Martin. Great progress! Keep your waste and invest in a blending board at a later date. All that will go towards making great rolags! Also, get onto world of wool and buy some cheap wool top for practice. Puntas arenas is nice to spin and well priced. It also makes a nice soft yarn. You could always dye it yourself with food colour if plain white doesn’t inspire you x
You are off to a fantastic start! I am living my spinning dreams through you. I took a class years ago, but didn't stay with it. Now, because of living space, size of my current stash and essential tremors, spinning is not going to happen. Thank you for letting us experience your spinning journey.
Yay! The green shows so much progress 😍 When the single breaks when you’re plying, spit splice it 👍🏻 The breed in your fibre, manx Loughton, is pronounced luftan 😁
Getting better! Two things I want to say: 1. Hand spinning is not about spinning fast or perfectly even or very thin. It's a form of art. All those perfect things are met by commercial yarn, there's no point for hand spinning that in mind. Handspun yarn is lively, more or less varied and thus perfect. As such it gives beautiful varied textured knits. 2. As you noticed, different fibers spin up differently. My spinning teacher always says: Listen to your fiber! You can spin all fibers in the same way - but that will probably just bring you loads of frustration, trying to go agains the nature of the fiber at hand 😁 That said, I never by fiber that doesn't have a label telling me what's in it. I need to know. Not knowing would be like reaching a bottle in the bathroom with my eyes closed and brushing my teeth without knowing if it was shampoo or deodorant or indeed toothpaste 🤪 Oh, and fiber lenght: Pick up from the end of the top just a few fibers and pull until they come out. Those fibers show you the actual fiber length and you can determine how long your hands need to be apart. Also, plyback test is only very approximate when it comes to your finished yarn: When you ply your singles, that unravels about a third, even half of the twist. So the plyback test is ok to be a bit too tight.
Laughing with you Martyn at your reaction to BFL, it's lovely to spin, one of my favorites. Like you I'm a fairly new spinner, it's nice to follow your journey
Your yarn looks phenomenal! You’re well on your way to knitting with your handspun. When your yarn breaks apart during the ply process, it’s usually just one of the singles. There’s no need to tie a knot or do anything more fancy than just overlapping the two ends: it’s fiber, it doesn’t know it was ever not next to the other strands. Pinch the overlapped spot and the unbroken single for a sec as you add more ply twist, slide your fingers down the single towards yourself gradually, and the single that didn’t break will spiral around the one that did and keep everything together. At the end of the ply, there is usually a bit more singles left on one bobbin- and there are great videos on making a ply bracelet so you can use all the singles in your skein. Regarding your leftover fiber- if you don’t want to wait or pay for expensive carders, you can purchase dog brushes from the dollar store and use them to prep your fiber so there is no waste. That said, normally there isn’t waste once a braid is prepped for spinning (and here I will respectfully disagree with the poster who said to steam your braids: cooked chicken will never be raw again, and steaming changes the structure of the fiber’s proteins, so what I mean when I say fiber prep is skirting a fleece and scouring and washing and combing or carding it and sometimes using a diz). Hopefully learning how to join your plies and make a plying bracelet will help with that!
Loving the videos. You can really see progression. I wish I had of documented my spinning when I first started. You are going to love looking back on these. If you are planning to a fractal spin, look up videos on spinning across the top of the fibre and have a practice before you use that lovely coloured braid. You will need to do this technique for the one half of the braid. Spinning across a wide section is a bit more tricky than spinning thinner sections.
Hi Martin: Happy new year. I see you have a new toy. That was so sweet of Mark to gift you that for Christmas. I saw the wool you spun and that you were spinning. I know you are excited but I think you should calm down a little and relax. Your fiber is just beautiful and I think if you just relax more and slow the spinner down a little you will get better results. No I am not a spinner but I watch others who are. I not sure if you are the right distance from your spinner either. However it’s just my opinion. Your fiber is so beautiful I just want you to get good results. Keep the good work up but relax. I was hoping you would wait before spinning that beautiful blue and I was happy that you did not do the (I think it’s rainbow). Enjoy ❤😊
You can spin all the yarn at one bobbin and if finished wind it on a yarn winder in a ball, than twine it by taking one thread from the inside and the other from the outside,. You won’t have meteres left. You also need some some handcarders to get the spoiled fibers to re-use them.
Martyn, your progress is great! Just a small point on the thin spinning bit: do not be afraid of it. It’s not that you won’t be able to go back. It’s more that when spinning thin, the inconsistencies are smaller and harder to spot. This gives the spinner the FEELING they can’t spin “good, consistent yarn” anymore. That isn’t true. Good fibre prep is the most important part of good spinning. That means making sure your fibre is not compacted in any way, that the individual strands don’t snag onto one another, that your drafting is buttery smooth. Most commercially available spinning fibres are compacted because of storage. Take the braid apart. Steam it. It’ll puff up in ways you’ll be amazed at. Even if you split it into pencil roving, pre-draft it ever so slightly to loosen the fibres a bit more. Now be amazed at how more consistent your spin is now, compared to unsteamed, undrafted pencil roving. My default spin might be cobweb/frog hair to lace weight, it doesn’t mean I can’t produce a very nice chunky yarn. I just have to pay attention to what I’m doing. And no, it’s not my favourite. At all. Because I don’t like knitting with it either. About resting bobbins: don’t rest before finishing/washing. Rest before PLYING. Resting bobbins isn’t mandatory, but it does make for an easier plying session, because your singles won’t coil back on themselves so hard. To avoid over-plying: Test your plying twist frequently, never allow your plied yarn to coil back on itself more than 2-3 twists and it won’t be over-twisted. If here and there you spot an extra twist or two, don’t worry: feed in an extra few inches a little faster and it’ll compensate. Don’t be in a hurry when plying. Get into a steady rhythm. Remember above all: you’ll be fine. You’ll get there. You’re already doing great! That bobbin of blue singles looks so good! Every bobbin, every spin was better than the previous one. Be proud of yourself!
Well done! You’ll be spinning DK in no time! I’m learning so much from the comments to this video. Still not going to start anytime soon, but I am living vicariously through you.
World of wool is a great Fibre supplier and is a great way to get to try different breeds of wool and find out what you like spinning and what you don’t like. Sadie’s Spincraft is a great fun UA-cam channel to watch. You’re making great progress.
Wow Martin!! I am really enjoying seeing your spinning progress- your progress is inspiring ( although I am not sure that I have any room for yet more crafting stuff 😂)
I spit splice to join plies. If the fiber has bamboo or something that won't felt, I overlap the 2 plies from the spinner with the ends from the lazy kate. Pinch the join, let a little twist build up then slide your fingers down so the twist secures the join.
Some day you will WANT to spin chunky and your hands won't remember how. I think the spinning journey is like a music journey. You start out learning to read music, learning the names of the parts of your instrument, where to put your fingers, how to breathe... lots of diverse elements all at once. Your first tune was something like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" then you work up to more complicated pieces. Spinning is much the same. This initial phase is learning the spinner, experimenting with fiber and twist. Just like your tenor horn, eventually spinning will become much more muscle memory and not be so mentally draining.
I'm watching you undo the fibre "chain" and I wanted to mention that most of the fibre I've received I've been able to "unbraid" or undo like a crochet chain. I"m surprised yours isn't like that. Really lovely yarn you ended up with!
A piece of advice for you, which you can take or leave. It’ll be easier for you to get that control over thickness of yarn that you want if you learn on fibres such as Bluefaced Leicester, rather than that wonderful art batt. Save that one for when you have a bit more experience. Art batts can be difficult due to the combination of fibres in them. This is only a suggestion, have fun with your spinning,
Yay martyn. Love it. When you finish a single bobbin. You can fold back the yarn so it plies on it self. That will stop the yarn unraveling. Also you can put the waste in a bag, you can reuse them
You are doing really well Martyn but make life easier for yourself and open the braid from the other end! And just to let you know that here on the Isle of Man our wool- Manx Loaghtan is pronounced Manx “Locktan” I love the blue braid- that colour is stunning!
Don’t forget to move your hooks to spread the yarn evenly on the bobbin…….no mountains and valleys……as you fill the bobbin you may need to tighten your tension slightly.
Happy you are sharing your journey with us. May I offer a suggestion? Move your spinner away from you a bit, if you have a little more room the energy of the yarn twisting has a more room to even out and will help you spin a little more consistently. Once I did that the breaking and clumps seemed to disappear. Also, try to get a rhythm and then don’t think about what you are doing, you will be amazed that it “just happens” and you will run out of fiber before you know it.
Martyn, Im so impressed with your perseverance and progress! Don’t throw away the waste!! Buy some hand carders and recycle the waste into your own braid.
Great to see your progress. It is quite remarkable. My only advice would be to lable each skein. It is surprising how quickly you forget what fibre etc is in each skein. I understand you have your data base but which skein is which will become a thing. My other thought is just like knitting there are no spinning police, certainly learn as much as you can from others but remember you will get your feel and that is right for you. ENJOY 😊
Aww loving seeing your spinning journey, we are both at the same stage so I'm encouraged by your videos as it gives me confidence I can do this to, thank you 😊 I did get the fit of giggles though at the speeded up bit where the voices on D Abbey were super quick... I'm such a child 😂😂😂
This is a very niche comment but as soon as you said about tracking wastage I was ooo yes process control charts and spreadsheet! Doing my six sigma green belt this year has broken my brain
Hi Martyn, looks great! Do you have to ply the yarns? We all know that we have to listen to our yarns to see what they want to be. Have a fabulous weekend. xxJane 🐑🌼
Martin. Great progress! Keep your waste and invest in a blending board at a later date. All that will go towards making great rolags! Also, get onto world of wool and buy some cheap wool top for practice. Puntas arenas is nice to spin and well priced. It also makes a nice soft yarn. You could always dye it yourself with food colour if plain white doesn’t inspire you x
Martyn the smile on your face is everything…….So pleased for you! What progress you’ve made!!
You are off to a fantastic start! I am living my spinning dreams through you. I took a class years ago, but didn't stay with it. Now, because of living space, size of my current stash and essential tremors, spinning is not going to happen. Thank you for letting us experience your spinning journey.
Martyn!! Your skill progression is amazing 😮. I’m in awe!
Oh wow the difference between your second skein and the first one! Well done. You must be super pleased 😊
Yay! The green shows so much progress 😍 When the single breaks when you’re plying, spit splice it 👍🏻 The breed in your fibre, manx Loughton, is pronounced luftan 😁
Getting better!
Two things I want to say:
1. Hand spinning is not about spinning fast or perfectly even or very thin. It's a form of art. All those perfect things are met by commercial yarn, there's no point for hand spinning that in mind. Handspun yarn is lively, more or less varied and thus perfect. As such it gives beautiful varied textured knits.
2. As you noticed, different fibers spin up differently. My spinning teacher always says: Listen to your fiber! You can spin all fibers in the same way - but that will probably just bring you loads of frustration, trying to go agains the nature of the fiber at hand 😁
That said, I never by fiber that doesn't have a label telling me what's in it. I need to know. Not knowing would be like reaching a bottle in the bathroom with my eyes closed and brushing my teeth without knowing if it was shampoo or deodorant or indeed toothpaste 🤪
Oh, and fiber lenght: Pick up from the end of the top just a few fibers and pull until they come out. Those fibers show you the actual fiber length and you can determine how long your hands need to be apart.
Also, plyback test is only very approximate when it comes to your finished yarn: When you ply your singles, that unravels about a third, even half of the twist. So the plyback test is ok to be a bit too tight.
I’ve enjoyed watching you learn how to- I have never spun any yarn so it’s all new to me! I think you are doing a great job!!!
Laughing with you Martyn at your reaction to BFL, it's lovely to spin, one of my favorites. Like you I'm a fairly new spinner, it's nice to follow your journey
Love your spinning journey you're amazing xx
Your yarn looks phenomenal! You’re well on your way to knitting with your handspun. When your yarn breaks apart during the ply process, it’s usually just one of the singles. There’s no need to tie a knot or do anything more fancy than just overlapping the two ends: it’s fiber, it doesn’t know it was ever not next to the other strands. Pinch the overlapped spot and the unbroken single for a sec as you add more ply twist, slide your fingers down the single towards yourself gradually, and the single that didn’t break will spiral around the one that did and keep everything together. At the end of the ply, there is usually a bit more singles left on one bobbin- and there are great videos on making a ply bracelet so you can use all the singles in your skein. Regarding your leftover fiber- if you don’t want to wait or pay for expensive carders, you can purchase dog brushes from the dollar store and use them to prep your fiber so there is no waste. That said, normally there isn’t waste once a braid is prepped for spinning (and here I will respectfully disagree with the poster who said to steam your braids: cooked chicken will never be raw again, and steaming changes the structure of the fiber’s proteins, so what I mean when I say fiber prep is skirting a fleece and scouring and washing and combing or carding it and sometimes using a diz). Hopefully learning how to join your plies and make a plying bracelet will help with that!
Smiling to myself watching you 'unbraid' the braid. I think if you'd started from the other end and pulled, it would have come undone.
Yes, it is just like a crochet chain. Should unravel easy.
Thank you for saying something; I’ve been talking to the video!!
NO WAY!!! Ok I need to get another braid now and try this!!!
You learn all sorts on UA-cam! Thank you!
Well well, I can’t wait to try it!
Loving the videos. You can really see progression. I wish I had of documented my spinning when I first started. You are going to love looking back on these. If you are planning to a fractal spin, look up videos on spinning across the top of the fibre and have a practice before you use that lovely coloured braid. You will need to do this technique for the one half of the braid. Spinning across a wide section is a bit more tricky than spinning thinner sections.
Potentially helpful tip: most braids are essentially a big single crochet chain so you should be able to tug on one end and unravel it like crochet
Hi Martin: Happy new year. I see you have a new toy. That was so sweet of Mark to gift you that for Christmas. I saw the wool you spun and that you were spinning. I know you are excited but I think you should calm down a little and relax. Your fiber is just beautiful and I think if you just relax more and slow the spinner down a little you will get better results. No I am not a spinner but I watch others who are. I not sure if you are the right distance from your spinner either. However it’s just my opinion. Your fiber is so beautiful I just want you to get good results. Keep the good work up but relax. I was hoping you would wait before spinning that beautiful blue and I was happy that you did not do the (I think it’s rainbow). Enjoy ❤😊
Try watching - The last homely house, Kate cards her wool and spins it, 🤞 ❤
You can spin all the yarn at one bobbin and if finished wind it on a yarn winder in a ball, than twine it by taking one thread from the inside and the other from the outside,. You won’t have meteres left. You also need some some handcarders to get the spoiled fibers to re-use them.
Martyn, your progress is great!
Just a small point on the thin spinning bit: do not be afraid of it. It’s not that you won’t be able to go back. It’s more that when spinning thin, the inconsistencies are smaller and harder to spot. This gives the spinner the FEELING they can’t spin “good, consistent yarn” anymore. That isn’t true. Good fibre prep is the most important part of good spinning. That means making sure your fibre is not compacted in any way, that the individual strands don’t snag onto one another, that your drafting is buttery smooth.
Most commercially available spinning fibres are compacted because of storage. Take the braid apart. Steam it. It’ll puff up in ways you’ll be amazed at. Even if you split it into pencil roving, pre-draft it ever so slightly to loosen the fibres a bit more. Now be amazed at how more consistent your spin is now, compared to unsteamed, undrafted pencil roving.
My default spin might be cobweb/frog hair to lace weight, it doesn’t mean I can’t produce a very nice chunky yarn. I just have to pay attention to what I’m doing. And no, it’s not my favourite. At all. Because I don’t like knitting with it either.
About resting bobbins: don’t rest before finishing/washing. Rest before PLYING. Resting bobbins isn’t mandatory, but it does make for an easier plying session, because your singles won’t coil back on themselves so hard. To avoid over-plying: Test your plying twist frequently, never allow your plied yarn to coil back on itself more than 2-3 twists and it won’t be over-twisted. If here and there you spot an extra twist or two, don’t worry: feed in an extra few inches a little faster and it’ll compensate. Don’t be in a hurry when plying. Get into a steady rhythm.
Remember above all: you’ll be fine. You’ll get there. You’re already doing great! That bobbin of blue singles looks so good! Every bobbin, every spin was better than the previous one. Be proud of yourself!
Well done! You’ll be spinning DK in no time! I’m learning so much from the comments to this video. Still not going to start anytime soon, but I am living vicariously through you.
World of wool is a great Fibre supplier and is a great way to get to try different breeds of wool and find out what you like spinning and what you don’t like. Sadie’s Spincraft is a great fun UA-cam channel to watch. You’re making great progress.
Wow Martin!! I am really enjoying seeing your spinning progress- your progress is inspiring ( although I am not sure that I have any room for yet more crafting stuff 😂)
I spit splice to join plies. If the fiber has bamboo or something that won't felt, I overlap the 2 plies from the spinner with the ends from the lazy kate. Pinch the join, let a little twist build up then slide your fingers down so the twist secures the join.
Some day you will WANT to spin chunky and your hands won't remember how. I think the spinning journey is like a music journey. You start out learning to read music, learning the names of the parts of your instrument, where to put your fingers, how to breathe... lots of diverse elements all at once. Your first tune was something like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" then you work up to more complicated pieces. Spinning is much the same. This initial phase is learning the spinner, experimenting with fiber and twist. Just like your tenor horn, eventually spinning will become much more muscle memory and not be so mentally draining.
I'm watching you undo the fibre "chain" and I wanted to mention that most of the fibre I've received I've been able to "unbraid" or undo like a crochet chain. I"m surprised yours isn't like that. Really lovely yarn you ended up with!
Much improvement with this new spin. Remember, baby bird in that right hand. No death grip.
A piece of advice for you, which you can take or leave. It’ll be easier for you to get that control over thickness of yarn that you want if you learn on fibres such as Bluefaced Leicester, rather than that wonderful art batt. Save that one for when you have a bit more experience. Art batts can be difficult due to the combination of fibres in them. This is only a suggestion, have fun with your spinning,
🎉🎉🎉
After seeing the blue fibre. You have improved in such a short while.
Love that look of concentration when your spinning ! You’re doing so well , I would have a big mess and be in tears by now !
Yay martyn. Love it.
When you finish a single bobbin. You can fold back the yarn so it plies on it self. That will stop the yarn unraveling. Also you can put the waste in a bag, you can reuse them
You are doing really well Martyn but make life easier for yourself and open the braid from the other end! And just to let you know that here on the Isle of Man our wool- Manx Loaghtan is pronounced Manx “Locktan” I love the blue braid- that colour is stunning!
Don’t forget to move your hooks to spread the yarn evenly on the bobbin…….no mountains and valleys……as you fill the bobbin you may need to tighten your tension slightly.
Happy you are sharing your journey with us. May I offer a suggestion? Move your spinner away from you a bit, if you have a little more room the energy of the yarn twisting has a more room to even out and will help you spin a little more consistently. Once I did that the breaking and clumps seemed to disappear. Also, try to get a rhythm and then don’t think about what you are doing, you will be amazed that it “just happens” and you will run out of fiber before you know it.
How lovely to see your progress in spinning. You are spinning finer each day. Bravo !
Martyn, Im so impressed with your perseverance and progress! Don’t throw away the waste!! Buy some hand carders and recycle the waste into your own braid.
Great to see your progress. It is quite remarkable. My only advice would be to lable each skein. It is surprising how quickly you forget what fibre etc is in each skein. I understand you have your data base but which skein is which will become a thing.
My other thought is just like knitting there are no spinning police, certainly learn as much as you can from others but remember you will get your feel and that is right for you. ENJOY 😊
Aww loving seeing your spinning journey, we are both at the same stage so I'm encouraged by your videos as it gives me confidence I can do this to, thank you 😊
I did get the fit of giggles though at the speeded up bit where the voices on D Abbey were super quick... I'm such a child 😂😂😂
Could you share the pesto sundries tomato recipe. Sounds delicious and anything for the slow cooker is a huge bonus.
If you have some hand cards you can card up the yellow and green waste and spin it. You are doing great!!
@@LisaMyEclecticLife I agree, I don't call that waste. It would go into my pile of 'leftovers' to be carded into a multi fibre art batt!!!
This is a very niche comment but as soon as you said about tracking wastage I was ooo yes process control charts and spreadsheet! Doing my six sigma green belt this year has broken my brain
Well done, I am loving your spinning journey and progress ❤
Well done! Could you use the waste for needle felting?
I dont spin, but having fun watching you.
Wow! What progress! Did you see yarnnyarns cast on of the west coast mitts, Could be your first handspun knitting project?
Just slow it down 🥰
Instead of fractyl, you can always ply that colored bump with a bare single
You will be spinning for this years MKAL in no time! Why do u now say ‘THE’ UA-cam and ‘THE’ TikTok ?
I saw it somewhere about “the UA-cam” and it made me laugh!
Hi Martyn, looks great!
Do you have to ply the yarns?
We all know that we have to listen to our yarns to see what they want to be. Have a fabulous weekend. xxJane 🐑🌼