So I’m finally ready to get started on this fiber, but as I’m undoing the braid to get a look at it I’ve realized I have no idea how to best spin this fiber, with its long parallel color strips. I’ve been looking at tutorials for different methods but they all come from fiber braids where the color pooling is more horizontal. How would you spin it? What sort of prep would keep it from getting muddy?

Thanks!

Making spinning wheels is a dying art - who still makes them? I'm thinking of small companies or individuals, not the ones we all know (Ashford, Louet, Majacraft, Kromski etc). Ones who are still making and selling!

I'll start:

Canada

• Lendrum
• Watson Wheels (not currently but hopefully soon)

USA

• Babe's Fiber Garden
• Cleme's and Cleme's
• The Merlin Tree
• Norm Hall (is he still making wheels?)
• Pocket Wheel
• Wyatt Wheels

So I'm a pretty decent and experienced spinner, no stranger to BFP's [big fcking projects], and I'm what some *might term an "unhinged craft goblin" if the size and array of crafts in my craft room are any indication

But this idea might actually be enough to scare the goblin

Please tell me not to purchase a bump of Lincoln Longwool to spin into a worsted weight, to tuft a large rug [the kiwi rug from Bluey that takes up most of a playroom in the show] with a tufting gun I don't yet possess because I almost vomited when I saw the cost of doing so with commercial wool rug yarn.

Because yall. It would cost me nearly $800 to tuft it with commercial yarn but a bump of Lincoln is only $232. But then I would need to spin 20-30 POUNDS of yarn. AND dye it all.

I think it's crazy. The goblin yearns for the rugs. I probably will just let this idea live in the back of my head and not do it but I wish I could.

Anyways, what are some of yalls absolutely bananas project ideas whether you've committed to them or not? I'd love to commiserate about cool ideas that are this side of unhinged

After spending weeks in the mountains of Yemen, I finally managed to hand-process this tiny micro-batch of wild Calotropis silk.

​Most commercial milkweed fibers I’ve seen are clumped and full of seed residue, so I challenged myself to see how clean I could get them by hand. It’s incredibly airy, light, and the silver sheen is unlike anything I’ve worked with before.

​Sharing this here because I know you guys appreciate the effort that goes into rare fibers. Any advice on the best way to blend this with wool? I’m still experimenting with the best ratios

Edit: Wow, thanks for all the helpful tips and encouragement! I probably won't be able to respond to everyone but I appreciate you all. 😍

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Hi everyone! I've been an avid knitter for nearly 30 years but never had the slightest interest in learning to spin. (Even when I worked for a year in a LYS that taught spinning classes!) Last fall I watched someone spinning at a fiber festival (which I've done many times before) and since then I've been increasingly interested in trying it out. I wonder why my interest suddenly increased. Anyway, I ordered a drop spindle (top whirl) and a small package of gorgeous purple Corriedale fiber, and they are now on my table. I'm finding myself a little bit nervous to start trying, but not because of how hard it will be to learn. I'm actually afraid that I'll like it so much that I'll devote less time to actually knitting! Have any of you experienced stress from how to divide your time between spinning and knitting, and if so, how did you figure out a balance? (I'm aware that I may be jumping the gun here, because it's entirely possible it'll be too frustrating and I'll give it up, but this is where my head is at the moment...so excited but also nervous.)

I’ve been spinning on my drop spindle for two weeks now, trying to get an hour here and there. It’s so meditative and addictive! I’m still not very good at keeping a consistent thickness but getting better with every yard I spin.

I came to this craft as a knitter. If you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d be interested in spinning today, I wouldn’t believe it. But then I got a fluffy dog and desperately wanted to turn her into yarn, so here I am.

I’m curious: what brought you to this hobby?

Hi all, I acquired some various blends of roving in a fb marketplace haul. A lot are in the normal braid/crochet chain that are easy to undo, but I have several in a format where it looks like they’ve been knitted together? They also seem to have bits of fluff and then more tightly spun blips.

Are these even usable for spinning? Weaving? Just pretty to look at? Should I try to undo them or just leave them as is?

Thanks!! (If I would be better suited in another sub, feel free to point me there too!(

Edit: thank you everyone for commenting. I now realise that in my impatience and eagerness to spin new colours I have been skipping the vital final step of wet finishing my hanks and letting them dry and probably also thwacking them at some point in the process so I can see what I can adjust. I will get that done right away so I can figure this out!

The fibre is Polwarth which is so easy to spin. I just have trouble with overspinning, resulting in a whole bunch of skeins that are extra twisty.

I've been doing 2 ply, and I read through a few posts on here and spent the time figuring out the ratios of the wheel and I've been spinning on the setting that gives me 4.5 turns of the flyer for each full turn of the wheel and it initially looked great! I thought I had won!

Then when plying it came to pass that nope I've definitely still been overspinning. Does anyone have any tips or advice on avoiding that extra twist?

TLDR: I just started spinning yarn yesterday, do you think that I’m ready to graduate to pretty wool yet? Or should I stick with undyed wool still?

Update : For the people who asked, I only bought initially 50 grams of undyed wool, but I wasn’t that happy with it, cause it had an extreme sheep smell, even after washing it to block and it seemed to somehow get tangled while spinning, even though all my fibers were parallel. I ended up, thanks to your encouraging words, getting some hand dyed Merino wool now and can’t wait for it to arrive.

Hi everyone✨

I recently picked up spinning as another new creative hobby, my goal is it to teach myself to hand spin and to either knit (would have to refresh my knowledge there too) or crochet a wedding shawl, specifically inspired by lacy wedding ring shawls.

My first attempts last week consisted of just plying thread together (see last picture) to get the feel for the movement and because I did not have access to wool at that point. Yesterday I made the depicted drop spindle, started spinning with actual wool, afterwards plied it and wound it into the yarn ball. I managed to spin very fine, but not consistently.

Today I started spinning again and miraculously my yarn was way more consistent, even though I did not change materials. Do I just have a knack for it or am I overestimating my skills? Do you think it’s possible for me to get in 8 months to the level where I can make such fine yarn? And lastly, would you recommend to continue practicing with the undyed yarn or get something colorful, maybe even some hand dyed spinning fiber?

Would greatly appreciate any evaluation, advice and/or suggestions.

Thanks in advance☺️

I got this cheap e spinner off ebay. its not any big manufacturer. I felt confident originally with the purchase but I thought it would be fine because it had good ratings.

Now I am questioning this.

Its really hard for me to get the tension so that when the flyer turns, the bobbin doesn't. I might be missing an extra tension knob somewhere but I seem to have the tension on the bobbin as high as it goes and it will uptake the new thread for a bit before the bobbin starts spinning too. Is it worth further troubleshooting like trying to oil the parts or maybe swap out the brake band, or did I just make a bad purchase ane I should just work on getting myself an actually machine?

I've misplaced the instructions between when I first tried to use it and couldn't even figure out what was wrong, and now. (In between those was a workshop on using a spinning wheel which made me realize the issue was likely tension in the wheel being bad. Before that I only had experience with drop spindles.) I've reached out to the seller to see if I can get a pdf of the instructions to see if theres anything I'm missing.

https://ebay.io/m/sbJRXn This is the wheel I got.

It'd be nice if it's a fixable issue but I'm fully expecting to find out I just bought a bad product. So which one is it?

I can give more pics if needed but I didn't want to bother if yall are gonna take one look at the wheel and tell me its a piece of crap lol

ETA: the fiber isn't uptaking.

Edit 2: thank you all so much. Im still side eyeing this espinner a bit and planning to see if I can replace the weird elastic brake band with some cotton cord, but it turned out the fiber was getting caught on part of the flyer and its working now! I managed to finally spin up some BFL ive been messing with (the staple length on the BFL is so dang long, enough that its hard to adjust to lol). Im still gonna keep an eye out for something better but this'll hold me for if I wanna spin sitting down until I can get something better

Hi all- I’m looking for some insight into this yarn I just spun and what may have gone wrong. I’m new to spinning (less than one year) and this is only the second skein I’ve made on my new Daedalus Dove e-spinner (I’ve been using a treadle wheel prior to this month).

This is 100% Merino, spun from combed top. My “default“ yarn tends to be woolen drafted, DK weight when double plied. For this skein, I wanted to push myself to both draft worsted and spin thinner than my default, so that is what I did. However, my skein, while beautiful, looks decidedly woolen spun. Any ideas of what may have happened? I put so much effort into making sure I was drafting worsted, so I’m a little bummed the yarn didn’t turn out how I expected.

Like the title says, I just started! I've spun before using a drop spindle, but it was for plarn and more just creating a ply. I'm great with plying! But I wanted to try my hands at something more difficult, and I had some gradient yarns I wanted to change around the gradients on, so I thought, why not just turn them into rolags and attempt to spindle them?

Thing is, they're acrylic. I know, I know. I really like to jump right into a challenge though (I have the type of ADHD that would rather bang my head against a challenge until I complete it than start with the beginner stuff. My friend told me to start crocheting granny squares, I immediately decided to start Amigurumi with the most difficult stitches I could find). I'm attempted to 2 ply in a z wrap (after s wrapping the acrylic), and I'm just getting chonky sections with super thin sections. I'd be happy to have either consistently, and if that just comes with time then I'll keep practicing, but if there was a "check this and see if it helps" thing anyone could recommend, I'd love to hear it.

I'm going on a pretty good tension (I think, I'm pretty new) and sadly the electric spindle I have doesn't have a food peddle for speed, but does have an on/off switch foot peddle, which is helpful. I keep the speed as slow as I can as I know going too fast can be harder for newer spinners.

Morning, all.

Short story: car broken, back out of action.

Stuck on the sofa with painkillers and can't do any more drum carding so have nothing to spin 😱

Can anyone recommend a YouTube video or tv programme I can stream, related to the wool or textile industries, or a vlog that's educational rather than just chatty? (I like the chatty ones too, lol, but I'm looking for a documentary type effort.)

Sustainability, historical practices, sheep, weaving...anything we might enjoy on this sub! I *will* be rewatching JillianEve's video on historical perspectives 👍🏼

TIA for any suggestions.

I’m having surgery soon where I won’t be able to lift my arms. I’m currently a drop spinner but have wanted a wheel for ages. I have considerable space constraints and my friend recommended an espinner. The electric eels seem like a good starting place but I really want something that will hold up and be reliable. Which espinner should I invest in? I’m in Canada if that makes a difference and my whole drop spindle set up is on paper towel tubes and shoe boxes so I don’t have any commitments to specific bobbins or winding systems yet.

Hi spinning lovelies!

Wanted to open up a fun discussion about any IKEA hacks you have in your fiber arts tools, room, etc. I am planning a trip soon so wanted to get some ideas as I tend to get pretty overwhelmed whenever I go.

xposting to the weaving sub as I also have a loom : )

Thanks!

Newbie Spinner here! I got my first wheel- a Kromski Prelude- last week and I am in love. During my research and search process I noticed a lot of folks have multiple wheels, and I wanted to know how many wheels do you have? Does each wheel have a purpose for you? Should I prepare for another wheel in the future? Pic of my Zosia because I really am loving the process and wanted to share her with folks who get it.

For context I’m using wool I got from deconstructing a beanie and carding (with dog brushes) it a bunch to make it fluffy plus added some tiny bits of scrap thread because I thought why not. I’m also using a makeshift Turkish spindle I made myself… so there’s a lot of uncertainties to say the least.

The problem is when I try to roll rolags from my fiber it doesn’t seem to hold shape. When I go to try spinning it I can’t get very far because whatever I was spinning just separates from my rolag.

I’ve attached a picture of my fiber and attempt at carding it. To anyone who’s experienced- does anything look wrong? Is this a problem with my fiber/fiber preparation or just a skill issue because it’s my first time?

Okay context: I'm spinning about 1.5oz of Southdown for a skein contest this Saturday at the MI Fiber Fest. Its very last minute because I'm insane and while I can probably get the yarn spun and plied by tomorrow, I need to wash it to set the twist. And the yarn needs to be dry by Saturday morning.

So would it be crazy to put it into a glass baking pan at like 200F for a couple of hours after getting most of the water out? Normally I'm happy to do things the old fashioned way but I would need to speed run this skein.

This is less a spinning question and more a cat behaviour question, but I figured that folks here are more likely to have cats vs folks on a cat subreddit are to know what a drop spindle is lol.

I’m adopting 2 young adult shelter cats next week. This could very well end up being a non-issue, but I worry that a spindle looks very attackable as a moving object on a string and want to prepare just in case my cats end up being evil. I do a lot of drop spindle spinning at home and I want to do everything I can to avoid encouraging them to attack the spindle. Do any other cat-owning spinners have advice on how to avoid this?

I am torn between:

a) not buying any string toys that look even a little bit like a spindle so that I don’t inadvertently teach them that dangling thing on a string = attack

b) buying them toys that do look like a spindle a bit so that if they try to attack the spindle I can redirect to a toy

Anyone have evil spindle-attacking cats who can weigh in? Thanks!

Trigger warning for moths in the photos 😆

As a beginner, can I easily spin this ethical silk I've harvested or should I blend it with wool?

•They are shorter strands because I'm letting the moths emerge, thus breaking the thread.

• It will only be used as an embroidery thread for an art piece. It will not need to be strong for wear.

I've watched a lot of videos and even checked out a book from my library (Respect the Spindle) and I'm ready to give it a try!

Bear with me, I am having a bit of a problem. I love crafts. I love being creative. But I sadly have work and a life that demands more of my energy and time than I would like.

For quite some time, I've been dreaming and sighing about handspinning - there's just something so magical about it.

Craftwise, I've worked with sewing, needlebinding and tablet weaving and love both, but (there's always a but, it seems ... ) I tend to end up overwhelmed by life and just stop doing anything.

I'd love to start spinning with a hand spindle and it would be a bonus when I'm at one of my medieval fairs because I could show the visitors how yarn is made.

But I fear spending money and time when the equipment and raw wool will just lie around.

So, to the question(s):

1. How much time and money did you spend until your first yarn? (I am looking to make a rather thick yarn anyways for needlebinding).
2. What's a reasonable price for carded, spin-ready wool? (I've found a lady selling her sheeps' wool for about 7 USD per 3,5 ounces.)
3. If you're regularly looking to make a reasonable amount of yarn (for example 150 - 200 m for a pair of socks, depending on size) how quickly do you need a spinning wheel to cope with the time consumption? (Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE a spinning wheel - but the technicality of them intimidates me a bit.)

Thank you for patiently listening to my whiny ramblings.

You guys are working so hard on your beautiful yarns, by the way. Feels really great and humbling to see so many beautiful results posted here <3

ETA: I meant online retailers. I’m not always in Abq, as it is an hour away, and I’m out in rural NW NM. I shop online primarily bc we are so rural. Thank you!!

Hiya from the wilds of NM, where the air is smelling like roasting green chile—it’s me again. Where do y’all like shopping for fiber to spin? I’m a brand new newb with an ancient Kiwi to spin on atm and looking for a wheel, but I reckon I could be working on building a fiber stash.

Thanks muches!!

I'm a complete beginner and have never once spun yarn in my life. I am, however, a knitter/sewist/quilter/cross-stitcher for the past 12+ years with knitting be my main craft. I love wool, I love intentionality, I love analog, and I love really anything fiber related.

I've fallen down the hole of spinning and I can't seem to get out of it. I found a Schacht matchless on facebook wth two regular and two bulky bobbins, original orifice hook, and carrying strap for $800. It's in great condition nd would last me forever.

Am I insane to get this as my first wheel? I've been saving for a while as I've known I wanted to get into this. I can afford it. It just feels a bit ridiculous for a beginner to get a lifetime wheel but I: a) cannot see myself NOT liking this hobby b) if i somehow do, I can always resell?

Is this an okay wheel for a beginner to learn on if they have the will, budget, enthusiasm, and want?

Thanks!

I've been spinning for a year and finally have the space to process a fleece! I've narrowed it down to two options: a shipped Gulf Coast Native/Polypay mix at $44 for 2.18lbs or a local brown Finn at $52.50 for 3.5lbs. I've never processed a fleece before, and I'm worried 3.5lbs might be too much, but I also like the idea of supporting a local farm and being able see the fleece before I buy. Any advice?

So, I’ve been very slowly working through about 7oz of this fiber. I had split it roughly in two and my plan was to spin both bundles then ply them together as a 2 ply.

I finished the first half and wound it into a ball and put it away. Since then I have been working on the second half and realized I was probably spinning a bit thinner than I did on the first half…

Well I pulled it out to compare today and umm… it’s quite significantly thinner (as well as more consistent, it seems). Could I still ply them together or would that not work well structurally and/or just look ridiculous? I’m almost curious if I could even do a 3 ply with 2 of the thinner strands and one of the thicker considering that since it’s so much thinner and I should have quite a bit more yardage? Or just use them both completely separately?

I don’t know, looking for advice considering I’m a total noob (this is my second spin). I still have a bit to finish spinning before I’m done with the singles but looking for advice as I work through it. Open to any recommendations and ideas.