Free ebook and the New Year

Hello everyone, hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, Yule or however you celebrate this time of the year. Just a quick message to let you all know about a free ebook available through the link below for any budding cotton spinner (excuse the pun, couldn't resist!).

Cotton Spinning

Hope to see you all in the New Year, hope 2012 brings much joy to everyone and Happy Spinning!

Woolly Wednesday will be back here on 4th January, please come and share with us what woolly things you have been up to - spinning, knitting, felting, weaving, crochet ... all welcome.

See you in 2012!
Love from Dawn and Kelly at Spinspiration

Kelly's December Woolly Wednesday

I am late posting this month but better late than never!

 I have done some spinning this past month though.  I find even if I do just 20 minutes here and there it keeps me spinning for the therapeutic, quiet time!  I finished off all the European wool and have now turned my attentions to spinning up two fleeces of beautiful creamy white organic Lleyn wool.  This is a Welsh breed and is a fine dense medium length wool.  I started this a few months back and then abandoned it in favour of the European wools.  I have decided to stick to spinning the Lleyn until I have spun up the whole two fleeces.  It really is a joy to spin this wool.  I have a jumbo flyer for my spinning wheel so I've decided to change to that and keep at it.  I wonder how many skeins I will manage?  Once all done, I hope to dye it up using Kool-Aid in a variety of colours in the spring.  So that is my current spinning project.

Here is a sweet pebble vest I knitted for my littlest boy using my handspun fawn alpaca.  It feels so soft and snuggly.  I like the nice, rustic look!

Using mostly my handspun, I have completed the ox and the sheep for the knitted nativity scene I am knitting.

More pebble vests for my new little niece born at the end of November.

And just for fun, my boys wanted me to buy this huge big ball of part wool/part acrylic yarn.  They want to see just how many things can be knitted using this ball.  First up, Noah wants me to knit him a pebble vest since I have been knitting quite a few recently and he would like one too.  So that is what is on the needles to being with.  Wish me luck with that red ball!  I could be at it for some time!

To end with, here is a happy picture of sheep in the snow in the beautiful Peak District.  I loved seeing beautiful white sheep on a vast snowy landscape.  First snow we have seen this winter!
Wishing you all a very happy, memorable Christmas season.

December 2011 - Woolly Wednesday

Welcome to the December Woolly Wednesday gathering! So what have you been up to this month? Maybe something festive? Come join us with any spinning, knitting, weaving, felting ...

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here.

Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the near future, we look forward to seeing you ...

Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Blessings for the Winter Season to all.

Dawns Woolly Wednesday for December 2011

Hello December. No spinning! Forgive me spinning wheel(s) for I have neglected you this month (again!), but I promise that you and I will be reacquainted after the festive period, if not before.

In light of there being no spinning this month, I will share what I have been doing with wool this month. I have been doing a lot of felting - items for ourselves, gifts for others and a few additions to my etsy shop. I made this Father Christmas for our home, I think his hat is a little over-sized but we like him, I made another for the shop but with a better sized hat. I have another of these in the making with legs this time but he has no beard or hat yet!

Needle Felted Father Christmas

 

in need of a hat and beard!

In other felting I have made an item for a gift swap amongst a few friends, I'm pretty sure the recipient doesn't browse this blog so I will share a couple of pictures here. It's a felt journal using a lovely art sketchbook as the book being covered. I had lots of fun with this and plan to make more soon.

 Felt journal cover

Moving onto knitting, there are (as always) more than one project on the go. Some started long ago and really left for too long, now I need to get on with them as they are gifts for Christmas. (note to self: stop getting distracted by other projects!).

I have this little project on the go and coming together now in making up the items for my daughter for Christmas ... maybe I'll reveal the finished result at Christmas! Any guesses? Answers on a postcard please ...

mystery project 1

Another project for another member of the family, although no doubt my daughter will acquire these one day, and yes you've guessed I'm not saying what this is either! Please no guesses as the recipient may read the blog and comments ;-).

mystery project 2

There is still the handspun handknit socks for the husband (he knows about these!), it really is time to turn those heels. Hoping these will be finished soon.

And another one, although not a Christmas gift, but a winter hat/scarf combo for my daughter and as it is getting colder now I really should get on and finish this ... nearly there.

 Hat/Scarf combo for Imogen

There are other things I've so nearly started recently, only to shout STOP at myself, not until the other things are finished. I've still to finish some felting gifts too and there isn't long left until Christmas. Am I the only one who can't stick to one thing at a time? Are you disciplined at finishing items? If so, how do you do it?

Merry Christmas to all, or seasons blessings if you celebrate the season or Yule rather than Christmas. I've enjoyed this space this year and look forward to sharing it with you all in 2012!

See you in the New Year!

November Woolly Wednesday - Dawn ... eventually!

Sorry for being so late this month, busy old time here and not a lot of spinning to share anyway. I have however been doing a lot of felting which I have blogged about on my blog Raising Seedlings. Other than that it has been getting my woven squares ready for the Guild challenge for our meeting this weekend.

So those weaving squares I have been making on and off this year were to

a) use up odd bits of spun wool, small balls that wouldn't make up much else; and

b) to make a cushion for the Guild challenge.

It's the Guild meeting this weekend and the November one always includes the revealing of members' Guild challenge projects which this year was to make a cushion for the seats to make sitting at meetings a little more comfortable.

 This week I gathered them all up and realised I needed another couple in white so quickly made them on Sunday. I have now sewn them all up - using white breed squares on one side and a mix of colours on the other side. I then looked at it and thought it would look nice with a border so quickly started knitting that up to sew in between the layers. Here are the squares all sewn up -

 

Squares sewn together

Greys/White mixed squares side

So here it is finished with the border, I have used Dorset Horn, Hampshire Down, Portland, Jacobs, Zwartble/Suffolk cross and a little Shetland.

 

Greys and mixed colours side above

White square side below - 2 shades of white from different sheep breeds

Sheep to finished product - all fleece prepared from raw fleece from the sheep, spun, plied, washed, woven and a little knitting and here is my finished cushion to make those hard seats more comfortable to sit on.

I am really pleased with the result, enjoyed making this and it has inspired me to make a blanket out of more squares - I'm going to do it as a kind of fibre samples blanket - every time I spin something different I shall weave a square to add to the blanket. I have a plan to spin as many breeds as possible in all their glorious natural colours over time.

So a challenge finished for the Guild challenge of 2011, and a new challenge for me which I shall start and blog about in January 2012.

Woolly Wednesday - November 2011

Welcome to the November Woolly Wednesday gathering! So what have you been up to this month? What plans do yo have soon especially with the festive season just around the corner? Come join us ...

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here.

Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the near future, we look forward to seeing you ...

Kelly's November Woolly Wednesday - stash building

Some of what I have spun recently.  I am working through my stash of various mostly European wool.

The lighter brown, coarser ball at the bottom is Russian Karakul.  The darker brown, softer at the top is Portuguese Merino.

I am halfway through spinning up some New Zealand merino and then I will move on to the German mountain sheep wool.

After that I have one more lot of French country sheep wool and then I am done with adding these wonderful wools to my stash.  All beautiful shades of browns, blacks, greys and whites.

Here's a picture of my mostly European wool stash so far.

Please do link up with any fibre related crafting or just pop in to say hello and visit the links.  We leave the link up for quite a while so no hurry!

Free ebook Spinning Rare Sheep Breeds and other fibres

Another free e-book easily downloaded from Spinning Daily - just need to register your email address with them if you haven't already.

A Guide to Spinning Wool: Learn How to Spin Wool from Rare Sheep Breeds and Other Wool Fibers

ETA- having now opened the file it covers these breeds - 

Border Leicester (and a Christmas stocking pattern)

Wensleydale Longwool (and a scarf pattern)

American Jacob (and a pattern for some crocheted slippers)

It's Woolly Wednesday for November tomorrow, why not join us with a project you have been up to recently with your wool or fibres. 

Wooly Wednesday October 2011

Welcome to the October Woolly Wednesday!  So what have you been up to this month? What plans do yo have soon? Come join us ...

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here.

Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the near future, we look forward to seeing you ...

Dawns adventures for Woolly Wednesday October!

Spinning on the wheel

 

Another month already, how did that happen? I wan to do some serious spinning next month, or at least over the Autumn and Winter months as I'm feeling it is getting neglected at the moment.

September was a busy month for me with my daughter Imogen returning to school and it being her 6th birthday later in the month so my hands were busy on other projects, at least some of them were woolly so I will share those those month.

I love bunting and have various bits of bunting to hang for celebrations. These include knitted bunting for Imogen for her birthday so I recently knitted a new bunting triangle for her age.

I also have a tradition of making her a felt crown and badge so have used some bought wool felt mix, and used a combination of wet felting and needle felting and sewing to create these for her this year which she loved and showed them to her teachers and friends at school.

 felting a rainbow for a badge - bit of wet then needle felting

 

Birthday crown and badge ready for the birthday girl

I've also started doing some other felting and planning some gifts for Christmas, but maybe I'll share those next month. Imogen is also desperate to do some felting so we are hoping to do that soon too - she's had her eye on the fibre I was spinning in this post - the bright rainbow mix. So watch this space.

Spinning at the show

So onto spinning. I have done a little spinning when I attended the Romsey Show - an agricultural show locally which the Guild has had a presence at for some time. That's me above in the photo, struggling at that time as we had just been for a walk and I still had my walking shoes on and I cannot treadle well with them! I was soon barefoot again, my preferred footwear when spinning. I took the Louet wheel and some Icelandic grey roving so I didn't need to do too much preparation before spinning.

 Icelandic - long staple as shown above

 Icelandic single - so lovely and easy to spin

 2 ply bobbins of Portland (more socks?) and the Icelandic

It's a lovely long staple fibre and a lovely colour. I have some other colours of Icelandic too as they range from white to brown to greys. No idea what I shall be doing with this wool although it's not next to skin softness so maybe something like a bag which I may felt too.

Other projects still on the go are the socks and the weaving squares that I blogged about last month, the weaving squares cushion should be finished by next month so I can share more pictures of that then. Actually maybe that's what I can use the Icelandic wool for - using it in weaving as a single.

So what has everyone else been up to with their wool and fibres this month?

Kelly's October Woolly Wednesday - Storing fleece

This past month I finished spinning up some fawn alpaca that I had had on the wheel on and off for a few months.  I found it was one of those projects I kept putting aside and moving on to something else so I was determined to get it all finished up.  I now have a couple of balls of alpaca all ready for knitting up.  Done!

I have now moved on to spinning up some Swiss Waliser Schwarznase wool.  It is a little coarse with quite a long staple and spins up really easily.  Follow the link - aren't they such gorgeous sheep with their black noses and bells around their necks!  This is one of the European wools I bought from that lovely little craft shop I often mention.

Yesterday, I had a big sort out of my fleece collection.  Since moving house, I had stuffed it all here and there and it was time to pay it some attention.

My procedure for storing fleece is this.  Once I have washed a fleece and it is completely dry, I store it in a cotton pillow case.  Yesterday, I went through all of those pillowcases and added a couple of horse-chestnuts (conkers) and a sachet of lavender to each bag.  These are to deter moths and other insects that might want to invade my wool.

Horse chestnuts (conkers)

Little sachets of dried lavender I make up.

I then make a label noting down the type of fleece and any other details I might want to remember about that fleece such as colour, whether it is a shearling, colour, month sheared, washed.  I even laminate the label!  I then tie the bag up with cotton tape and make sure the label is attached securely.

A cotton pillowcase containing a washed Cotswold fleece, a sachet of lavender and horse chestnut.

 After that, I store the bags.  I keep the fleeces I plan to work on soon in our playroom/work room/craft room which is where I tend to do my spinning, my next bunch of fleeces in my clothes cupboard(yes, my fleeces have preference over clothes with me!), and the rest in the garage which is clean, dry and well ventilated.  The car isn't parked in there so no car fumes.

Stored fleeces in well ventilated, dry area.

I also keep a list of what fleeces I have.  This may sound rather particular but I need to because I have a lot of fleeces.  I won't tell you how many I have - it is a bit embarrassing just how many fleeces I have, not to mention bags of prepared fibres!
So that is what I do to store fleece.  Please do share any other tips that you may have on storing fleece.

Also, this month, I finally managed to get a used ball winder off Ebay.  My children and I have had great fun winding wool.  What a fun gadget!

Here is some of my handspun stash that we have wound into lovely, neat balls.  Now I need to add labels to this lot so I don't forget what is what!

Hope you have all enjoyed a great month and looking forward to sitting around this virtual circle with you all over autumn enjoying wool-related crafting.

Woolly Wednesday - September

Welcome to the September Woolly Wednesday! There is an air of Autumn here in England this week, the perfect time to sit cosily in your home and think of woolly things to create. So what have you been up to this month?

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here.

Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month, we look forward to seeing you ...

Woolly Wednesday - Dawn's adventures with wool this month!

As Autumn approaches there are usually more woolly projects creeping in for those cosy dark evenings. So as that time approaches here, I've got a few different things started or in mind - some knitting, some felting, some weaving and of course more spinning.

So what about the last month? Well I've been mainly spinning Dorset Horn fleece this month, in amongst lots of Summer fun with Imogen being at home for the school holidays. So not much to share this month but here are a few pictures of the Dorset which has carded so nicely - this beautiful fibre just pulls wonderfully from the rolags to the bobbin, almost effortless, here are pictures of the singles I've spun and the two singles plied on the bobbins.

 Dorset Horn spun and plied on the Louet

I've had a request for handspun house socks for a Christmas present so these I have cast on and am trying a new method for me - knitting two socks at the same time on a long circular needle. I have done the leg so far and about to start shaping the heel. It seems a simple method and avoids that problem of knitting one sock and not getting around to knitting the second - I like that!

 Shoeboxes are useful for holding two big balls of handspun wool!

2 at a time socks on a circular needle

My other main project on the go at the moment involves weaving on a hand held weavette frame. I picked these up on the Guild sales table last year and have enjoyed making these ever since. Some have become rugs for my daughters dolls house, others have become other playthings. These frames are so much fun and easy to use - I can whip one of these up in no time.

 Weavette weaving frames

 The growing pile of woven squares

This little pile is for a seat cushion/pad to make sitting at Guild meetings more comfortable. Our Guild like many has a yearly challenge and this years was to make a cushion for the seats. So these have been made with my handspun yarn oddments and a couple of other 100% wool yarns I have too. I think I shall try and make enough so it is all from my handspun yarn and use the others for something else.

Just need to sort out the order/pattern and sew them together

So that's what's keeping my fingers busy this month, how about you?

Kelly's September Woolly Wednesday

During August the only spinning I did was to spin and ply this French country sheep fleece.  The wool came from that wonderful little craft shop I have mentioned before.  I really loved spinning this up and wish I had bought more of it.  So soft and the wool simply slipped through my fingers.

The master spinner who has often shared spinning tips with me and valuable advice along the way, gave me five bags of wool, three of which were Wensleydale!!  One big bag each of white, brown and black.  For a long time I have wished for some Wensleydale and this lot will keep me going for ages.  What a gift!! Celia had already washed the brown, so I washed the black and the white.  Quite a process but both have washed up beautifully.

 

 This is the unwashed black Wensleydale.  So much lanolin and just look at the length of those locks!

 And here is the brown.  Beautiful colour!

Apart from that we moved house towards the end of August so goodbye to the Cotswolds and hello to the Midlands.  Still living on a farm and let me introduce our new neighbours...

Yes, there are sheep on this farm - lots of them and how happy this makes me!  They are Texels and it is delightful to wake each morning to the sound of their bleating.

Wishing you all a happy September!