Wool n' Spinning Radio – Details, episodes & analysis

Dear Spinning Circle,

This month is the follow-up to last month's episode with Melissa Goulet of MellyKnits. We refer back to that episode a few times so be sure to follow the links below to listen to that episode as well.

Episode 107 | Putting Wool back in the Limelight with MellyKnits here

I hope you enjoy our dive into wool, getting started with first-time drum carding and beginning to delve into sheep breeds. For those new to spinning wool, remember that there are roughly four classifications of sheep breeds, including the fine wools, medium wools, longwools, downs and down-like breeds, and primitives. Fine to medium wools are often classed together, rather than separately. Think of them as being on a continuum from one another. We use the term ‘micron count’ several times throughout our conversation but never define the term for those who haven’t heard it previously.

Think of how wool is classified as being on a continuum. At one end, we have the Fine Wools with much crimp and bounce. At the other end, we have the long, lustrous curling crimp structure of the Long Wools. In between are the Medium Wools who, depending on their micron count, fit closer to the Fine Wool versus Long Wool end. Micron count uses computer imaging to assess the diameter of a fibre. The lower the number, the finer the fibre and conversely, the higher the number, the coarser the fibre. Within one fleece, micron count might vary significantly and as hand spinners, we use the averages to help us communicate with one another roughly how fine or coarse a fibre is.

If you have questions about what we discussed in today’s episode, please post them below. Of course, we would love to welcome you to our community. The Join button is also on the landing page here on Patreon for those wishing to learn more.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Warmly,

Rachel & Rebecca

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

Dear Spinning Circle,

This episode of Wool n' Spinning Radio has been a long time coming - Melissa and I have been trying to connect for a while, seeing each other at our local Knots & Hops each month, bumping into each other at Knit City and Fibres West throughout the years and so much more. It was a pleasure to sit down with her and chat about her business and love of wool - her enthusiasm is unbelievably infectious. You can't help but feel sucked in by her love of the process from her favourite part of the process, washing, to picking and carding.

Melissa's video on Picking Wool here

Thank you to Melissa for sharing her journey to date and I look forward to chatting with her again this summer to record a Part II. After we stopped the recording, she came up with topics for Part III, as well, so stay tuned!

Find Melissa:

• Instagram @mellyknits here
• Website here
• Ravelry @smellyknits here

If you would like to be featured on Wool n' Spinning Radio, have a story to tell or want to discuss your making, please reach out to Rachel. You can leave a comment below or message her privately!

Until next time,

Happy Processing!

Rachel

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

“Corespinning creates an amazing yarn that can replace a conventional spun yarn.“ -Crystal Hesser

For full shownotes with photos, please visit here

To share your spinning, we have a couple of places to share:

Slack Channel: #texturedyarn

Ravelry Group: CoreSpin Along here

We have talked about corespinning in the community previously:

• 51 Yarns SpinAlong: Corespun, Coils & Supercoils Vlog
• 51 Yarns SpinAlong: Corespun, Coils & Supercoils PDF
• How I Spin: Corespinning & Autowrapping

Tips to Get Started:

1. Don’t give up
2. Good, strong core
3. Add twist to the core prior to starting
4. Even tension so that the core is being moved onto the bobbin steadily (this keeps the twist from building up beforehand)
5. Steam to finish
6. Have FUN!

MUSIC //

Glow & Yellow by Scott Buckley (@ScottBuckley) – released under CC-BY 4.0. scottbuckley.com.au

I hope you enjoy this ALONG with us - even if you just spin a little bit to give the technique a try, I encourage you to do so!

Warmly,

Rachel

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

This month, I chatted with Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms . She is a firecracker of information and incredibly forthcoming about what she does, her knowledge and insights, and her sheep. I want to say a special thank you for her time - it was a pleasure to chat with her.

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

This month, I had the chance to chat with Becca, who many of you know from Slack and the Ravelry group. She is a prolific spinner, incredible cheerleader for many of us taking on a large project and kind. It was incredibly fun to chat with her. 

Thank you to Becca for taking the time to chat with me - I hope to have her on the show again in the future.

Happy Spinning!

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

Thank you for tuning in this month to Wool n' Spinning Radio! This month, I am so pleased to have the opportunity to chat with my friend and Wool n' Spinning community member, Nina La Fountaine. 

Nina lives in Santiago, Chile, and designs under the name Fuzzy Love Knots. She chats about spinning, local wool and living in Chile.

I hope you enjoy listening - we had a blast chatting to each other.

For more about Bastidor, please contact Nina  directly as I wasn't able to find the appropriate link for the site or the wool itself. 

Please leave a comment here or join the conversation over on Ravelry  and SLACK. 

Until next month, Happy Spinning!

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

***

Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

Thank you for listening in this month! I am continuing our theme this month about combo spinning since the craze is all over the internet - particularly Instagram. I loop Katrina in for her thoughts on the subject since she has done quite a number of combo spins now. And I use a question from a lovely Patreon subscriber, Rebecca, to anchor the conversation.

Until next month!

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

***

Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

Welcome to Wool n' Spinning Radio's Bonus Episode for February! I hope you enjoy my conversation with Becca and Rebecca, both from our Wool n' Spinning Community. We were all in a very reflective, thoughtful mood and the conversation went deep and contemplative very quickly. I hope you enjoy listening!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/wool-n-spinning-15725779

Until next time,

Happy Spinning!

Rachel

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

Thank you for tuning in to the first full episode of Wool n' Spinning Radio, a monthly radio show for our Patreon subscribers of the Wool n' Spinning videocast. I truly appreciate your support and wanted to do something in the podcasting realm that would help me to explore something new. The show will be released on or around the 7th of each month. 

This month marks a new year and finally the end of my lack of crafting mojo, which I reflect upon later in the show. First, though, I have a chat with my dear friend Katrina, who all of you as CraftyJAKS. 

I hope you enjoy listening - as always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or Katrina. 

Links to the things you need:

Katrina's Etsy shop is here

The ongoing colour studies and information you need about that is here.

Katrina's Instagram page is here

I hope that's everything! 

Remember to change your pledge levels if you are in WORKSHOPS or FIBRE CLUB to something else prior to the 20th of January as they will be deleted prior to the end of the month.

Again, thank you for your support. See you either over in Ravelry, the SLACK channel or Instagram!

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

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Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!

I'm really excited to annouce something I have been contemplating for a while that will be coming in January 2017. Have a listen for more!

Happy New Years!

If this is your first time tuning into Wool n’ Spinning Radio, welcome. This audio podcast is a spin-off from the original podcast available on YouTube at youtube.com/RachelSmith. Rachel has been podcasting since 2014, talking about handspinning and making yarn. Her passion is working with her handspun yarns in projects, both knit and woven. Links to the website, Instagram and more are available in the show notes and at Patreon.com/woolnspinning.

***

Thank you for listening! If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out below, in the comments, or send an email to rachel@welfordpurls.com.

Until next month, keep wool close and your spindles closer!