WnS Ep. 211: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Cheviot

Dear Spinning Circle,

Live Stream: Saturday, August 14th @ 8am Pacific // 11am Eastern

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!

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 || Cheviot

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!

Community Inspiration // Participation

I can’t believe it’s August already! We are more than halfway through this year! How are you doing with your yearly plans? Do you have any? Do you make plans for the year? How are you feeling about your making this year, so far? Tell us in the Ravelry group thread here or in the comments section on YouTube.

For July, the month of Tour de Fleece, tell us what your goal is for this year’s tour! Ravelry Episode thread here. The collection of fibre will be mailed out to @ianelay (Yalenai) for her post on Ravelry here. Congrats! 

Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland 

Sera shares via Slack: I finished my Vellichor sweater with our Shetland breed and colour study fibre a couple of weeks ago but managed to grab a few pics of it today since it was only 65 F/18 C instead of the 100 F/38 C that it’s been every other day. I really like how it turned out, but it was the slowest cropped and short sleeve sweater that I’ve ever knit! Yardage, gauge, size, and sleeve details will be on my Ravelry project page eventually, but feel free to ask if you want any of that info.

Megan shares via Slack: Spoils from vacation!  only one section left to do on my breed and color wrap!  spun about  400 of 700g of corriedale on my hansen, wove one band with handspun on the backstrap loom, then started a patterned band, and started knitting chestnut which i have wanted to knit for several years now!

Breed & Colour Studies – Jacob

Alicia shares via Slack: When I first saw the colors that Katrina made, I immediately imagined a gradient. My initial sample shown here was a chain ply but I’ve settled on a traditional 3-ply with a bit of blending between colors. That way I’ll get a bit of marling to better blend the colors. I’ve already started the first single and am loving the Jacob fiber.

Helene shares via Slack: I just finished my first three bundles of carded fiber for the breed and color study! I did a traditional three ply for the first set and will work up the others differently. The white is somewhat lost in the black and grey and the black is toned down in the yarn. I’m happy with how this came out, I’m just not sure how to use it yet! So far I like Jacob – but I’m not sold on it yet. I did short backward drafts and long draw and the fiber is hard to tell when it’s fiber locked. Or at least it is for me so far. But I have 6 more little balls to go plus two more packs so maybe my opinion will change as we become better acquainted. This is also spun on my new Matchless wheel so lots of new for this project! WPI:13; 30*ply angle  1oz of fiber that came to 56yds for 896 YPP

Nicole shares via Slack: The Chicago yarn crawl is this week so I spun up three mini skeins out of the Jacob breed and color study so I could take them shopping for a main color (I’m thinking maybe a colorwork cowl). They’re roughly 12 WPI, two ply, with about 20 yards each. Of the three, I can see the more blended colors most clearly in the white skein, but where it’s just one color, it jumps out most against the black. I would say that my grey is the muddiest of the three. I’m still considering the remaining fiber, so we’ll see what happens with that.

Spindle Spun Summer (SSS)

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

Josee shares via Slack: Progress on my HY falkland “buttah”, it is so much fun too see the color progression. I am getting faster making a fancy turtle too – yay!

Crystal shares via Slack: I just recently added another Woodland Handcrafts super spindle to my ever growing collection of spindles. As soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘Here. Just take my money.’ It’s hard to tell, but there’s an owl hidden in that little hole. So cute right? Here it is alongside my other WH spindles. I finished spinning all the singles for the one on the right this past week. I’ve been winding them off into plying balls as I spun them, which I highly recommend for anyone who’s getting started with spindle spinning. It makes it super easy to ply without having to buy more spindles or a spindle Kate. Just plop those suckers in a bowl and ply away. And of course, my inaugural spin on my newest acquisition. It just spins and spins and spins with the gentlest of flicks. It may be my favorite of the bunch. The fiber is a gradient set of merino/angora/bamboo from Cedar Hill Farm that goes from cream to a pale salmon pink. I have two of these gradient sets. My original thought was to ply these together, but then thought it’d be better to spin each rolag separately for two matching sets of mini-skeins to be used in a pair of mittens or gloves. However, these rolags are spinning so fine, mittens and gloves are probably an ill-advised choice of pattern. I feel I’m at an impasse, so I’m putting it on the back burner, while I reassess how I want to spin this. I may go ahead and spin the cream in the other set on my acorn spindle, but that’s about as far as I feel comfortable moving forward with. I’m including a pic of one of the gradient rolag sets, in case any of you might have suggestions or insights to give me some direction. This fiber is too heavenly and the spindle is such bliss to spin on, I want the yarn to be equally as awesome.

Cher shares via Slack: Picked my Turkish spindle back up, several more ounces of this fiber to go.

Linda Sue shares via Slack: I did it! Singles on my spindle done today!  It is now packed in my suitcase, ready for our travel day tomorrow.  The singles will rest, and when I am home, I will wind them into a ball for plying.  Now question, do I have to ply on a spindle for #SSS?  Or may I ply on my wheel?  Wheel is my usual choice, but maybe I will try to ply with a heavy spindle.

Megan shares via Slack: Last week of summer for me! Back to school night this monday!

Ruth shares via Slack: I keep working at this on my lil’ Snyder 13g turk. It’s great for using different muscles when I get tired hands from knitting socks. It also gets me standing more. I’m about 220 g into a 340 g spin.  Counting plying yards (ply on the fly), I’ve spun about 1.8 US miles so far. (2.9 Kilometers). Only 1 mile more…..

Lauraline shares via Slack: Having fun spinning my Jacob!

Angela shares via Slack: Found some time to get back to my spindles again, but of course rather than working on one of the projects I’d already started somehow I managed to pick up my support spindles and start something new instead

Mary Jo shares via Ravelry: Yesterday I combined 2 of my favorite activities. The garden and fiber. Today I finished yesterday’s spindle and then started with a different spindle. I am trying to spin with the spindles that mostly sit in a jar in the wheel room. I have 3 spindles that I tend to always grab when I want to spin and then that dusty jar ; ) I am trying to figure out why I have preferences. Do you have preferences???? And why

Laura shares via Ravelry: After 6 weeks I’ve spun about 100g of superwash Merino on each spindle. I’ll let them rest for a few days before figuring out how to ply them.

Suzanne shares via Ravelry: I spun the most yardage on a spindle I have ever spun. It was amazing to see how easy it is to get yardage by just taking around a spindle on trips and visits to family this summer. This is Romney spun on my Turtlemade Turkish spindle. I have about 150 yds of worsted weight yarn so far. I love the Spindle Spun Summer challenge; it has really gotten me into spindle spinning for the first time in my over ten years of spinning.

Lulu shares via Ravelry: This color! it makes me want to keep on spinning…

Luxury Fibres ALONG

Elise shares via Slack: Blending baby camel-merino-mulberry silk batts for a sweater project for my sister who spent time living in Africa (I know it’s a different breed of camel there than we spin, but she doesn’t mind). This project has taken so much sampling to find the just right blend for it! The swatch is knit with a 3-ply (probably heavy) fingering weight.

Sam shares via Slack: Here’s my first foray into the luxury fibres category. This fibre popped into Santa’s basket when he was buying me a jumbo flyer for my Ashford at Christmas. I have not dared try spinning it until now. 50/50 Camel and Silk from Adelaide Walker. It is a dream to spin. Gets up my nose and in the air but thanks to Rachel’s tip of silk scarf, it doesn’t stick to my clothes. Shame I can’t say the same for the settee. So glad I was able to watch Rachel on her posts spinning this which has given me the confidence to give it a go! Hoping to be able to make a stole for a wedding I am going to near Christmas!  Whether it will be crochet or weaving I am not yet sure!

Kathy shares via Slack: I guess I haven’t been paying much attention lately. I’ve been spinning thru my stash – more or less for relaxation and also for something to do while watching live videos – and only recently noticed that what I’ve been spinning qualifies for ‘luxury’ fiber.  The one on top is a 2 ply of merino/cashmere/silk, the middle is a 2-ply of merino/silk, and the bottom is a chain ply of 50%camel/50% silk. All are more or less 14 WPS but I haven’t washed them yet. The camel is indeed short stapled, but other than keeping my hands closer together, was not difficult to spin. I went VERY slowly on the chain ply so I wouldn’t overdo it. I have a couple more braids of color ways in similar color hues to the top 2 that might work well for the Shifty pullover. I have some Gotland that would work for contrast, but the texture is quite a bit rougher, so I’m thinking something else? I don’t have anything in mind yet for the camel blend – likely a scarf or cowl.

Iris shares via Ravelry: I finished my polwarth-silk spinning. I aimed to spin as thin as possible, and amazingly, created lace weight yarn! The 2ply skeins are 108g and 693m in total. I had a little left over singles on one bobbing and practised chain plying with that.
In addition to being the most consistent and finest yarn I’ve made so far, this skein also get’s the award of being partly spun at the greatest place ever. I had my minispinner on our sailing holiday, and one day I walked to the hill on one of my favourite islands in the Finnish Archipelago, Jurmo. Just love the place and the scenery.

Sample Spinning // PLAY

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.

– Carl Jung

Martha shares via Slack (with a good question): Just finished this 3ply superwash merino skein and I’m so pleased with it. The colours make me so happy and I’m really quite proud of how consistent it looks! I think it’s 13-14 wraps per inch? Can anyone input as to if I’m wrapping too loose?

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!