Bought a 16 oz bag of some space dyed braid ends from a fiber festival and have been pairing them together to get 2 oz skeins. Its been forcing me to pair colors together that I wouldn't normally be brave enough to try and they honestly have all turned out really nice! I have 4 left to go and I'm excited to see how they turn out! Cat for tax.

100% polwarth in the colorway “Carnival” but Greenwood Fiberworks.

This wool just BEGGED to be spun longdraw so I figured it was a great chance to learn and improve and I’m so glad I did. My grist almost always reads “bulky” due to how dense I spin. This yarn is so much more lofty and airy. The grist is measuring at a Worsted and my WPI is around 12-10 so that’s definitely a lot closer than usual.

Excellent fiber and the color is just out of this world.

Caption should be White Heron - I am such a sucker on my smartphone, it's almost laughable.

Finished just today my White Heron sweater by Drops Design. I used one of if not my first 3ply yarns that I spun last year. I combined it with Drops Brushed Alpaca Silk. A very warm, heavy but ultimately cozy sweater for the coming winter.

I recently bought this antique Norwegian style spinning wheel off marketplace. It was missing one of the pieces to hold the flyer on the mother of all, but I was able to make one. I also gave her a good clean and now she spins beautifully. She came with three bobbins as well.

5 done, 2 to go. But I've already washed the first 5 skeins so that I can start knitting soon. They are already drying and will be finished tomorrow. I will spin the last two skeins while knitting with what i have right now. Spun and plied on Meadow, my green Kromski Fantasia wheel.

Fiber is Targhee that I dyed in 8 different autumn colors, some browns, oranges, gold, red and a bit of dark and light green. All 8 braids were a bit different so I split the braids in small portions, mixed the pile completely, took 50g out for testspins and divided the rest into 7 piles. My singles are between 50 and 60 WPI and to keep the colors separated and have very short color sections I chainplied everything.

I will pair the yarn with a very thin brown Mohair (Mohair 21 by Lang yarns) and I plan to knit the Cinema sweater by Kutovakika. I already have two of them and I love the relaxed oversized fit. I've tested 4 different mohair yarns with my yarn and you can see the swatch on the last picture, I will go for the section on the top of the swatch. It is very subtle, only a hint of fuzz and doesn't change the color as much as the first two sections.

I entered my first show and ended up winning a few categories!
1st in Novice garment or article
1st in Tops hand dyed by exhibitor
1st in Novice fleece or tops
Also
The Most attractive Jumper or Cardigan
Best Student/Novice entry
Best Exhibit Handspinning
I’m so pleased, and the sheep trophies are so awesome!

This month was Spinzilla so I was able to make some extra yarns! It was nice to challenge myself while handling regular works and household duties. As you can see I was a little obsessed with purple this month💐✨

My sister recently gifted me an Ashford Joy Single Treadle Spinning Wheel!! I am SO excited to have this wonderful wheel, it works beautifully ☺️This is my first Skein of colored wool that I've made, aside from my practice 😅I'm having fun with it and I'm looking forward to making more yarn! Pics are of one of the singles and the 2 ply straight off the spindle. Still have to wet set it, but I'm really happy with how it's turning out, I'm still working through the roving for this project, so we'll see how much I get total. I really love this community, so I'm happy I can share with you all!

My aunt gave me an old Louet wheel and taught me how to spin. I have been practicing and finally got enough to try plying. Then I got very excited and made some chunky mittens! It has been very fun learning, but I’d love any advice/thoughts!

for a little while ive been telling my partner how cool it would be to make my own yarn. i love to knit and i think the process is so cool. one day she told me she got me all the supplies and i was so excited. she got me a raw unwashed sheeps fleece, a drum carder, and a spinner. cue hours of video watching, article reading and finally diving in.

the fleece was not all together in one piece like some peoples are but im assuming since the seller sold it like that that it didnt matter. i washed some of the raw wool in a plastic tub with dawn and hot water. about 3 washes to remove the dirt, debris and excess lanolin. i then laid it out to dry which took 2 days.

i picked a handful of it to the best of my ability and decided to try to card it. this is where i started to run into problems. i cant find a video or article with a carder like mine so i did the best i could with the info i had available. the wool wont stop clumping up and it doesnt look anything like what its supposed to.

i go back and watch more videos and realize my wool doesnt really look like others when loading it into the carder. everyones wool looks like its already pre carded or something. i think “ok maybe i need to wash it again” so i wash it two more times. it dries. i pick it again. it looks more cloud-like this time but still not like other peoples wool. so i think “i dont know i guess ill try to card it again” but im losing confidence at this point. im convinced im already doing something wrong.

i card a chunk of picked wool, remove it, card it several times again because when i posted something before someone told me it might need to be carded more. i card this chunk of wool 6 times, taking it off and re stretching the fibers and carding again. going very slowly and carefully. it still doesnt look right. its still clumping. it still isnt how its supposed to look. and its taking so long. i didnt expect it to be a quick craft but i didnt expect to spend 4 hours carding to get one single bat of carded wool, and it still isnt right. when i watch peoples videos they run theirs through like once and it looks beautiful and ready to spin. ive tried more wool, less wool, picking it to death, putting it in lightly picked, washing it again, going incredibly slow with my carder and fixing mistakes as i card, ive watched videos, read articles, i feel like i have tried everything they recommend online. i dont know what im doing wrong.

i have genuinely broken down and cried twice now over this and im ready to give up. im heartbroken that my partner spent so much money on this for me and im just failing over and over again. theres no way its supposed to take this long. theres no way this is the final product. i must be doing something wrong. please help me. i really wanted to make christmas gifts with this and now ive lost all hope of that. i doubt id even get enough processed wool to spin for a single ball of yarn before christmas at this rate. i feel stupid. pics are of the washed wool, my carder, and the result (front and back) after 6 passes through the carder. it took me so long and it still looks like shit.

Does anyone have a ball-winder they love?

I've been plying from center pull balls lately, but hand winding them results in a ton of yarn barf to untangling as I go. I hate it, I'm tired, and all I want is a compact ball with well organized guts.

Picture of my current WIP, the bunny rainbow.

I’m plying the singles from the outside, too, so those cakes are still dense

I don’t think I’ll win this spinner’s version of yarn chicken today 😂 will probably need to use a second bobbin.

Hi everyone, I' m a bout to buy a wooden spinning wheel (I usually use an e-spinner) and I found some here in Italy online, but most of them are a mistery to me, I can't underdtand how the tension system works or if thete's any! Someone can help? Thank you!

I link some images

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eeqKQtR3lZ-NZwxiZmIDnJxNHi0B_rn6/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1creaiqESX84ipqA9pD7se8g5v4hxeM9l/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DnTKspr5B_k48bMkHylFCzq-bFqlPEYu/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QfahqUkBeQRAjXbgc3b9inTfHMOHA7HO/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2a9WgAErG1ZFvudJpD3LJrPRleB_jaV/view?usp=drivesdk

Hi everyone, newbie here who just picked up this spinning wheel on marketplace -- I'm curious to get this group's thoughts on whether it's real, or just a decorative object?

Things that make me think it's real:

- the wheel spins

- the foot pedal works

- there's a rope drive band

- there's a bobbin and flyer (though missing pegs)

- there seems to be a small orifice

Things that make me suspect it may not be:

- the only logo I could find on the base says "ANRI", which brings up an Italian maker of folk art pieces "including decorative miniature or table-top spinning wheels"

- one of the visual comps shows a similar piece that is a lamp, although I can't see anything on this model that looks like it used to house lamp wiring, etc.

- however this other visual comp seems to suggest it's a functional item, though that could well be the seller's ignorance

Attached are a few photos of the wheel, along with a couple of other parts. One is a mysterious stick, another looks like some kind of tensioning item that may have broken off somewhere, and a third is a smaller mysterious stick that might be a different kind of bobbin (?) and might be totally unrelated to this piece, but I'm not sure and the wood type looks similar.

I'll try posting a video in the comments since I can't seem to figure it out here. Thanks!

Edit: I managed to take out the bobbin and flyer and alas, the hole that I thought might be a small orifice does not actually go all the way through. So I think I've answered my own question now. She's a beautiful piece of decor but not actually functional. Lucky for me, the seller threw in a second Saxony style wheel that does appear to be legit!

I purchased my first fleece at Rhinebeck this year at the fleece sale! It is a young Shetland (sheared in September). So beautiful and soft! I also purchased some hand carders today.

I have been spinning for a few months now. I have worked with some small farm batts that had lanolin in them, and I really enjoyed working with those. These batts were very greasy but extremely clean, leaving zero dirt residue on my hands when spinning. From my research, it is not a good idea to card wool in the grease, because it damages your equipment.

Can I only spin in the grease without using my carders? Is there a way to wash the wool where I can keep some of the lanolin content? Does this mean I need to purchase another set of carders exclusively for washed wool? I'd really appreciate any feedback on this so I can get started. Especially tips about washing the fleece. Thank you so much!

Hey there!

I am currently in the process of choosing my first wheel and would love some guidance.
My current favorites are a double drive Ashford Traditional or a Kromsi Sonata Encore.

Unfortunately the second hand market is not very good and I don’t have the possibility to test the wheels in advance. I inherited some money, so I am okay with taking the odds of „blind“ buying the wheel.
I have also looked at the Schacht Matchless, but this is unfortunately out of my price range.

I love the idea of owing a wheel that can do both double and single drive, so that’s why the two wheels mentioned are my favorite.
But I am open to more suggestions or a „deinfluencing“ from double drive.
I struggle between choosing the smarter option aka the more portable Kromski and the absolutely beautiful and what I’ve read reliable Ashford.
I also read that the Kromski wheels tend to be very squeaky. I think that would annoy me a lot.

I also would love to be able to use the wheel forever (at least hypothetically) and not to be stuck with a „beginner“ wheel.

I currently only have a random old 20€ Ebay wheel. Even though it is an Irish Tension wheel and very wobbly I still had success spinning okay-ish thin singles. So I definitely know that I want to pursue spinning in general. I like the single treadle, but I also have never tested a double treadle. I think I would be okay with both.

In terms of projects I want to do a lot of sock yarn and generally yarn on the finer side, maybe up to a DK?

I would love some insides or even completely different models. Especially for the Kromski Sonata Encore it was hard to find many reviews.
Thank you for your help.

Any tips to improve consistency would be appreciated

I bought 8 ounces of Targhee/silk blend from Banshee Fiber Arts, and I was wondering if I could get the whole thing plied on one Daedalus bobbin. It was a near thing, but four hours later I have one very full bobbin of 2 ply sport weight yarn.

I can't wait to see how much this is going to poof up. But after four hours of spinning, I should probably go cook dinner.

They started a fairly dark yellow but after scouring these flakes are very white. Is it just dried lanolin?

This is an Icelandic lambs fleece I was gifted after sitting in a barn for a few years.

Scoured with dawn dish soap ~140-160°F