Yarnspinners Tales's Podcast (yarnspinners@gmail.com)

It's actually magic, taking washed but clumped fiber, putting it through the drum carder and getting fluffy batts ready to spin.  It's a spinning project I only do now and then, after accumulating those piles of fleeces and other fibers ready to blend.  Then I spend several months, in an hour here and there, creating the batts.  After that, the fun begins, as I get to spin them and see what those blends will look like in yarn.

In today's podcast, I talk about my recent drumcarding projects, as well as some information for those spinners that may want to buy a carder, or have one that they still haven't worked up the nerve to use.

I will be putting pictures of the fiber, before and after on my blog. 

Music in the podcast is from Music Alley  and includes Proof of Love by Old Man Luedecke,  also February by The Distants.

The Spinners Journal, a book I wrote to help you to document your carding or any spinning project is available to buy at this site.

Links to vendors mentioned in the podcast:

Stitches events in general Atlanta Ga event May 30-June 2 2019 Stitches United is on that page too.

Youghiogheny Yarns Keri Fosbrink dyer

Fiberlady bamboo fiber

Buffalo Wool Co Buffalo wool yarn and fiber

Franklin Habit

Shirsty Cat Designs Merino silk fiber

2 Guys Yarn Company

Soak Flatter spray

Lost City knits Denise Bell 
Applecross Highland shawl Ravelry pattern

Knitted Knockers

knitbahpurl

Stevenbe

Vintage Lace book by Gladys Amedro

The video blogger I mentioned is Quayln Stark and he blogs on youtube.  The stitches midwest podcast can be found here

I talk about a fiber processor  but failed to mention the name. The farm business is called Alpaca Pines and their website can be found here.

There was a what I called a wood ball winder that I was unable to find online to show you. I have found out since that this item has another use, which is to hold the ball of yarn wound on to it as you knit. So the concept for it I think is to wind the yarn on it from a skein and then let it sit near you as you knit, it will rotate release the yarn. No balls of yarn rolling away from you.

I was not able to find any 1500 yard one dye lot skeins of yarn online, like I saw in the market. I think this concept is a custom dye project, so if interested contact your favorite dyer, see if they can purchase the yarn in the large skein and dye it for you.

Week three and the final week of the TdF found me washing more fleece, and finally spinning some yarn.

Photos will be on my blog.

Music is from Music Alley  Interlude music is Someday by Stan Williams.  Closing song is Waiting for Someday by Lee Alexander

The Spinners Journal, is the book I created to help you keep track of all of your spinning projects.  Check it out!

A new year brings a new fiber experiment, alpaca fiber washed in a washing machine.  This episode tells all about that, and my fiber new year's resolutions in a YST while I spin.

Music is from Music Alley and includes a bit from Atomsplit with the Resolutions six feet long song, and the closing song from J.E.L.L.i with a not so traditional version of Auld Lang Syne.  My theme song is provided by Jon Caspi.

Photos for this episode can be found on my blog.

Still spinning as part of the Ravellenic2014 event but I took a break and did a few different yarns. I also talk about putting a new drive band on your spinning wheel.

Music is from Music Alley and today's song Winter Empire is by Dan-O

A mention of a previous podcast in this one is referring to Episode 73, when I interviewed some fiber folk.

Photos can be found on my blog

I continue talking about my TdF spinning projects in the first part of this podcast.  In the second part, I go over some tips and troubleshooting for an old Ashford Tradition spinning wheel.

The snippet of music today is Wild Mountain Thyme by Big Sea.  

The fiber I started spinning on my Ashford wheel is from Chamomile Connection.  Check out the website, she still has merino/seasilk listed.  And Sheep Street fibers has a fun website to check out too.  That is where I got the dyed Shetland fiber I am spinning.

I used this website for information about the seacell fiber.

This podcast is very different and so you have a choice.

There is a library based video website called Kanopy.  I found a very interesting video on spinning throughout the world.  I wanted other spinners to see it too, but they may not have access unless their library card (and their library system) grants access to Kanopy.  The reason I do not include a link here, is because it is best to access it from your library's website.  

So first, if you have a current library card,go to their website and look for Kanopy, click through to it and  set up a free account. Then search and watch the video World Spinning Techniques.  If you do watch the video, you really do not need to listen to the podcast.  If you can not access the video, then there is a detailed, albeit,verbal description from when I watched the video.

Or do both, I would love to have you listen in to my reactions to all the amazing things I saw in the video.

The picture connected with this podcast has just slight relevance, it is three sample skeins of the alpaca fiber I have been spinning lately.  Alpaca is the first fiber talked about in the video.

We'd all love as many of you listeners to come and join us on Ravelry for the annual Tour de Fleece June 29th through July 21st.  Team Yarnspinnerstales can be found at the Tour de Fleece group under the wild card team thread, or search the groups for Team Yarnspinnerstales and you should find it.  See you there!

The podcasts will have a new format starting with this one.  The good news is they will be more frequent, and the maybe or maybe not bad news is they will be shorter.

For years I have been using this podcast to teach many things about the spinning of yarn.  Those are available on the website by checking under archives.  There is even listings of the episode topics to find specific podcasts.  With the future podcasts, I will be sharing  my experiences and stories of working with fiber everyday.  These will be dated with the episode number but not about specific topics.

I am still streaming three days a week on Twitch.tv  

on Wednesday, Friday and Sundays.  I just completed streaming all 21 days of the Tour de Fleece and these can be found on my Twitch page under Yarnspinnerstales.  There is a lot of spinning there, and it is a good way to catch up on what I have been doing lately.

Thank you for all the years you have joined me on this Journey!

And as always, happy spinning.

Alpaca comes in many lovely natural colors, but also does very well in the dye pot.  I talk about two ways that I dyed some alpaca fiber with acid dyes in this podcast.

If you would like a good source for dyeing alpaca with natural dyes, check out www.jennydean.co.uk

I will have pictures of the dyed alpaca on my blog

Music in today's podcast is from Musicalley with spring color theme.  The interlude music was TPIA Spring Colors and the ending song was Hint of Dawn by Kendra Springer.

It's official!  I have joined the ranks of retirees.  Now it is time to 'spend' my stash, or as I have decided to call it, my retirement 'fund'.

We start this with a very large blanket of alpaca fiber from an alpaca named Pegosa.  The first pound is washed, but not completely processed as I am using it to test various processing methods.  This podcast talks about combing with handheld combs, and the yarn that I spun from that top.

Needless to say there will be plenty more to podcast about Pegosa's fiber in the next few months.  However I have talked about alpaca in past podcasts too.  If you are interested, here is a list of episodes with links:

Episode 35  Washing alpaca

Episode 101  Machine washing alpaca

Episode 102  Spinning alpaca

Episode 108  Dyeing alpaca

Episode 123 Alpaca in the dyepots

One other spinning project completed since the last podcast was fiber from Homestead Hobbyist, a lovely polworth/silk blend.

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own Spinners' Journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast. I have decided that to avoid that in this podcast, I would put all this informnation here and release it once a month. If you need the information,just listen in. If you don't,you can just wait for the next podcast.

Happy spinning!

This month celebrates the fact that I have been doing this podcast for four years.  If you've listened since the beginning, THANK YOU!   If you just found me today, WELCOME!

The best thing about podcasts is their longevity.  Oh some podcasts are very linked to current events and may outdate, but information about spinning is always fresh.  Someone is always just learning to spin, or dye fiber, or wash a fleece.  And if they look at my archives and the titles, they will probably find a podcast to help them with that process.

If you are on Ravelry, a quick and easy way to see the topics of each podcast is to go to the yarnspinners spin in group. There is a sticky thread in the posts with the topics listed.

The birthday music today is from Music Alley and includes:

Team Smile and Nod with Happy Birthday you matter  Jason Silver with Happy Birthday and Mario Ajero with Happy Birthday Chopin Ballade

The Hebridean sheep have long dual coated wool in various colors.  I used my study to not only spin the fiber but to show on live stream how to separate the two coats.

The fiber was purchased from Wychwood Spinner Etsy shop.

A short video on Twitch.tv show how to pull for long tog from the short thel using this fiber.

I went to the Lexington Ky Sheep and Fiber festival in May, and this podcast is a review of that great trip.  Here is a link to the vendor list.

A few specific links for vendors I mention in the podcast:

The Ross Farm Fibers    Dyed in the Wool 

A Yarn Well Spun    Rock and String Creations

I mentioned the video for Dirty Jobs, where Mike goes to Ohio Valley woolen mill.

The Ravelry pattern is the Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown.  The link may or may not take you to it, Ravelry requires you to be signed in to see it.

Finally music for today's podcast is from Music Alley and is by Rachel Barton Pine. It is a violin medley of Scots tunes.

The Tour de Fleece spinners have been spinning ten days now and are looking forward to the day of rest.  This update covers the three days right before that.

The music is from Music Alley and is by the group Great Big Sea (who have lots of songs on Music Alley for you to buy and support these great musicians.)  Today's song is French Shore.

Two rare sheep breeds and their fleeces are reviewed in this podcast, the Black Welsh Mountain sheep, and the Clun Forest.  The lovely sheep photo shown here are those Clun Forest sheep.

Thanks to Ken and Oogie at Desert Weyr  for their breeding of Black Welsh Mountain sheep.  Oogie was an internet aquaintance and part of the rare breeds exchange I did many years ago.  She provided the samples of fiber from this breed that I talk about in the podcast.

The book by Deborah Robson The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, is shown here on Amazon.

Music in today's podcast is from Music Alley  Thank you to Wren Ross for the very appropiate It Had to Be Ewe.

The closing song is by Marina Tihvinskaya and is called Celtic Song, but is not what you expect at all!  Enjoy!  Marina writes: "please let your listeners know that my website is www.marinatihvinskaya.net and the name of the album is My Favourite Dependence."

Until later, happy spinning!

Fluffly, that's what woolen spinning is all about.  You spin from fluffy batts, and you spin a lofty yarn.

The Yarnspinnerstales Spin In Ravelry group has been practicing this spinning technique this month.  I joined them and talk about my experiences spinning woolen on each of my wheels in this podcast.  I also give some suggestions to help you get going with this wonderful way of spinning. I also will be posting photos of what I spun for this challenge on my blog.

I was in the mood for more music in today's podcast too, all with the theme of letting go, a very necessary technique when spinning woolen.  All music is from Music Alley with thank yous to these special musicians:

Laura Clapp with Just Let Go

LeRoots with Got to Let Go

The Hosts with So Hard to let go

To make my sample yarn, I decided to use sample batts from two of my Phat Fiber boxes.  These small batts were just the right size to practice the technique and came from the following vendors:

The Critter Ranch  a super soft batt, no fiber content marked but was probably llama or alpaca.

Maude and Me  an alpaca and angelina batt

The Enchanted Knoll  These were not samples but several large batts gifted to me by a listener (thank you again!)  Lovely forest greens and black these are listed as superwash wool, recycled sari silk and sparkles.  The photo you see with this podcast is a small sample of what the 2 ply yarn will look like when I am done. spinning

There are four reviews in today's podcast, two rare sheep breed's fiber, a spinning DVD and my trip to Stitches East.

The Oklahoma State University's website is a good place to start if you are looking for information on any animal including rare breed sheep:Breeds of sheep

There are many wonderful resources for sale at the Interweave press website, books, ebooks, DVD, videos, books and magazines.Interweave press

The specific DVD I review in this podcast "Spinning for Lace" by Margaret Stove is found at this link:Margaret Stove DVD link

For information for your own trip to a Stitches convention, check out the Knitting Universe website:The Knitting Universe

Prism yarns  is also available at many yarn stores

Teacher at Stitches Creative Director at Prism yarns is Laura Militzer Bryant and she taught the class on Intentional Patterning with Hand dyed Yarns.

The spindle like the trindle I bought can be found at this Etsy store:  Trindleman
Need to get your spinning projects organized?  Then my Spinner's Journal  is just what you need!

This month's podcast has a review of Craftsy and also talks about my finished knitted with hand spun project and plans for the next project.

If you are looking to buy the Spinners Journal I made, it can be found here.

The fiber Three Feet of Sheep is from Frabjous Fibers. Google and buy it from your favorite vendor.

The shawl I plan to knit for Tour de Fleece this year is the Oslo Shawl.

The pattern for the fingerless mitts I knit is Te Ara.  You may have to sign into Ravelry to see this link.

The creator of the circular cable needle is Leslie Wind and her website is here.

My daughter joins me, via Skype, to tell about her lucky find in fleeces and what she did with them.  Then the story morphs into her experience dyeing silk with henna.

Music is from Musicalley and revolves around the theme 'lucky'.  

AJ & The Frozen Tundra Band tells us It's Your Lucky Day Now.

Great Big Sea sings Lucky Me

Stavia closes the podcast with Lucky Day

This podcast continues from episode 164, for Oct 2019.  I talk about a few problems I had to solve during the Spin Together, with my wheel and spinning. 

The strange title of this podcast. is all about a major reorganization I did of my fiber.

The 100 year shawl along I mention, can be found as a group on Facebook.  That is also true of the other group I am in called 52 Weeks of Sheep.

One of the breeds this group recently studied was Babydoll Southdown, and I talk some in the podcast about this breed's information.

The fiber fair I went to and talk about in this podcast has a web page here, if you want to plan to go next October.

My wonderful door prize at the fiber fair, came from Rock and String Creations.

First in the podcast, some thoughts on the wide variety of niche markets we have in this fiber world.  Then I tell about my three Spinzilla projects and how I figured my yardage for submission to their total amounts.

There is more music in today's podcast, and it  is from Musicalley

First interlude is from Space Agency and is called Godzilla.

Middle break music is from the FuMP, always a fun romp, and is also called Godzilla (yes just pretend it is really Spinzilla).  Since this group has lots and lots of songs, find this specific one by searching Godzilla on Musicalley.

The closing song is by Tracy Jane Comer and is Drive for Miles.  I think of it as Spin for Miles since that is one of the measurements used by Spinzilla.  Lovely song, whether you are driving or spinning.

Janilee and Chris are both post graduate students at the Manchester England college.  Both are spinners and weavers, but have two different concepts for their doctorial thesis.  I was able to interview each and had a wonderful time talking to them.  Listen in, and learn about early weavers and spinners, and the modern day archeological study of them.

Interlude music in today's podcast is from Music Alley and is by the group Celtic Stone.  The title is Drowsy Maggie.

Looking for a link to buy my Spinner's Journal?  It's on Lulu here.

The sheep breed for this podcast was new to me, after all my years of reviewing.  The Gulf Coast Native was raised long ago for it's tolerance to the conditions of the deep US south regions.  But it lost it's favored position, and is now on the critical list of sheep breeds.  The group 52 weeks of sheep included it this year in it's list to study.  I purchased my fiber sample from Herie7 in  the Etsy store.

I also spend some time talking about washing fleeces that are very dirty.  Beside the dish detergent Dawn which is readily available, I review Namaste Farms washing products from Natalie Redding.  It is available from the Woolery here.

This is the first of a two part podcast, because I had so many projects to tell you about for the Tour de Fleece.

In this podcast I talk about spinning cotton sliver on the Majacraft Aura, not a very traditional way to spin cotton.  My challenge day project was finally achieving those beautiful tight rolags on my blending board.

I also completed two skeins.  The first was a dyed polworth from Yarn Hollow

The second skein was a gray Horned Dorset fiber, which I got from Dyed in the Wool.  I talk a little about the breed too.

I suggest checking out Hilltop Cloud, to get an idea of the type of rolags I was making on the blending board, but when I checked the website they are not currently in stock.  A quick search of Etsy brought up these, and these.

If you are interested in joining the YST Ravelry group, you can find it by getting on Ravelry, and going to the groups search box.  Search under Yarnspinnerstales spin in and it should give you the link you need to find us.

Music today is from MusicAlley.  The opening song is Things Will be Better Next Year by Wil Maring.  The closing song is One More Year by Brett Mikels

It only happens now and then in a spinner's life, the decision to buy a spinning wheel.  I had that chance last month, and am now the happy owner of a Majacraft Aura.  I talk about my story of finding the wheel, and what I have learned in the few weeks of owning it.

A big thank you to Clare Dowling for her Spinning Song, that I've used for the pod cast's opening for all these years.

The closing music for today's podcast is by William Saunders and is called Chasing Daylight.

If you'd like to join us in the spinning technique spin along, go to Ravelry, search for the group Yarnspinnerstales spin in, and find the specific threads for each month's technique.  With done a single study, lock spinning, and spinning from the fold.

Fibers combs all are designed to give the spinner lovely top to spin.  But with such a wide variety of type of combs available to the spinner, how does one decide which is right for them?  That is the question I talk about in this podcast, discussing things I know from experience, and from internet research.

One interesting webpost I discovered was about a person's attempt to recreat an old Icelandic comb, which was probably used both from human and animal hair.  That site can be found here.

Several web sources to purchase combs are:

Forsyth Combs

Woodland Woolworks

Susan's Fiber Shop

The music today is from Music Alley

The interlude is by Blake  and is called The Hungarian Love Song

The closing song is by Debbie Cunningham  and is the jazz classic, My Funny Valentine

Until later, happy spinning!

Two sections of the post for support spindles, a book review and a discussion of my recent experience spinning angora on my three support spindles.

The book Fleegle Spins Supported is available here.

A YouTube video of me spinning cotton on the Royale Hare brass support spindle is found here and the spindle is available to order from her Etsy shop here.  I apologize for saying on the podcast that the spindle was not readily available, I did not look up the link until after I did the recording, my bad!

The music in today's podcast is by singer/songwriter Emma Wallace who I found on MusicAlley.  The piano piece is called Interlude, and the closing song is Support for my Argument.

My blog with photos can be found here.

Finally the Spinners Journal, a place to record all the processes of any of your spinning projects can be purchased here.  Thanks for your support of this podcast by purchasing the journal!



There's a few odds and ends of old business at the beginning of this podcast, and then I talk about my trip to the Kentucky sheep and fiber festival in May.  

The fiber I have been spinning is CVM batts from Wild Hare Fibers.

I could not find the April fool's joke emailed by the Woolery. Instead, take a look at their blog, it's really interesting.

The new designed drum carder by Majacraft can be seen here.

I must correct something in the podcast, the black merino fiber I got from Ohio Valley is dyed.  It is listed here and all there other colors too.

You can find the Fiber Pusher podcast on her website.

And the Transient Wool Merchants podcast is on this website.

A fiber processing mill is in North Carolina, called Echoview.

And there is a grand opening of the store July 1 2015 for a fiber processing mill in Cynthiana Ky, called Heartfelt Fleece and Fiber.

So much happening on the spinning front for me this month, that I needed two podcasts to talk about it all.  So this is the first one, and Episode 165 will continue with more spinning goodness.

As promised, some links to people mentioned in the podcast:

A lovely squishy package arrived at my house one day full of Baby Doll South down fiber.  It was processed and mixed with lovely mohair and a tiny bit of nylon.  The ewe's name is Lily and was white.  The ram's name is Ray, and is a lovely silver gray.  

This fiber is from Teresa at SpinHistory.com

Wooly Knob Fiber Mill, is only on FaceBook, search for them there.

Fall Apart Farm, McArthur, Ohio has purebreed registered Icelandic sheep.  They also can be found on Face 

Dream Weaver Fiber Arts where I met Kathy at the Wool Gathering  and bought a lovely turkish spindle.

Alpaca Pines Fiber and Mill is the source of the beautiful alpaca I spun during Spin Together.  They are in Illinois.

The Spin Together Group on Facebook is now a good choice for replacing Spinzilla, spinning during the first week of Oct.  Check it out for next year's spinning.

Last podcast of 2020 and maybe the last breed reviews I do for awhile.  It is time to move forward into other areas of spinning and the new year seems a good time to start.

The breeds reviewed today are Llanowag and Lleyn.  The fiber was part of a Welsh breed study pack from Wychwood Spinners

This podcast was created from the audio of a livestream I did when I reviewed these fibers.  It is different than my normal podcasting, but I think the addition of the actual sounds of processing and spinning is unique enough to be interesting.

Happy New Year! and of course may it contain much spinning!

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month. It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own Spinners' Journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast. I have decided that to avoid that in this podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month. If you need the information, just listen in. If you don't, you can just wait for the next podcast.

Happy spinning!

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own Spinners' Journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast.  I have decided that to avoid that in this podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month. If you need the information, just listen in. If you don't, you can wait for the next podcast.

Happy spinning!

In the first part of the podcast I fill you in on what Has happened in the last two months. I have spun some yarn, found some fiber that needs processing, and made some wonderful purchases (see links below)

I also talk about my plans to enter items in the State Fair, and some preliminary plans for the Tour de Fleece.

The last part of the podcast is about my recent knit with hand spun project the Kensington Steeked Pot by Gemma Pickford-Waugh.  It is shown in the photo for this podcast.

The different fiber breed tops came from Laughing Lamb Fibers.

The blended rolags are from Fellview Fibres and can be found in their Etsy store.

If you are looking for the spinners journal, it can be found here.

Welcome to the newly redesigned web page.  If you are looking for previous episodes, look in the upper right hand corner and click on episodes.  The quickest way to the most recent and then later, is to click on 'category' and then podcasts.  They will load with the new easier to use player.

In the podcast,after a sabbatical from spinning, I am glad to be back.  I update the spinning and knitting projects from the past few months, and then have a lovely recorded conversation with my daughter, about why we as humans experience various emotions.  We both agree that the meditative experiences of spinning, knitting and weaving are often a way to help in these times.

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own spinner's journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast.  I have decided that to avoid that in my podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month.  If you need the information, just listen in.  If you don't, you can just wait for the next podcast.

Happy spinning!

One of my year long projects is being a part of the FaceBook group called 52 Weeks of Sheep.  Each week we study a different breed of fiber producing animals, mostly sheep.  In this podcast I talk about the last month of those studies, and go into detail on two new to me breeds.  Both are French in origin, the Bleu du Maine and the Charollais.  One thing I failed to mention in the podcast was after spinning the Charollais fiber, I used for the first time a small sampler loom.  It is a fun way to sample texture or colors one would see if the yarns are to be used weaving.  It's final product size is a perfect mug rug.

My fiber that I used to spin these breeds came from Wychwood Spinner.  

Another breed was the BFL. The photo shows a Blue Faced Leicester skein I spun from top purchased from Hilltop Cloud.

The group also studied Cheviot.  I did a breed review in Episode 8, if you want to listen to it again.  Likewise Episode 45 is my previous review of the breed Coopworth.  I was not able to obtain any of this fiber yet to add to this review.

I visited the yarn store in Nashville Ind, called The Clay Purl.  There is a knit night there on Tuesday evenings, and it was lovely to meet the knitters and sit and listen and join the conversation.  The shop is full of lovely yarn and some dyed fibers for spinning.  I purchased a merino braid dyed by Bean Blossom Fibers.

In this discussion of what I did during the 2018 Tour de Fleece, I talk about the wool breed Zwartbles, spinning buffalo fiber on a drop spindle and finally a very rare breed of wool, Dor Galen.

The buffalo fiber was included in the Clouds of Luxury from the Etsy store Sericin

The Dor Galen fiber was purchased at a fiber festival several years ago from Sandy Ferguson's Dyed in the Wool   

Dor Galen is no longer available, the horned dorset at the bottom of the above linked page is probably a good close substitute.

This breed review, second of the three I did at the same time, covers the Shropshire breed, another Down breed from the British Isles.  

I had two sources of the fiber.  The first, a small sample, came from Wychwood Spinner.  The second was from Marie Redding Fiber Arts Etsy store.  The samples were completely different, so I combined them into one yarn, a tail spun yarn to display the lovely long locks in the Marie Redding sample.

I mention the book The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs, as a source for one way to make tail spun yarn.

Another method for tail spinning can be seen on this You Tube video.

Straight from the meet up at a fiber festival we have interviews of three phat fiber folks.  Don't know about Phat Fiber?  Listen in to learn, and then go to their website or find the Ravelry group by searching groups for phat fiber sampler box.  The indie dyer in the meet up is found at NaturalObsessions fiber and is a wonderful source for non wool fibers.  The fiber producer of the group is found at her Etsy shop or at Fluffington Farms blogspot site.  The fiber festival I went to is the Indiana Fiber and Music Fest.  The fiber I was spinning was from The Painted Tiger.

The music in today's podcast is from the podsafe music site MusicAlley.  The first song is Rumba Lullaby by Hathead.  The second song was Lullaby in Loveland by Boho Chapeau.  The closing song is Lullabyes Baby by Zaccheri Gray.

This unusual and pointy looking object really is a useful tool for blending.  On the hackle is both merino top and dyed angora, being blended into a wonderful top.  In the podcast I talk about the process for using this tool.

I decided not to make a video, even though with this tool it is very helpful to see someone using it.  I made this decision because there are already several good ones by other fiber artists on YouTube.  I recommend Bluemtnhandcrafts videos.  The first of three is here.

The music in this podcast is from Music Alley formerly the Podsafe music network.  The interlude music is by The Rev Jimmie Bratcher and is called Grammy's House.   The closing song is Over Coffee and Tea by The Simple Carnival.

Until later, happy spinning!

I started these frequent updates on the Tour de Fleece spinning projects, and found I was so chatty in most of them that I have used up my allotted storage space.  Not to worry though, for the MB archive thirty days from when they are uploaded.  After Aug 1st, I will start having space open up again, and Digitaldurga and I will continue with the updates.

I do apologize to the team for not crossing the finish line with them in these podcasts, but be assured I will be along shortly.  Meanwhile, carry on with all the wonderful spinning!

Thank you to Green Druid for the music which is called Night Dance and can be found on Music Alley.

All the information about the podcast, where to find episodes and what they are about as well as other facts you would like to know from the podcasts.

I tackle yet more of my never ending stash of alpaca fiber and talk about using the wool shampoo to wash suri, and the wash and dye product for a white huacaya alpaca.  These are products available from Namaste Farms and can be purchased here.

Music for the show is by Project Grand Slam and is called Spring Dance.  Sadly the source for podsafe music. Musicalley, seems to have gone away.  It just does not do anything when I go to the site, nor can I find any information about it.  I will not link the group today, and certainly thank them publically for putting that music on the site for use.  I will continue to investigate into this, but feel the time has come that it is no longer available as a place for listeners to support the musicians that had allowed their music to be listened to in podcasts. It has been wonderful to add music to the podcast over these past years, for I love music as much as spinning.  All things change though, and new is always shiny and good.  

A quick update of my fiber persuits during days six through nine of the Tour de Fleece.

Todays's music interlude is Five More Minutes by Brandon Wolfe and can be found on Music Alley.  I couldn't resist the title.  After all knitters are always saying, let me just finish this row, but we spinners' really can't get away with 'let me finish this bobbin'.  So....Five Minutes More.

Spinning a lock of wool is the traditional way to get a very thin yarn.  That is because you can pull a small number of fibers out of the lock, and give the drafting zone a very thin prep of fiber.  In this podcast I review how each of five different breeds of sheep's locks spun and how I made my decision whether to continue to prep the fiber for spinning by lock washing.

The five breeds discussed are Cormo/Border Leicester, Corriedale, Romney, Cormo and an unknown ewe lambs fleece.

This is one time a video is worth many podcast words, so I have posted a video showing me spinning from the lock on Youtube.  You can find it here.

There's a second part to the podcast, discussing spinning from the fold.  This technique is often used with angora, and I've discussed why and how to spin from the fold.

Interlude music is by Kevin Wood, and is called 'Twilight of Hope"

The closing song is by Lisa Redford and is called "Hope Never Dies"

Both can be found on the podsafe music network.

I was able to do so much during this Tour de Fleece, it took two podcasts to tell you all about it.  See the previous podcast for part one of this two part series.

The first fiber I talk about spinning is called Fake Cashmere, due to it softness.  It is however, 100% nylon.  I bought my fiber from a dyer whose business is Jazz Turtle.  

It seems most people like to spin this fiber blended with other fibers, but I enjoyed spinning it on it's own.  Another source for the fiber is Paradise Fibers

The next fiber I worked with was a dyed merino silk batt in the colors purple and green.  Listen as I explain how I made color sequencing work for the 2 ply yarn.

On the TdF challenge day, I got out the book charka, not something I have much skill with. I was able to set it up and spin some single on it for my challenge.

I spent many days during the Tdf dyeing fiber, both in locks and in big pots full of fiber.  I had the amazing once in a life time experience of dyeing a color I will never be able to repeat, calico locks.  This podcast tells you how that happened.

Finally for the state fair entries, I needed an art yarn and chose to spin locks into a yarn.  It was a learning experience and I share all I learned to make this yarn.

At the beginning of the podcast I talk about how there will be no Spinzilla this year, but TNNA has provided these two links for spinning fund raisers:  Britspin also Spin Her Free and The owner of Purple Lamb Fibers is doing a Spin Together Oct 6 through Oct 12, 2019

Lots and lots of information in this podcast, grab a big chunk of fiber, your spinning tool of choice, and join me.

This is the first of a series of sheep breed fleece reviews.  Today's episode is about the Cheviot sheep.  I was able to spin sample from two different families of this sheep, the Classic Cheviot from the US farm Yucca Farm.  I was not able to find a web link for them on Google.

The Brecknock Hill Cheviot sample came from Wychwood Spinner. It was part of a Welsh Experience sampler pack.

I previously reviewed this breed in Episode 8 of this podcast, if you would like to listen to that also.

Happy New Year!  It is always full of thoughts and plans for the spinning projects ahead.  In today's podcast I talk about maintaining watch on the drafting zone to make your yarn more intentional. Watching the drafting zone will help you break out of making the same WPI yarn all the time to making art yarns that feature thick and thin singles.  All of this is the topic of this podcast.

I have done previous podcasts on drafting if you care to find those and listen to them.  Just click on the links to go to them.  Episode 26 (woolen and worsted spinning) episode 40 (spinning intentional yarn) and episode 67 (woolen spinning).

Links to things I also mention in the podcast are:

Book of Days, something I came across while looking up distaff day.

Fellviewfibres

The source of the punis I spun, made from wool and silk.

The videos I viewed while researching spinning thick and thin can be found on Youtube by searching the topic.

Homelife, work, travel, but still spinning!

Music is from Music Alley.  The song is Day by Day and is composed and performed by Vitor Cunha.

This is a ten minute podcast that I will release on the first of each month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own spinners' journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast.  I have decided that to avoid that in the YST podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month.  If you need the information, just listen in.  If you don't, you can just wait for the next podcast.

Happy Spinning!

The breed White Face Woodland was studied by the 52 weeks of sheep group on week 14.  Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain a sample of this fiber yet.  But this breed is not new to me, I reviewed it way back on Feb15 2014.  It is Episode 104 and I encourage you to hit the link and listen to it again.

The picture I show with this podcast are the tiny skeins I did during that first study.  The fiber came from Hilltop Cloud.

In the second part of this podcast I talk about doing a virtual shopping tour of one of my local fiber fairs.

A short podcast talking about the last five skeins in the yarn wash up, and my recent spinning.

I mention fiber from a Phatt fiber box, they can be found here.

The other fiber I have been spinning awhile is from Hobby Lobby.  I finally looked it up online and can provide a link.  I am spinning Yarn Bee Showstopper in the Winter Solstice colorway.

Podcasting for me is on the back burner at this time.  I plan to return with the Tour de Fleece in July 2021.

We spin singles all the time, but seldom use them that way. If you think about it though, if you can learn to spin singles that behave well enough to work with, how much better you plied yarns would be!  That was the idea behind the spin along study in the group on Ravelry for yarnspinnerstales.  So for the month of March we all tried four different study exercises with spinning singles.  In the first part of this podcast I talk about my experiences as well as some of the other spinner's comments.

For the second part of the pod cast I talk about a DVD that shows all the ways to use the Russian paddle combs made by Andrew Forsyth at Woolcombs

The music today is by the artist Blake found at Music Alley (Podsafe music network).

This is the third installment of the daily updates for the Tour de Fleece spinning event.

Be sure to check out the different threads posted on Ravelry to see my fibers and yarns as well as many others by all the great spinners.

Music is from Music Alley (which seems to be working again) and is Jillian LaDage Midsummer Night.

It's true, I have been podcasting for 10 years now!

In the first part of today's podcast, I review the book The Weaving,Spinning and Dyeing book by Rachel Brown.

In the second part I give a little bit of the download statistics for the podcast, some listener's comments about spinning in their lives over the last 10 years, and my favorite and least favorite parts of spinning.

I was able to include music with this podcast, thanks for the website Free Music Archive. They have an archive on non traditional birthday music and I pulled the following songs from that:

Another year older  by Jazzy-J

Singing Happy Birthday to you by BackyardMusic

It must be somebody's birthday by The Pendulum Swings

I mention a breed sampler shawl made by one listener, the pattern is The Dimpsey Shawl on Ravelry (you will have to be signed into Ravelry for the link to work)

Finally go you my blog and see the medal from Feedspot, for being named number nine in the top spinning podcasts!

Looking for the Spinners Journal?  It's here at lulu.com.  Thanks for supporting this podcast, with your purchase, and listening.

Today's podcast is an update of my Tour de Fleece spinning for the team Painted Tiger.  The website for this dyer of fiber and yarn is here.

The fiber I am spinning is a Portuguese wool top explained by Ashland Bay blog.

Therefore, tigers are the theme of the music, found on MusicAlley.  The interlude music is by Sinfonoa Electronique and is Tiger on the Loose II. The end music is by Briareus and is called Tigers.

My blog can be found here.

I am talking again about the new Majacraft Aura wheel and my learning process as I've spun on it.  Although you may not have this specific wheel, you can listen and apply some of my ideas to any wheel that you would like to expand in your spinning skills.

The second section discusses my crazy idea of putting beads in the yarn before I knit, and how I finally got that idea to work.  The photo here shows that yarn on the bobbin of the Aura.

The music today is a bit different than normal as I recently discovered there are some techno tunes I really enjoy.  So I've included a techno interlude called Hestor is Amused by Johnjack.  If techno is really not your thing, the interludes are short and I give you a chance to turn the podcast off before the end song.  But I really urge you to listen, as I do like the song, Pas De Deux by Lee Negin. 

All of today's music is from Music Alley with my extra thank you to Clare Dowling for my use of her Spinning Wheels as the podcasts intro music.

Until later, happy spinning!

For this month, I am releasing three shorter podcasts, all reviewing sheep breeds.  These do not ave to be listened to in any specific order, it was just how I recorded and edited these.

The sample I used to review the fiber was part of a Down Breed study from Wychwood Spinner.

I also refer to the book The Fleece and Fiber Source Book by Carol Ekarius and Deborah Robson.

This breed was studied by the group 52 weeks of sheep on week 12.

I have started the fun project of a lichen dye pot and in today's podcast I talk a little about the history of lichen dyeing, and how and where I collected my lichens.

There's also a TdF2017 update at the end of the podcast.

I had four books in my spinning library to use as references for this information. 

The main sources were from the same author, Karen Casselman.  The books are: Craft of the Dyer Colour from Plants and Lichens and Lichen Dyes The New Source Book both published by Dover Press.

Two other books that mention dyeing with lichens are:

Your Yarn Dyeing by Elsie G Davenport

Natural Dyes for Spinners & Weavers by Hetty Wickens

In the first part of this podcast I explain just what is this thing called ravellenics.  Then I go into the details of what I did for the event.

First is spinning, and after that, the next knit with hand spun yarn project, the Oslo Shawl.  

In the second part of the podcast, I talked about the seven items I took to my state's fair for the spinning category.

A few links for sources of the fiber I used to spin the yarns:

The Painted Tiger

Yarn Hollow fibers

Kundart Spindles  The spindle shown on this website is exactly like the one I got!

Photos of what I entered in the state fair can be seen here.

This podcast is for the week of Sept 5th, and talks about prepping cormo fiber for the dyepot, and spinning a merino silk bamboo blend.

I also refer to two past podcasts so here are the links:

Episode 38 talks about buying a fleece.  Episode 39 talks about buying non wool fibers and how to store all fibers.  Also the ghost story that I wrote is at the end of this episode.

The fiber I was spinning was from Wooliebullie.  Right now the Etsy store is only selling art batts, and hand knitted items.

We are more then half way through the Tour de Fleece, and so it seems time to make some yarn from all those singles we have been spinning.  In this podcast two types of plying are described, chain (navajo) plying and working with a plying ball.

Music is by the artist Caledonix  and is called Braveheart-Came Ye Oer Frae France.  The music was provided by the artist on Music Alley.

There are two new products out for those of us that process raw fiber, DRB wool shampoo and the Wash and Dye.  I had the opportunity to try both and loved them so much I contacted Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms, the source of these products for an interview.  In this podcast, I talk to Natalie, via Skype. In the second part of the podcast I talk about my experiences using both products.

Here's a direct link to the wool shampoo website, where you can buy the products.

Other links for this podcast include: Namaste Farms and Fibery Goodness. 

Music in the podcast is from MusicAlley.

The opening interlude music is Nano Flowers by The DJ's.

Deep Space Ocean provides Live Free.

I chose the closing song, Techno Canon by DanMan because it is a great blending of the new meets the old. There is so much of that now in spinning, the new fiber community members bringing improvements to our craft.

When I find that a podcast has no specific topic, but many different stories, I call them a spin-in.  I also likened this to writing you a letter, dear listener! But mostly it feels like when we gather together with our spinning wheels and spin and talk.  One never really knows what the conversations will be.

I catch you up on my recent projects, spinning and otherwise, tell you about a few things I read online, rant a bit about books and bookcases, and end with the promise of lots of spinning to come as I participate in this years TdF on Ravelry.

I took time to update the episode list last month, so if you want to find a specific topic in a podcast, check out that list.  It will show the date the podcast was released.  Use that date to find the podcast in the archives on this website.

It's tour time again, no not the spinning rock band, but the Tour de France.  And that means Tour de Fleece is rolling too.  In this podcast I give a synopsis of what I hope to accomplish during the next three weeks.

I also was in a wonderful fiber swap, and I talk all about the box I sent, and the box I got.

A few links for things I mention in this podcast:

My blog is here.

I will try a link to my Ravelry group, please be logged into Ravelry before clicking the link, then it should work.  It is yarnspinnerstales spin in, if you want to search groups.  It's a very good way to access a listing of past episodes, and I tell you how to find that in the podcast.

The Clouds of Luxury fibers came from Sericin on the Etsy store.  You may have to special request the item.

I will be recording podcasts during the TdF but will not be releasing them until after the tour.  This will give me time to do more of the spinning I want to do during the tour. See you in August!

In this podcast there is news about what I have done with spinning, carding and my spinning wheels over the last six weeks.

I also talk about another big sorting of my hand spun.

And finally the first project for the year of knitting with hand spun has been chosen.

A thank you to Jon Caspi for his music that I use in the opening theme song.

The Unraveling podcast can be found here.

Find my group on Ravelry by searching under groups for Yarnspinnerstales Spin In.  Join us there for the discussions about spinning with hand spun and other topics.

The Spinners Journal that I published can be found here.

My blog is here.

Thanks for listening!

A chatty podcast to close up the spinning year.  I review a fiber fair, talk about drum carding and what's on my spinning wheels.  Then after a bit of daydreaming, I have a plan for some of next year's projects.

There are no links to mention for this podcast.  

I want to say thank you to all my listeners for being there over these last eight years of podcasting.  I am truly thankful for every one!  Looking forward to many more years of spinning together.

Happy Holidays to one and all, see you on Roc Day.

Happy 2017!

It's a new year and that always makes me think about my spinning goals.  Along the way, I discovered some specifics about three ply yarn, and plying in general.

I close the podcast with a review of the book, Yarn i tec ture by Jillian Moreno.

A short podcast today about the fiber I am spinning on the Majacraft Aura for the Tour de Fleece in Ravelry.

Music is from Musicalley and the song Celtic Mystery is by Tigertail.

My Blog is here.

The Spinners Journal is a great way to keep track of your TdF spinning and other projects.  Check it out!

Today's episode talks about putting a positive spin on that fiber stash we all own.

The yarn in today's photo is some I spun from Natural Obsession.  I talk about the final process of plying this yarn in the episode also.

Two links for finding things I mention in the podcast.  My blog is here  and here is the Spinners Journal, the book I created to help you keep track of all the process of creating your hand spun yarn.

Music is from Music Alley  and features Whitney Kelly with Autumn Air and at the close Jack Jezzro Autumn Leaves.

Music is from Music Alley and includes:

Snowball fight by Tv's Kyle

Preparations for takeoff by Matthew Hall

A new computer meant a whole new learning curve on new software to record and edit podcasts.  I think I finally have a set up I am happy to release.

In this short podcast, I review one of the 52 weeks of sheep breeds, called Ryeland.

I talked about this breed in the first part of a  previous podcast, you can access that with this link.

The Ryeland fiber was purchased from Marie Redding fiber on Etsy.

A Wool Gathering fiber event is at Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs Ohio every year on the third weekend in Sept.  I had the fun of attending this year, and give a review of my trip.

Lots of links for things I mention in the podcast:

A Wool Gathering website

TNNA website

Spinzilla website

Spinzilla FAQ

Spinzilla rules for measuring yarn

Woven Thoughts blog

Fiber Optic Yarns

Noah's Landing Yarns

National Custom Spinworks

Ed the Wheel Healer can be contacted at erowe132 @ aol. com

Today's podcast music is from musicalley and is by Jon Caspi and the First Guns.  My thanks to them for letting me use this song as the intro to the podcast.

From the ways to make a skein to the why and how of washing it, this podcast is all about finishing your hand spun yarn.

Music is by Mano Reza and is called The Time Needed to Finish.  It is found on Musicalley.

I reference many books for the research I did for the podcast.  The list is verbal on the podcast, here is a written list:

• Big Book of Handspinning  Alden Amos
• Joy of Spinning Carol Kroll
• Spinning Merino and Super Fine Wools Margaret Stove
• Handspinning Eliza Leadbeater
• Handspinners Guide to Selling Paula Simmon
• Spinning Designer Yarns Diane Varney
• Creative Spinning Alison Daykin and Jane Deane
• The Intentional Spinner Judith McKenzie Mccuin
  
• Spinners Book Of Yarn Designs Sarah Anderson
  
• Spin Off Summer 1991 The Ideal Yarn Blocker Susan Gonzalez
• Spin Off Summer 2007 Wet Finishes for Yarn Judith McKenzie Mccuin

This podcast is the third on lichen dyeing and concludes the project for me.  I talk about the ammonia extraction method and dyeing wool with the extract.  I also tried a contact dyeing method on some silk and talk about that.  The fiber is lovely and I am looking forward to spinning with it next year. The photo shows the corriedale roving dyed with the ammonia extraction method.

Need a special holiday gift, for a friend or yourself?  The Spinners Daily spinning journal found on Lulu is a special present and helps support my archiving of all the podcast episodes.  Thank you for your support!

Look for my group on Ravelry by searching for yarnspinnerstales spin in group.  All are welcome, come and join the conversations.

Happy Spinning!

This is the third and final week of the Tour de Fleece, and I must say there's not much finished yarn in my projects, but there definately is for Digitaldurga.

I also discuss the technique of splitting and spinning dyed roving called fractal spinning.  Here's a link to a discussion of the technique in Knitty.

Music is by the artist Will Kriski and is called Kerrys Jig, found on Music Alley.



In this podcast, I talk about what I learned about cotton and spinning cotton in a class at SAFF this year.  I also had the chance to do some fiber and fleece shopping, and talk about that experience.

I mentioned that I would list the four currently grown species of cotton plants and their details.

Gossypium hirsutum  Known as upland cotton and native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Southern Florida.  This species accounts for 90% of commercial cotton grown.

Gossypium barbadense  Known as extra-long staple cotton, and is native to South America.  This species accounts for 8% of all cotton grown.

Gossypium arboreum  Known as tree cotton, it is native to India and Pakistan.  This species accounts for 2% of all commercial cotton grown.

Gossypium herbacaum  Known as Levant cotton this species is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is the last percentage of the cotton grown world wide.

Extra long staple cotton requires special ginning, known as roller gins. This type cotton can only be grown in a few places in the world, because it requires a long season and will not tolerate rain before harvest.  Currently California and Arizona are the two US areas growing this cotton.

Ravellenics, for those that haven't heard the term, is an event hosted on Ravelry during the Olympics.  There are events you can enter projects, and win digital medals.  The rules state you start at the opening ceremony and finish by the closing ceremony.

I have done this many years now, every two years. Most years I do a spinning project, but the last two times I have done knitting projects with hand spun yarn.

This podcast talks about three of this years projects for Ravellenics, two completed and one still in progress.

Sweaters by Hand Designs for Spinners and Knitters by Helene Rush and Rachael Emmons is the subject of todays book review podcast.

Music is from Music Alley, a timeless classic by Dust Rhinos, Wild Mountain Thyme.

In this unusual year, even the Tour de Fleece was affected.  The Tour de France did not run in July as usual, but was celebrated on Ravelry anyway.  Then when the Tour did ride in Sept, we did it again.

This podcast is about what I spun and learned during the first Tour.  I also included the breed review for Yak fiber, since spinning it was one of my challenge day projects.

The Yak fiber was purchased from Laughing Lamb fibers.

If you are looking for my live stream, it is on Twitch.tv

Need a way to document your spinning project from start to finish?  I created the Spinners Journal for doing just that!

Today's podcast includes an interview with Deborah Niemann, who has the wonderful job of working for the Livestock Conservancy organization.  In our interview, she shares all the details of the next two year program to introduce spinners and fiber artists to the 22 rare and recovering breeds of sheep through the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program.  I recently got the passport that is used to record whenever you use a fiber from one of these breeds and will be talking about working with these fibers in future pod casts.

Here are some of the links for this podcast:

Livestock Conservancy

SESE program

Teaching videos for sheep breeders of rare wools

Woolhalla Tunis a provider of SESE breeds fiber

Incredible Edible use of waste fleece for mulching

Finally I will be renewing my efforts to remind my listeners about the Spinners' Journal I have for sale, by periodical posting a promo pod cast.  If you are interested now, you can find it on Lulu.com here

Today's podcast reviews a time when a dozen different spinners all decided to spin angora and share their samples with each other.

Music is from Music Alley and is very nicely named All Things Rabbit by Michael Bellar.

New name but old event that Ravelry has done this for years.  The idea is to challenge yourself with goals to start at the beginning of the Olympics and finish with the close.  I chose to join the spinning team and selected five projects to complete.  I was able to finish four of them and review two of those in this podcast. Each required washing of raw fiber, processing by combing/carding and then spinning a skein to review.  The first is a rare breed I have not reviewed before, California Red Sheep.  The second was a different type of challenge, I took CVM and combed the fiber with two different methods to see if it made a difference in the skeins.

If you would like to listen to the rare breed review of CVM it can be found in episode 18 of this podcast.

If you would like to see the pictures of these two and the next podcast's two projects they can be found on my blog.

Music in the podcast is provided by Wren Ross through Music Alley.

Talking and spinning can go hand in hand, even if it's via microphone for me and an mp3 player for you.

I do a recap of the last few months, including a wrap up of the Tour de Fleece spinning, and entering skeins into the state fair.  And speaking of state fairs, this podcast has captured some of the stars of the barns, as I stroll along and look at the sheep.  I ran into a new breed for me Dorper Sheep, take a look!

There's a yarnspinnerstale too, on creativity.

Along inbetween is some good music from the podsafe music network

A short interlude comes from Tim Foley with Monkeyshine, called Back Porch.

And keeping with the porch theme, My Back Porch is by Brian McRae

In the podcast I mention a blog, Hyperbole and a Half, and I want to make sure others can find it and enjoy it as much as I did!

It's the podcast for the finish line of the 2012 Tour de Fleece!  A short but very satisfying recap for all of our spinning during the tour.

Music is from Music Alley and is a very appropiately named The Finish Line by Steve Parsons.

It's that time again, Tour de Fleece errr France.

First update discusses what I have been doing during the first ten days of the tour.  Although the main focus is alpaca, there is one raw fleece processing part too.

The spindle I am using to spin alpaca top came from Linda Dyak, formerly Grafton Fibers, now DyakCrafts.

The three feet of sheep fiber came from Frabjous Fibers.

The wool shampoo I used to wash the fleece came from Namaste Farm's product, found here.

Rock day or Saint Distaff Day, Jan 7 is the spinner's New Year.  I talk about that and my year's plans in this podcast.

Music is from Musicalley and has a new year theme.

Opening song is Happy New Year by Colie Brice

Closing song is It's a New Year's Day with Denise Moser.

Here is a nice website with information about Rock Day.

St Distaff Day, or the Morrow after Twelfth Day is a poem by Robert Herrick. It has been recorded on LibriVox here. I also read the poem in the podcast.

The Spinner's Journal is available on lulu.com and here is a direct link.

I realize that is an unusual subtitle for a postcast.  I recently had a total knee replacement surgery, and for the first 15 minutes or so of this podcast, I do talk about how the healing process delayed my spinning and fiber work for several weeks.

But once the spinning wheels got going again, I had two WIP to talk about, the Pegosa alpaca project was continued and I finished spinning two fibers I had used for a project back in Sept. a babydoll Southdown and a Polworth.

As promised I did one book review at the end of this podcast.  It is Creative Spinning, a creative combination of two authors, Alison Daykin and Jane Deane.

The Polworth fiber I spun is from MohairandMore.  

The episode of this podcast where I review the breed Babydoll Southdown is here, episode 37.

Please see a separate non podcast page on the blog for a listing of episodes of this podcast that contain book reviews.  That way I can list the episode number, and the book title, and keep it updated.

Photo shown with this episode is of the southdown/polworth skeins I finished and talked about in the podcast.

The Spinzilla report is actually the second part of the podcast.  In the first part, I continue the review of using the Ashford quill spindle, using mohair, angora, hemp, bamboo and cotton.

A few links for things mentioned in the podcast:

Needle Junkies podcast has a link on their website

Spinzilla total yards this years was 5,246,497.  See more details here.

Get your free pattern and yarn recommendations and help knit for Knitted Knockers at this website.

Fibers spun on the quill were from the following:

WC Mercantile

Sweet Pea Fibers

Mohair and More

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own Spinners' Journal.  

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast.  I have decided that to avoid that in this podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month.  If you need the information, it is here.  If you don't you can just wait for the next podcast. 

Happy spinning!

This podcast episode is another review of a spinners' exchange.  This time the challenge was to spin as fine a thread, fondly known as froghair spinning.  In the podcast I review what the spinners and myself learned with this challenge.

Music is from Music Alley and has the theme 'thread'.  The interlude is Hyperthread by Podcast Troubadour.  The closing song is Threads of Time by Jennifer Avalon. 

How do decide just how a fiber should be spun?  I talk about this and the continuing Tour De Fleece spinning projects in this podcast.

In today's music you hear the usual podcast intro and at the end the rest of the song, Spinning Wheels by Clare Dowling, found on Music Alley.  A big thank you to her for sharing this song, so appropiate for the podcasts' intro music!

My favorite time of the spinning year, the Tour de Fleece event.  As promised, here is the review of what I spun this year.

This is part one of the two part podcast.

A few links.  To see photos of all of the lovely fibers and yarns I talked about, go to my group in Ravelry, yarnspinners spin in and look at the TdF2018 thread in the discussions.  You must be signed into Ravelry for the link to work.

Links to the fiber artists whose fiber I spun and talked about are:

A Star is Shorn  the Etsy store.  I spun a superwash merino 

Fellview Fibres  the source of the wool/silk rolags I spun for the first challenge day.

In the last two podcasts, for some reason I said the livestreams were archived on Facebook, which is not true.  I didn't even catch it as I was editing.  Instead of the tedious process of edit and releasing the episodes, I decided to record this separate little audio.

The livestreams originate on Twitch.TV under Yarnspinnerstales 

The videos will stay there for a month to six weeks, if you do not catch me when I am live streaming.

After that, the videos are archived to you tube.  Once you go to you tube, in the search box type lusi222 channel.  That should take you to my channel.  Be sure when you go to the video area, you find where it says all videos, to be able to catch them from the beginning.  Or the most recent will be quickly available right on top.  If you subscribe to my lusi222 channel, you should be notified when a new video is uploaded.  I will try a direct link here, but if it doesn't work, follow my suggestion above.

I have to decide which of the livestreams are uploaded to archive, so I am not selecting all of them.  Much of the Sunday afternoon livestreams, are just for spinning and chatting.  I am focusing on the livestreams that I teach something about spinning or using hand spun yarn, to select what I am uploading.  I hope that will let these livestreams have interest over the years ahead, just as my podcasts have over the last thirteen years.

Happy listening, watching, and of course, spinning!

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month (more or less). It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me and how to get your very own spinner's journal.

I listen to many podcasts and get tired of hearing the podcaster's information over and over before we get to the podcast. I have decided that to avoid that in this podcast, I would put all this information here and release it once a month.  If you need the information, just listen in. If you don't, you can just wait for the next podcast.

Happy spinning!

The Black Welsh Mountain sheep is the only naturally black wool and has been prized for that quality for hundreds of years.  Still being raised today, it's prized by handspinners and today's podcast talks to one of the very knowledgable breeders of this breed.

Shown here in the photo with a cape made from her sheep's wonderful black wool, Oogie McGuire raises the sheep at her farm Desert Weyr.  She graciously let me interview her about raising this wonderful breed of sheep.