Spinning Day part 2

I had a fantastic day learning about the differences in wool from a sheep's fleece, and what a fantastic Jacobs sheep fleece it was too - sheared from a sheep that is entered into shows!

Hilary is a great teacher, patient and explains well. She showed me the way she uses carders and it was so much easier than what I had seen before, and less strain on the arm muscles. As I hadn't got any carders, I was able to buy some from her 2nd hand (the pair in the left basket).


The spinning wheels she has that she teaches on are quite different to my Ashford Traditional and I found the treadling so different and a little tricky at first to get the hang of it, but once I did the spinning started. Another aspect I had previously experienced some problems with were stopping the spin going into the rolag and making it difficult to tease out the fibres but with a little coaching this is now not a problem. I was taught a great way to control that with the left hand and didn't have any over spinning into the rolag problem all day.

I spun quite a lot of yarn and was able to ply it, reversing the spin of the wheel, which could be confusing but I managed it pretty well. Once plied I wound it onto a niddy noddy (I love the name!) and tied it at points to enable to to stay together and then it was off to be washed. It came up lovely, was bagged to take home for drying. I've done 2 hanks of this lovely wool and I love the colours that are achieved from the different colours of the fleece.

drying in the bathroom

The finished product - driedOutside to see the coloursand a close-up

So that was my day, I was very tired that evening and yesterday but did some carding yesterday evening and hope to spin the wool I prepared later today.

I have to say I loved spinning, it is so relaxing, even though I'm still new to it and have a lot to learn, but it is rhythmic and working with something so natural and soft is lovely. My journey continues.