Has anybody ever spun you a skein of your sheep's wool? What do you raise ;)

I learned to spin on a drop spindle, and I've never tried a wheel... but I'd love to have one.

I learned on a spindle and used it exclusively for over 1.5 years. Then I purchased a used Rappard Wee Peggy spinning wheel. I enjoy spinning on both now. The wheel is much faster, but the spindles (Jenkins Turkish Spindles) are much more portable.

What type of spindle did you try? How about you Vandisar...what type of spindle do you use?

I have spun sock yarn from a fleece given to me by friends. Suffolk was the breed. I had it cleaned and blended with nylon, then processed into roving. I ended up with about 5 skeins. I have knit one pair of socks from it already and need to knit up some of the others one day.

Currently I have Merino that I blended with alpaca on my spindle (plying now). And Punta, dyed by a friend, on my wheel.

Sea Maid, what breed of sheep do you raise?

:O)

Another spinner here! I have both spindles and wheel, and I love them both. I do knit occasionally with my own handspun, but I tend to fill up the yarn basket faster than I knit it down! I've also just gotten into weaving and I'm excited to start weaving with my own handspun.

I have also played around with processing raw fleece, carding or combing it and blending with other fibers. Recently I'm trying to learn to spin cotton and linen--both VERY different from wool, and from each other!

What kind of sheep do you have?
If you want to learn to spin, you might be better off buying some ready-to-spin fiber (look for "roving", "combed top", or a "batt", but make sure you get some that is marketed for spinning rather than felting). Well-prepped fiber will make it much easier for you to learn to spin, before you start working with your own. This video by Abby Franquemont is a great introduction to spinning with a spindle.

As for spinning your own sheep's fleeces, the basic steps are:
1. Wash the wool (Here's a good article on it, though I use a sifting litterbox set--I can give you more details if you want).

2. Prep for spinning. Usually this means either carding the wool (with hand cards or a drumcarder) to produce rolags, roving, or batts, or combing it with wool combs to produce combed top.

3. Spinning!

4. Knitting/crocheting/weaving/just admiring it!

A really, really good book on the whole process is The Spinner's Book of Fleece by Beth Smith. Also, if you're not already a member of Ravelry, I suggest joining and looking for the Beginning Spinning group and the Fiber Prep group, both of which have very extensive pages of tips and FAQs as well as many nice and knowledgeable people who are happy to answer questions.

I have not tried cotton or linen. I am just happy with all the different wool blend and silks out there. Like you, my basket is home spun fills faster than I can knit it up.

:O)

Yesterday I gave kettle dyeing another go, this time in shades of green. Jacquard Emerald & Spruce (I think... the water on the second batch was running teal.) I only bought 6 jars/colors to experiment with originally and it's time to order some other colors...break away from my comfort zone maybe.

Knitting down the newly spun stash is a little like taking 1 step forward and 3 or 4 steps backwards!

I don't do a lot with dying. What I do, is mostly done with Koolaid. We have a few ladies in our group who do natural dying. They will use anything from copper rods to Avocado shells & pits. It is fun to see what they come up with.

Yeah...I totally agree about the knit down of handspun. It just takes so much longer to knit something, than it does to spin up a skein or two.

:O)

I'd love to learn how to spin. :-)

Sits N Knits
in Orlando

I am supposed to have a spinning wheel. But I will get one someday.

I'm too scared to learn to spin. I do not need another obsession.

Exactly what I said before I went to my first fiber retreat. Someone put a Turkish style spindle in my hands and I was hooked.

:O)