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.

Stashdash is a challenge created by the podcast TheKnitGirlls.

The young spinner I mention in the state fair has grown up and now has her own fiber business at Cedar Ridge Fiber Farm.

If you would like to see the daily streams I did during Tour de Fleece, they are archived here.  I am still uploading those, but all will be there soon.  My current streams can be found at Yarnspinnerstales on Twitch.TV

I started the musing with the question 'why during 2020 and especially forced to stay at home, did I not burst into a shower of creative work?'  I had to look at what I have needed in the past to be creative, for some answers.

1.  Life in 2020 was an effort, no matter how little you did.  I had to avoid the news, live with constant companionship, and all the noise that came with that.  So the extra effort to be creative was asking too much, and I know from experience I am most creative, when there are no distractions.

2.  Creativity needs questions.  For years, the questions came first, the answer found usually with creative energy, and the results of all that, shared in the podcast.  Somehow, in the noise of the pandemic, I could hear no questions.

3.  There were no chances for in person sharing with my other creative buddies.  As much as I love hubby, his skill is repairing things.  Takes a certain creativity for sure, but never applies to spinning or knitting.

So I had my answers, and also a year of rote spinning.  I was working breed by breed through a 52 weeks of sheep program.  I had a great time shopping for those fibers online, and usually enjoyed spinning them.  Sometimes it did take great creativity to figure out just what to do with that super scratchy fiber (I made scrubbies).

This rote spinning also took me to my fiber stash as much as I could, a goal I have every year and probably accomplished more in 2020 than in the past.  This however made me realize what I was doing was productive, and not often creative.

What is the difference between productive and creative?  Productive feels less satisfying.  That's because in my case, once the yarn is made, there is no further step.  No financial goal (sell the yarn) no altruistic goal (donate or knit and donate item) The bottom line is that creativity needs goals that have nothing to do with money or charity.  My creativity needs to learn something new (ask the question and find the answer), and teach what I learned.  It also needs to be enjoyable, so I feel that the time is well spent.

Unfortunately, working creatively and not production means the process stops here.  Often the yarn I make is not good enough to sell.  It may not be soft enough to wear.  And for both cases, there may not be enough of the yarn.  If I turn to production, I will find the whole creative process stops, and I am working, instead of creating.

Here again, as I end this musing, will I stand by my life words, 'It really is all about balance'.  Maybe my time scale is off, and several years from now it really will be all about production, after these years of creating.   And I will be sharing that with you too, dear listener, probably in this podcast.

I have the smaller version called the Nano and I talk about it in this podcast.   I purchased it at the Hoosier Hill fiber fair at the booth for Susan's fiber shop.

I referenced the book Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos.  This is just one source for the book.

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.

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!

Epi # Topic Date

1 Using Combs/Shetland 10/28/07 2 Spin In General Chatter 11/13/07 3 Raising Angora Rabbits 12/01/07 4 Christmas music only 12/16/07 5 Spinning Angora 01/18/08 6 Border Leicester and BFL 02/02/08 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece 02/16/08 8 Cheviot and Corriedale 03/02/08 9 Washing a fleece 04/02/08 10 Finn and Perendale 04/22/08 11 Book reviews 05/09/08 12 Cotton Dyeing part 1 Chemical 05/30/08 13 Cotton dyeing part 2 Natural 06/01/08 14 Cormo and Montadale 06/20/08 15 Cotton prep and spinning 07/08/08 16 Romney and Targhee 07/31/08 17 Andean Ply, Fleece Picking 08/17/08 Spinning Bulky yarn 18 CVM and Maine Island Sheep 09/01/08 19 Wheels and how they work 09/16/08 20 Navajo Churro and Jacob 09/30/08 21 Felting a fleece, faking pelts 10/27/08 22 Alpaca 10/31/08 23 Drop Spindles 12/20/08 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk 01/25/09 25 Cashgora 01/31/09 26 Woolen vs Worsted spinning 02/15/09 27 Tunis and Karakul 03/14/09 28 Dyeing wool Discolored fleece 03/30/09 29 Spaelsau and Icelandic 04/23/09 30 Plying 04/30/09 31 Bamboo and tencel 05/16/09 32 Silk, Soy and Milk fibers 06/01/09 33 Dog hair,Spinning DesignerYarn 06/22/09 Review of Intentional Spinner 34 Carding and Blending fibers 07/07/09 35 Angora rabbits and the heat 07/31/09 Washing alpaca fiber 36 Spinning with a Charkha 08/21/09 37 Southdown,Polworth 09/13/09 Setting up a wheel to spin 38 Selecting a wool fleece 10/10/09 39 Selecting non wool fiber,storing fiber An original ghost story 10/24/09 40 Spinning for a specific yarn 11/21/09 41 Discussing grist 11/29/09 42 Changing yarn size by adjusting 12/18/09 tension 43 Spinners block unlocking creative 01/20/10 juices 44 Fiber Fairs 04/05/10 45 Coopworth and Polypay 04/18/10 46 Spinning tools 05/08/10 47 Natural Dyeing book reviews 05/31/10 48 Planning a dye day 06/22/10 49 Carbonized bamboo TdF 07/12/10 history of wheels I own 50 Saran Wrap dyeing 08/14/10 51 Dyeing for specific colors 08/28/10 tertiary color study 52 Natural dyeing with walnut leaves 09/28/10 53 Front porch spinning Creativity 10/23/10 54 Color Theory with digitaldurga 11/10/10 55 Color Theory part 2 11/10/10 56 Blending the Tertiary colors 01/10/11 57 Blending Hackle 01/29/11 58 Types of Fiber combs 02/14/11 59 Washing and combing 5 breeds 02/28/11 60 Spinners’ single study 04/07/11 Forsyth product review 61 A new Wheel Majacraft Aura 05/07011 62 Black Welsh Mountain Clun Forest 05/17/11 63 Lock and fold spinning 06/02/11 64 Oogie McGuire interview BWM breed 07/22/11 65 A podcast for knitters who want to 08/20/11 become spinners 66 Learning the Aura and beaded yarn 08/21/11 67 Spinning Woolen 10/05/11 Special Episode Happy fourth Year YST 10/15/11 Promo podcast for The Spinners Journal 11/05/11 68 Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11 69 Leicester longwool, lincoln longwool 01/07/12 spinning DVD review and Stitches 70 Drum Carding projects 02/21/12 71 Digital Sheep 03/31/12 72 Support Spindles 04/28/12 73 Chatting with Fiber folks 05/26/12 74 Let the Spinning Begin 07/02/12 Tour de fleece 2012 75 The Wheel Keeps Spinning TdF12 07/05/12 76 Listen to your inner spinner TdF12 07/08/12 77 Is it rest day yet? TdF12 07/11/12 78 Two types of plying TdF12 07/15/12 79 How the fiber speaks to me TdF12 07/18/12 80 Fractal spinning and finished yarn 08/02/12 81 The finish line TdF12 08/07/12 82 California Red and combing CVM 08/16/12 83 Ryeland and Salish 09/17/12 84 Positive Spin YST on Stash naming 10/05/12 85 Five year anniversary podcast 10/31/12 86 Katahdan review and porch spin in 12/10/12 87 A Fresh Start Review of 2012 spinning 12/31/12 88 Exchanges, an angora spinning 01/27/13 exchange 89 Thin, thinner, thinnest, a froghair 02/04/13 spinning exchange 90 Plying with commercial yarns 03/16/13 91 The more I teach, the more I learn 04/26/13 92 Chain plying (navajo plying) 05/31/12 93 Preparing for TdF 2013 06/25/13 94 TdF13 day 1 and 2 07/02/13 95 TdF13 days 3 thru 5 07/06/13 96 TdF13 days 6 thru 9 07/09/13 97 TdF13 traveling with baby 07/19/13 98 TdF13 final report 07/30/13 99 Book Review Hand Designs for 09/09/13 Spinners and Knitters 100 Finishing yarn 10/20/13 101 Machine Washing alpaca 01/11/14 102 Spinning alpaca 01/30/14 103 Norfolk Horn 02/11/14 104 White faced Woodland 02/14/14 105 Portland fiber 02/18/14 106 Ravellenic spinning 02/22/14 107 Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor 03/16/14 108 Dyeing Alpaca 04/24/14 109 Greencastle Fiber event 06/02/14 110 Ky Sheep and Wool Festival 06/25/14 111 Preparing for TdF14 07/09/14 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger 07/16/14 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft 07/21/14 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14 115 TdF14 Team Support Spindlers 07/31/14 116 TdF14 Final recap 08/10/14 117 A Wool Gathering Yellow Springs Ohio 10/04/14 118 Spinzilla 2014 11/07/14 119 Fortuitous fleeces 11/27/14 Interview with Digitaldurga 120 Roc Day 2015 01/07/15 121 Wool Wash review interview with 02/03/15 Natalie Redding 122 Review of Norman Kennedy’s DVD 03/26/15 123 Alpaca in the dye pots 05/16/15 124 Spin In General Chatter 06/30/15 125 TdF15 part 1 07/15/15 126 TdF15 part 2 07/23/15 127 TdF15 final update 08/03/15 128 Washing handspun yarn 09/13/15 129 Spinzilla 2015 Ashford spinning quill 10/22/15 130 This, that and daydreams spin in chat 11/26/15 131 New Year, New spinning 01/07/16 132 A Hand spun hat and a mystery yarn 02/17/16 133 Review of Craftsy, and more knitting 03/30/16 with hand spun yarn 134 Fiber purchases, state fair prep and 06/15/16 Tdf spinning plans 135 Pre TdF and a swap 07/03/16 136 TdF16 podcast 1 08/01/16 137 TdF16 podcast 2 08/15/16 138 TdF16 podcast 3 08/27/16 139 Ravellenics 2016 and State Fair 09/27/16 140 Spinzilla and Natural Dye mordants 12/02/16 141 Spinning New Year’s resolutions 02/02/17 Book review Yarn.i.tec.ture A Spinning Sabatical 03/10/17 142 Life Changes,Why Worry? 06/16/17 A conversation with my daughter 143 Counting Treadles for even plying 07/03/17 144 Dyeing with Lichens part 1 07/14/17 145 Dyeing with Lichens part 2 08/19/17 146 Spindle Crane review 10/01/17 147 Spinzilla 2017 Recap 11/02/17 148 Dyeing with Lichens part 3 11/21/17 149 Ten Years of Podcasting 01/25/18 150 Ravellenics 2018 03/28/18 151 Episode 151 Fiber Fairs 04/20/18 152 Episode 152 July 2018 Spin in 07/04/18 153 TdF 2018 part 1 08/17/18 154 TdF 2018 part 2 09/03/18 155 Stitches Midwest 2018 10/09/18 156 Drafting 01/08/19 157 The Pegosa Project Alpaca 03/18/19 158 Post Op Spinning 05/15/19 Book Review Creative Spinning Allison Dayker 159 Finally a Fiber Fair 06/17/19 160 Book review Spindle Spinning 07/02/19 161 TdF2019 part 1 07/28/19 162 TdF2019 part 2 08/24/19 163 Review of a spinning video 09/18/19 found on Kanopy through library 164 Oct 2019 part 1 10/28/19 165 Oct 2019 part 2 Herding the Stash 11/02/19 166 Book Review Spinning Beyond the Basics 11/18/19 Anne Field 167 A Year of Perfect Vision 2020 01/22/20 168 Bleu de Maine and Charolais Breed reviews 02/29/20 169 Interview with Deborah Niemann Shave em to Save em project 03/25/20 170 Cheviot Breed review 04/25/20 171 East Fresian breed review 05/01/20 172 Black Welsh and White Welsh breed reviews 05/16/20 173 Gulf Coast Native breed review 06/19/20 174 Oxford down breed review 07/07/20 175 Shropshire breed review 07/07/20 176 Whitefaced Woodland breed review 07/07/20 177 Ryeland breed review 08/12/20 178 Coopworth breed review 08/20/20 179 Spinning yak fiber 09/12/20 180 Lonk breed review 10/29/20 181 Hebridean breed review 10/29/20

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!

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.

Lonk fiber was purchased from Wychwood Spinner

Superwash merino that I spun into sock yarn was purchased from Yarn Hollow.

Sadly, the Ozark Carding Mill I mention is permanently closed.

The Facebook group I have been using for the study of different sheep breeds is called 52 weeks of sheep.  I am not sure if FB will allow the link to work.

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!

Information on the Breed is from the Fleece and Fiber Source Book.

Another book I mention is Merino by Margaret Stove.

Previously I reviewed Coopworth in Episode 45.

I have also done a live stream on washing locks.

In the second part of this live stream, I show how to spin those locks.

All of my live streams are being archived on my channel on YouTube, so if those links above do not work try going to this channel.

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.

You can find me under the same name as the podcast, yarnspinnerstales.

I plan to live stream twice a week and during those videos you can join me, chat by typing, watch in the video what I am working on (and have been trying to explain with words for 12 years in the podcast!) ask me questions,tell me what you are doing, and so on and so on.  I think as the community of listeners/watchers/chatters grow we will come close to a vision I have always had for YST, a spin in.

I also have a Discord channel set up for us to chat, and share photos.  It would be a great place to ask questions you would like me to answer there or show on the next live stream.  Click this link for the invitation to join the channel.

Live streams will be Weds evenings and Sunday afternoons.  Once you are on Twitch and are following my channel, make sure you also click to be alerted when I go live.  The alert will always tell you in your own time zone.

If you can not watch the live stream, the videos will be available on my channel for 2 weeks.  Be sure to check in and watch it.

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.

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.

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 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.

I had reviewed the BWM breed in several previous podcasts, so I will provide links to those.

Episode 62 is a review of the breed's fiber

Episode 64 is an interview with a BWM breeder Oogie McGuire.  Her ranch is call Desert Weyr and she is still selling the BWM fiber and yarns and is now part of the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program.

Because of my participation in the fleece study group 52 Weeks of Sheep, I discovered the other Welsh Mountain sheep, with white fleece.  I got a sampling of UK fiber for both the BWM and the Welsh Mountain from Wychwood Spinner and talk about both in the podcast.  The fleece of Welsh mountain that I purchased at a fiber fair is unfortunately unidentified as to the vendor so I can not give a link to that at this time.

There is a short information portion included at the end for a breed of hair sheep called Barbados Blackbelly.  Unfortunately I have not been able to get a fiber sample yet for this Shave 'Em to Save 'Em passport breed.  But the group 52 weeks of sheep had it on the list for week 8, which is part of this podcast timing.  If I ever have the chance to spin some of the fiber, I will review it again.

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.

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

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.

And speaking of new, Santa brought a brand new mic set up for the YST studio.  It meant a new learning curve, and I think the sound will improve more as I work with it, but all in all I am happy with it.

Over the next two years, I am going to revisit and redo my rare breed sample files.  It has always been a passion of mine to find and spin as many breeds of sheep as I can.  I have found a group on Face Book called 52 weeks of sheep who have the same passion.  Each week there is a new breed to study and hopefully have fiber to spin.  This week's breed was one I had never heard about, Bleu de Maine.  I love the blue black faces of these sheep and have included the photo for this podcast.

Here's the links promised in the podcast:

The designer of the mystery shawl I am currently knitting with my handspun is Lyrical Knits. 

The yarn I am using was an experiment to dye the tertiary colors. I talk about it in episode 51.

The Shave Em to Save Em program and other good information about rare breeds conservation programs can be found on the livestock conservancy web page.  

And the source I found on Etsy for samples of a few of what I will be spinning with the 52 Weeks of Sheep face book group is WychWood Spinner.

Finally the fiber I am spinning currently is a dyed Blue Face Leicester from A Star is Shorn.

Epi # Topic Date

1 Using Combs/Shetland 10/28/07 2 Spin In General Chatter 11/13/07 3 Raising Angora Rabbits 12/01/07 4 Christmas music only 12/16/07 5 Spinning Angora 01/18/08 6 Border Leicester and BFL 02/02/08 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece 02/16/08 8 Cheviot and Corriedale 03/02/08 9 Washing a fleece 04/02/08 10 Finn and Perendale 04/22/08 11 Book reviews 05/09/08 12 Cotton Dyeing part 1 Chemical 05/30/08 13 Cotton dyeing part 2 Natural 06/01/08 14 Cormo and Montadale 06/20/08 15 Cotton prep and spinning 07/08/08 16 Romney and Targhee 07/31/08 17 Andean Ply, Fleece Picking 08/17/08 Spinning Bulky yarn 18 CVM and Maine Island Sheep 09/01/08 19 Wheels and how they work 09/16/08 20 Navajo Churro and Jacob 09/30/08 21 Felting a fleece, faking pelts 10/27/08 22 Alpaca 10/31/08 23 Drop Spindles 12/20/08 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk 01/25/09 25 Cashgora 01/31/09 26 Woolen vs Worsted spinning 02/15/09 27 Tunis and Karakul 03/14/09 28 Dyeing wool Discolored fleece 03/30/09 29 Spaelsau and Icelandic 04/23/09 30 Plying 04/30/09 31 Bamboo and tencel 05/16/09 32 Silk, Soy and Milk fibers 06/01/09 33 Dog hair,Spinning DesignerYarn 06/22/09 Review of Intentional Spinner 34 Carding and Blending fibers 07/07/09 35 Angora rabbits and the heat 07/31/09 Washing alpaca fiber 36 Spinning with a Charkha 08/21/09 37 Southdown,Polworth 09/13/09 Setting up a wheel to spin 38 Selecting a wool fleece 10/10/09 39 Selecting non wool fiber,storing fiber An original ghost story 10/24/09 40 Spinning for a specific yarn 11/21/09 41 Discussing grist 11/29/09 42 Changing yarn size by adjusting 12/18/09 tension 43 Spinners block unlocking creative 01/20/10 juices 44 Fiber Fairs 04/05/10 45 Coopworth and Polypay 04/18/10 46 Spinning tools 05/08/10 47 Natural Dyeing book reviews 05/31/10 48 Planning a dye day 06/22/10 49 Carbonized bamboo TdF 07/12/10 history of wheels I own 50 Saran Wrap dyeing 08/14/10 51 Dyeing for specific colors 08/28/10 tertiary color study 52 Natural dyeing with walnut leaves 09/28/10 53 Front porch spinning Creativity 10/23/10 54 Color Theory with digitaldurga 11/10/10 55 Color Theory part 2 11/10/10 56 Blending the Tertiary colors 01/10/11 57 Blending Hackle 01/29/11 58 Types of Fiber combs 02/14/11 59 Washing and combing 5 breeds 02/28/11 60 Spinners' single study 04/07/11 Forsyth product review 61 A new Wheel Majacraft Aura 05/07011 62 Black Welsh Mountain Clun Forest 05/17/11 63 Lock and fold spinning 06/02/11 64 Oogie McGuire interview BWM breed 07/22/11 65 A podcast for knitters who want to 08/20/11 become spinners 66 Learning the Aura and beaded yarn 08/21/11 67 Spinning Woolen 10/05/11 Special Episode Happy fourth Year YST 10/15/11 Promo podcast for The Spinners Journal 11/05/11 68 Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11 69 Leicester longwool, lincoln longwool 01/07/12 spinning DVD review and Stitches East 70 Drum Carding projects 02/21/12 71 Digital Sheep 03/31/12 72 Support Spindles 04/28/12 73 Chatting with Fiber folks 05/26/12 74 Let the Spinning Begin 07/02/12 Tour de fleece 2012 75 The Wheel Keeps Spinning TdF12 07/05/12 76 Listen to your inner spinner TdF12 07/08/12 77 Is it rest day yet? TdF12 07/11/12 78 Two types of plying TdF12 07/15/12 79 How the fiber speaks to me TdF12 07/18/12 80 Fractal spinning and finished yarn 08/02/12 81 The finish line TdF12 08/07/12 82 California Red and combing CVM 08/16/12 83 Ryeland and Salish 09/17/12 84 Positive Spin YST on Stash naming 10/05/12 85 Five year anniversary podcast 10/31/12 86 Katahdan review and porch spin in 12/10/12 87 A Fresh Start Review of 2012 spinning 12/31/12 88 Exchanges, an angora spinning 01/27/13 exchange 89 Thin, thinner, thinnest, a froghair 02/04/13 spinning exchange 90 Plying with commercial yarns 03/16/13 91 The more I teach, the more I learn 04/26/13 92 Chain plying (navajo plying) 05/31/12 93 Preparing for TdF 2013 06/25/13 94 TdF13 day 1 and 2 07/02/13 95 TdF13 days 3 thru 5 07/06/13 96 TdF13 days 6 thru 9 07/09/13 97 TdF13 traveling with baby 07/19/13 98 TdF13 final report 07/30/13 99 Book Review Hand Designs for 09/09/13 Spinners and Knitters 100 Finishing yarn 10/20/13 101 Machine Washing alpaca 01/11/14 102 Spinning alpaca 01/30/14 103 Norfolk Horn 02/11/14 104 White faced Woodland 02/14/14 105 Portland fiber 02/18/14 106 Ravellenic spinning 02/22/14 107 Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor 03/16/14 108 Dyeing Alpaca 04/24/14 109 Greencastle Fiber event 06/02/14 110 Ky Sheep and Wool Festival 06/25/14 111 Preparing for TdF14 07/09/14 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger 07/16/14 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft 07/21/14 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14 115 TdF14 Team Support Spindlers 07/31/14 116 TdF14 Final recap 08/10/14 117 A Wool Gathering Yellow Springs Ohio 10/04/14 118 Spinailla 2014 11/07/14 119 Fortutous fleeces 11/27/14 Interview with Digitaldurga 120 Roc Day 2015 01/07/15 121 Wool Wash review interview with 02/03/15 Natalie Redding 122 Review of Norman Kennedy's DVD 03/26/15 123 Alpaca in the dyepots 05/16/15 124 Spin In General Chatter 06/30/15 125 TdF15 part 1 07/15/15 126 TdF15 part 2 07/23/15 127 TdF15 final update 08/03/15 128 Washing handspun yarn 09/13/15 129 Spinzilla 2015 Ashford spinning quill 10/22/15 130 This, that and daydreams spin in chat 11/26/15 131 New Year, New spinning 01/07/16 132 A Hand spun hat and a mystery yarn 02/17/16 133 Review of Craftsy, and more knitting 03/30/16 with hand spun yarn 134 Fiber purchases, state fair prep and 06/15/16 Tdf spinning plans 135 Pre TdF and a swap 07/03/16 136 TdF16 podcast 1 08/01/16 137 TdF16 podcast 2 08/15/16 138 TdF16 podcast 3 08/27/16 139 Ravellenics 2016 and State Fair 09/27/16 140 Spinzilla and Natural Dye mordants 12/02/16 141 Spinning New Year's resolutions 02/02/17 Book review Yarn.i.tec.ture A Spinning Sabatical 03/10/17 142 Life Changes,Why Worry? 06/16/17 A conversation with my daughter 143 Counting Treadles for even plying 07/03/17 144 Dyeing with Lichens part 1 07/14/17 145 Dyeing with Lichens part 2 08/19/17 146 Spindle Crane review 10/01/17 147 Spinzilla 2017 Recap 11/02/17 148 Dyeing with Lichens part 3 11/21/17 149 Ten Years of Podcasting 01/25/18 150 Ravellenics 2018 03/28/18 151 Episode 151 Fiber Fairs 04/20/18 152 Episode 152 July 2018 Spin in 07/04/18 153 TdF 2018 part 1 08/17/18 154 TdF 2018 part 2 09/03/18 155 Stitches Midwest 2018 10/09/18 156 Drafting 01/08/19 157 The Pegosa Project Alpaca 03/18/19 158 Post Op Spinning 05/15/19 Book Review Creative Spinning Allison Dayker 159 Finally a Fiber Fair 06/17/19 160 Book review Spindle Spinning 07/02/19 161 TdF2019 part 1 07/28/19 162 TdF2019 part 2 08/24/19 163 Review of a spinning video 09/18/19 found on Kanopy through library 164 Oct 2019 part 1 10/28/19 165 Oct 2019 part 2 Herding the Stash 11/02/19 166 Book Review Anne Field 11/18/19       Beyond the Basics of Spinning

There are two editions of this book.  The first, published in 2010 by Trafalgar Square Publishing is shown here on Ebay.  Google book link is here.

The second edition was published by A & C Black Publishers.  It seems to be the same book and information, although I have not seen an actual copy of the book yet.  It is shown in this link at Alibris.

I talk about her differentiating between four ways to spin, woolen, semi woolen, worsted, and semi worsted.  The preparation of the fiber and the actual way it is spun, determines which type of yarn you are 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This podcast reviews the book Spindle Spinning from Novice to Expert by Connie Delaney.  

Links to possible sources for this book can be found on Abe Books

Also seen listed on Ebay here

In both cases, the exact listings may no longer be available, but it serves for you to see the book and description, and know how to search for it in those websites.

One last link is to the fiber I talk about in the review, kenaf.  The Wiki page for it is here.

The photo for this podcast shows the Pegosa alpaca fiber I am currently spinning by the lock on my Roberta.

There are lots of links for the podcast, for everyone that I mentioned, be sure to check out the webpages.

The Woolery, which you can find at fiber fairs and their storefront.

Dyed in the Wool.  I owe Sandy Ferguson an apology for not mentioning in the podcast, her as an owner of this business too!

The Alien Encounter sock pattern can be found on Ravelry, here.

The Stoltman Family farm only has a FaceBook page, here.

Ohio Valley Natural Fibers is the fiber processing mill I talk about.

Yarn Geek Fibers has this page of dyed yarn and fibers for sale.

Punkin Patch is Equinox Farm home of the crazy sheep lady.  There's a good blog on that website, where you can get you fill of photos and good writing. This is the farm from whom I purchased Bullwinkle's fleece.

This blog had one post that showed Bullwinkle, he's the white sheep.

This farm is also part of the breed conservancy program, Shave 'em to Save 'em, for rare breed sheep. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

1 Using Combs/Shetland              10/28/07 2 Spin In General Chatter            11/13/07 3 Raising Angora Rabbits             12/01/07 4 Christmas music only                12/16/07 5 Spinning Angora                       01/18/08 6 Border Leicester and BFL           02/02/08 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece         02/16/08 8 Cheviot and Corriedale              03/02/08 9 Washing a fleece                      04/02/08 10 Finn and Perendale                 04/22/08 11 Book reviews                          05/09/08 12 Cotton Dyeing part 1 Chemical 05/30/08 13 Cotton dyeing part 2 Natural    06/01/08 14 Cormo and Montadale              06/20/08 15 Cotton prep and spinning         07/08/08 16 Romney and Targhee               07/31/08 17 Andean Ply, Fleece Picking        08/17/08           Spinning Bulky yarn 18 CVM and Maine Island Sheep    09/01/08 19 Wheels and how they work       09/16/08 20 Navajo Churro and Jacob          09/30/08 21 Felting a fleece, faking pelts     10/27/08 22 Alpaca                                    10/31/08 23 Drop Spindles                          12/20/08 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk          01/25/09 25 Cashgora                                 01/31/09 26 Woolen vs Worsted spinning     02/15/09 27 Tunis and Karakul                    03/14/09 28 Dyeing wool Discolored fleece   03/30/09 29 Spaelsau and Icelandic             04/23/09 30 Plying                                     04/30/09 31 Bamboo and tencel                  05/16/09 32 Silk, Soy and Milk fibers           06/01/09 33 Dog hair,Spinning DesignerYarn 06/22/09        Review of Intentional Spinner 34 Carding and Blending fibers      07/07/09 35 Angora rabbits and the heat     07/31/09           Washing alpaca fiber 36 Spinning with a Charkha          08/21/09 37 Southdown,Polworth                09/13/09           Setting up a wheel to spin 38 Selecting a wool fleece             10/10/09 39 Selecting non wool fiber,storing fiber        An original ghost story           10/24/09 40 Spinning for a specific yarn       11/21/09 41 Discussing grist                       11/29/09 42 Changing yarn size by adjusting 12/18/09                        tension 43 Spinners block unlocking creative 01/20/10                      juices 44 Fiber Fairs                                04/05/10 45 Coopworth and Polypay             04/18/10 46 Spinning tools                           05/08/10 47 Natural Dyeing book reviews      05/31/10 48 Planning a dye day                    06/22/10 49 Carbonized bamboo TdF            07/12/10             history of wheels I own 50 Saran Wrap dyeing                    08/14/10 51 Dyeing for specific colors           08/28/10           tertiary color study 52 Natural dyeing with walnut leaves 09/28/10 53 Front porch spinning Creativity    10/23/10 54 Color Theory with digitaldurga     11/10/10 55 Color Theory part 2                    11/10/10 56 Blending the Tertiary colors        01/10/11 57 Blending Hackle                         01/29/11 58 Types of Fiber combs                  02/14/11 59 Washing and combing 5 breeds   02/28/11 60 Spinners' single study                 04/07/11            Forsyth product review 61 A new Wheel Majacraft Aura        05/07011 62 Black Welsh Mountain Clun Forest 05/17/11 63 Lock and fold spinning                 06/02/11 64 Oogie McGuire interview BWM breed 07/22/11 65 A podcast for knitters who want to 08/20/11            become spinners 66 Learning the Aura and beaded yarn 08/21/11 67 Spinning Woolen                           10/05/11 Special Episode Happy fourth Year YST  10/15/11 Promo podcast for The Spinners Journal 11/05/11 68 Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11 69 Leicester longwool, lincoln longwool  01/07/12          spinning DVD review and Stitches East 70 Drum Carding projects                    02/21/12 71 Digital Sheep                                  03/31/12 72 Support Spindles                            04/28/12 73 Chatting with Fiber folks                  05/26/12 74 Let the Spinning Begin                    07/02/12                      Tour de fleece 2012 75 The Wheel Keeps Spinning TdF12     07/05/12 76 Listen to your inner spinner TdF12    07/08/12 77 Is it rest day yet? TdF12                  07/11/12 78 Two types of plying TdF12               07/15/12 79 How the fiber speaks to me TdF12   07/18/12 80 Fractal spinning and finished yarn    08/02/12 81 The finish line TdF12                       08/07/12 82 California Red and combing CVM      08/16/12 83 Ryeland and Salish                         09/17/12 84 Positive Spin YST on Stash naming  10/05/12 85 Five year anniversary podcast          10/31/12 86 Katahdan review and porch spin in   12/10/12 87 A Fresh Start Review of 2012 spinning 12/31/12 88 Exchanges, an angora spinning          01/27/13                        exchange 89 Thin, thinner, thinnest, a froghair       02/04/13                    spinning exchange 90 Plying with commercial yarns             03/16/13 91 The more I teach, the more I learn     04/26/13 92 Chain plying (navajo plying)               05/31/12 93 Preparing for TdF 2013                      06/25/13 94 TdF13 day 1 and 2                            07/02/13 95 TdF13 days 3 thru 5                          07/06/13 96 TdF13 days 6 thru 9                          07/09/13 97 TdF13 traveling with baby                  07/19/13 98 TdF13 final report                              07/30/13 99 Book Review Hand Designs for           09/09/13               Spinners and Knitters 100 Finishing yarn                                 10/20/13 101 Machine Washing alpaca                  01/11/14 102 Spinning alpaca                              01/30/14 103 Norfolk Horn                                   02/11/14 104 White faced Woodland                     02/14/14 105 Portland fiber                                  02/18/14 106 Ravellenic spinning                          02/22/14 107 Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor         03/16/14 108 Dyeing Alpaca                                 04/24/14 109 Greencastle Fiber event                   06/02/14 110 Ky Sheep and Wool Festival             06/25/14 111 Preparing for TdF14                        07/09/14 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger               07/16/14 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft                    07/21/14 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14 115 TdF14 Team Support Spindlers        07/31/14 116 TdF14 Final recap                           08/10/14 117 A Wool Gathering Yellow Springs Ohio 10/04/14 118 Spinailla 2014                                11/07/14 119 Fortutous fleeces                            11/27/14                 Interview with Digitaldurga 120 Roc Day 2015                                 01/07/15 121 Wool Wash review interview with      02/03/15                           Natalie Redding 122 Review of Norman Kennedy's DVD    03/26/15 123 Alpaca in the dyepots                      05/16/15 124 Spin In General Chatter                   06/30/15 125 TdF15 part 1                                   07/15/15 126 TdF15 part 2                                   07/23/15 127 TdF15 final update                          08/03/15 128 Washing handspun yarn                   09/13/15 129 Spinzilla 2015 Ashford spinning quill 10/22/15 130 This, that and daydreams spin in chat 11/26/15 131 New Year, New spinning                   01/07/16 132 A Hand spun hat and a mystery yarn 02/17/16 133 Review of Craftsy, and more knitting 03/30/16                    with hand spun yarn 134 Fiber purchases, state fair prep and   06/15/16                Tdf spinning plans 135 Pre TdF and a swap                          07/03/16 136 TdF16 podcast 1                              08/01/16 137 TdF16 podcast 2                              08/15/16 138 TdF16 podcast 3                              08/27/16 139 Ravellenics 2016 and State Fair        09/27/16 140 Spinzilla and Natural Dye mordants  12/02/16 141 Spinning New Year's resolutions       02/02/17         Book review Yarn.i.tec.ture A Spinning Sabatical                              03/10/17 142 Life Changes,Why Worry?                06/16/17            A conversation with my daughter 143 Counting Treadles for even plying     07/03/17 144 Dyeing with Lichens part 1               07/14/17 145 Dyeing with Lichens part 2               08/19/17 146 Spindle Crane review                      10/01/17 147 Spinzilla 2017 Recap                       11/02/17 148 Dyeing with Lichens part 3               11/21/17 149 Ten Years of Podcasting                   01/25/18 150 Ravellenics 2018                             03/28/18 151 Episode 151 Fiber Fairs                    04/20/18

If you have an answer, come to the Ravelry group and search for Yanrspinnerstales spin in.  Join us there for the conversation.

A nice solution to at least organizing your fleece project is The Spinners Journal, a daily spinning book I created to sell.  Your purchase supports the archiving of my past podcasts.  Thank-You!

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.

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.

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!

Looking for a way to keep track of your spinning projects?  I have created the Spinners' Journal to help you with that.  It was done at Lulu.com, and is a reasonable 12.50 plus shipping.  Your purchases help me pay the cost of keeping yarnspinnerstales podcasts archived.  Thank-you!

If you have any questions or comments about this or any of the podcasts, join us at the group on Ravelry, Yarnspinnerstales Spin In.

Happy Spinning!

Akerworks website for further information.

I promised a few links, here's the easiest to find on Youtube.

There is a difference between how the spinner in this video uses the spindle crane, and what I experienced.  I did not get the twist to go past the plastic threader when I worked with it.  I also used a hanging spindle instead of a supported spindle, although I do want to try the support spindle with it next.

You have to be signed into Ravelry before clicking this link, but once you are it will take you to the thread in my group for discussion of the spindle crane.

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

Near the end I do talk about the start of the Tour De Fleece and what I hope to spin during it.

If you want to join our discussions and sharing with the YST Team on Ravelry, the best way to find the group is to search under groups for Yarnspinnerstales Spin In.  Hope to see you there!

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.

During that time, I am researching dyeing with lichens, and I hope to get some dye baths started.  That will be the topic of the podcast, when I return.  

Thanks for your patience and Happy Spinning!

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.

The original dye day for the columbia roving was Episode 52.

The Jacob roving I spun was from the Ross Family Farm in Pa.

One good blog post I referenced in the natural dye mordant discussion was written by Alpenglow yarns.

A second post I read and referenced is by Cheryl Kolander of Aurora Silk.

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.

The Romeldale fiber was purchased at DyedintheWool,

The wash and dye product I used while dyeing is available at woolshampoo.

The shop I purchased the drum carder cloth from is no longer in business.  However, there are other sources available on Etsy.  Just got to that website and search from drum carder cloth.

To see photos of all of my TdF16 projects, sign into Ravelry first and then click this link.

I talk about washing alpaca fiber, dyeing shetland and lamb's wool fiber, and as my challenge day project, spinning banana fiber.

All of the links below are information I found on the internet about banana fiber.

Home processing (something so unavailable to most of us!) is shown in a youtube video by Rix Jennings.

Commercial processing (and very poor audio, sorry) is shown here.

A non verbal commercial processing video. It is long, but if you only have time for one video, I recommend it be this one.

A video of felted banana cloth being made.

I only found one blog that talked about banana fiber, it is Fiber of my Being. There's part 1 and part 2.

Here's on crochet project I found for the yarn (lots of pop ups and ads, sorry).

Finally, Darn Good Yarn, shows banana yarn available on their website.

I do much more than spinning, as usual.  I have alpaca blanket washing, fiber dyeing, a challenge fiber and challenge processing planned all during these three weeks.

This is the first of three podcasts relating to this year's Tdf.

All information on the sheep breeds that I review are from the book Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius.

The Devon fiber was purchased at Laughing Lamb Fibers.

The 3D printed flat pack bobbins for spinning wheels are available at Akerworks.

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!

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.

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.

The inspiration for the hat came from the book HomeSpun HandKnit by Linda Ligon.  The pattern was the garter stitch cap.

The second knitting project started in Jan 2016 was the Painted Sky Cowl provided free by KnittingFever.  I am using a worsted spun 2 ply yarn I also made from the Jacob.  

My blog can be found here.

Contact me with any comments (don't just talk to the podcast I can't hear you!) here or on Ravelry as Yarnspinnerstales.

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!

Episode number      Topic                 Date

• 1            Using Combs/Shetland           10/28/07
• 2            Spin In General Chatter          11/13/07
• 3            Raising Angora Rabbits           12/01/07
• 4            Christmas music only             12/16/07
• 5            Spinning Angora                    01/18/08
• 6            Border Leicester and BFL         02/02/08
• 7            Skirting a Shetland Fleece       02/16/08
• 8            Cheviot and Corriedale            03/02/08
• 9            Washing a fleece                   04/02/08
• 10           Finn and Perendale                04/22/08
• 11           Book reviews                        05/09/08
• 12           Cotton Dyeing part 1 Chemical 05/30/08
• 13           Cotton dyeing part 2 Natural    06/01/08
• 14           Cormo and Montadale              06/20/08
• 15           Cotton prep and spinning         07/08/08
• 16           Romney and Targhee               07/31/08
• 17           Andean Ply, Fleece Picking        08/17/08
•               Spinning Bulky yarn
• 18           CVM and Maine Island Sheep     09/01/08
• 19           Wheels and how they work        09/16/08
• 20           Navajo Churro and Jacob           09/30/08
• 21           Felting a fleece, faking pelts      10/27/08
• 22           Alpaca                                   10/31/08         
• 23           Drop Spindles                          12/20/08
• 24           Spinning and Dyeing Silk            01/25/09
• 25           Cashgora                                01/31/09
• 26           Woolen vs Worsted spinning       02/15/09
• 27           Tunis and Karakul                     03/14/09
• 28           Dyeing wool Discolored fleece     03/30/09
• 29           Spaelsau and Icelandic              04/23/09
• 30           Pyling                                     04/30/09
• 31           Bamboo and tencel                   05/16/09
• 32           Silk, Soy and Milk fibers             06/01/09
• 33           Dog hair, Spinning Designer Yarn 06/22/09
•                  Review of Intentional Spinner
• 34           Carding and Blending fibers         07/07/09
• 35           Angora rabbits and the heat       07/31/09
•                  Washing alpaca fiber
• 36           Spinning with a Charkha             08/21/09
• 37           Southdown,Polworth                  09/13/09
•                  Setting up a wheel to spin
• 38           Selecting a wool fleece              10/10/09
• 39           Selecting non wool fiber,storing fiber
•                   An original ghost story            10/24/09
• 40           Spinning for a specific yarn          11/21/09
• 41           Discussing grist                          11/29/09
• 42           Changing yarn size by adjusting     12/18/09
•                    tension
• 43           Spinners block unlocking creative   01/20/10
•                    juices
• 44            Fiber Fairs                                 04/05/10
• 45            Coopworth and Polypay               04/18/10
• 46            Spinning tools                            05/08/10
• 47            Natural Dyeing book reviews         05/31/10
• 48            Planning a dye day                     06/22/10
• 49            Carbonized bamboo   TdF             07/12/10
•                   history of wheels I own
• 50            Saran Wrap dyeing                      08/14/10
• 51            Dyeing for specific colors              08/28/10
•                   tertiary color study
• 52            Natural dyeing with walnut leaves  09/28/10
• 53            Front porch spinning  Creativity     10/23/10
• 54            Color Theory with digitaldurga       11/10/10
• 55            Color Theory part 2                     11/10/10
• 56            Blending the Tertiary colors           01/10/11
• 57            Blending Hackle                           01/29/11
• 58            Types of Fiber combs                   02/14/11
• 59            Washing and combing 5 breeds      02/28/11
• 60            Spinners' single study                   04/07/11
•                   Forsyth product review
• 61            A new Wheel Majacraft Aura          05/07011
• 62            Black Welsh Mountain, Clun Forest   05/17/11
• 63            Lock and fold spinning                   06/02/11
• 64            Oogie McGuire interview BWM breed  07/22/11
• 65            A podcast for knitters who want to  08/20/11
•                  become spinners
• 66            Learning the Aura and beaded yarn  08/21/11
• 67            Spinning Woolen                           10/05/11
• Special Episode  Happy fourth Year YST           10/15/11
• Promo podcast for The Spinners Journal            11/05/11
• 68            Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11
• 69            Leicester longwool, lincoln longwool   01/07/12
•                  spinning DVD review and Stitches East
• 70           Drum Carding projects                      02/21/12         
• 71           Digital Sheep                                  03/31/12
• 72           Support Spindles                             04/28/12
• 73           Chatting with Fiber folks                   05/26/12
• 74           Let the Spinning Begin                      07/02/12
•                   Tour de fleece 2012
• 75           The Wheel Keeps Spinning TdF12       07/05/12
• 76           Listen to your inner spinner TdF12      07/08/12
• 77           Is it rest day yet?  TdF12                 07/11/12
• 78           Two types of plying  TdF12               07/15/12
• 79           How the fiber speaks to me  TdF12     07/18/12
• 80           Fractal spinning and finished yarn       08/02/12
• 81           The finish line  TdF12                       08/07/12
• 82           California Red and combing CVM         08/16/12
• 83           Ryeland and Salish                           09/17/12
• 84           Positive Spin YST on Stash naming     10/05/12
• 85           Five year anniversary podcast            10/31/12
• 86           Katahdan review and porch spin in       12/10/12
• 87           A Fresh Start  Review of 2012 spinning 12/31/12
• 88           Exchanges, an angora spinning           01/27/13
•                    exchange
• 89           Thin, thinner, thinnest, a froghair        02/04/13
•                    spinning exchange
• 90           Plying with commercial yarns              03/16/13
• 91           The more I teach, the more I learn      04/26/13
• 92           Chain plying (navajo plying)                05/31/12
• 93           Preparing for TdF 2013                      06/25/13
• 94           TdF13  day 1 and 2                          07/02/13
• 95           TdF13  days 3 thru 5                        07/06/13
• 96           TdF13  days 6 thru 9                        07/09/13
• 97           TdF13  traveling with baby                07/19/13
• 98           TdF13 final report                            07/30/13
• 99           Book Review Hand Designs for            09/09/13
•                  Spinners and Knitters
• 100         Finishing yarn                                  10/20/13
• 101         Machine Washing alpaca                    01/11/14
• 102         Spinning alpaca                                01/30/14
• 103         Norfolk Horn                                    02/11/14
• 104         White faced Woodland                      02/14/14
• 105         Portland fiber                                  02/18/14
• 106         Ravellenic spinning                           02/22/14
• 107         Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor           03/16/14
• 108         Dyeing Alpaca                                 04/24/14
• 109         Greencastle Fiber event                    06/02/14
• 110         Ky Sheep and Wool Festival               06/25/14
• 111         Preparing for TdF14                          07/09/14
• 112         TdF14 Team Painted Tiger                 07/16/14
• 113         TdF14 Team Majacraft                      07/21/14
• 114         TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace    07/26/14
• 115         TdF14 Team Support Spindlers            07/31/14
• 116         TdF14 Final recap                             08/10/14
• 117         A Wool Gathering Yellow Springs Ohio   10/04/14
• 118         Spinailla 2014                                   11/07/14
• 119         Fortutous fleeces                             11/27/14
•                   Interview with Digitaldurga
• 120        Roc Day 2015                                    01/07/15
• 121        Wool Wash review  interview with         02/03/15
•                   Natalie Redding
• 122        Review of Norman Kennedy's DVD          03/26/15
• 123        Alpaca in the dyepots                         05/16/15
• 124        Spin In General Chatter                       06/30/15
• 125        TdF15 part 1                                     07/15/15
• 126        TdF15 part 2                                     07/23/15
• 127        TdF15 final update                             08/03/15
• 128        Washing handspun yarn                       09/13/15
• 129        Spinzilla 2015  Ashford spinning quill       10/22/15
• 130        This, that and daydreams   spin in chat  11/26/15
•  
•       

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.

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

First is my experience with spinning on a quill set up on my Ashford Traditional.  A photo of the quill can be seen here.  I also recommend searching Youtube for good videos if you plan to try this too.  Here is one that shows a quick method for wrapping the single onto the cop.

Second I talk about spinning Suri alpaca, both on a drop spindle and a spinning wheel.

Last is a discussion of plying and one of my observations and ah ha moments.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

The second part of the podcast is a chatty update of my life and spinning projects.

Music is from Musicalley.  The haunting interlude music is by Keldarin and is called Gaelic Shores.  The closing song is by John Torres and is titled Here in History.

If anyone is interesting in the video of the stitch I am using to crochet a blanket that I mention in the podcast, it can be found here.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Episode 1 Using Combs / Shetland 10/28/07 

Episode 2 Spin In 11/13/07 

Episode 3 Raising Angora Rabbits 12/01/07 

Episode 4 Christmas Music 2 episodes 12/16/07 

Episode 5 Spinning Angora 01/18/08 

Episode 6 Spin In Border Leicester and BFL 02/02/08 

Episode 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece 02/16/08 

Episode 8 Spin In Cheviot and Corriedale 03/02/08 

Episode 9 Washing a Fleece 04/02/08 

Episode 10 Spin In Finn and Perendale 04/22/08 

Episode 11 Book Reviews: Your Handspinning/ Creative Spinning, Weaving & Plant Dyeing/ The Encyclopedia of Handspinning 05/09/08 

Episode 12 Cotton Dyeing Part I Chemical Dyes 05/30/08 

Episode 13 Cotton Dyeing Part II Natural Dyes 06/01/08 

Episode 14 Spin In Cormo and Montadale 06/20/08 

Episode 15 Cotton Spinning/Preparation Techniques 07/08/08 

Episode 16 Spin In Romney and Targhee 07/31/08 

Episode 17 Andean Plying, Picking a Fleece, Spinning Bulky Yarn 08/17/08 

Episode 18 Spin In CVM and Maine Island Sheep 09/01/08 

Episode 19 Wheels: How they work 09/16/08 

Episode 20 Spin In Navajo Churro and Jacob 09/30/08 

Episode 21 Felting a Fleece 10/27/08 

Episode 22 Spin In Alpaca 10/31/08 

Episode 23 Drop Spindles 12/20/08 

Episode 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk 01/25/09 

Episode 25 Spin In Cashgora 01/31/09 

Episode 26 Spinning Woolen vs Worsted 02/15/09 

Episode 27 Spin In Tunis and Karakul 03/14/09 

Epidose 28 Dyeing Wool / Discolored Fleeces 03/30/09 

Episode 29 Spin In Wheels at the Woolery / Spaelsau and Icelandic 04/23/09 

Episode 30 Plying 04/30/09 

Episode 31 Bamboo and Tencel 05/16/09 

Episode 32 Silk, Soy and Milk 06/01/09 

Episode 33 Spin In Dog Hair / Spinning Designer Yarns and The Intentional Spinner 06/22/09 

Episode 34 Carding and blending fibers 07/07/09 

Episode 35 Spin In Helping Angora Bunnies Beat the Heat / Washing Alpaca Fiber 07/31/09 

Episode 36 Spinning with a charkha 08/21/09 

Episode 37 Spin In breed reviewed: Southdown, Polworth Setting up my wheel before spinning 09/13/09 

Episode 38 Selecting a wool fleece part 1 10/10/09 

Episode 39 Selecting non wool fiber to spin, storing fiber, original ghost story 10/24/09 

Episode 40 Spinning for a specific type of yarn 11/21/09 

Episode 41 Discussing grist 11/29/09 

Episode 42 Changing the size of your yarn by adjusting tension 12/18/09 

Episode 43 Spinner’s block, unlocking the creative juices 01/20/10 

Episode 44 Fiber Fairs 04/05/10 

Episode 45 Spin In Breeds Coopworth and Polypay review 04/18/10 

Episode 46 Spinning Tools 05/08/10 

Episode 47 Book Reviews Jenny Dean’s Natural Dyeing Books also American Native Plants 05/31/10 

Episode 48 Planning a Dye Day 06/22/10 

Episode 49 Carbonized bamboo, Tour de fleece projects History of the wheels I own 07/12/10 

Episode 50 Dye Day 1 Dyeing with saran wrap 08/14/10 

Episode 51 Dye Day 2 Dyeing specific colors, the tertiary colors 08/28/10 

Episode 52 Dye Day 3 Natural Dyeing with walnut leaves 09/28/10 

Episode 53 Front Porch spin in Creativity 10/23/13 

Episode 54 Color Theory with Digitaldurga 11/10/10 

Episode 55 Color Theory part 2 11/10/10 

Episode 56 Blending the Tertiary colors 01/10/11 

Episode 57 Blending Hackle 01/29/11 

Episode 58 Different types of fiber combs 02/14/11 

Episode 59 Washing and combing five different sheep breeds (lock washing in roaster pan) 02/28/11 

Episode 60 Spinners’ single study, and Forsyth products review 04/07/11 

Episode 61 A New Wheel Majacraft Aura 05/07/11 

Episode 62 Rare breed review, Black Welsh Mountain and Clun Forest 05/17/11 

Episode 63 Lock and Fold Spinning 06/02/11 

Episode 64 Interview with Oogie McGuire Black Welsh Mountain Sheep breeder 07/22/11 

Episode 65 A Podcast for knitters who want to become spinners 08/21/11 

Episode 66 Learning curve for the Aura and beaded yarn 08/21/11 

Episode 67 Spinning Woolen 10/05/11 

Special Episode - Happy Fourth Year, YST! 10/15/11 

Promo podcast for Spinners Journal, a how to use it podcast 11/05/11 

Episode 68 Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11 

Episode 69 Four reviews (Leicester longwool, Lincoln wool, a spinning DVD and my trip to Stitches East) 01/07/12 

Episode 70 Drum Carding Projects 02/21/12 

Episode 71 Digital Sheep 03/31/12 

Episode 72 Support Spindles 04/28/12 

Episode 73 Chatting with the Fiber folks 05/26/12 

Episode 74 Let the Games Begin (Tour de Fleece 2012) 07/02/12 

Episode 75 The Wheel Keeps Spinning (TdF 2) 07/05/12 

Episode 76 Listen to your Inner Spinner (TdF 3) 07/08/12 

Episode 77 Is it Rest Day yet (TdF 4) 07/11/12 

Episode 78 Two types of plying (TdF 5) 07/15/12 

Episode 79 How the Fiber Talks to Me (TdF6) 07/18/12 

Episode 80 Finished Yarn and Fractal Spinning (TdF7) 08/02/12 

Episode 81 The Finish Line (TdF8) 08/07/12 

Episode 82 Ravellenic review part 1 Breed review California Red and combing CVM two ways 08/16/12 

Episode 83 Ravellenic review part 2 Breed review Ryeland and Salish 09/17/12 

Episode 84 Positive Spin: YST on Stash naming 10/05/12 

Episode 85 Five Year Anniversary podcast 10/31/12 

Episode 86 Katahdan review and porch spin in 12/10/12 

Episode 87 A Frest Start Wrap up of 2012 spinning 12/31/12 

Episode 88 A Good Exchange Review of a past angora exchange 01/27/13 

Episode 89 Thin thinner thinnest: Review of a froghair spinning exchange 02/04/13 

Episode 90 Plying with commercial yarns 03/16/13 

Episode 91 YST The more I teach the more I learn 04/26/13 

Episode 92 Sometimes you make a yarn sometimes you don’t: Chain plying 05/31/12 

Episode 93 Preparing for TdF 2013 06/25/13 

Episode 94 TdF13 Days one and two 07/02/13 

Episode 95 TdF13 days three through five 07/06/13 

Episode 96 TdF13 days six through nine 07/09/13 

Episode 97 TdF13 Babies and bobbins:traveling and spinning 07/19/13 

Episode 98 TdF13 Final report 07/30/13 

Episode 99 Book review Hand Designs for Spinners and Knitters 09/09/13 

Episode 100 Finishing Yarn 10/20/13 

Episode 101 Machine Washing Alpaca 01/11/14 

Episode 102 Spinning Alpaca 01/30/14 

Episode 103 Norfolk Horn fiber review 02/11/14 

Episode 104 White faced Woodland fiber review 02/14/14 

Episode 105 Portland fiber review 02/18/14 

Episode 106 A day off and Spinning Misc Ravellenic spins 02/22/14 

Episode 107 Final British rare breeds review manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor 

03/16/14 

Episode 108 Dyeing Alpaca 04/24/14 

Episode 109 Greencastle Fiber event review 06/02/14 

Episode 110 Ky Sheep and Wool festival review 06/25/14 

Episode 111 Preparing for TdF14 07/09/14 

Episode 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger 07/16/14 

Episode 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft 07/21/14 

Episode 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14 

Episode 115 TdF14  Team Support Spindlers 07/31/14 

Episode 116 TdF14 Final recap 08/10/14

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

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!

Fibers used are from the following sources:

Moonwood Farms  Dyed milk

Wonders Mohair  dyed adult mohair

WeloveThor  dyed merino

Spindles used are from these sources

Sistermaide

Royale Hair

Today's music is Mountains End by Phillip Woo.  It can be found on MusicAlley

Music is from MusicAlley.  The beginning interlude is from djoc and is called Blink and you will miss them.  The end song is Twinkle Black Sheep by Johnny Only 

You can find me on Ravelry as Yarnspinnerstales, and the group for this podcast is called Yarnspinnerstales spin in group.  See you there!

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!

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.

Snowball fight by Tv's Kyle

Preparations for takeoff by Matthew Hall

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!

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.

This is a short podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episdoes, 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 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!

I promised many links, here they are:

General vendor listing

Ohio Valley Fibers

Little Barn fiber (website seems unattended right now)

Sistermaide

Susan's Fiber shop

A description of the Ashford blending board

Super Glide picker

Sheep Street Fibers

The Woolery

The Fiber Closet

Fiber Optics

Cascade Farms

Lace Maker The Bedford College of Lace Making Stephen Bowman

Music is from MusicAlley.  it is a version of a classic, Scarborough Faire by Brobdingnagian Bards

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!

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.

Music for the show continues the snow theme used during this series, in honor of the Winter Ravellenic event.  Today's song is from Music Alley and is by Emile Menasche.  It is call Watercolor Winter.

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!

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

To understand better just how your spinning wheel works, try listening to episode 19 How does that wheel work.

Music is from Music Alley and today's song, Winter is by Sara Spade.

Photos for this fiber can be seen on my blog

The fiber came from Hilltopcloud.uk.com

Music is from Musicalley  and todays song called Winter is by Jakki Jelene

Photos of the yarn can be found on my blog

Music is from Music Alley and in by Jon Schmidt, a powerful paino piece called Winter Wind.

The website I mentioned for sheep breed info is sheep101.info

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!

Music is from Music Alley with today's song by Tim Oneal, called January.

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.

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!

Episode 101 Machine Washing Alpaca  01/11/14                                           Episode 102 Spinning Alpaca 01/30/14                                                       Episode 103 Norfolk Horn Fiber review 02/11/14                                                   Episode 104 White faced Woodland fiber review 02/14/14                                 Episode 105 Portland fiber review 02/18/14                                                   Episode 106 A day off and Spinning 02/22/14                                                       Episode 107 Final British Rare Breeds review Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor                     03/16/14                                                                                           Episode 108 Dyeing Alpaca 04/24/14                                                           Episode 109 Greencastle Fiber Event review 06/02/14                                 Episode 110 Ky Sheep and Wool Festival 06/25/14                                               Episode 111 Preparing for TdF14 07/09/14                                                       Episode 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger 07/16/14                                                   Episode 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft 07/21/14                                                       Episode 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14                                   Episode 115 TdF14 Team Support Spindlers 07/31/14                                           Episode 116 TdF14 Final Recap 08/10/14

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

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

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!

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

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.

Today's music is Wheels by inglas and can be found on Music Alley.

Music today is Mountains by Katy Pfaffl and can be found on MusicAlley.

I talk about the decision to do lots of fiber processing for this year's challenge.  Just a hint, there's lots of Shetland!

Music in todays podcast is by Dan Montgomery and is called Spinning My Wheels, appropiate!  It can be found on Music Alley.

You can find me on Twitter here which will give the links to the audioboos I will try and publish daily during the TdF.  Or go to Audioboo and search for YST to find them.

The review is for the book The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs by Sarah Anderson. 

Music in today's podcast can be found on Music Alley  The interlude is from Spin Win It by Ex Norwegian.  The closing song Learning to Balance is by Daniel McCormick.

The second part of the podcast is a ramble about what I learned about myself as a spinner, as I prepared a fiber swap box for a swap partner.

Music is from Music Alley.  The theme song is by Jon Caspi and the First Gun.  An interlude around the word twist included music by Filip Marian and M C Robin.  A second interlude was Fantasy for Two by Michael Van Laar. 

Closing song is The Learning Curve by Paul Rose

YST now has a Twitter account, and I have started posting three minute audios through Audioboo as tweets.

Music is from Music Alley and includes an interlude called Yarn by Cyrusfx and the closing song Mistreating Yarn Blues by Jacob Haller.

Photos of the yarns can be found here on my blog.

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. 

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

Music is from Music Alley provided by various musicians who willing share their music with podcasters.  In return, I hope you give them your support, if you like their music.

Theme song:  Spin-A song for all children  by Jon Caspi

Interlude: A Fresh Start by The Havenots

First ending song:  It's a New Years Day by Denise Moser on the Cyber PR Label

Second closing song:  Happy New Year by Colie Brice

Best wishes for a wonderful new year to my listeners!

I mentioned previously talking about pygora, and that I would list the episode link, but right now I can not find that I actually did talk about this fiber....I may have to remedy that soon!

Music is from MusicAlley  The new theme song is Spin-A Song for Children of all ages by Jon Caspi and the First Guns.  Ordinary Day is sung by Great Big Sea  The closing song, to get us all in the holiday spirit is The Christmas Song, in a very special way by the Limey Birds

To celebrate this anniversary, I have started using a brand new theme song found on Music Alley  by Jon Caspi and The First Gun  It is called Spin..a song for children...of all ages.

I also play Spinning by The Fast Sails.

YST has taken a big jump into 'the future is now' and now is available on the Stitcher app for your smart phone or Ipad

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.

Pictures of the resulting yarns are on my blog, for Ryeland  and for Salish.

If you are interested in the many breeds of rare sheep a good website is the OK EDU website.

Cowichan Knitting is from the Vancouver Island area and was originated by the decendents of the Salish First Nation people of the area.  A good article on the history is found in Wikipedia here

This video shows a spinner spinning in the traditional style for Cowichan knitting.

If that link doesn't work, go to Ravelry, sign in, and then go to groups.  Search groups for Cowichan Inspired.  In that group go to the thread 'Spinning Yarn for sweater WIP' and post 30 has the video embedded in it.

Music is from Music Alley.  Wren Ross does Baa Baa Black Sheep and Guardian Mind Mix does Native Sky at the close.

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.

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

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.



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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Mohair I talk about is from Majora Acres

Natural Obsessions fiber can be found here

Music is from Music Alley and is the song Feather Lullaby by Tangential Cold

I mentioned past podcasts and to find those go to the archives on this page, find the date and episode number, if you'd like to listen to them again.   The big dye days are in Aug and Sept 2010 and are episodes 50,51 and 52.  The spinning woolen episode is number 67 and is found in the Oct. 2011 archive.

Music today is from MusicAlley  and the interlude music is the instrumental version of Lullaby for a Weary World, by Julia Ecklar

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.

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!



A few links:  Closing song is by Triple6RFusioN  and is called First Day of Spring.  You can find this and other music played on the podcast at Music Alley.

My blog is here  and if you are looking to buy the Spinner's Journal, click here.

Spinning daily is where you will find all the good digital stuff.

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.

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 pressThe specific DVD I review in this podcast "Spinning for Lace" by Margaret Stove is found at this link:Margaret Stove DVD linkFor information for your own trip to a Stitches convention, check out the Knitting Universe website:The Knitting UniversePrism yarns  is also available at many yarn storesTeacher 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:  TrindlemanNeed to get your spinning projects organized?  Then my Spinner's Journal  is just what you need!

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.

I am a note taker, list maker by nature, and for all the years I've been spinning, those notes are on many different pieces of paper.  I found I still like to refer back to them, and decided I needed a better system for taking my notes.  And if I needed it, I bet other spinners do too.  So I created the Spinner's Journal and it's now finally available for sale.

I've given some details about the journal in this short promo podcast.  Take a listen to see all the wonderful features of the journal.

The journal is available here.   Or if you want to go to my blog yarnspinners dot blogspot dot com, you'll find a link button on the right hand side of the page.

Music in today's promo is from Music Alley and is called Drowsie Maggie by Celtic Stone.

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 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

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!

I also included a review of a very good magazine to start you on your way, Knit and Spin by Interweave Press. 

Music in today's podcast is from Music Alley  The interlude is called Music for an unborn podcast and is by Michael van Laar  The closing song is by Cat Malojian Only You.  And a big thank you to Clare Dowling for her perfect song for the opening of all my podcasts, Spinning Wheel.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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).

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!

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 did take some photos along the way, and will have those posted on my blog Yarnspinners.  The photo here is just one of those, showing the fiber blended from two sets of three different colors.

The first part of this podcast is actually reviews of the two books I have used as references for this project.  First is Color in Spinning, by Deb Menz.  The second book is Dyeing to Knit, by Elaine Eskesen.

Music in the podcast is from the podsafe music network (Music Alley).  The interlude music is by Gokul Salvadi and is titled Color Blindness.  The closing song, (indulge me for my love of the blues) is by Doug Macleod and is called Sheep of Different Color.

 Happy Spinning!

For many years I just picked a dyed fiber because I loved the colors, spun it, and wondered what the yarn would look like when I was done.  Now armed with some of the tools found with the color wheel, I have a better chance of not only knowing what will result, but maybe changing something to make it look more like I want.

The photo on the posts for episodes 54-55 is a yarn spun by my daughter (photo used with her permission).  In the podcast she explains how she was able to keep the nice stretch of contrasting colors.  Those contrasts were very aptly named for the Shel Silverstein poem, HugOWar.

Since our conversations were so long, there was not much music in these two podcasts.  Instead I used the music of Clare Dowling, who's Spinning Wheel song has been the theme song for this podcast over three years. A big thank you to Clare for sharing this song with podcasters and their listeners on Musicalley (formerly the podsafe music network.)

Until later-happy spinning!

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!

I also spend a bit of time talking about just how fiber feels after it's been dyed and dried, how not to felt it, and how to get it back in shape for spinning.

Music in today's podcast is from the podsafe music network 

The interlude music is called Living Color by Doug Astrop

The closing song is So Color Me by Tenth Hour Calling

Thanks to all my wonderful listeners for your comments, suggestions and questions!

Until later....happy spinning.

Music for today's podcast continues with the theme of color and is from the podsafe music network.

The interlude music is by Psykosoul  and is called Coloring Outside the Lines.

The closing song is by Matthew Ebel  and is called Every Color.

Enjoy and happy dyeing!

And since dyeing is of course all about color, today's music has the theme of color.  The music is from the Podsafe Music network and includes these musicians:

Eric Strom with Oh the Colors

Marie Crehan with the hauntingly lovely Orange & blue

A thank you to these musicians for sharing these songs for podcasters, if you loved the music, please check out their other songs and support them.

First segment is a fiber review of carbonized bamboo. It's what I am spinning while recording the podcast.  The next section is about my plans for the Tour de Fleece spinning challenge.  If you are not familiar with this, more information can be found on Ravelry.   The idea is to challenge yourself as a spinner during the time that those bikers are spinning their wheels in the Tour de France. I took the challenge to spin some everyday.  Pictured here is the dyed polworth roving that is one of my major projects during this challenge.

The last topic was a request, and is a bit of history on my three spinning wheels, how I got them and why.

In between is some wonderful music from the podsafe music network.  The first song is Black Coffee.d by Stephanie J Hager.  Next is Limerick Rake by Celtic Reboot . And yes, your ears do not deceive you, I played this group last podcast too.

The podcast is closed with the wonderful voice of Alyssa Anjelica James  with Laughter in the Distance.

To those expecting a podcast on Dyeing, it will come next.  Meanwhile grab your favorite spinning tool, fiber and relax with me as we spin.

The music in this podcast is from the podsafe music network.

The interlude melody is Everything Begins by Dan O.

The closing song is by Sunburn in Cyprus and is called In the Sunshine, Lazy Hammock instrumental.

Also as a reminder, Yarnspinnerstales Spin In group on ravelry has a tour de fleece group.  Come join us and spin every day while the Tour de France is on.

Until later....happy spinning!

As promised, here are the links, thanks for your patience!

Jenny Dean is the author of two of the books I review, The Craft of Natural Dyeing, and Colours from Nature, A Dyer's Handbook.  Her blog is full of her natural dyeing projects and her books and dyestuff are available at D & K Crafts.

The second book reviewed is Dyes from American Native Plants, A Practical Guide by Lynne Richards and Ronald J. Tyrl.  Here's a link for it on Amazon (if the link ever goes away just search for the book title).

The music used in today's podcast was found by searching the podsafe music network for the word 'everyday' the theme of the yarnspinnerstale. 

Interlude music was Same Lunch Everyday by this group.

The closing song Every Day gets Better is by the Smith Bros.

Until later, happy listening and happy spinning!

The wonderful music for today's podcast is from the podsafe music network.

Interlude music is by Celtic Reboot and is called Aufbruch/Am Feuer.

The closing song is by David Wilcox  and is Open Hand the title track to his album.

I used three books from my library as references in this podcast:

Alden Amos  Big Book of Spinning

Carol Kroll  The Whole Craft of Spinning

Paula Simmons  Turning Wool into a Cottage Industry

Thank you to these authors for their great books.

A big thank you to the Milk and Honey Farm for the use of their adorable picture of polypay lambs on this blog and the Itunes photo.

All music is from the podsafe music network.  A special thank you to Wren Ross for her wonderful It had to be Ewe.

The interlude is by Triple6fusion and is call First Day of Spring.

The closing song is by the Dust Rhinos and is called Breathe a Little Slower.

And if you don't have the chance to go to a local fiber fair, and have the urge to shop after listening, check out my Artfire store at Zavagant Studio.

Music today is from the podsafe music network and includes

Bonny Morgan's wonderful version of Scarborough Fair

Dorchester Fair by The Legendary Ten Seconds

Happy Spring and happy spinning!

Meanwhile, a big thank you to all the listeners worldwide, for your time over these two years.  Your comments have been the incentive to not only keep podcasting, but find it fun. 

As a thank you to Clare Dowling for the use of her Spinning Wheel in bits and pieces over these years, I have ended the podcast with the song in its entirety.  Her music and all music I have used over these years can be found at the podcast music network.

Until later,  happy spinning!

The second segment is a review of a great spinning DVD by Insubordiknit called Sit and Spin.  Ah, but she teaches so much more than just spinning plain old yarn, as she covers various techniques for creating artyarns.  You can (and should) find her DVD here on her website for purchase.

Music in the podcast is from the podsafe music network and was picked with the theme creative energy. 

The interlude music was  by DJOC and is Sean Boyle's Creative Burst.

The closing song is by Charlie Bobus and is called Creative Energy

Photos of the samples spun on both spinning wheels can be seen on my blog.  And if you want to try it yourself, the same fiber is for sale at my artfire store, Zavagantstudio as well as other wonderful fibers for spinners and handspun yarns for knitters.

And it's Christmas, well almost and I can not pass by the opportunity to share some of the music I found and loved for the season.  All music comes from the podsafe music network Music Alley and is full of the season's wonderful sounds.

Opening song is Carol of the Bells by Inner Splendor Celtic Christmas.

Interlude song is by a husband and wife harpist team, Two Harps who play Twelve Days of Christmas.

The closing song is We Wish you a Merry Christmas by Rusty Bladen.

And there's a bonus track, by the great music collective the FuMP called Santa's going to telecommute the Christmas.

Happy Holidays, and happy spinning!

This episode continues the discussion of spinning a certain type of yarn, regardless of the fiber you choose.  This time we are not going to just copy a commercial yarn, but start from nothing but the idea of spinning yarn for socks.

A very important link on the web was mentioned in the podcast and it can be found here.  It is the work of Llyn Payne, and is a listing the the characteristics such as YPP and WPI of commercial yarns using the standard numeric system available on ball bands. From this information we can find the target range of these figures to use in our calculations for creating similiar yarns.

I would like to take a moment to explain a calculation that I mention in the podcast that did not get enough explanation.  The discussion was covering how to determine the amount of fiber needed to spin a project (in our example we were saying socks)  The formula uses grist, weight length and the number 16 (oz to lbs conversion).  It looks like this:

G=(M/W)L

where G=grist  M=16 for US weight or 1000 for metric  W=weight and L=length

Normally this calculation is used to figure grist (because we have the weight and length already) If we want to find out how much fiber to buy to make a certain yards of yarn at a certain grist we can do some algebraic magic and solve for W.  I did this in the podcast without really explaining how I got the amount.  Here's the actual calculation:

If I want to spin 450 yards of 2 ply sock yarn and look up in the above chart to see that sock yarn has a range of 1675 to 2100 YPP (which is the grist and I will take an arbitrary middle of the range figure 1800) it would be solved like this:

1800=16/W(450)

16/W=1800/450

16/W=4

Multiply both sides by W

16=4W

4=W

This means W (your weight of fiber needed) is 4 oz  I very conveniently choose a number that worked out evenly, it will not always do that, and the spinner should always round up to be sure to have enough.

A big thank you to my daughter who was in college more recently than myself and so could remember how to solve algebra equations.

Music today is from Mevio a podsafe music network.  The interlude music was by Kumpania Algazarra and is called Skabicine.  The closing song is Hardly Enough by WAZ 

As always a big thank you to Clare Dowling for the spinning song.

My blog can be found here.

I now have a website studio on Artfire which is called ZavagantStudio.  I have lovely fibers ready to spin, and even a sampler box of fibers, that allow you to spin a variety of fibers.  And for the knitters and weavers that listen in who haven't learn to spin yet, I have my handspun yarn for sale.  Please take a few minutes to check the studio and my products.

All music today is from Mevio's Music Alley  formerly the Podsafe Music Network.

The wonderful interlude music is by Alimagne and is called Solo.

The closing song, Let's Eat Home is by Linda Baker

I have more photos of a recent fleece that I was prepping for storage on my blog.

I could not ignore the holiday though, and since it is Halloween, my yarnspinner tale is an original ghost story I tell just for this podcast.  It is called The Haunting of Sara Jane.

A big thank you to Clare Dowling for her Spinning song used in the podcast intro.  All music is from the podsafe music network now known as music alley.  Musicians in today's podcast include:

New Band demos  with Halloween

the delicate art of noise pollution  with Spooky Funk

If you are a spinner or knitter and would like to support this podcast please check out my Artfire studio.  I have fibers for spinners, and handspun yarn for knitters available for sale at that site.

I would like to include references to two books that I mention in this podcast:

Turning Wool into a Cottage Industry  by Paula Simmons

In Sheep's Clothing by Nola and Jane Fournier

Music is from the podsafe music network  and was the instrumental Change of Autumn by Brian Turner.

As promised: a listing of sheep breed based on the softest possible micron count (the number listed after the name of the sheep):

Sheep breeds softest to roughest listing

Reference  In Sheep's Clothing  by Nola and Jane Fournier

Fine wools                                                                                                       Merino 18   Rambouillet 19               CVM 21                                                                                     Cormo 21                                                                                     Polworth 21                                                                           Romeldale 21                                                                   Targhee 22                                                                           Polypal 22                                                                         Bond 23                                                                             Columbia 24                                                                             Corriedale 26                                

   Down Breeds                 Shetland  23  Southdown  23  Clun Forest  25       Montadale  25               Tunis  25         Black Welsh Mountain 26    Ryeland  26  Shropshire  26  Suffolk  26  Cheviot  28

     Longwools                                                                  Blue faced Leicester 24                          Texel   26                                                    Gotland   28                                                    Perendale  28                                                        Teeswater  30                                                 Wensleydale 30                                          Romney 33                                               Cotswold  34                                            Coopworth  35                                          Lincoln 36                                                  Border Leicester  37