Spinning over at Woolly Wednesday - Spinspiration

Some of what I have spun recently.  I am working through my stash of various mostly European wool.

The lighter brown, coarser ball at the bottom is Russian Karakul.  The darker brown, softer at the top is Portuguese Merino.

I am halfway through spinning up some New Zealand merino and then I will move on to the German mountain sheep wool.

After that I have one more lot of French country sheep wool and then I am done with adding these wonderful wools to my stash.  All beautiful shades of browns, blacks, greys and whites.

Here's a picture of my mostly European wool stash so far.

I have linked up with this post to Woolly Wednesday over at Spinspiration - the spinning and fibre craft related blog, my friend Dawn and I share.  Please do pop over and link up with any fibre related crafting or just pop in to say hello and visit the links.  We leave the link up for quite a while so no hurry!

Spinning this week

 Sheep breeds originating from Scotland this week!  I have been spinning up some beautiful white Shetland wool.  Shetland is one of my very favourites offering such a diverse natural colour range and being a fine wool. 

And I have washed a lovely light grey North Ronaldsay shearling fleece. North Ronaldsays are a primitive breed and are on the rare breed survival list.  They originate from the Orkney Islands off the  north coast of Scotland and eat seaweed!

Spinning and natural dyeing

Some of what I have been spinning recently.

Two bobbins done of Mongol Kargul wool. I have spun it as quite a thick single. I want it to look rustic/slubby.

And this is a lovely spin. It just flows through my fingers! Beautiful organic creamy white Welsh Lleln. I have two fleeces of this beautiful wool which I sourced from the neighbouring organic farm.

I dyed two batches of wool tops. The orange from madder root and the creamy colour is actually pale yellow and I used privet for that. We trimmed a hedge in our garden and we had so many leaf cuttings I thought I might as well try to dye with it. Glad I gave it a go! Next time we mow the lawn, I am going to try dyeing with grass cuttings.

Blossoms, spinning and dyeing

I want to add lots of blossom pictures from all around our garden simply because these blossoms fill my heart with such joy and it makes me feel happy seeing them here!  I want to remember them because they are already starting to pass over and green leaves are appearing so quickly.  We are having petal snow.  I love seeing the children play amongst all those falling petals and see the soft carpet of petals across the grass.

And some spinning that has been done.  At the back, grey/black Jacob plied with white and in the front, dark brown Shetland plied with white.

Some of my handspun yarn that I naturally dyed.  For the bright yellow I used onion skins and for the pale yellow I used nettles.

Spinning - Woolly Wednesday

Such a beautiful warm day today.  A beautiful day for spinning out in the sunshine.  I'm spinning wool I dyed with rosehips in the Autumn.

 

I have posted more on what I have been spinning recently over on Spinspiration for Woolly Wednesday for April.  Please do drop by and visit all the links.  If you have any fibre-related projects you have been working on recently and you would like to add a link to, it would be really good to see you there.

Introducing Spinspiration!

Do you love spinning?

Through our mutual love of spinning fibre, Dawn who blogs at Raising Seedlings, and I, have joined together to create Spinspiration, a spinning blog.

Please do visit us at Spinspiration and consider becoming part of the circle sharing inspiration for spinning and other fibre crafting. We hope it will be a warm and reassuring place, like a favourite chair near a cosy fireside, where beginners and experts come and go as they please. Spinspiration is a place to share what we know, learn from each other and display what we've created -- while supporting and inspiring each other on the wonderful journey associated with handspinning and wool-related crafts.

Even if you have not been hooked by fibrecrafting yet, do visit Spinspiration, as we hope to share so much there. Something for everyone.

From the beginning of March, we are planning to hold a 'Woolly Wednesdays' - where we can all contribute posts related to spinning and fibre crafts.

Happy spinning and fibrecrafting!

Spindling

I am spindling grey wool into knitting yarn to knit a grey donkey for Sol. Leo's brown donkey has been knitted and I need to sew it and stuff it now.

Peg loom weaving and spinning.

In the spring, my love for spinning began.  I have acquired at least 14 gorgeous fleeces - mostly rare breeds all from a rare breeds farm here in the Cotswolds - Portland, Jacob, North Ronaldsay, Soay, Herdwick and Cotswold.  The Cotswold is gorgeous and truly majestic - I will keep this for a special project.

Anyhow, I'm getting along well with the drop spindle and slowly getting better with the spinning wheel.  I adore spinning - it is so therapeutic.  Sitting by a fire spinning.  Remember that children's rhyme,  'Cross patch draw the latch, sit by the fire and spin..' The children love the wheel spinning about.  I am spinning Portland at the moment.

The gorgeous varied colours of the Jacob - blacks, whites, greys and browns - are wonderful for peg loom weaving so I am weaving a big, long rug for our passage which has stone floors.  Nearly finished it.



Sol has a peg loom set up too and he is slowly weaving a small blanket.
When my rug is finished I shall start on an Autumn Hues rug using wool I have dyed with natural dyes from plants I have harvested this autumn.  Rosehips produced a soft peachy colour, and privet a creamy yellow.  I will also use a chestnut brown wool I dyed with a black tea, a blend of Kenyan and Assam teas.