Oops... I forgot about #TourDeFleece yesterday. I remembered today though. I'm still figuring out the supported spindle and still enjoying it.
How is everyone's spinning going?
Oops... I forgot about #TourDeFleece yesterday. I remembered today though. I'm still figuring out the supported spindle and still enjoying it.
How is everyone's spinning going?
I think I can knit socks in my size relatively quickly because... they're more interesting.
Was watching a YT channel calmed NorwegianKnitter and she has started felted slippers for her family.
I want to use my handspun... but none is suitable for socks. I have that Cotswold fleece that I have 2 skeins of different weights. Long wools tend to be like a natural nylon. But I haven't tried it so I dont trust it yet.
Good morning.
I might make socks for parents for Christmas. Like, dk or worsted weight. Works up MUCH faster than fingering weight socks. (Though, I have big feet and I could finish a pair of MY socks in 1-2 weeks if my attention span is working with me.)
I kinda wanna use handspun. But I didn't add nylon to ANY of my handspun, save for some cotton yarn. It just never occurs to me. I could find it and dye some, along with firestar.
Please advise! I want to knit with handspun yarn. I’m making a swatch with different needle sizes to see what would be best. But I can’t decide! It all looks good to me. The bottom is done on needles 4 mm, the middle part on 3 mm and the top part on 2.5 mm. You can *feel* the difference because the bottom@part is the firmest, but wouldn’t that be great for a cardigan?
#knitting #spinning
Tour de Fleece day 13 and 14. Not much time for spinning these two days. But I managed to squeeze in a few minutes every day between the other tasks. #TourDeFleece2025 #HandSpinning #SpindleSpinning #Spinning
So now I get excited when the post people deliver a stick to the house
I can't wait to try supported spindle. Hopefully I'll get a chance over the weekend if my cold shifts enough so my brain is not just a confused mess at everything.
Spinning wool to the rhythm of the rain and wind for today's #TourDeFleece. The garden and I are much happier in this weather.
I wonder if anyone else with dogs has looked at their vortex-type vacuum output and wondered whether they could spin that.
I mean look at it! The fibers are all nicely aligned! If you could just ignore the dust and dander, it's practically combed!
This is from our hand-held Dyson vacuum, after a quick sweep of the basement before my weekly workout.
The transparent paint made the Louet a bit too dark in my opinion. So I painted the wheel after all. I’m so pleased with how it turned out!!! #Spinning
A week into the #TourDeFleece and I've finally managed to put together a blog post about what I'm working on! The pictures don't show how very sparkly this fibre is, so I've included a video in the post: https://www.knittingpirate.com/2025/07/11/in-which-the-pirate-spins-with-le-tour/
Today, I carded the cool blues and greens and a dark gray together and spun the resulting 1 oz batt. That means I've spun through this braid and will ply tomorrow to free up my bobbins to spin another bump with different colors. #TourdeFleece #spinning @spinning
I plied the rest of the alpaca/zwartbles mixture. Tomorrow one mor coat of paint on the Louet I hope it turns out nicely #spinning
General thoughts: combing is a satisfying process, if a bit slow, especially compared to an electric drum carder! Probably on par with hand carding the same amount.
This fur seems much looser than the roving and top I've seen people produce in videos online. The word "diaphanous" comes to mind with some of the finer bits of sliber I pulled off, as seen in the second photo.
I guess I need to get my hands on some real wool roving/top for comparison!
I'm looking forward to running some spinning tests with this fur, both woolen and worsted style, to see how it responds. And then compare combing the washed fur mat with loose, but unwashed, stuff that remains. I suspect that the unwashed fur will be less matted, and thus quicker to run through the process. And not notably dirtier.
Side note: the color and texture of this combed top is a LOT like my own long hair, and that of my mother, from whom I got most of my genes. It's kind of disconcerting!
Time to talk about my new combs!
In a previous post, I teased that I got some combs from Bam Fiber Works as an alternative to carding Oni the Tibetan Mastiff's long fur. I've been testing them out, and so far, it's bee really good!
But first: a bit of a clean. I took half of the darkest bin of fur (what remained after the original 7oz drum carding test) and split it into half, which I then put into a laundry bag and washed. By luck, my random selection on Amazon returned laundry bags that perfectly fit the cement mixing trough that I've been using for washing/fixing fiber already!
I gave the fiber a good soak with mild agitation, rinse, and then took the whole back outside to dry in the sun and breeze.
The result is... a bit more matted than I'd hoped. But it's salvageable. I can pull it apart into clumps, then load it onto the combs for standard combing passes before pulling off into a sliver. It smells nicer, albeit with still a strong doggy scent. I have yet to decide if washing is worth it...
...
For today's #TourDeFleece spin, I pulled apart the remaining 2 ounces of my Three Waters Farm braid of Cardinal & Bunting merino and separated the colors evenly into cool & warm, and I carded the warm colors on my drum carder. Then I loaded up my wheel & went to a local brewery where I spun the whole ounce with some guild friends. Tomorrow I'll blend the cool colors & spin them. As no surprise to anyone, least of all me, I have my spinning mojo back. #spinning @spinning
Tour de Fleece started yesterday, July 5th. (Also the Tour de France.)
I have SO many spinning wips. I joined two teams, one for spinning fleeces and one for spindle spinning.
I should have joined the Queer spinning team, but they're doing a more formal style and I can't do strict rules right now. (I also don't want prizes or to place in the top 3 or whatever. Idk why.)
I'm working on clearing off bead spindles to spin a sock yarn.
I ended up spinning much longer than the 15 minutes that I planned on - I haven't spun since last fall and it was so good to feel the wool in my hands! I'm spinning Three Waters Farm roving (https://www.threewatersfarm.com) superfine merino in the Cardinal and Bunting colorway. I split the roving in half and then one of those in half again but I haven't thought or planned anything beyond that. #TourDeFleece #spinning @spinning
Five little rolags, my first attempt at #handspinning yarn for socks. My feet are so tender that previous socks made with commercial sock yarn hurt to walk in. This is polwarth, rabbit angora, and mohair, and I'm going to spin woolen. We'll see. #spinning #handmade #fiberarts
Tried to take the Louet #spinning wheel apart. The wheel didn’t come off. I cleaned it. Now thinking of painting something simple on it and then lackering the wheel so it’s easier to clean