Open day Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers

Spinning? No, I am not talking about the Whirling Dervishes from the 13th century in Turkey.

and I am not going to bore you with a long and exaggerated explanation of my successes, (spinning a tale)……….

I want to talk about transforming fleece into yarn so I can use it to weave on my 8 shafts loom.

The fleece is a Cheviot/Shetland Cross. The blue fleece is dyed with natural indigo and the yellow is dyed with Weld. Weld is a dye plant that has been traded for many centuries. Seeds have been found in Neolithic villages, in Switzerland, where it is assumed to have been used for its dye.

As a beginner, I was given a big bag of fleece, already dyed yellow and blue. First, I needed to card the fleece. I card a fleece with a hand carder but there are also other ways: a wool drum or a carding and blending board could be useful too. The Blending board is amazing! I can make a rainbow of my favourite colours in no time!

I use a Spindel which can be a stick with a weight at the base of it, but Spindles come in many different weights and sizes.

There is also the Spinning Wheel.

So beautiful, with nostalgic dreams like in Sleeping Beauty’s story .

I use a drop spindle to spin fleece into thread. A drop spindle hangs in the air while spinning, twisting fibres as it rotates.

To start spinning, I attach a piece of scrap yarn, (the lead), at the base of the spindle, and add one end of the rolling to the lead. Then I start spinning. When my spindle is full, I have made a “single”.

I started playing with the Rollings. A rolling is a long, narrow bundle of carded and combed fibres preparedfor spinning. By pulling gently on either end of the rolling, it stretches out and gets thinner as I pull. If I pull too hard, the rolling will break. I don’t worry about this because later on, I can join the pieces together again.

With a Niddy-noddy, I wind the yarn into a skein and tie the ends together to prevent the yarn from getting tangled.A skein is a tube of yarn made with a Niddy-noddy ready to use with centre-pull or outside pull. I use it for weaving, knitting or crocheting. I prefer for the yarn to be uneven. Experienced spinners can make the most beautiful and airy -like yarn, so fine it looks like a spider’s web.

My yarn is sometimes thin and sometimes thick, with a bit of the colour I fancy at the time of spinning. It doesn’t look very disciplined or professional but I like it that way because it will be a surprise when I knit, crochet or weave. I wonder what it is going to look like. I must say that I undo the project a few times before I am happy with the result but it is always an adventure and sometimes it comes out even better than I had imagined.

Here are three samples made with the yarn I spun:

Woven sample

Knitted sample

Crochet sample (coming soon)