down that process!
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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 || Romney
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
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.
Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland
Megan shares via Slack: Finally finished one triangle of my breed and color, 3 more to go!
Alex shares via Slack: As a follow up to the Shetland breed and colour study: made a hat with the moorit skein. It’s spun a bit thinner than the white braid so i didn’t have to supplement it. I’ve shared the other hat before but thought it would be neat to show how they worked up sided by side. Including a pic of the original braids for fun!
Kaylee shares via Slack: I finally feel like I have done the Charollais breed and color study justice. This time around I blended the cool colors and the warm colors separately. For giggles I carded some of all the colors together. This blend looked terrible as fiber but now all spun up, I love it! No one color wins, it just looks like an oatmeal heathered yarn. The fiber and colors of this study really challenged me. They are so different from what I have worked with recently but have helped me appreciate a carded prep and stronger fibers. Will be carding up the rest of the warm and cool colors that remain to repeat this yarn. This was ~75g and produced 109 yards of two ply that appears to be fingering to sport weight.
Tour de Fleece 2021 starts on Saturday, June 26, 2021 and runs until Sunday, July 18, 2021
Shauna shares via Slack: Not a ton of spinning today but I’m starting the week from hell at work tonight. I work graveyard shift and the 4th of July week is a true nightmare. We work 12 hour shifts so that doesn’t leave a lot of extra time in the day. My goal for the next week is to do a minimum of one piece of fiber for my combo spin a day. I doubt I can stop at just one but it’s an attainable goal and still forward progress!
Janel shares via Slack: Update from Tuesday: Done with singles for my tweedy sweater! This is 1 lb 10 oz (about 740g). Have your heard me rave about this fleece?! It is soooooooo gooooooooood. 100% corriedale, super dark brown, uniform crimp for miles, soft and squishy and yummy. Today: ply town. And maybe fleece washing because 2 more arrived from the same farm.
Crystal shares via Slack: Tour de Fleece Day 5: Still spinning my ‘Signed’ yarn. The message in Morse code has expanded as I have a lot more space than I previously thought. Enough I think for a haiku. It will now read: Crystal Taylor Hesser, Spinner and occasional unicorn. A delicate dance. / A slow-moving tornado. / These tender hands speak. Followed up with this entry on Slack: Day 6: Finished up my ‘Signed’ yarn. The full message reads: ‘Crystal Taylor Hesser, Spinner and occasional unicorn. A delicate dance. A slow-moving tornado. These tender hands speak.’ I’ve had such a blast spinning this, but it’s time for a change of pace though.
Sera shares via Slack: Finally got to really start on my spin! I had to finish up my sample and swatch with it to check that it would knit up well as the MC for Flatrock by Jennifer Beale. I was super happy with it and it made me all the more excited to spin up this fibre and attempt what I’m thinking of as an Epic Sweater. I’m pairing my handspun with the contrast colour kit from Fleece and Harmony. My handspun is Snow Ash from the Devonia range (50% Exmoor Blueface / 30% Bluefaced Leicester / 20% Wensleydale) from John Arbon Textiles.
Josee shares via Slack: Yesterday I plied 4 of my 8 oz of this fiber. Since there was quite bright yellow and green in those braids, I was thinking of pairing this yarn in a shawl with this crazy Knitpicks chroma. I am not that sure that it will be a good match anymore. The shawls I am thinking about distribute both colorways quite evenly throughout (cinnabar or botanical). I was totally inpired by the Fat Squirrel (Amy Beth) Botanical shawl she made a few months ago.. Any advice is welcome!
Jan shares via Slack: Days 4,5 & 6 together, all of these are pretty much the same colour, so I waited until I had finished this section in order to post a photo of all 3 finished bobbins together. The 4th one is on the wheel today and you can see the start of the deeper mango colour starting to appear. I put a tiny section of white singles between the two, so that when I ply, I can easily see the join. I’m going to finish up this bobbin tomorrow and I’m probably going to ply over the next few days to clear all the bobbins of this spin, so far and all the Cheviot on my bigger bobbins.
Eva shares via Slack: Update mid day 7: Turns out: there is no such thing as a quick sweaterspin, even if it’s tdf. Who would have thought. These are the two skeins of corespun breed and colour study yarn that are completely done. A third one is spun and washed and once it’s dried it will be run through the weel again to remove some of the twist, then washed and dried again. And I have enough core prepared to be able to start the next bobbin.
Amanda shares via Slack: Day 7: Another big day! The brown finull got a soak and a snap. After finishing, I have about 1340m of light fingering weight yarn. I plied the russet alpaca—it is resting on the jumbo bobbin for the moment. I even tackled the ‘waste’ batts I made the other day. I’ve decided that the hair in them is too coarse for boot socks but I’ll figure out what I want to do with them later (upholstery maybe?). The larger of the two batts—white rya (hair+wool), brown finull (lumpiest of the waste fibre)—I spun thick and let it be what it wanted (I haven’t done that for ages and it felt… weird). The other batt—white rya (hair+wool), black rya (wool only, carding waste), russet alpaca (carding waste)— I split in 3 and spun a bit finer.
Amanda shares via Slack: Day 10: Rest; Day 11: Fun with colour today since I have spun all browns so far. Carded together a couple of merino top colours for a bit of a gradient. And, another colour gradient… and some bouclé! Never made bouclé before so that was… interesting! Takes ages and I am yet to find the sweet spot re: how densely to put the looping ply onto the core thread to get a mid-level of texture. I under did it with the blue/yellow yesterday and overcompensated today. This is why we play! BTW I love toned yellows so this purple/yellow mud is my jam.
Sue shares via Slack: Here is my first week of TdF. It’s been fun but pretty demanding time-wise at the same time. My plying skills have definitely improved, and I’ve found a centre pull ball works well for this size skein. These will all be going into a domino blanket with some carded white corriedale fleece for the main colour.
Alicia shares via Slack: Feeling good with getting a bit of spinning in. My goal is to get caught up on my Long Way fiber club shipments. This is the border Cheviot and it is so fluffy!
Josee shares via Slack: I finished my first TWF Summer Shade BFL bobbin today, which means half of my fractal singles. Tomorrow will be a day off, we are going to a big amusement waterpark! Here are 2 shots of this first bobbin (before I was finished).
Tori shares via Slack: I’ve neglected the rest day and been busy spinning while my sweet pup has been resting with her bad leg. I’m nearly through a second bobbin of the braid I’m working on and tempted to push through to start plying to see the beautiful colors all plied up.
Dionne shares via Slack: Here’s my spin for today. I made a 2oz art batt from complimentary wool colors,mulberry silk, silk noil, sari silk, gold angelina, and wine colored firestar. The batt looked interesting before I spun it but looked a bit blah when done. I thread played it with gold thread and scrunched it when I got to the thicker parts. This is my first art yarn and I absolutely love the end result. It’s about a DK/Worsted weight.
Tawnya shares via Slack: I’m doing all of my TdF spinning on spindles and it’s been really great. Over 150g spun so far!
Spindle Spun Summer (SSS)
Spindle Spun Summer – Starting on the Summer Solstice! Co-hosted by Marce of Hay Brown Berry Podcast
Becca shares via Slack: I am soooo glad this SAL gave me that little push to finish up the yak singles and get it plied. You guys, I am so pleased with this skein it has reignited my drive for the portfolio work. It’s incredibly light and fluffy and my son asked if he could sleep on it when he felt it. It was a year in the making but I don’t mind.
Marce shares via Slack: I was very happy to have my Classy Squid spindle with us on our long weekend trip. Before packing for the trip I had cleared off some spindles of natural fibers, and now I am creating a bunch of fun little minis that I can combine into a project as I go.
Wendy shares via Slack: Spinning at the Skatepark in Carleton Place, Ontario while my husband (yes, my husband!) skateboards, on the way home from camping.
Diana shares via Slack: Some works in progress. The fibre is a colour/fibre blend I made on my blending board. The spindles are selected from my favourites. Small and larger Jenkins, a small Capar Turkish, phang from CreativeJayne and a hand carved one by Allen Berry. Support spindles allow me to spin while sitting in the cool of the bedroom. The Turks allow me to take them anywhere. Remove the shaft and travel – to the garden, to the living room.
Kelly shares via Slack: I finally get to show these off. I spun this up for @craftyjaks as a tester for socks, it’s a new base she’s offering come this weekend(!!) – BFL/mohair blend, and it made me the most lovely pair! I spun and knit these in March and I wore them in my regular sock rotation right up until it got too warm to wear wool socks anymore. This is a 3 ply fractal in the Pesuta colourway – the singles were spun at 5-6 TPI and 32 WPI, and plied at 5-6 TPI to finish with a 16 WPI yarn.
Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings #weavewithhandspun
Angela shares via Slack: I finished my first successful scarf on my rigid heddle. (I’ve made a couple of attempts previously but one ended up too long and the other too short) I used a commercial yarn (West Yorkshire Spinners Croft DK) for the warp and a skein of my handspun for the weft. For the handspun I experimented with splitting the dyed braid into different colours sections and spun each of the colours together to make a gradient type yarn. As soon as I’d spun the yarn I knew that I wanted to weave with it. Both the warp and weft yarns are DK weight. I used the 7.5 dent reed on my loom. The scarf is maybe a little denser than I would have ideally been aiming for but it still has a nice drape and will be lovely and warm for the winter. Weaving with handspun is so much fun, now I think everyone I know needs to have a handspun handwoven scarf
Sample Spinning // PLAY
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. – Carl Jung
Carlie Jean shares via Slack: I just wanted to pop in and share with y’all one of my favorite finished handspun projects. This def was my first mojo last year, my husband surprised me with an Ashford E-Spinner 3 and I quickly picked out some three water farms braids for the night shift shawl. It was so much fun!
Samantha shares via Slack: OMG!!!! I am WEAVING I am finally able to go to our local Guild where we are today having a go at Inkle Weaving – Obviously I have the brightest colours on my loom
Rebecca shares via Slack: I guess this falls under play, and is one of the reasons I haven’t been spinning much: handspun socks! I’m messing about with a slip-stitch short-row sole and heel, to see if it’s more durable. I don’t know yet, but it’s successfully very squishy.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
