AKP: My Spinning Journey Begins!
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Thanks for watching!
What we chatted about:
1) 12 Birds MKAL by Helen Stewart
Yarn used: Farmers Daughter Fibers Foxy Lady in Olive Oyl, Gary Cooper, Mr. Pocket, and Meet me in Atlantic City
2) Shizen by Eri Shimizu
Yarn used: Linen Quill in Reed Gray
3) Spinning!
- The wheel I purchased is Ashford Kiwi 3
- Classes at Craftsy.com and School of Sweet Georgia (www.schoolofsw...)
4) Books discussed
- The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
- Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzales
5) Shows
- Girls on the Bus (Max)
- Quiet on Set (Max)
- Under the Bridge (Netflix)
- Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
I've been spinning for years, and I still feel like it's somehow magic ... like spinning straw into gold. I finish a skein and announce to myself, "Wow, I made this." Welcome to the club.
I’m so glad to hear that the magic of spinning remains alive for you. I feel that way about knitting too-it never fails to leave me awestruck! We are the lucky ones 💚
Bramble ridge (canadian dyer) have some of the best fibres I've ever spun, Hill top cloud here in the UK, are excellent, John Arbon are also amazing. Im so excited for you! Spinning just takes a little time, patience and practice but I know you will crack this too☺️ I hope you have the space for the additional and unrelated hobby which is the fibre!! Bit like yarn is a separate hobby from knitting, and fabric for sewing!!! I so look forward to each and every episode you release, like having a friend over and chatting ☺️
So wonderful to see you so excited! I did take a drop spindle class and it did not take at all with me. Maybe one day I will feel ready to try with a wheel! But for now I don’t need another craft in my life. About the MKAL…I am loving it. For me this is just the right balance of interest and meditative knitting and I think it is beautiful. I would say that this shawl represents her style well so I am pleased. I would never do a Stephen West MKAL because there is not a single one that I actually like so far. I do love many of his other shawls but I feel like the MKAL ones are just too over the top for my taste. You always take a bit of a chance with an MKAL, but you can definitely manage expectations based on what you know of the designer. Go with one you love and trust. I think your colours are gorgeous and you will love your final result!
Your joy and passion are infectious!! I look forward to this little bit of time with you every Friday- I am convinced we would be fast friends IRL. 😊 I am so not ready to give up any knitting time, so I will totally be living spinningly-vicariously through your new journey. Have a fun weekend spinning!
We totally would be friends, Jessica! Follow your heart with regards to spinning. But if you ever feel the inkling, give it a try. It’s so magical, and goes hand in hand with your love for knitting. It’s pretty addictive!
I often spin one ply of a coloured braid and one ply of a natural fleece together as it extends the yardage and one ply of black alpaca really makes bright colours pop. I have fleeces available where I live and I get coloured braids from my spinning guild.
I’ve now fallen down the dying rabbit hole and so often dye natural fleeces and card them into batts. Lisa from Soulful spinning podcasts really helped me on my
spinning journey. Look forward to seeing your progress. Cheers from South Australia.
I can totally imagine myself falling into dyeing fiber! It’s just so joyful to step deeper into the journey of the fiber. My husband jokes that he’s goign to wake up one day and see an alpaca in the yard 😂
Oh my gosh Lena, I felt the exact same way when I got my wheel! So much anxiety! My husband, that wonderful man, surprised me with my wheel for my birthday
Now that is a keeper of a husband! What a love! How lucky you are to have each other.
Just like you, I am so in love with spinning and I love how it goes hand in hand with knitting. Yay for us!
So exciting. Spinning looks so relaxing. Look forward to hearing more of your spinning journey!
It’s such a lovely complement to knitting!
So exciting to hear about your spinning adventure ❤. I do want to give drop spindling a try, but am intimidated.
As for the 24 Birds...I'm halfway through the final clue. I can't wait to see it blocked, it should be beautiful. That said....I did find the clues a bit repetitive, and the final clue a bit anticlimactic.
I've also realised that earlier in the shawl, I wasn't doing my S2kp properly. Instead of slipping 2 together at the same time, I was slipping one at a time twice, if that makes any sense. So that stitch in Clue 5 looks so much better than previous attempts. It almost makes me want to frog it, but I'll probably just live with it 😊
Congratulations on getting your wheel and embarking on a fun new adventure.
I hope you feel better soon❤❤❤
Thank you Kaetlyn!! Lots of love, hope you are well! 💚
not sure if I'm going to hop on the spinning train, however, your review of Craftsy vs. the other tutorials is so helpful. I too need to start like a preschooler!!! As always I enjoy your podcasts, keep em' coming!!
I am loving your spinning joy!! It is such an amazing hobby, every time I knit with my handspun it always blows my mind! Some of my favourite fibre suppliers are Hedgehog Fibres (they do a cool club), Spin Jones on Etsy, and Hilltop Cloud
Howdy! Congratulations on this new learning journey :) I spin, and something that helped me was acknowledging that as I was beginning the craft, the point of my spinning was to create yarn, not create yarn for a project. Unlike knitting I can't just frog something I made earlier and repurpose the wool. It helped reduce the stress when my yarn was too thick and thin, or I didn't spin enough to make the project I wanted. I learned to accept that in order to build the skills I needed to make the projects I wanted, I needed to experiment and make yarn that I had no idea what to do with! As for fiber, I really like weechickadee wool co, and La Mercerie has a good fiber section too! One last thing I wish I knew sooner, if wool is super compacted/felted and hard to draft you can move the wool over steam (I've used a steamer and a boiling pot of water before) to help add air and fluff things up. It's like magic! Just make sure to wait until it's dry before using, I learned that one the hard way lol! Happy Spinning!!!
Thank you!! This is beyond helpful. I love this mindset. I was thinking that I might try to make a Penguono by Stephen West out of my beginner yarn. I love that it is imperfect, and that pattern somehow looks even more beautiful with funky yarn. But either way, taking the pressure off makes the journey a lot more fun!
Ooooooo yes!! I'm so happy that you're happy with your wheel! I highly recommend the book Yarnitecture by Jillian Moreno (which also does at least one Crafts class on spinning). It's a great book to have a visual reference for color management but also for general spinning info.
I'm in the Nest Fiber Club and I really love the "Mixed Fibers club" option, she does really dreamy colors (which may not be always be my most favorite colors to wear but they are beautiful to spin) but she changes up the breeds every month so you get a good opportunity to try different breeds besides merino. It's also a very well priced club, I think all told it's only $27/month including shipping
Hi Nicole! Apologies for my very late response! I feel like I need to join one of those clubs…but I’m scared I’m going to end up having more fiber than I can spin. There are not enough hours in the day for all the making!! I got some beautiful fiber that I can’t wait to share with you 🥰
Lena, I bought the same Muud bag as you did. And I just LURVE love love ❤️ it. Inspires me each time I work from it!
I’m so glad you love the Muud bag!! Isn’t it spectacular?? The quality and aesthetics are just perfect.
Oh I am so happy for you to be on our spinning family😊 Do not buy Malabrigo Nube!! It is usually horribly felted and needs a lot of pre treatment to get it anywhere near being able to be spinable 😢 BFL blends are wonderful for softness and ease of spinning. I am so impressed with your bobbin of yarn!! You are spinning so consistently already 🙌🥳 Enjoy the journey 💓
Sorry for my very late response to this, but if you have some matted about Nube, I heard using a steamer to open it up can work. Not sure…I’ve been warned off so I will not be buying it!! I can’t wait to share my new fiber acquisitions with you this week!
Welcome to the wonderful world of spinning. I started out in August 2023 and like you, drop spindling isn’t my favourite. I switched to a supported spindle. It clicked. Then, in November 2023 I bought an e-spinner because due to a back injury that gives me issues with one of my legs treadling would become torture very, very fast. Now I switch back and forth between my e-spinner, my supported spindle, and my knitting. I spin to knit specific projects.
Malabrigo Nube is gorgeous but it is quite compacted which can make drafting difficult. There is, however, a solution: steam the fibre. I use an old-fashioned stovetop kettle and hold the undone braid over the spout. However, shooting steam jets from a steam iron several inches above the undone braid works too. Just watch the fibre bloom and puff up, it’s like magic. Once steamed, it’s much, much easier to draft Malabrigo Nube.
As I live in Belgium and have a vast preference for buying as local as possible (except the Malabrigo) I doubt my sources of fibre are useful to you. Shipping costs and import duties would become prohibitive quite fast. My best advice would be to see about local sources and to find out if you can feel the fibre. Both my daughter and me absolutely hate scratchy clothing, it drives us insane. If however you can visit spinning guilds, craft fairs etc, you can feel how the braid/fibre feels. How springy it is, how bouncy, how soft/smooth/slippery it is and therefore potentially how slippery or catchy it might be and how much you might like to spin it.
To memorialise my first homespun, I bought a small shadowbox frame and mounted two small samples of the fibre inside: as a single and plied. I journaled the date, type of fibre, source, wraps per inch, added a picture of the spindle with some of the fibre on it, and hung it on the wall of my crafting space. When I knitted up the yarn, a picture of the finished piece joined the rest inside the frame. If that finished piece (lace shawelette) ever gets lost or damaged, I still have that frame. Oh… and to keep moths at bay I’ve got a small bay leaf, a eucalyptus leaf and sprig if lavender inside the frame too. This Summer I might rub a drop of lavender oil on the frame just to be sure. Because I’m that happy I’ve leapt down the rabbit hole of spinning.
As a fellow beginner spinner, allow me to caution you about those gorgeous braids and batts that have strands of a different fibre visibly running through them. They can be tricky! That’s how I discovered bamboo fibre isn’t something I’m going to tackle anytime soon unless it’s very, VERY well blended in. I actually ended up buying some extra large dog brushes to card and blend in that bamboo as much as I could. On its own, apparently I despise bamboo! Maybe some time in the future I’ll feel differently about it. On the other hand, despite it also being slippery and with a short(ish) staple to boot, I find alpaca addictive. So much so that I bought a raw alpaca blanket to process from start to finish. I’ve already plucked out the guard hairs and am in the process of combing it. Shorter fibres from it will be hand carded with the dog brushes (I’m saving up for actual hand carders). And yes, I’ve already set aside a frame to memorialise my very first home processed fibre once I’ve worked up enough of it to have a finished knitted piece of that as well.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with spinning! So helpful. I’m so glad you have found a way to spin that is comfortable for your body. Making yarn is more joyful than I could have anticiapted. But I too have to be careful to respect my body and its limitations. It’s tempting to sit and spin for long periods, but it is something I have to build up to.
@@AnotherKnittingPod - I’m very familiar with that temptation… and its price. Now that I’ve learned to roughly estimate with reasonable accuracy how long it takes me to spin a certain amount of fibre (and how long of a spinning session I can handle), I only pull out that amount. In case of doubt I err on the safe side. It works. Well, kinda. LOL
Yay its Leena!! ❤
Merino, especially smaller micron counts, can be super slippery for a new spinner, but cormo or Corriedale or Polwarth are pretty soft but also easier to spin. Hello yarn has a fun surprise fibre subscription club, although I find their pictures misleading, everything is more muted in person.
I finished knitting and blocked my mkal. It’s gorgeousThe shawl is not small. A great size
I’m so glad you love it!!
Have you tried watching videos at 1.5-2x speed? It changes peoples voices if they aren’t your fav and also helps you crush through content 😂
the last clue was a disappointment so I went to my Oracle Shawl pattern (by Volenvine Yarns) and am doing clue 8 & 9 as my boarder instead....doing the 24 birds version....a beautiful lace work....yes I found it would be small and my second reason for changing the end
That’s so smart-I have done that with an MKAL from SW and its great when the final product 1) makes you happy and 2) is completely unique!!
I have heard some not great things about the Malabrigo Nube fiber, it’s super condensed/slightly felted and hard to pull apart/draft because of the way it’s dyed; a few people said if it wasn’t for the pretty colors they would’ve thrown it in the trash.
I've heard the same thing, I just pre draft, but a decent dyed fibre shouldn't need this!! (Bramble ridge/Hilltop cloud for example)
Talk to people the wool will just appear in your life❤
I’m so glad you love your new wheel and craft! You have passed me up big time, I’m still at knitting knitting knitting stage and have been for years. 😂 Enjoy your new love! I look forward to seeing more
We are huge fans of Brit Box streaming. “Shetland” was/is fantastic murder mystery. Silent Witness. There are so many!
Laughing at the desire not to split your knitting time. I felt the same way when I tried to spin. Quickly resold my wheel and now…. Wishing I still had it 😝
I can so relate ❤
Oh great, now I have to start spinning 😂😂😂 your enthusiasm is compelling. Baby Reindeer (we are on e4), the bit wjere he delves into his past is quite hard to watch, heads up.
Hahahaha this made me laugh! You do have to start spinning. I can’t put into words how much I loved it!!
And yes Baby Reindeer was nothing if not intense. But I loved it. Hope you found it worthwhile too.
Hi Leena. The shawl looks beautiful!! I can't wait to see the finished results because the colors are so pretty. This might be a good first shawl for me to try, since it's simplistic in your view. After all you are the queen 👑 of shawl making. ❤
Haha yes! If you are into lace this would be straightforward. I get a little bored with the same thing over and over, so that was my only problem with this shawl. Andrea Mowry also has some gorgeous shawls that are fun and not too hard. The Nightshift is one of my faves.
Ohh Leena you have to read the parent’s guide to Baby Reindeer - we started watching and stopped - sounds way too disturbing - love to know though if it’s not as bad as the descriptions. Happy spinning! 😘
Hi Janet! Baby Reindeer is definitely disturbing but I found it very entertaining and affecting. I love when books or shows leave a real impact and this one did. It really drives home the long shadow of abuse.
Yay a new wheel!! Congratulations! I took a spinning class & rented a wheel before I purchased one. I just bought my 2nd EEW, the new one. I love it! Maybe like me you will think why didn’t I do this years ago! Have fun! Blessings
Spinning is indeed a joy and a blessing! I don’t think I was ready to tear myself away from my knitting needles before now. But even just a few weeks in, spinning has given me a way better understanding of the structure of yarn and which yarns to pick for which patterns.
That’s so true. Looking forward to seeing your first hand spun hand knit project!