BYC Spinning Fiber

[thespinningcottage]

Wow, MullersLane! That roving is gorgeous. Hi Silly Chickens, I wish we could get together for our own little spin-fest! I'm in central Florida and there's NOBODY down here who spins. I'm in the wrong part of the country. I am exaggerating a little bit, because there are some spinners in Orlando who came over to my house 2 years ago for a spin-in. I sold a lot of fiber to them and we swapped some things, but they weren't interested in my more exotic stuff. I have several pounds of Qiviut and Qiviut/Merino from Mini-Mills in Canada that I bought back in the early 2000s. I offered to sell some of it to them at my cost. I have my original invoice to prove the cost, too! They were looking for more basic fibers. Sooooo, if anyone knows anyone who knows anyone who wants some, just holler. And if anyone is coming through Florida at any time, let me know and we meet at my house and sit by the fire and spin and swap fiber and chicken stories LOL.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Quivit and Quivit/merino sound wonderful!

Okay. I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning my fiber room. These are horrible pictures. I need to repaint that room a nice soft dove grey, the yellow just casts a horrible shade (especially at night).

The pile on the right in the last picture is the fleeces I'm currently trading off.

 

[thespinningcottage]

Okay, why do you have to be in Illinois? Or, why do I have to be in Florida? I want to free range in your fiber room! I want to feel, smell, try out your loom and wheel, examine your warping board and see what other goodies are hiding around there that I can't see! It's not fair! **sniff** **sniff**

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

LOL! Plenty of stuff hiding!

There are actually 5 looms in there (2 RH, a frame loom, a 4H table & unassembled floor loom ... plus another floor loom in another room) Another wheel, a lot of basket making things, odds and ends in boxes and baskets & bags ... natural dyes, mordants, jacquard dyes, the carder ...

I just traded out 25 lb of raw/scoured fiber out of my stash pile and haven't made a dent.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Cyndi, that small spinning wheel in the left bottom corner of your fourth pic is so CUTE!!! Priceless

Its my weekend, have been working so much overtime this past year since I went back to work that I finally looked for this thread and am running to the store for a few things, feeding the farm and dusting off the wheel...all my fiber has been sitting in the corner of the living room stacked to the ceiling waiting for me for an entire year!!! I'm taking pics of the yarns I've done up, the knitting and the crotcheting I've done while working two graveyard shifts and posting those pics, too This March or April I'll be taking a refresher course on spinning which my neighbors (3) and I are really looking forward to, we missed out on the current course as it was filled by the time we heard about it

Slocrev, did you get that Kiwi??? It is the wheel made after and instead of the Mark I and Mark II Scholars (I have the Mark II) and the only difference is mine has a shelf for the bobbins to sit on below the flyer and the style of wheel itself. I'll take a pic of my wheel tonight, too and post that. Late winter and Springtime is when I CRAVE spinning and knitting. I'm crotcheting that blanket for the grand-daughter now, only have two graveyard shifts per week, the other shifts are one morning and two swings. I'm sticking to 8 hour shifts from now on because I want a life besides work. I have a second grandson born now (4 months old already) living in the same town

so I spend evenings with him when I can, at least 4 nights a week. I'll have to take a pic of him and his crochet'd blanket I made him next time I'm over there.

I'm thinking of ordering a double pedal for my Scholar as I need to re-order the flyer because the lace flyers nowadays don't have the threading on the metal core. Years ago the cats knocked my wheel down and broke the flyer so I bought a new one and now cannot use the lace flyer till I get one that doesn't need to be threaded on or have a new threaded flyer made as Ashford doesn't make Scholars anymore but saved the patterns- I've been emailing Ashford to try to get mine to full use for regular and lace spinning.

I would recommend the Kiwi to anyone, double pedal and with both lace flyer and jumbo flyers Easy to pick up and take along and not a lot of room needed to keep it while nice enough looking to display where its fast and easy to grab to use

 

[chickencoop31320]

Have any of ya'll experimented with plying cotton thread with your hand spun?
I have been doing this and the results are pretty cool.
I spin about 3 ounces of merino and then ply it with the cotton thread.
I haven't tried dying it yet, can any of you give me an idea of what kind of dye would work best?
I'll try to get some pics of what I have spun up later today... if anyone is interested

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

This is one time I will recommend Rit dye since you combined wool and cotton.

For real chunky yarn, I also like using Peaches & Cream cotton.

I've been spinning, knitting & crocheting up a storm these past weeks.

I've forgotten to get pics of most of it but here is some of what I did last week:

which became:

which became:

A crocheted cowl:

and a bit more handspun

 

[rachaelc]

Quote:
HEY Bill, Check out the Black Sheep Festival in June in Corvallis. They have lots of spinning wheels and vendors to talk to and try out.

You might have known this already.

Rachael C mother of all

 

[lesliet]

I have always wanted to learn to spin, but don't know where to go to learn. Did you learn online or did someone teach you?? I love to weave and knit. So please help me become obsessed with another craft

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

The easiest and least expensive way to start spinning yarn is with a drop spindle. Check out any of Abby Franquemont's drop spindling youtube videos. Her book Respect the Spindle from Interweave Press is great.

I am self taught in all things fiber arts. If you have a fiber guild around you, check in with them ... there might be a spinner lurking in the corner.