Spinning

I think I have finally found my place in the world..........fibre. I'd never understood fibre other than being in  bought yarn. I knew what home spun looked like but those ladies quite clearly did it by their magic wheels and a talent that escaped me. I'd stood by them at wool shows as they turned straw into gold, admired their jumpers, bags and weavings all made from what they had made. I dreamed of doing the same and despite actually owning a wheel and being gifted several bags of fibre I had never really given it a chance. I'd made the mistake of starting with alpaca which has too short as staple and is difficult to spin. Fed up with it being tugged from my hands the wheel had gone into hibernation.

 BFL my new passion

 Luckily my dear friend Jo had booked herself a half day spinning lesson and bought a wheel. One dreary February day we sat down together and started spinning. Oh my. How did I live before this? Once you get the muscle memory locked in your brain your hands, feet and brain all work together to produce yarn...lots of yarn. Brightly coloured yarn, soft yarn, striped yarn....the possibilities are simply endless.

 After much studying of images on Pinterest you get the idea of what kind of yarns you would like to produce. this is a whole new way of crafting as you really have to start with the imagining the finished object and work backwards from there. Sounds mad but it's true. How you divide the fibre for spinning will dictate the finished yarn. Leave it whole and work your way down and use a chain ply to create gradient yarns. Or repeatedly divide to created a barber pole striping yarns. My little brain can't actually take in all the permutations there are.

 Variegated sprinkled merino top

 Repeat dyed BFL tussah silk combed wool top

 Merino and tencel repeating dyeway

White & grey Corridale which is a dream to both dye and spin.

 Plus all this new found desire for fibre has led to dyeing fibre....oh woe is me. I love my washing line looking like this! I'm still continuing my learning journey of dyeing yarns and now fibres. Completely different in that fibre is not usually super wash so even greater care has to be taken handling them. Dye take ups are different on different bases and in some cases it's harder not to muddy colours. I've been busy experimenting to find the nicest fibres to dye and spin. I currently love both Corriedale and BFL and anything with silk in it too.

 Toms' magic paws in now available in fibre too!

 This is a scarf knitted for a friend in home spun yarn. What a treat to know you have dyed, spun and knitted an item. The sense of achievement  is without comparison. Quite how the 2ply yarn knows how to stripe is a mystery but I just adore it's rustic homely look.

 Sheep wagon shawl all my own work...she says smugly!

 Wool tops dyeing in the cauldron of doom

Being the old hippy I am, I used to dream of spinning and wearing items made from your own yarn. Finally  years down the line it's finally happening and I can't get enough of it. I feel like I have come home to where I belong. My hands seem to spin as if they are drawing on ancestral memories. No matter how awful the dyed top looks, it seems to spin up into a pretty yarn. I am dyeing fibres, feeding my imagination with a thousand colours and possibilities and I firmly believe there is some magic involved in spinning. Look at all the fairy tales concerning wheels......it must be old magic indeed.