Kelly Woolly Wednesday for June 2012

This past month has been mostly Shetland month for me.
I am especially loving this gorgeous cream shearling fleece.  it has quite a bit of hay embedded in it so very slow, picky work spinning it up but oh so soft.  I navajo plied these for a nice chunky effect.
I had a little break from the cream and spun some brown Shetland.  Not quite as soft as the cream shearling fleece but lovely nevertheless. The brown has been two plied.

We have been doing some weaving on the peg loom using all that Lleyn I dyed with tumeric, dandelions, and calendula.  This way we can all be involved in making this Sunshine Rug!  I have some older yarn I spun using nettles that will also go into the sunshine rug.  For more info on weaving with a peg loom look here on my personal blog.  A great way to use up yarn and bits of fleece for something practical.

Also, one of my children knocked over my spinning wheel the other day.  The join in the centre of the wheel is gaping.  The spinning wheel is still spinning okay but how do I fix this?  If anyone has any advice on repairing this, please do let me know.

Happy spinning everyone!

Woolly Wednesday Gathering ... it's June!

Welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for June, come and let us know what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome.It's a little quiet here some months, we would love to hear from you. Have you been spinning, knitting, felting, crochet or taking advantage of shearing time and increasing your fibre stash!

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 month ahead, we look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join us when you can. Back soon!

Dawn's Woolly Wednesday June

Hello, come and join us at Spinspiration and let us know what woolly adventures you have been having recently!

I shall start with an update to the Cotswold fleece I was spinning earlier this year. A lovely fluffy bundle of fibre sent to me by Kelly to try out this "new to me" breed. You can look back at previous posts for the spinning journey of this fibre, but here it is all plied and ready for a finishing wash.

 Cotswold 2 ply yarn

 perfectly balanced yarn - yay!

 I'm rather pleased with how it has plied - it seems to have hidden those lumps and bumps and off the niddy noddy it was wonderfully balanced.

I've also been playing a little with a couple of drop spindles which I have clicked with perfectly, after trying many and just not enjoying it much. I prefer wheel spinning as it achieves a better balanced yarn for me and is so much quicker but having a drop spindle is handy to take out and about.

Teal blend on the spindle

Here I am spinning a Teal blend of wool, silk and acrylic. So hard to get the picture to reflect the true colour. Spinning this very fine and hoping to use this eventually as a one of the plies in a yarn. I may just sample a few things to see how it would work best.

Masham single on the bobbin

Other spinning here recently has been some Masham wool I had. I just love the way these sheep look with their long curls. I spun 2 bobbins of singles on the Wee Peggy wheel, most of which I did whilst demonstrating with other Guild members at a local Historic working farm. An event on the calendar each year and one dear to my heart and spinning journey - my very first go on a wheel was here 3 years ago at this event, just a short time after my impulsive purchase of my first spinning wheel.

Here I am spinning at the farm, I feel this was as a way for me to pay forward the wonderful opportunity to impart and teach the skills I love so much. There were some lovely people to talk to, very interested in the whole process from sheep to yarn, and a few jumped at the chance to try a wheel - we had an Ashford Traditional there set up and ready for people to try out. We had a lovely day, although a little chilly at times in the Barn.

At home I  plied the Masham singles - plied on the Louet, here it is in all it's glory. 

 Plied Masham yarn - perfectly balanced below

I am really pleased with this yarn, evenly plied and like the Cotswold above it is perfectly balanced - I do love it when that happens.

Masham and Cotswold skeins 

with final bobbin of the superfine merino I was spinning last month

Look forward to seeing other linked posts, don't be shy, come and let us know what you have been up to lately. Or are you just acquiring more stash with it being shearing time?