WnS Ep. 215: Delving into Spinning Sheep Breeds Kit || Shetland

Dear Spinning Circle,

Live Stream: Saturday, September 18th @ 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!

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Spinning On The Wheel || Shetland

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

For September, tell us about the fibres you DISLIKE and WHY! Share in the Ravelry episode thread or comments on YouTube or here on Patreon!

Breed & Colour Studies – Shetland

Kaitlin shares via Ravelry: I finally got to knit a project with my Shetland breed and color study yarns! I really struggled to find a pattern that fit the colors and yarn weights I had, but I knew I wanted to use them all together in a big project. I ended up designing a simple scarf pattern with a repeating motif from Knit Freedom so I could observe the colors together. In hindsight, I regret the stripes. Stripes aren’t my favorite anyways, but they also fail to show off the color management I did while spinning. Several times, marled sections in similar colors ended up in adjacent stripes, and the colorwork motif was lost and muddied. Still, that’s all part of the learning process, and so for that reason I’m glad I tried it! I really love how the undyed white yarn and the dyed gray yarn play against each other. They have really good contrast! Towards the end of knitting, I started to run out of yarn, so I ended up seaming the ends together for a cowl. The three Shetland bases make for really different yarns. The moorit yarn is dense and a bit rustic, causing the fabric to hold its shape rather than drape. The white and gray sections had a lot more flow, possibly helped by the fact that they were spun a little more fine and didn’t fill in as many of the gaps in the fabric. Knitting such a big project right after spinning it has helped me see a bit more how my spinning choices affect the final fabric. I’m currently pondering the density of a lot of my handspun yarns and wondering how to get more air (and possibly less twist) in my singles. If I could go back to the beginning of this study knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have split my Shetland bases exactly in half. I think I would have picked out a pattern first and tried to match the amount and color of fiber to the project needs. Overall, though, I learned a LOT about my spinning process and preferences all while experiencing a new fiber that I am thoroughly in love with.

Megan shares via Ravelry: Here is my breed and color study handspun Fading Point by Joji! The first 4 colors are the shetland handspun breed and color study and the last 2 are commercial stash yarn. This project is massive at almost 2000 yards of fingering weight yarn. It will keep me very warm this winter! There are a lot more photos on my project page if you want a closer look!

Breed & Colour Studies – Jacob

Barb shares via Slack: My B&C is working out! I decided to try a single that I could use in a lace project. Never spun for a single before now  I felted the singles a bit by balling up the wet yarn through my fingers and a running my fingers on it a second time while putting it on my niddy noddy to skein and dry. I’m knitting Bright Tomorrow, and it is all I hoped for, so far “Ravelry: Bright Tomorrow pattern by Boo Knits”

Spindle Spun Summer (SSS)

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

Maegan shares via Ravelry: Spinning lots of yardage in many colours in her Turkish spindles. I store all of them in my basket and carry it around spinning as I have a moment. I split the 10 grams into 2 spinning the singles onto two spindles. The next day I will roll them into a ply ball. And the next day I will ply them together. 5 weeks left hoping I can finish all the colors.

Caitlin shares via Ravelry: My first handful of spins, earliest on the left and most recent on the right. All are merino top, two ply, spun and plied on drop spindles. The biggest challenge has been managing joins between lengths of fiber. I think I’m getting a good feel for drafting consistent singles, and I’ve graduated to actually standing to spin! (Over a carpet, don’t worry. The spindle still hits the floor every few minutes, haha.) It’s so magical to watch fluffs of fiber turn into lengths of yarn with just a gentle pull and a twist.

Also from Caitlin: So I’ve been busy. I started spinning some beautiful brown alpaca (I still have more of that roving to spin) and then got sidetracked with a sampler of different sheep breeds. Left to right top row: Shropshire, North Ronaldsay, Radnor, and Icelandic. Alpaca is below. Spinning all these different breeds has been so much fun and I have eight more to try! The Icelandic is definitely the most challenging to spin so far, I’m absolutely in love with the soft oatmeal color of the Ronaldsay, and I have a mighty need to knit up a pair of Radnor or Shropshire socks. So far my two drop spindles have spun up over a thousand yards of singles. I imagine they’ll continue to be my trusty little workhorses, even if I acquire more spindles or a wheel.

Antonia shares via Ravelry: I brought my wheel back from vacation at my parent’s place so spindle spinning has slowed down a bit. But I did manage to ply my mohair spin and I really like how it turned out. I got 165 m / 105 g and around 16 WPI. 495 m for spindle spun summer :) I also just had an idea for a companion spin of some orange-yellow BFL/Mohair blend so I’ll have enough yardage for a small shawl or cowl. I also started my next spin, bit of a palate cleanser. Some dyed Finn, though it more reminds me of Lett Lopi. I’m spinning it as thick singles accordingly, curious how it’ll turn out after finishing. How do you usually finish toothy singles yarn? I also started a new spindle spin, some lovely golden fibre blend of BFL, Mohair and Silk. It spins up like a dream but not sure I’ll manage to finish it before the end of SSS. September is always so busy.

Diana shares via Slack: Here’s all the (unfinished) 2-ply from my various spindle experiments. I’m really excited about the light blue yarn spun on a Turkish spindle. That yarn is Dorset blended with a bit of each of the fibres from the Exotics spinbox. It’s smooth and has a sheen – looking forward to seeing how all the yarn change once I wash them.

Kelli shares via Slack: Three weeks ago I went to a fiber retreat called Yarnie Camp in McCall, Idaho.  It was a perfect 4 days of workshops, knitting, spinning and good friends.  I was inspired to start some fingerless mitts with my most recent spindle spun and plied frankenstein which is made from miscellaneous pieces of merino fiber from Wound Up Fiber Arts.  I didn’t have a pattern so just knit in 1 x1 rib.  I ran out of yarn after starting the 2nd mitt and now I’m spinning some more so I can finish.  Obviously these two mitts will be far from matching but I know they will be favorites because they originated during a beautiful weekend in a beautiful place.

Ange shares via Slack: Spurred on by @mary jo reminder that this Sal will be coming to an end soon I’ve decided to return to the spin that was my original goal for sss (before I got distracted by ALL of the other spinning projects). I was aiming to spin through a sample box of fibres that had been in my stash for a couple of years but yeah I’ve only manage to spin the singles for 5 of the 20+ in that box. In my defence these first colourful samples were a blend that included some Manx loaghtan, which led me off on a tangent as I knew I also had a small piece of Manx in raw fleece form and decided that maybe they could all be spun and worked up in a project together. That meant of course I had to go off and wash and card my fleece sample ( See I told you I had a good excuse for not concentrating on my original goal). Anyhow singles are now all spun up so it’s time to try and get these all plied up over the next couple of days.  Hopefully I can get them done and then move on to finish up at least on more spindle wip before the end of this Sal. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Zero to Hero // #sweaterspin #useyourhandspun #spinallthethings #weavewithhandspun

Tracey shares via Ravelry: My Shifty sweater! Started with these skeins that were mostly a sport/fingering two ply, I was going for a subtle contrast this time. Lots of bits and bobs left over. I was trying to match the arms with the body the best I could.

Claudia shares via Ravelry: I spun up 2 bfl braids from Created by Elsie B. I had fun spinning one singles on the wheel and one singles on my supported spindles, plied on the wheel for both braids. I knew i wanted to make a stripy projet with them and the Rock it Tee from Tanis Lavallée was just perfect for it. I’m so proud and in love with my handspun tee!

Elise shares via Slack: My first handspun socks! I made these from 100% polwarth top. I stripped it 4 times and spun each one very fine end-to end, then made a traditional 4 ply. I was so pleased to have it come out as sock weight yarn. I split it into two balls and then knit the socks concurrently with alternating stripes, toe up so I could use as much of the yarn as possible. The colors started and finished kind of muddy but honestly these will match with a lot of the kind of clothing I like to wear anyway.

Samantha shares via Slack: OMG!!!!! I have finished my Throwback cardigan by Andrea Mowry!!! I am so so thrilled with it. Three ply worsted using a mix of merino, Corriedale, Shetland and polworth. Excuse the rubbish photos but it is 10pm on Sunday night. I will ask Hubby to take some better pictures soon in daylight. I just wanted to share this with you guys

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: This skein is mostly dried, which is good because it’s about to go out the door as a gift to my friend who is very generous with her time and car (she helped me pick up my second wheel this summer)

Sue shares via Slack: Just under a month’s worth of spinning all wound and ready for my fair isle class. A wonderful learning journey, and I’m pleased with the result. The large cake is the main colour. I will definitely need to spin more of this down the track. Gradients in blue, purple, red violet, and magenta. The bottom row is potential pop colours. I think I have enough light colours. If not, I’ll need to blend one notch lighter for some of the colours.

Brittany shares via Slack: So, I collect all the discard fibre scraps. And then I finally get to card it a together and spin a mystery skein. This one is so dreamy.

Weaving

Kelly shares via Slack: Latest weaving done! Despite my best efforts the different wools made the finishing a tad bumpy. I think once I cut, sew, and stuff it’ll all look fine. First photo is all over but the light is a tad weird outside, so the second photo shows the actual colours better. All hand spun – browns are natural shades, blues and greens I dyed using various indigo/marigold/Osage treatments.

Dionne shares via Slack: Ok, I’m totally excited – My first woven piece is off the loom and ready to be turned into a messenger bag. It’s 14×38 inches(35x96cm), I should have enough to also make a little change purse.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!