Here are the cute little Valais Blacknose I promised you from MDSW yesterday!
I was sad to read to today that the hail storm that hit right as we were heading out from the parking lot took out a significant number of vendors.
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#spinning
16 posts16 participants1 post today
I legit keep looking at my handspun stash in despair. Then I look at my fiber stash and it's bigger.
Idk what is the use of asking "how did this happen". But I am looking for a (handspun) yarn for a spring/fall hat and I have NOTHING. 
And I have many pounds of handspun fiber. Countless 1000s of yards/meters.
I will fix it. I am just in shock and despair. But I do love my handspun and fiber. I just don't have *space*.
Finished #knitting this Flax sweater. Started #spinning the yarn for it in August last year. One single was a multicoloured bamboo/merino, the other one a solid blue Shetland, twined together into a lovely soft fingering yarn. #handspinning #handknit
#FotoVorschlag #spinning 'Drei Farben blau' Artyarn, selbst gesponnen aus verschiedenen Garnresten, 2022
three good things:
1) i had a few chocolate chips about an hour ago and now i am frantically planning on cleaning and dying a fleece that's been in my garage since 2023. i have a wee bit of inspiration to dye small bits of wool in various colors and then use them for embroidery on another project that's been languishing for a while.
chocolate chips as instant motivation? maybe! i'm not sure how long this energy will last, but i'll take it. lol
2) i still have fairy lights in my front window and they are the special kind that flash along with whatever music is playing nearby. i may never take them down. sorry neighbors. 
3) did i mention that i ate a very small handful of chocolate chips? because i'm not used to that amount of caffeine (or like, any caffeine, lolol) so i am kinda spinning my wheels here. but they were pretty good and i have now reached my caffeine quota for the year. 
Fossil Fibers launched a Studio Ghibli themed fiber collection for April / May (planned before the recent AI-driven Ghibli noise). I love some of them - Howl, Haku, Ponyo. But the one that got be to buy was the soot sprite kit, because I can think of all kinds of fun ways to combine these. And because they really hit the spot on Soot Sprite for me. https://www.fossilfibers.com/ #spinning #handspinning #fiberArts #fiber
Fossil FibersFossil FibersHand processed Wool Art Batts and Combed Top for Hand Spinners
Really stoked to get my Hansen e-spinner out and start spinning again. I’m strong enough to sit up now for longer periods of time.
I’m spinning up some Suffolk roving that I dyed during the pandemic.
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I can just about replicate my previous yarn/fiber colorways. Good think there really isn't a perfect "dye lot" when it comes to dyeing spinning fiber, like when you have a yarn.
I kinda look at what colors I have and say... what colorway are we dyeing today?
... I need to work on dyeing some fiber but I have a lot to do. Strangely enough I don't like dyeing m my handspun yarn in wacky colors. 
Good morning/afternoon.
Watching Rebecca from Chemknits (on YouTube.)
It's a random episode. She's dyeing sock blank donuts. (She's one of my goto yarn-tube channels to watch.)
She has a background as a science teacher so all her videos are yarn dyeing experiments.
When I dye yarn and fiber... I legit go with Vibes. 
I have an idea of where I wanna go, but I dye and overdye until I get results. I've tried the 'plan ahead' stuff and it doesn't go well. 
#spinning #dyeing #knitting #crochet
3 more bobbins and I can finally start thinking about weaving with this rainbow
Long Thread Media - publisher of Piecework, Handwoven, Little Looms, Spin Off, and (soon!) Weft - is trying to save Craftsy or at least make some $ off it - as a subscriber to one of these magazines, I have an offer for a full year of membership for under $2. I'd snap up if I liked video instruction but I don't. Do any of you find Craftsy helpful? #fiberArt #spinning #knitting #crochet #weaving #quilting
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With the addition of a new tool to the household I've turned my yucca fibre into baby's first wheel-spun single-ply thread.
Learning how to use a spinning wheel has its challenges, but I can feel myself improving as I go.
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And if you're thinking "Well, all the more reason to buy from indie dyers and indie yarn brands!"
...
Where do you think they get their yarn bases from? A LOT of Merino comes from Australia and New Zealand. A lot of silk comes East Asia.
Cashmere comes from East Asia.
There are small yarn mills dotted around the US. They tend to make small specialty yarns. Some have closed due to economic reasons. Where do they get their spinning machine parts from?
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When you consider tariffs for fiber arts... good luck if you want fleece or fiber prominent from a certain country.
The US... for complex reasons we aren't a wool using country. A LOT of the yarns in LYS and big box stores are made in another country. Turkey, UK, France, Italy, some in China, a LOT from India...
Panic buying yarn isn't the solution. Folks did that during the pandemic and still don't know what to do with the yarn.
Spun silk
(Silk hankies from frabjous fiber. 408 yards, chain ply, 29 grams)
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I do want another Romney fleece. Some classify it as a long wool because it technically is. Others classify it as a "medium" wool because the fleece isn't as long as most long wools, it's somewhat softer and finer.
I find it a good workhorse wool. Great for adult sweaters, hats, socks and gloves.
It's used for meat and wool in the US. It's a BIG sheep. The nearby fiber festival had Romney fleeces upwards of 15 lbs. Largest was 21 lbs? 
majority are white.
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Primitive breed sheep's wool is called that because the sheep isn't "improved" by cross breeding it with other breeds. The sheep's genetics have been the same for 100s or 1000s of years.
Some Primitive breeds I want to try or have tried and liked: Jacob, karakul, Icelandic, gotland, romanov, gotland, faroese...
A lot of those breeds are in Europe or Asia. Only a few flocks In the US.
Sampling raw fleece from those is hard because of international shipping regulations.
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I typically don't spin woolen, unless I'm using a supported spindle. But spinning Cotswold woolen is making the yarn fluffy and slightly softer. (Not by much.)
Many long wools are rougher than "medium" and fine wools.
Primitive breed wools are a toss up as to softness. But softness isn't the only reason to choose a certain fleece.
Some folks like spinning art yarns with the wool locks. And it's gorgeous. I just don't know what to do with art yarns.
M
#knitting #crochet #spinning #queer
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Spinning this particular long wool in a woolen style as opposed to worsted is interesting. Long wools need very little twist (unless you're using it for weaving.)
The curls on this Cotswold fleece are so gorgeous. I had a moment of panic about running out of this fleece. So I began looking around for similar long wools: Wensleydale, teeswater, Border Leicester...
Nothing on etsy or ebay. Idk farmers nearby that have long wool flocks. I think many farmers haven't shorn yet.
#spinning #knitting
Good morning.
Spinning wool. Cotswold wool on a supported/bottom whorl spindle.
I'm getting tired of spinning the superwash merino + nylon blend (for socks). The texture isn't really interesting me right now. Tussah silk is still interesting. It's just... the individual fibers get stuck to EVERYTHING. It's basically like spinning a bunch of spider's webs. Except silk comes from a moth.
Well, you know. 