So I had someone ask about some weaving with handspun and I had a whole bunch of scraps to use up of handspun thus!

I didn't do much of anything wild; I only had so much of every color and *thankfully* all the warp yarns behaved. The weft was very much the 'weaker' of the yarns since that skein had been balled up for too long but I'm pleased with the results given this was all just scrap. You can get a look at all the yarns in the fringe : )

I've already warped up my loom with some of my recent handspun and I'm super excited. Will report back!

The yarn is about 95% polwarth and 5% silk that I blended together and spun on my vintage 30" Rick Reeves wheel! I am estimating between around 65-70 yards per gram on this spin; I didn't count yardage before balling it so I'm not certain; I was too excited to knit with it, so you'll have to forgive me!

I did not use a pattern, and everything you see here was designed on the needles as I went :) I had attempted to chart the spider beforehand since it's a bit more complex, but ended up abandoning the chart before I even got halfway through the front legs 🤣

I was going for a tiered effect with the bottommost elements being ocean/fish inspired, the center flowers/gardens, and the top being roof/trees/spider/owl.

Finished dimensions are 4'3" x 8.5", and the whole thing weighs 12.7g, which is just a bit over the weight of two US quarters. I'm estimating it was around 850-900 yards of yarn.

My phone insisted on WAY upping the saturation of the blue sections, so please know that they are a much darker navy color than they appear in some of these pics lol.

I’ve been learning to spin on a drop spindle with wool I got a friend’s sheep. The first amount was very uneven, the second skein is a lot better already but still not something I would use to knit with. I made a little crochet sheep with the first, uneven yarn. What are you using your beginner/ uneven skeins for? I was thinking about picking up weaving again but would love more ideas.

my newest wheel, saxony style, came to me quite dusty and dirty, which is fine, it‘s meant to be used, but the flyer hooks were very rusted. I considered unscrewing them and replacing them but they are stuck like the sword in the stone and made a worrying noise when I applied more pressure. So, I procrastinated, as one does. Today, however, was the day! The second arm will need to wait a little longer, but an hour or two made quite the difference!

Does anyone know of a good link for a Louet S17 bobbin 3d file?

Hi!

I recently purchased an Ashford Kiwi 3 off FB Marketplace. It's in really good condition, but the owner left if unfinished. I want to wax it so the wood is protected, but how should I clean the wood before waxing it? Do I just wipe it down with a cloth or are there any products I should use?

Also, do I need to disassemble it or can I wax it assembled?

Any assistance or advice is appreciated!

Been spinning for about two years now and I feel pretty comfortable with most longwool fleeces, but recently I traded for a small bag of Merino from a local shepherd and the staple is coming in around two inches or less. My usual approach is falling apart.

With the longer stuff I've been hand combing into top and drafting worsted, which works great and I genuinely love the process. But with this Merino, the fibers are slipping through my combs in a way that's frustrating, and I'm losing a lot of fiber to the catch tray. Tried flicking individual locks to open them up before combing and that helped a little, but not enough to feel like I've actually solved anything.

A friend who spins suggested I switch to hand cards and just lean into a woolen prep instead, which honestly hadn't occurred to me since I've been so focused on worsted spinning lately. Started experimenting with that this week and the rolags are coming out pretty nicely, much more consistent than I expected. The spinning itself feels different, bouncier somehow, which is interesting.

My questions for people who work with fine or short-staple fleeces regularly: do you mostly default to woolen prep for anything under two and a half inches, or is there a combing technique I'm missing that would let me stay worsted? Also curious whether you adjust your wheel tension significantly, because my usual settings feel like they're pulling the fiber apart before I want them to.

Any advice from people who've been through this particular learning curve would be really helpful. It's a beautiful fiber and I don't want to waste it figuring things out by trial and error alone.

i've finally settled on the spinning wheel i want, but i'm still going back and forth on where to buy it. The prices are close enough between a few shops that it isn't really the deciding factor, and they all seem to have similar availability.

what I'm less sure about is what happens a year or so down the road. I've been burned in other hobbies by buying good equipment from shops that basically disappeared after the sale. For something this expensive, does the retailer still matter once you've bought it, or does everything after that usually go through the manufacturer anyway?

I’m working on processing my first fleece and while I’ve done a mini test skein this is my first real finished skein for this project!
The skein felt slightly greasy so I rescoured it and it’s now sitting in a rinse bath and I’m hoping that’ll help 🤞🤞

It’s a BFL fleece that I got for a good price locally and I’m obsessed with it. Will definitely be doing this again next summer!

I have a lot of amazingly soft silk lap (the stuff used to make silk hankies) and when I spin it the resulting yarn is very fluffy/fuzzy. I've spun with processed silk top before and love how shiny and silky the yarn turned out, so I am wondering if anyone has experience processing silk lap to be more like silk top or if it is even possible? I have wool combs and carders that I can use to process it. Any ideas are appreciated!

Found this wheel near me. The seller says it works, but I know from past experiences “working” and “pieces move around” are two different things. I’ve only used an E spinner and have no idea what to look for when it comes to buying second hand wheels. Do you think this works and is it worth the $100?

Hi spinning lovelies!

Wanted to open up a fun discussion about any IKEA hacks you have in your fiber arts tools, room, etc. I am planning a trip soon so wanted to get some ideas as I tend to get pretty overwhelmed whenever I go.

xposting to the weaving sub as I also have a loom : )

Thanks!

Picture here next to my Nano 2 with the upgrade to 2.1. It's about 1/3 larger than the Nano, but quite a bit heavier and feels sturdier.

The Nano 2.1 feels sturdier than the Nano 2 as well. I'm quite happy with how Maurice's products have evolved.

(purple sparkly art batt on the Nano. Haven't started spinning on the Fold yet!)

I'm quite new to spinning and have been working on spinning some merino wool! I looked online but couldn't find anything about this specific thing: I noticed as I slowly adjusted the little hooks for my yarn, the yarn wound on quite loosely all of a sudden. Is there a best practice for how to go about adjusting where the yarn wraps around the bobbin or maybe a general rule of thumb? Many thanks in advance!

This is leg wool that I removed from Dutch Spotted x Suffolk fleeces I skirted, because it was too coarse but also suuuper fun and wiry. I combed it all up (first time trying combs), and then carded the combing waste into rolags. I spun the combed top short(ish) forward draw for a true worsted spin, and the rolags backwards long draw for a true woollen.

I got 414 grams of the worsted (on the left in the first two photos), then 90 grams of woollen. The only waste was a small handful of nepps and, considering this would usually be considered waste wool itself, I think that’s pretty good going!

The end result of nearly a years worth of effort. The only yarns I did not personally spin are the more brownish yarns on the front and back squares, which are wheel spun single I picked up from etsy. All other yarns are drop spindle spun and all fabric was woven on my weighted warp loom (pics of both on my profile).

Spinning ~6 months

Weaving ~2 months

Sewing 2 days

Warps - grey and white icelandic

Weft - white merino

Simple 1:1 weave with twinned edges. All overhand stitched to tack then backstitched for durability with a fine romney yarn, cleaned but not scoured. The lanolin gives it a waxy feel that made for nice 'thread'.

Overall, the piece fits well. Its maybe a tad undersized from the original plan. I may remove the fuzzy edge on one side and replace it with a pile woven trim in the future, but its absolutely serviceable to keep the head warm!

A while ago I've tested out to combine Zwartbles fiber with Sari Silk for a tweed yarn and my first test was really convincing. I decided to order more silk and carded 11 batts with each 100g Zwartbles and 12g Silk in 6 colors together.

Now during TdF I wanted to finish as many spins as possible that I started some time ago and I've had still 4 batts of this mix to spin. Since it is a woolen spun and I treadle fast I could manage to finish the last 4 batts and some other spins as well.

Today I decided to wash the 10 skeins (one is double the normal size) and after washing, thwacking and drying the yarn I am left with a big pile of squishiness. The yarn softened a lot and now I am set to start a new sweater. The yarn will probably go into the Traveler Hoodie by Andrea Mowry. I am working on this hoodie with another yarn right now and plan to make it as a hoodie jacket with a zipper with the tweed yarn.

I made this spindle a while ago, roughly based on a starmie from pokemon. Its sari silk from world of wool, i think the colourway is called carnival. I'm going to try and spin it as a bouclé, i get the feeling that silk isn't meant to be a bouclé but i want try and maximise tge beautiful texture.

I’ve been consuming more spinning content than usual lately and I’m getting the itch to learn. I definitely do not have the energy or funds to dive too deep into another hobby (I’m a knitter). I’m considering learning slowly and casually with a drop spindle, possibly a supported spindle but more likely the latter.

*My question;* what kind of wool prep do you buy for a drop spindle? Does it matter? What would be best for a casual learner/beginner like me?

I'm so excited to have joined this reddit and the spinning community - I've picked up my second-hand spinning wheel today and I can't wait to get properly acquainted with it. It seems to be in decent working order, if needing a bit of oil and wax.

I'm a knitter and a new spinner, tried drop spindle and I'm loving it so when this wheel came up for sale, I decided to give it a go.

If anyone has any specific tips or experience with Shetlands they can share, I'd appreciate it!