Wool n' Spinning

a shared passion for handspun yarn

recent posts

about

This blog is dedicated to my Aunt Yvonne. My favourite crafting is my knitting and here I share my ideas, projects, pitfalls and successes. Vancouver, Canada
  • Finished Overshot Shawls, Sampling Corespun, Weekender Neckline & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 279

    Finished Overshot Shawls, Sampling Corespun, Weekender Neckline & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 279

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    Welcome to another stream!

    Live Stream: Tuesday, November 21st @ 10am Pacific / 12noon Central / 1pm Eastern / 6pm GMT

    Direct YouTube Link here 

    Recent Tutorial on how to use Ravelry & Slack – requests were made for help!

    Ketchup & Pickles for November 2023 here 

    CoreSpin Along

    In October, Rebecca and I sat down with Crystal Hesser to come together with a textured-yarn spin-along to finish the year. Share your photos, your favourite corespun projects you’ve made and just HAVE FUN! Let’s make a bunch of corespun yarn to celebrate all things textured yarns!

    Use the tag #corespinalong for sharing your projects. More information is here.

    I hope you enjoy this ALONG with us – even if you just spin a little bit to give the technique a try, I encourage you to do so! Click here to listen.

    K-nitting

    Weekender Light by Andrea Mowry – SweetGeorgia Yarns Polwarth + Silk in Grouse, Woodland & Tea Party {Handspun Ravelry Page here}; 2.75mm & 3.00mm (US 2 & 2.5) {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Trinigan by Andrea Mowry – Gathering Yarns Haynes Creek Heathers DK; Combo Spin handspun – Three Waters Farm with unlabelled fibre; 3.5mm/4.00mm (US 6 & 7) needles {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Looming

    Overshot Johann Schleelein’s No. 123 – Marguerite Porter Davidson’s Handweaver’s Pattern Book – Brassard 8/2 cotton in light grey (warp & ground); superwash Merino-nylon fingering weight (Indie dyed) pattern weft {Ravelry Project Page here (red) & here (peach)}

    Community Participation

    As always, thank you to those who share in the community, uploading photos and thoughts about what you are working on! I appreciate it – it’s my pleasure to be able to share!

    Thank you so much for joining me today!

    Until then, Happy Making!

  • Ketchup & Pickles | November 2023

    Ketchup & Pickles | November 2023

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    The weather has finally turned cold here in the PNW! I pulled out my parka the other evening on our way to soccer but I’ll take it because we haven’t had a ton of rain – it’s actually been sunny!

    This month, my mom, Norah and I headed to Vancouver’s Circle Craft Christmas Market at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre. We try to go every year and it did not diappoint (even though we didn’t purchase much of anything) because we just love to look, feel inspired and spend the day together.

    Enjoying a day out with Norah (L), my mom (M) & myself (R). Three generations together – I felt grateful for the day out with two of my favourite people in the whole world!

    This first Live Stream of the month has been recorded, available for your viewing pleasure, along with shownotes and whatnot here. Watch live recording here with Live Chat Replay.

    Our next Live Stream will be Tuesday, November 21st @ 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm GMT.

    Wool n’ Spinning Radio

    This month, Rebecca and I sat down to chat about our energy levels and creativity at this time of year. We’ve already had really positive feedback about the episode – what do you do at this time of year, when things start to get really busy for the holiday season, to look after yourself?

    Subscribe to Wool n’ Spinning Radio on all your podcast providers to stay up to date on the conversation! Click here to listen.

    Do you want to be on Wool n’ Spinning Radio? Reach out and send Rachel a note – she’d love to hear from you!

    In October, Rebecca and I sat down with Crystal Hesser to come together with a textured-yarn spin-along to finish the year. Share your photos, your favourite corespun projects you’ve made and just HAVE FUN! Let’s make a bunch of corespun yarn to celebrate all things textured yarns!

    Use the tag #corespinalong for sharing your projects. More information is here.

    I hope you enjoy this ALONG with us – even if you just spin a little bit to give the technique a try, I encourage you to do so! Click here to listen.

    Year of Colour | Spinning Purls

    There is lots going on this month! Check it out:

    In keeping with our CoreSpin Along, Rebecca shares tips, tricks and techniques on the most recent episode of The Wool Circle and will continue to build on that later this month! Episode is here.

    Rebecca and I have both been playing around with supercoils and corespun – one of my absolute favourite techniques. It’s fun and although it doesn’t make a lot of finished yardage, it is just so stunning! Try something new this month and see what you can create! More tips and tricks coming on the next episode of The Wool Circle.

    Be sure not to miss an episode by subscribing here.

    In Spinning Purls, we are exploring Colour Harmonies!

    • Colour Harmonies Vlog here
    • Colour Harmonies PDF here

    Rebecca and I introduced our Year of Colour idea back in the fall and now it’s time to really dive in. Getting started with colour:

    Housekeeping

    Indexes to Keep Up With All the Things:

    ***

    • For a softcover copy of How I Spin: A Sock Study, check here & e-book link here
    • For softcover copies of Unbraided: The Art & Science of Spinning Colour, check here

    ***

    If there is anything missing that you’d like to see in our Housekeeping post, please let me know!

    Warmly,

    Rachel

    P.S. What is Ketchup & Pickles, anyway? It came from my son, James, actually! He told me it is a chance to ‘catch-up’ and play (pickles).

  • Spun Up Tide Pool, Weekender Light, Looming Overshot & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 278

    Spun Up Tide Pool, Weekender Light, Looming Overshot & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 278

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    Welcome to another Live Stream! We are officially in Deep Fall and while November isn’t my favourite month, there are some wonderful things to look forward to! What do you have on your calendar this month? I’m sure for many, you are planning to gather with family for holiday seasons!

    Live Stream: Tuesday, November 7th @ 10am Pacific / 12noon Central / 1pm Eastern / 6pm GMT

    ** Note: both N. America and Europe have experienced the shift back to Standard time **

    Direct YouTube Link here

    Recent Tutorial on how to use Ravelry & Slack – requests were made for help!

    Sweater Reflections

    Thoughts about previous handspun, handknit sweaters that I’ve made & now worn!

    Discussed in today’s episode:

    • Hyssop by Leila Raven here
    • Shapely Boyfriend by Stefanie Japel here
    • Shoreline Vest by Carrie Bostick Hoge here
    • Kraemer Yarns Rose Merino/Alpaca Roving here

    SKEINED!

    Bramble Ridge Hand-Dyed Yarns BFL “Tide Pool” – hand-carding to open up, dizing straight off the carder; Majacraft Suzie Pro 27:1 {Ravelry Project Page here}

    • Spin Off Article by Kim McKenna here
    • YouTube video here

    K-nitting

    Weekender Light by Andrea Mowry – SweetGeorgia Yarns Polwarth + Silk in Grouse, Woodland & Tea Party {Handspun Ravelry Page here}; 2.75mm & 3.00mm (US 2 & 2.5) {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Looming

    Overshot Johann Schleelein’s No. 123 – Marguerite Porter Davidson’s Handweaver’s Pattern Book – Brassard 8/2 cotton in light grey (warp & ground); superwash Merino-nylon fingering weight (Indie dyed) pattern weft {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Community Participation

    As always, thank you to those who share in the community, uploading photos and thoughts about what you are working on! I appreciate it – it’s my pleasure to be able to share!

    Thank you so much for joining me today!

    Until then, Happy Making!

  • Black Light Mini Mock Neck Tank, Suspended Spindling, Brioche & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 277

    Black Light Mini Mock Neck Tank, Suspended Spindling, Brioche & More! | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 277

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    Welcome to another stream!

    Live Stream: Tuesday, October 17th @ 10am Pacific / 12noon Central / 1pm Eastern / 6pm GMT

    Direct YouTube Link here

    Community News

    • School of SweetGeorgia Spinning Luxury Fibres: Goats & Rare Workshop release here
    • What does spinning LUXURY mean to you? Giveaway Winners announced TODAY!
    • Recent Tutorial on how to use Ravelry & Slack – requests were made for help!

    Ask Anything

    Ravelry thread here to ask questions, bounce ideas & comment

    Today, from Jackie: Do you find your plying is more even if the bobbins are sitting behind you / depending on what fingers you’re using to separate the singles? Do you have any other tricks?

    Sweater Reflections

    Metamorphic by Andrea Mowry; Ravelry Project Page here

    Spindling

    • WoolieBullie Columbia roving: turquoise, raw roving, roughly dyed; tttenuating aggressively; spindling slowly on Innoxia Spindle; Ravelry Project Page here

    K-nitting

    • Total Brioche by Matt Akers; Romney-Icelandic mix, 2-ply sport, lightweight w/attentuation; Ravelry Project Page here

    FO’s

    • Mini Mock Neck Tank by Jessie Maed; Ravelry Project Page here & original here; Gingersnap Yarns in Dust Fingering, black light activated, no modifications to tank

    Community Inspiration // Participation

    As always, thank you to those who share in the community, uploading photos and thoughts about what you are working on! I appreciate it – it’s my pleasure to be able to share!

    Thank you so much for joining me today!

    Until then, Happy Making!

  • Knit City Recap, BFL Prep, Drum Carding & More | Wool n’ Spinning, ep. 276

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    Welcome to another stream! Since last time, I had a chance to get to Knit City Vancouver 2023 – I had a great time with the limited amount of time I was able to be there for but it was grand to see friends, catch up, have a meal & catch a lecture. More in the show!

    Direct YouTube Link here

    Community News

    • School of SweetGeorgia Spinning Luxury Fibres: Goats & Rare Workshop release here

    What does spinning LUXURY mean to you? Link to enter the giveaway here

    • Previous Episodes re. Combo-Spinning here  and here (preparing the fibre), spinning the fibre here
    • Suspended Spindling demonstration here of FatCatKnits Falkland – Bosworth spindle-spun
    • Recent Tutorial on how to use Ravelry & Slack – requests were made for help!

    Attune Shawl Along

    • Attune Shawl Along Ravelry Thread here
    • FO Thread here – share your finished shawls for prizes!
    • Deadline to submit your FO photos is September 30th – prize draw NEXT EPISODE!

    Attune Shawl by Andrea Mowry – Organic Polwarth singles spin (Ravelry Project Page here) & Hello Yarn Falkland singles spin (Ravelry Project Page here); 2.75mm // US 2 needles

    Ask Anything

    Ravelry thread here to ask questions, bounce ideas & comment

    Spinning Growth

    Ravelry thread here to ask questions, bounce ideas & comment

    From Laura: Here is my first skein spun with the antique wheel! I really love spinning with it. It’s fast so I’m only able to spin quite thin with it but I really don’t mind. Somehow spinning with this old lady feels more stable than spinning with my Matchless or Hansen minispinner. Especially after I got some new custom made bobbins, the old ones have cracks that affect spinning.

    Fibre Preparation

    Year of Colour Capstone: Graerup Sweater by Camilla Vad – blending up tinted triadic colourway to be able to do some sampling (50/50 triad & white); Corriedale {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Spinning

    Bramble Ridge Hand-Dyed Yarns BFL “Tide Pool” – hand-carding to open up, dizing straight off the carder; Majacraft Suzie Pro 27:1 {Ravelry Project Page here}

    • Spin Off Article by Kim McKenna here
    • YouTube video here

    K-nitting

    Attune Shawl by Andrea Mowry – Hello Yarn Falkland & Organic Polwarth singles; 2/75mm (US 2) {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Trinigan by Andrea Mowry – Three Waters Farm & unlabelled Falkland combo spin {Ravelry Project Page here} with Gathering Yarns Haynes Creek Heathers DK in 411 Pink; 3.5mm & 4.00mm (US 6 & 7) needles {Ravelry Projects Page here}

    Weekender Light by Andrea Mowry – SweetGeorgia Yarns Polwarth + Silk in Grouse, Woodland & Tea Party {Handspun Ravelry Page here}; 2.75mm & 3.00mm (US 2 & 2.5) {Ravelry Project Page here}

    Community Inspiration // Participation

    As always, thank you to those who share in the community, uploading photos and thoughts about what you are working on! I appreciate it – it’s my pleasure to be able to share!

    Thank you so much for joining me today!

    Until then, Happy Making!

  • CoreSpin Along | Wool n’ Spinning Radio, ep. 0098

    CoreSpin Along | Wool n’ Spinning Radio, ep. 0098

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    “Corespinning creates an amazing yarn that can replace a conventional-spun yarn.“ -Crystal Hesser

    I have something special to share with you this month! As part of our conversation in August, Crystal and I talked about bringing the community together with a textured-yarn spin-along to finish the year. Share your photos, your favourite corespun projects you’ve made and just HAVE FUN! Let’s make a bunch of corespun yarn to celebrate all things textured yarns! Use the tag #corespinalong for sharing your projects.

    Find the episode on all your favourite podcast organizers! Remember to like & subscribe – leave a review if you have a chance. It helps the audio podcast be found by others. To listen, click here.

    To share your spinning, we have a couple of places to share:

    Slack Channel: #texturedyarn

    Ravelry Group: CoreSpin Along here

    To help ground you in what Corespun yarns are, look like and might be used for, here are some photos to help! First, basic corespun:

    Here is an example of plied corespun yarn:

    Rebecca talks about her corespun sweater, Nebula, at length in the episode:

    Photo Copyright Rebecca Osborn

    Rebecca’s Project Page here and FREE Ravelry pattern here. Rebecca also mentions the technique autowrapping, which is another way of wrapping fibre onto a core. This is an example of a corespun yarn that I also autowrapped thread around, then plied:

    Crystal shared her idea of corespinning her bird’s nest that became an amazing fascinator:

    Corespun yarn then supercoiled:

    Finally, weaving with corespun yarns with fulling to make a project bag:

    We have talked about corespinning in the community previously:

    Tips to Get Started:

    1. Don’t give up
    2. Good, strong core
    3. Add twist to the core prior to starting
    4. Even tension so that the core is being moved onto the bobbin steadily (this keeps the twist from building up beforehand)
    5. Steam to finish
    6. Have FUN!

    MUSIC //

    Glow & Yellow by Scott Buckley (@ScottBuckley) – released under CC-BY 4.0. scottbuckley.com.au

    I hope you enjoy this ALONG with us – even if you just spin a little bit to give the technique a try, I encourage you to do so!

    Warmly,

    Rachel

  • Ketchup & Pickles | September 2023

    Ketchup & Pickles | September 2023

    Dear Spinning Circle,

    Once again, the school year has crept up on me and Lo! We are here already: Up to our necks in school work! Far from a bad thing, this is a lovely return to routine. The podcast has been Live Streamed a couple of times this month already, I am reading a really good book & we have eaten some really good food!

    Remember that we are getting down to the wire for knitting your Attune Shawls – share your progress, spinning & knitting in the Ravelry thread here and submit your FO photos here (chatter-free) for Prizes! POST DEADLINE: September 30th.

    Our first live stream this month is here – I talk about all things prepping for a big spin & casting on for my Attune shawl. And we Live Streamed a really fun show this past week, available here. 

    Recent Tutorial on how to use Ravelry & Slack – requests were made for help!

    Wool n’ Spinning Radio

    This month, Rebecca and I sat down with Linda Jennings of ColorStorms. We had a lovely conversation about creating colour with natural dyes & I hope you enjoy listening! 

    Subscribe to Wool n’ Spinning Radio on all your podcast providers to stay up to date on the conversation! Click here to listen.

    Do you want to be on Wool n’ Spinning Radio? Reach out and send Rachel a note – she’d love to hear from you!

    Year of Colour | Spinning Purls

    Rebecca and I introduced our Year of Colour idea back in the fall but now it’s time to really dive in. Getting started with colour:

    Events in September include lots of spinning and exploring!

    The Wool Circle | Combination Drafting Exploration 

    In Spinning Purls, we are continuing with the Colour Contrasts!

    This month, we explored Contrast of Saturation … I am kind of smitten with the yarns that I made for this study!

    • Contrast of Saturation Vlog here 
    • Contrast of Saturation PDF here 

    Next month, we will be discussing Contrast of Proportion … hang tight — we are almost finished all the Contrasts of Colour!

    Lastly, we have the PDF published of the Exploring Sheep Fleece Vlog ready! You can find that here.

    Housekeeping

    Indexes to Keep Up With All the Things:

    ***

    • For a softcover copy of How I Spin: A Sock Study, check here & e-book link here
    • For softcover copies of Unbraided: The Art & Science of Spinning Colour, check here

    ***

    If there is anything missing that you’d like to see in our Housekeeping post, please let me know!

    Warmly,

    Rachel

    P.S. What is Ketchup & Pickles, anyway? It came from my son, James, actually! He told me it is a chance to ‘catch-up’ and play (pickles).