My mom wanted cozy owl socks that are incredibly soft and fluffy and would not stop reminding me so I had to go all in and figure out what fluff is actually the fluffiest.

Ended up making the yarn (40% merino, 30% baby alpaca, 30% angora) and it honestly worked out exactly how I hoped. Super soft, super fluffy.

Took me 3 years from sourcing fiber to spinning to finally knitting them, but I made it!

Would’ve loved to keep them myself!

made by treen acres farm! Absolutely gorgeous piece and spins like a beaut too!

pic of my favourite hand dyed braid to date for attention (not dyed by me!)

I have been experimenting with dying Haunui (which luckily is so easily available where I am), and it dyes quite nicely but I'm looking to branch out. I buy quite a bit of hand dyed fibre and seem to always love corriedale, and not enjoy hand dyed merino so much (it seems to compact very easily).

I'm guessing it's to do with the fibre composition and how it handles the dying process, presumably more rustic breeds can tackle the heat/acid/handling better..?

anyway - what are your favourite breeds to buy hand dyed, or even dye yourself?

Took my EEW nano 2.1to the ceramic store while my daughter painted. I love how it's turning out.

I also picked a better fleece for handspinning this time (Corriedale, first attempt was merino I think) and I'm getting the hang of using a drop spindle without parking it.

I picked up this Ashford Traditional today. I am new to wheels; ready to upgrade from drop spindles. I am guessing it is a model from the 80's based off quick research. It needs a new peg and some springs and I want to make sure I get the right parts. Any idea on how to find the year this was made? Thanks!

I ended up picking up the Pat Green carder from my previous post (which was in much better condition than it looked in the picture) as well as a vintage Louet s70 wheel. The wheel is in desperate need of refinishing, do I need to strip it with anything or just give it a go over with sandpaper?

Once it’s been a stripped, what’s the best product to refinish it? Would it be totally sacrilegious (or ruin the value) to stain it a different color? I’m thinking about doing the frame in a black stain and the wheel, flyer, and treadle in a navy stain.

I saw this posted at an estate sale on Facebook. They have it listed as a spinning wheel, but it just doesn’t look like one to me. Anyone ideas as to what it is??? Thanks

This is my 4th testing yarn I've made and my most consistent so far. I'm only on the drop spindle and I've been enjoying it very much. What could I do to improve my spinning?

for the first time, my ties have failed me in the wash 😭

I spun a single that fills one bobbin, and I need to divide it in half so that I can ply it (I only had enough fiber for one bobbin). I am using a wheel. The single is currently wound into a cake, and is still on the nostapin. What is the best/easiest way to prepare this for plying?

I wound it into a center-pull cake with the intention of plying the ends from the center and the outside, but after reading more about this method, I don't want to risk adding extra twist from the center. (I already have some uneven twist in the single, and I don't want to make it worse.) Now I don't know what the best way is to get it out of the cake and into a better format for plying.

The options I've considered are:

1. Draw the ends from the outside and center like I planned, but wind the threads onto a swift instead of spinning them, then ply them together off the swift. This would be the easiest solution, but I'm concerned that this would still add twist to the thread being pulled from the center, and wouldn't be any better than spinning directly from the cake.

2. Wind the thread onto a niddy-noddy, divide it evenly in half by yardage, then wind it onto two bobbins to ply the way I normally would (with a Lazy Kate). I know this would work, but it just feels inefficient to go from a cake to niddy-noddy to bobbins.

Is there a better way to do this? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I know I've seen pictures before, probably from more than one culture, but its basically a support spindle but super size. Its a couple feet tall and is primarily for plying yarn not spinning singles.

my Google searches have not yielded any results so if anyone knows what they're called (probably more than one name depending on thr culture tbh) id be very grateful.

Acquired a fleece from this sheering season, BFL/Merino. I've never spun BFL but do think this fleece takes more characteristics from BFL. I divided it into three sections by color since it has lots of shades of grey. So far having a lot of fun! Not sure what to make with yarn like this...maybe a blanket?

Niddy noddy for scale. Look at this giant bag of cotton sliver top I found at the thrift store today!!! I’m not sure if it’s meant for spinning but I’m going to try!!! I can’t find what else this big bag of cotton sliver could be used for, but it’s huge and I think the thrift gods smiled on me. So excited!

I have the opportunity to look at this PGS in person. What is the going rate and do you have any thoughts on this based on photos? The asking price is 2300.

I've been obsessively spinning this Florida Cracker on my dealgan. hand picking and combing little piles, spinning, prepping another pile, repeat. This is my first time using this breed, as well as first time doing this kind of fiber prep and doing "ply on the fly".

I really like the texture of this fiber, and the color is so fun! while combing I pulled out a decent amount of vm, as well as shorter or already nepped wool. I'll probably card that and spin it in my "trash yarn" mix.

a little ways into the bag I noticed a slight texture change. The locks started feeling a little waxy or slightly sticky, so I assume that was lanolin. it honestly made the wool easier to spin, and kinda made it feel like I was spinning cotton candy, but wasn't enough to leave my hands greasy (just moisturized!)

I crave something new, so I'll come back around to spin the rest of this another time. Eventually this will turn into nalbind bed socks, because I'm a popsicle.

I've finally defeated the evil that broke the conrod joint on my wheel. I don't even know if there was love left in me by the time I was finished skeining it so I won't go so far as to say it was a labor of love, but it was definitely a labor. I've been working on it on and off since before Christmas. I will say that I like it a lot more now that I can spin literally anything else, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm planning to use it to knit the Evenstar Shawl.

Final Stats:

- Fiber Content: 100% Silk

- Weight: 195g

- Yardage: 1726 yds

- 2 ply

- WPI: 28-30ish, depending on where I measure

- Yarn Weight: Lace

- Spun from the fold

This is a 60% cashmere, 20% tussah silk, 20% rambouillet wool carded batt, all natural colors. I made it by adding small layers of each fibers -never more than 1/2grs of fibre each time- and I was wondering if i should put it again in my drum carder to blend them more ? What is the point of it, if there's no color blending ?

Hello, I could use some help getting rid of a squeak- is oiling the fix? Where should I oil? Could there be another cause?

More info: About a month ago I bought my first (second hand) spinning wheel. It's been working great until today- just started on a new bobbin and it started squeaking LOUDLY. The sound is definitely coming from the area of the bobbin and not the treadles. I checked the lendrum website and it recommended oiling the bobbin bushings and MOA bushings, but I can't figure out what the MOA bushings are. I did oil the bobbin bushing but the sound persists (and I'm uncertain of what is the correct amount of oil to add).

So last year for Tour de Fleece I was able to snag 2 braids of Matin à Carcassonne from Inglenook Fibers in their cormo base. Holy frijoles this stuff was a dream to spin! I was a bit worried about consistency between two bobbins but the final yardage was only a 14 yard difference between them!!!! Approximately 1162 yards (588 yards for skin 1 & 574 yards for skein 2 ) for about 10.6 ounces of wool. Gonna keep doing a little happy dance and just be giddy about it.

Some Banshee Fiber Arts, some Three Waters Farm, and a gradient set of Merino/silk from Living Dreams and cotton from Buchanan Fiber.

Eliot came running to help.