Dawns Woolly Wednesday - March

Sorry for late writing and linking, I actually wrote all this last night and only needed to add the photos but didn't get a chance and have been busy elsewhere today.

March already ... where does the time go?

Still spinning away the days when I can, and knitting too. Now this is not an easy post to write to day as some projects are *secret* and I need to make sure I don't show too much of them online in case the recipient sees it - they don't now things are for them so until they are gifted they need to remain un-shared online. So apologies for some lack of detail or photos.

What can I share?
Well I spun a 2ply Merino from raw fleece all the way from Queensland, Australia. Ah, woolly gifts are the best! This was quite short so spun semi-woollen/semi-worsted (work that out if you can!). Washed and carded into lovely fluffy rolags. There were some short bits in this which I tried to pick out the worst but grew to live with some of them. Awaiting final wash and measurement. Will possible dye this I think. These are the rolags but I haven't photographed the yarn yet so will add this another time.

Merino rolags

I did a little dyeing recently and produced this ...

 From the dyepot to drying

Which is now all spun up, some has been blended with to create a few shades. More on this yarn another time!

Finished yarn ready to knit

Knitting a tunic for my daughter with handspun from last year, slow progress - just keep leaving this to do other things but one day I'll just pick it up and knit, knit, knit.

My Monet yarn is wound into yarn cakes now and ready to become a knitted and felted bag.

I'm still also knitting scrappy using up odd-balls cushion covers, long term project, you'll see these throughout the year. Not handspun so far but I can see some handspun coming into some of these cushion covers in the planning.

What else? Ah yes, I've finally succumbed to the Sheep Heid pattern, having seen some lovely examples recently on ravelry, and a flock of them knitted by a friend at the guild. Another friend at the guild bought some fibres to spin for this (edited to add she's finished hers now too!) and in chatting with her about it I remembered some Icelandic yarns I spun last year - there are 5 shades there already - approx 4ply so perfect. They are spun and set as singles so not sure if that will create any issues with stitches leaning but they are not high spun singles so I'm going to knit it and see how it goes.

I have therefore spun 4 other yarns in different shades to complete the set. Wow was this a test - making sure there was enough colour variation to see the different sections, and working out replacement shades for those in the pattern, it made my head hurt! I will add a picture later (sorry not prepared was I?!).

I think that's it for now, more spinning planned to work through the fibre stash. Looking forward to warmer drier days to get some fleece washed. Another long term project in the planning for the Guild challenge for 2013 - 'The Second Time Around' Guild Challenge' -  'upcycle', 'revamp' or 'reinvent' to breath new life into something. So I have a plan!

Look forward to seeing what everyone else is up to x

Lydia's Woolly Wednesday - March

The first Wednesday of the month soon comes round. I'm glad to see there are definite signs of Spring after a miserable Winter, the poor sheep have had so much mud and wet wet to put up with. My current spinning project is something a bit different. When I bought my Lendrum I treated myself to some ready prepared fibre so I could get straight on with spinning. I bought a blend of baby camel fibre and silk:

The fibre is so soft and the colours are spinning up into an oatmeal effect. If you've never encountered camel fibre before it is quite like alpaca - not surprisingly as alpacas are camelids. This baby camel is extremely soft, fine and on the short side.

It is taking quite a long time to spin this blend. Partly because I am spinning finer than usual and partly because it is a fiddly blend to manage. The camel fibre separates from the silk so you end up with a mostly silk yarn and a heap of camel fluff in your lap if you don't pay attention. I'm having to keep working the camel fibre in with the silk as I go. However I love the results:

Have you ever spun this blend or worked with camel fibre? How did you get on?

Lydia's Woolly Wednesday - A Puzzle for You

Firstly, apologies for January, Woolly Wednesday completely slipped my mind, what with being out of routine. Now I'm back and I have a question for you. Last summer I went to Hereford. In Hereford I visited The Old House, which dates back to 1621. 

I was tempted to hop in that rubbish truck and drive it out of picture but I didn't want to spend the rest of my holiday in a police cell

The house is furnished as it might have been in Jacobean times. Upstairs I discovered a Welsh Great Wheel:

The first thing I noticed about this wheel was the tilt. I have only had a few attempts at spinning on a great wheel, the one I used was a replica and the wheel sat vertically, with no tilt. Every time I've used a great wheel, I stood with my right shoulder to the wheel. I have heard great wheels can be built with the wheel tilted but I thought the wheel was supposed to slope away from the spinner.

Can anyone explain why this wheel would appear to slope towards the spinner? Could it possibly be a wheel for a left handed person? As a left hander myself I was very excited to think this wheel may have been made for a long gone left handed spinner but there may be some other explanation. Do share your views!

Woolly Wednesday February - link up

Welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for February, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month, or plans for the month(s) ahead. All crafts and inspiration welcome.

 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.

Woolly Wednesday January 2013

Happy New Year, welcome to 2013, may it be full of woolly wonders!


Today welcomes our Woolly Wednesday gathering for January, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome. Post Christmas, come and share what you are spinning, knitting, creating ... or what are you planning?

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.

Lydia's December Woolly Wednesday

I am posting appallingly late in the day but it is still just about Wednesday. I haven't had a chance to spin anything this month, which is disappointing, especially as my Lendrum is sat there looking mournfully at me. But I have been knitting, which is a miracle for me because I really struggle with knitting. Spinning is so much easier, you don't have to remember a complicated pattern and the fibre only goes in one direction.

I started the Fatigue Cap a while ago but it turned out to be way too big so I frogged it and then could not work out the maths at all. You would think it would be simple if you know the number of stitches to the inch and the number of inches around the person's head. But every time I tried to work out how many stitches I needed to cast on I got a different answer.

I have at last solved the maths problem and the hat is the right size. The next issue is I am running out of yarn. The Fatigue Cap is a very simple pattern, it is a straight tube with no shaping but the pattern says make the tube 36 inches long. This seems extremely long to me and I'm really not sure how the hat is meant to be worn, it must end up double thickness but that may be uncomfortably hot. As I am running out of yarn I have decided to give up on the pattern altogether and just shape the top of the hat following a different pattern.

 This is only my second project using circular needles and I must say I love them. I find going round in circles strangely soothing. I think I may just have to make another hat. This time I'd like to use my own handspun, so I'm bound to have more issues with maths. By the time I've finished pulling out my hair trying to work out how many stitches to cast on I will need a hat to cover my baldness.

Lydia's Woolly Wednesday

Back in April after Wonderwool Wales, a big fibre event in the UK, there was a thread on Ravelry where people displayed their purchases. I saw one of these lovely plaits. I hadn't seen the plaits at the show, I was too busy on my own stand.

The combination of colours really grabbed me. I found out the plait came from Adelaide Walker. I was delighted to find the Adelaide Walker stand at Fibre East, so of course a plait found its way into my bag (after I paid for it)! It isn't really a plait, it's four lengths of top twisted together -dark brown, light brown, grey and white Shetland wool.

It seemed a shame to actually spin the fibre, it looked so lovely just twisted together. But the temptation of ready prepared fibre was too much and I separated the four lengths. I really wanted to preserve the effect of the four distinct colours. I decided to spin two marled singles. I debated which colours to combine. In the end I decided to spin the dark and light brown together:

and the white and grey:

Then I plied the two marled singles together. The contrasts are less subtle than when the fibre was in the plait. I think maybe if I increased the amount of white there would be more contrast. Even so, I'm pleased with the effect.

Do join us for Woolly Wednesday and let us know what you have been spinning. If you add your blog I will come and visit, I'm looking forward to hearing about your fibre adventures!

Woolly Wednesday returns ... October 2012

Whoosh and we're back! Hope everyone has had a lovely Summer.
There have been some changes here at Spinspiration. Kelly has now returned to her homeland and is enjoying life back there with her family, we wish her well and hope to see her spinning again in the future.
With that in mind I would like to welcome new blog writers on Spinspiration -  Lydia (blogging today below) and Claire (hopefully joining in soon) and look forward to sharing this space with them and with you all, they have both linked up with our Woolly Wednesdays for a while.


So welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for October, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all 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, etc

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.

Dawn - Woolly Wednesday adventures

It's good to be back for Woolly Wednesday! I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Lydia and Claire who have joined the Spinspiration team. I am looking forward to them sharing this space and reading their writing.


I hope everyone had a lovely Summer, anyone who reads my other blog will have seen we had lots of fun and enjoyed some lovely weather during the school holidays. Now though it is most definitely Autumn here, time for dark cosy evenings in front of the spinning wheel. Bliss. I hadn't spun at all over the summer holiday.

September has seen a revival of the wheel spinning though and plenty of time spent spinning at public events encouraging and inspiring others to take up the crafts. It has been fun, and I have even sold on my first Spinning Wheel - my trusty Ashford Traditional that started off my love of spinning. It has sat unused for a while though, except for a short loan period to a friend until she bought her wheel. So it was time to say goodbye and pay forward the opportunity to somebody new to spinning to buy a wheel at a very reasonable price, after all I bought her very reasonably too. The new owner has also joined the guild, so our paths will no doubt cross some months.

 My first wheel ... now someone else's first wheel

So spinning - the first spinning I did in on return to the wheel was some Romney Marsh spun on my Wee Peggy wheel. I started spinning this at The Romsey Show - an agricultural show that the Guild are represented at each year. I loved it this year, amongst some good friends with lots of chatter and laughter ... oh the laughter! It was a gloriously sunny hot hot day too, and the show was very busy. We had a great day, lots of visitors and many of them really interested in spinning and dyeing and weaving. A great opportunity to show people how the wheel works, the history of spinning, the fleece to yarn process ... visitors young and old. We even won a prize for our interactive dempnstration areas.

 Me on the left with friends having a great time

(towards the end of the day hence not many visitors around us!)

Our rosette and certificate proudly displayed

It was wonderful to be able to give the opportunity to many to have a go at spinning too, their eyes lighting up when you ask "do you want to have a go?". I still remember being asked that question years ago, so am always keen to offer the same opportunity.

Romney Marsh carded fibre

I spun a bobbin of the Romney and then decided I'd like to n-ply it so sat and plied it before going on to spin more of the fibre. A joy to spin, really lovely fibre with a little lanolin still there making it lovely for the hands too - the best hand "cream" ever!

My navajo plied skein awaiting washing

I continued to spin the Romney Marsh the weekend after at our Guilds open day/taster day. I ended with another couple of full bobbins which are waiting to be plied. I need to decide if I will n-ply these or make it a 2 ply for another project, I have more to spin so may see what yardage I'd get with either plying. I'm not that good at planning for projects, but trying to improve on that now as the handspun stash grows.

2 more bobbins of Romney Marsh singles

As mentioned earlier I took along the Ashford Traditional wheel too, initially set up for people to come and have a try at spinning as it is such an easy going wheel to learn on. I had a for sale sign ready to pop on after a while, although had to quickly remove it after Imogen (my daughter) stuck it on my Wee Peggy! No darling, this one really is not for sale, and not at that price! Most definitely not, although it raised a laugh and a smile amongst friends. Quite a few people had a go on the wheel, some who had recently acquired wheels and were not sure where to start, others interested in getting into spinning.

And then a friend asked if my wheel was available for a lady to try and I saw that little spark or something and thought to myself - I think this lady is going to love and buy this wheel. She was hooked right from the start, loved it, and was very good at grasping the drafting and treadling. She sat with us for a long time, spinning more and more, occasionally acknowledging her daughters who were there too and loving trying out lots of things. But she was determined that she was going to spend her time here with the wheel. A message to the husband about where it might go, quashing his crazy idea that it could go in the garage! We had fun chatting, and yes she did buy the wheel. I gave her some Jacob roving to keep her going too and she picked up some fleece at the sales table. Her daughters were as pleased to know the wheel was going home with them, I think they had all fallen for the spinning bug! It was lovely to have been able to offer the wheel to her - and making friends with a new member, and two new members signed up to the Youth Guild too.

Me on the right spinning on the Wee Peggy

The Ashford Traditional on the left with her new owner

A good month for spinning and meeting new friends. Next month our Guild meeting welcomes Wingham Wool Work who fill our hall with goodies to fondle, sample and buy. I must remember to buy more spinning wheel oil. I have sat and labelled a lot of my spinning samples and skeins in a view to linking them up to a project. I have a lot of fleece and fibre to use so can't see me coming home with much from the day, except maybe some samples and some of the more unusual fibres out there that I've not spun with much yet.

Looking forward to catching up with what everyone has been up to, come along and share anything woolly - we love to be inspired. Join us for virtual spin (or other woolly crafts) and chat, with a virtual coffee and cake!

Meet Lydia

I’m Lydia, or shearersgirl on Ravelry. I am joining Dawn to assist with Spinspiration now that Kelly has moved on. I thought as this is my first post over here I’d better introduce myself. I have been spinning, dyeing and shearing sheep for about four years. I became interested in wool when I discovered fleeces were being burnt or left to rot because they had so little value. As someone who hates waste, I was horrified. I went on a shearing course, bought a spinning wheel and joined the Guild.

I am a member of the Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers. Now I also run a small business, Shearer Girl Yarns, selling my hand dyed yarns and fibre from local farms. I love working with natural fibres and natural dyes. People often ask if I have my own sheep or live on a farm, sadly neither is true – maybe one day. I can also be found writing for Yarnmaker magazine and I’m on Twitter @Romneyteg. 

I’m looking forward to taking part in Spinspiration and hearing about your fibre adventures!

Here is my spinning story.

Beginning Spinning – Lydia’s Story

I started spinning four years ago. I am horse mad and I have always had an interest in farming so I was volunteering at the Working Horse Trust, a charity which promotes traditional heavy horse breeds. 

As part of the grassland management system, the trust has a small flock of Southdown sheep. I helped out a bit at lambing time and enjoyed a few Southdown sausages but didn’t have a lot of contact with the sheep. When I saw the flock’s fleeces abandoned to rot in a barn, I was horrified. I thought maybe I could learn to spin and do something with all this wool. I also thought I could save the charity some money by learning to shear. 

So I came to shearing and spinning at the same time. I went on a shearing course, then a few weeks later I was at the Kent County Show and wandered into the tent of the Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers. I was fascinated to watch the ladies spinning and see all the colourful things they had made. I kept going back to their tent. Eventually, one of the spinners asked if I would like to have a go. I did and was hooked. Janet said afterwards she knew I must have been keen because I kept coming back! 

I was helping out on shearing jobs that summer. One of the shearing customers had an Ashford Traditional wheel, still in pieces in its box, tucked away. I bought the brand new wheel for a good price, along with carders, a niddy noddy, lazy kate and a video. I lovingly waxed my wheel and put it together but it would not spin. I was in despair. I took my wheel to a Guild meeting and explained my dilemma. A huddle of ladies appeared around me making all sorts of suggestions and within minutes they had my wheel set up and spinning. 

I got a Portland fleece from a shearing job and washed it without sorting it because I didn’t know anything about sorting fleece. I dyed some of the fleece with Dylon dyes and felted a fair portion by accident. I carded the wool by hand and spun lumpy yarn. Eventually I spun enough to make a jumper.  A bullet proof jumper - the yarn was so dense and over spun. 

My first handspun

My never quite finished bullet proof jumper

In the meantime, I decided fleece washing was a tedious business and so I flung my second fleece, a Black Welsh Mountain, in the washing machine. Again, I hadn’t sorted the fleece, nor had I noticed the hardened clumps of poo attached to the bottom end. The poo softened in the wash and distributed itself throughout the fleece. Being forgiving Welsh Mountain, the fleece didn’t felt and I did manage to spin some.

Since then, I’ve learned by trial and error, reading books and by watching fellow Guild members. These days I also learn a great deal through online resources, such as Spinspiration!