Ep. 227: Candy Cane Towels, Advent Spinning & Supported Spindles Fashion Show

Dear Spinning Circle,

Live Stream: Saturday, December 11th @ 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!

Live Chat Assistance here.

There is a lot going on in our community! Ketchup & Pickles for November 2021 here.

Spindle Spun Stitches

Long-Term Goal: To Spin for a Sweater

Purchased a spindle from Mizpah of Bristlecone Spindles — you can find them here

Received a few spindles from Yarn Spindles on Etsy – you can find them here

On & Off the Bobbins

SweetGeorgia Yarns silk puff (40% merino, 40% SW merino, 20% silk) ‘hearth’ – Ashford eSpinner 3; continuous backwards, lots of twist @ 1430 on speed knob

Chaotic Fibres Whiteface Woodland / Llama / Ramie / Bamboo – plan to weave with finished 2-ply yarn, sampling done on The Wool Circle here

On & Off the Needles

In Progress – Knitting

Catbells Cardigan by Megan Nodecker – Valley Yarns 100% Wool in Black, Size M 

Ystava by Jonna Hietala – Estelle Yarns Llama Worsted, 5 skeins

Lunenburg Pullover by Amy Christoffers – Dominion Fleece & Fibre North County Cheviot, naturally dyed in Indigo, Marigold, Madder

Community Inspiration // Participation

Breed & Colour Study: Shetland

Lynda Jo shares: I finally finished my Shetland Breed & Color study. It might of gone faster but I’m a very slow knitter and I basically knit the sweater twice with all the ripping out I did before I was happy. As I was knitting I was absolutely sure it was going to look terrible with all of the stripes and I did have to make some adjustments with how they landed, especially in the sleeves, but when it was all done, I loved it! I’ll include pictures of the fiber and yarn so you can see how I spun them. I ordered the yarns from darkest to lightest while knitting and the sleeves where in undied gray Shetland. The pattern is “The Weekender Light” by Andrea Mowry.

Spindle Spun Stitches

Kelli shares: I just got this beautiful icelandic lambs wool roving that I wanted to spindle spin but all of my spindles are full of long in progress projects.  Luckily I discovered that Snyder Spindles had some new whorl designs that I needed and now I can play with the lambswool.  I want to make a sweater out of this but not sure if I will leave as a single or ply.  I’m leaning towards a single but it is very soft so a loose ply could work as well.

Diana shares: Testing out the new (middle) spindle by filling it up, and comparing the spin, yarn, and feel of spinning by adding two favourites to the mix.

Barb shares: Took my summer spindle spun yarn and put it on my loom as warp then the white Jacob from B&C for the weft. What makes that? Spindle-breco?

Luxury Fibres ALONG

Heather shares: Thanks to the silk content released this month, I’ve finally spun some pure silk yarn. I’ve only done 2g because that’s all I had in my stash, I plan to track down some more hankies so I can explore it more, but for now I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I posted earlier when I started but I’m including the photo progression below to recap.

Natural Shades ALONG

Elaine shares: Happy with the way this Dorset turned out and I have lots more to spin. I put some notes on my project page as I’m trying to get better at keeping track! I’ll have to knit a swatch and see what kind of gauge I get.

Meagan shares: My spinning has been on the back burner for the last month or so because I was really into my knitting projects. But Sunday I jumped back in and spun up a 110 g  batt of Shetland in 2 days! I actually was putting off spinning it because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it and I was nervous about it because I had built it up in my head. But then I realized I was being dumb, I could always buy more. So I decided to give long draw a try and just see what happened. I wasn’t set on it being super consistent, I just knew I wanted something woolen and rustic looking. Well I got exactly that and it is surprisingly pretty consistent. It came out to 10-11 WPI. The batt still had quite a bit of lanolin (I assumed since it felt greasy/sticky). So I experimented and washed the yarn in hot water and dawn dish soap and crossed my fingers. Then rinsed it again in hot water. I’m not sure if that was the right thing to do, but it lost that sticky/greasy feeling and came out softer.

Christina shares: I’ve been support spinning a lot cotton for the past few weeks, fine tuning and learning heaps about spinning this sometimes tricky fibre. One thing for sure is just as you think you’ve mastered it you realise the next day, you haven’t. After many many metres however,  I’m feeling good about it and am totally addicted. The first pic is a wip knitted 2 ply yarn , maybe 3 ply in places as I worked my way through various styles of prep for drafting – rolags, punis, attenuated, stripped down..but finally settled on spinning across the top of sliver as being the easiest.  I’m using it up to make a towel to wrap my baked bread in. The second pic is a 4 ply of three white singles and one brown. Both are American pima cotton, the brown fibres a lot shorter than the white (<1 inch) but easy to spin. I’m crocheting a halter neck top for my daughter for Christmas, I still have a tiny bit more to spin but have started the fabric, it’s beautifully soft.

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

Laura shares: Another Zero to Hero finished! This scarf is knitted with the first yarn I spun with my own wheel, Schacht Matchless. The fibers were merino-cashmere and wool-silk. It’s Venation Shawl by Ambah O’Brien, a very nice and easy pattern for handspun. You can easily use all your yardage, as the pattern tells that you will use 1/3 of the yarn for increase sections and 2/3 for the decrease sections. It’s wise to leave a bit extra for the decreasing part though, I ran out of yarn in the last centimetres and has to use some leftovers that I had chain-plied. Well, I’m the only one who’ll notice. I started this last spring and had it as ”a commuter project” – I’ve had it in my bag between work and home and it’s been knitted mainly in the bus or train or during occasional Teams meetings at work.

Kristan shares: Handspun socks. I started the CC spin back in early November anticipating an annual sock KAL over the long Thanksgiving weekend. It’s Targhee dyed by WeeChickadee in ‘Cozy’. After binging Rachels amazing videos I opted for Clun Forest as the MC. I’m so happy I did. I had never played with the down type fibers and have found a new love of them & have since ordered multiple down breeds to play with and spin.

Sample Spinning // PLAY

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

Nicole shares: I can’t get the teal on this to read right, but I’m so so happy with this spin. I bought it at a destashing sale without a tag so I don’t for sure know the fiber content, but if I had to guess around 30% silk and a fine wool blend. A little under 4 oz, I spun it up into a two ply, about a light worsted with a grist of 941 ypp. It’s a slightly looser ply than I’ve been aiming for over the last year or so, but I think it works for the yarn. It’s a gift for one of my knitting friends, and I hope she likes it!

Dionne shares: Today I feel like I had a total light bulb moment. I put 5 skeins of yarn in my front loader to rinse and spin. If you try this just make sure the skeins are tied well. Here’s the results. This is a total game changer for me.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Until then, Happy Spinning!