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With the addition of a new tool to the household I've turned my yucca fibre into baby's first wheel-spun single-ply thread.
Learning how to use a spinning wheel has its challenges, but I can feel myself improving as I go.
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And if you're thinking "Well, all the more reason to buy from indie dyers and indie yarn brands!"
...
Where do you think they get their yarn bases from? A LOT of Merino comes from Australia and New Zealand. A lot of silk comes East Asia.
Cashmere comes from East Asia.
There are small yarn mills dotted around the US. They tend to make small specialty yarns. Some have closed due to economic reasons. Where do they get their spinning machine parts from?
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When you consider tariffs for fiber arts... good luck if you want fleece or fiber prominent from a certain country.
The US... for complex reasons we aren't a wool using country. A LOT of the yarns in LYS and big box stores are made in another country. Turkey, UK, France, Italy, some in China, a LOT from India...
Panic buying yarn isn't the solution. Folks did that during the pandemic and still don't know what to do with the yarn.
Spun silk
(Silk hankies from frabjous fiber. 408 yards, chain ply, 29 grams)
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I do want another Romney fleece. Some classify it as a long wool because it technically is. Others classify it as a "medium" wool because the fleece isn't as long as most long wools, it's somewhat softer and finer.
I find it a good workhorse wool. Great for adult sweaters, hats, socks and gloves.
It's used for meat and wool in the US. It's a BIG sheep. The nearby fiber festival had Romney fleeces upwards of 15 lbs. Largest was 21 lbs? 
majority are white.
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Primitive breed sheep's wool is called that because the sheep isn't "improved" by cross breeding it with other breeds. The sheep's genetics have been the same for 100s or 1000s of years.
Some Primitive breeds I want to try or have tried and liked: Jacob, karakul, Icelandic, gotland, romanov, gotland, faroese...
A lot of those breeds are in Europe or Asia. Only a few flocks In the US.
Sampling raw fleece from those is hard because of international shipping regulations.
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I typically don't spin woolen, unless I'm using a supported spindle. But spinning Cotswold woolen is making the yarn fluffy and slightly softer. (Not by much.)
Many long wools are rougher than "medium" and fine wools.
Primitive breed wools are a toss up as to softness. But softness isn't the only reason to choose a certain fleece.
Some folks like spinning art yarns with the wool locks. And it's gorgeous. I just don't know what to do with art yarns.
M
#knitting #crochet #spinning #queer
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Spinning this particular long wool in a woolen style as opposed to worsted is interesting. Long wools need very little twist (unless you're using it for weaving.)
The curls on this Cotswold fleece are so gorgeous. I had a moment of panic about running out of this fleece. So I began looking around for similar long wools: Wensleydale, teeswater, Border Leicester...
Nothing on etsy or ebay. Idk farmers nearby that have long wool flocks. I think many farmers haven't shorn yet.
#spinning #knitting
Good morning.
Spinning wool. Cotswold wool on a supported/bottom whorl spindle.
I'm getting tired of spinning the superwash merino + nylon blend (for socks). The texture isn't really interesting me right now. Tussah silk is still interesting. It's just... the individual fibers get stuck to EVERYTHING. It's basically like spinning a bunch of spider's webs. Except silk comes from a moth.
Well, you know. 
My order for a Daedalus Starling has officially been placed - cranberry with dark grey accent colors. Should arrive after Maryland Sheep and Wool. It will bring my official “wheel” count to 3 - Lizzy, my EEW 5.1; Jane, my Schacht Ladybug; and then my as-yet-unnamed Daedalus Starling. She will not be named after a Jane Austen character, so I don’t know yet. I assume Lizzy will travel with me and Starling will live in one place. I think. So excited. #handspinning #spinning #fiberArts
Oh, I didn't learn about this until now.
Stephenie Gaustad died on February 12th of this year.
I don't know much about spinning plant fibers, but I always enjoyed her writings on that topic and she was such a great influence and inspiration for the #spinning community.
I Want to Tell You About My Friend – PLY Magazine
https://plymagazine.com/2025/02/i-want-to-tell-you-about-my-friend/
plymagazine.comI Want to Tell You About My Friend – PLY Magazine
My name has come up on the waiting list for a Daedalus Starling! Good thing I decided to skip buying new skis this year because now I can spend the money on this e-spinner I’ve been coveting ;) Hope to have it by late May or so… #spinning #handSpinning
Finally finished the last of my spindle turtles!
I'd originally thought to ply these in pairs but decided after the first one that I'd chain ply because I liked the smoother gradient I'd get that way. This is 2oz of fiber from Fully Spun in the Omnisexual Pride colourway. The plan will be to use it in some colourwork, probably a hat or mitts.
While I’m still slowly knitting up (down?) the sleeves of the jumper, to give my angry wrist a break, I have been continuing to spin up the colourful advent calendar from das-wollschaf.de.
The grey Blue Faced Leicester was so awesomely soft and squishy, but with the sari seide flecks, looked like those compressed fabric sheets used for insulation or old cleaning rags. So I plied it with another blue blend (merino, stellina) from the calendar. The other two are merino.
Little samples are great for new spinners (or newish like me) to learn what is fun to spin - sari seide isn’t my cup of tea! And good to see what base fiber would make a lovely squishy jumper - definitely fell in love with BFL even though it wasn’t as much fun to spun as merino.
Mari 
fiber arts friends - I have another friend who's interested in getting back into spinning. she's shopping for fiber, and I want to direct her to cool folks to get fiber from! she's currently using a drop spindle, and looking at kick spindles, so is also interested in second-hand / cheaper ones.
please send me links to pass along!
The Life of a Crafty GardenerHome | The Life of a Crafty Gardener
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I have a LOT of handspun yarn to use. A LOT. Did I say that before?
Some of it is older and bulkier. I rarely use bulky anymore...
I have been spinning DK because all the sweaters I want to make are that weight. 
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Doing a variety of crafts is helping me right now, mentally.
I think counting down my stash (and counting up handspun skeins) is helping me to work towards a goal of continuing to use my stash.
Numbers and comparisons are fun sometimes. But at the moment, not so much. Maybe I'll show stats in the future?
Watching other folks process and spin their fiber helps right now too.
I've been tracking how much yarn and (crochet) thread I use in my fiber arts notebook.
(Yes, I bookbound my own notebook but it doesn't look pretty yet so no pics. )
Since 2022? I never calculated how much I used up per year. I don't have time. But seeing myself actually using up my acrylics and sweater quantities, while actually making progress towards spinning up these fleeces is nice.
Idk if I should actually calculate the numbers like an actual "stash down".