In this podcast, I talk about what I learned about cotton and spinning cotton in a class at SAFF this year.  I also had the chance to do some fiber and fleece shopping, and talk about that experience.

I mentioned that I would list the four currently grown species of cotton plants and their details.

Gossypium hirsutum  Known as upland cotton and native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Southern Florida.  This species accounts for 90% of commercial cotton grown.

Gossypium barbadense  Known as extra-long staple cotton, and is native to South America.  This species accounts for 8% of all cotton grown.

Gossypium arboreum  Known as tree cotton, it is native to India and Pakistan.  This species accounts for 2% of all commercial cotton grown.

Gossypium herbacaum  Known as Levant cotton this species is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is the last percentage of the cotton grown world wide.

Extra long staple cotton requires special ginning, known as roller gins. This type cotton can only be grown in a few places in the world, because it requires a long season and will not tolerate rain before harvest.  Currently California and Arizona are the two US areas growing this cotton.

A short podcast talking about the last five skeins in the yarn wash up, and my recent spinning.

I mention fiber from a Phatt fiber box, they can be found here.

The other fiber I have been spinning awhile is from Hobby Lobby.  I finally looked it up online and can provide a link.  I am spinning Yarn Bee Showstopper in the Winter Solstice colorway.

In the last two podcasts, for some reason I said the livestreams were archived on Facebook, which is not true.  I didn't even catch it as I was editing.  Instead of the tedious process of edit and releasing the episodes, I decided to record this separate little audio.

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!

This is the first of several episodes that will be reviewing British rare breed fleeces.  I am doing this project during the Ravellenics.  This episode covers the Norfolk Horn breed.

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

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, where to contact me, and how to get your very own spinner' 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 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!

Adventures with alpaca continue in this podcast as I talk about combing and carding alpaca and then spinning it.

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

A new year brings a new fiber experiment, alpaca fiber washed in a washing machine.  This episode tells all about that, and my fiber new year's resolutions in a YST while I spin.

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.

This is a 10 minute podcast that I will release on the first of every month.  It has all the information about how to find specific episodes, 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 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!

From the ways to make a skein to the why and how of washing it, this podcast is all about finishing your hand spun yarn.

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

Sweaters by Hand Designs for Spinners and Knitters by Helene Rush and Rachael Emmons is the subject of todays book review podcast.

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

Week three and the final week of the TdF found me washing more fleece, and finally spinning some yarn.

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!

Homelife, work, travel, but still spinning!

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

A quick update of my fiber persuits during days six through nine of the Tour de Fleece.

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.

The Hebridean sheep have long dual coated wool in various colors.  I used my study to not only spin the fiber but to show on live stream how to separate the two coats.

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.

The real challenge came along with Monday, combining these TdF goals along with the day job!

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

We're off and spinning fiber into yarn as the cyclist tour France.  I have set daily goals and hope to release reports periodically during the TdF.

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

Once again Team YST is planning to spin every day of the Tour de France for Ravelry's Tour de fleece.  Come join all the fun and cheerleading and inspirations.

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.

We'd all love as many of you listeners to come and join us on Ravelry for the annual Tour de Fleece June 29th through July 21st.  Team Yarnspinnerstales can be found at the Tour de Fleece group under the wild card team thread, or search the groups for Team Yarnspinnerstales and you should find it.  See you there!

Not all of my experiments with spinning work, and in the first part of this podcast I talk about my recent attempt and non success making a yarn.

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.

A follow up on the skein plied with commercial yarns.  I split each type and washed one half in order to compare and see if it made any significant difference in the yarns.

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.

The why and hows of plying your handspun singles with commercial yarns.

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.

This podcast episode is another review of a spinners' exchange.  This time the challenge was to spin as fine a thread, fondly known as froghair spinning.  In the podcast I review what the spinners and myself learned with this challenge.

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. 

Today's podcast reviews a time when a dozen different spinners all decided to spin angora and share their samples with each other.

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

Goodbye 2012! It was a good year for spinning projects and other things in my life.  This short podcast talks about how I look at the new year.

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!

First up in the podcast is a report on my study of the Lonk Sheep Breed.  It's short so I went on to talk about all the spinning projects I have currently going that involve the Merino Breed.   Later, I will do a more complete breed study for that breed.  Finally, I talk about the second Tour de Fleece that ran from Aug 26th to Sept 20th, and what I spun during that time.

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.

The first section of the podcast is a review of the Katahdan breed, also called the hair sheep.  Because these fleeces contain a large amount of hair like fiber, I also discuss the process known as dehairing.  Carolina Homespun is one of the mills that currently has a machine to do this process, and they show it being done in this Youtube video.

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

This podcast is the five year mark for the Yarnspinnerstales podcast.  In this episode I review some of it's history and also some of it's future.

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

Today's episode talks about putting a positive spin on that fiber stash we all own.

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.

Two more breeds' fleeces are reviewed in this podcast that were part of my Ravellenic challenges for 2012.  The first is Ryeland and the second, not really a breed at all but a location, is Salish.  Both wools turned out to be wonderful for spinning woolen with carded batts.

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.

New name but old event that Ravelry has done this for years.  The idea is to challenge yourself with goals to start at the beginning of the Olympics and finish with the close.  I chose to join the spinning team and selected five projects to complete.  I was able to finish four of them and review two of those in this podcast. Each required washing of raw fiber, processing by combing/carding and then spinning a skein to review.  The first is a rare breed I have not reviewed before, California Red Sheep.  The second was a different type of challenge, I took CVM and combed the fiber with two different methods to see if it made a difference in the skeins.

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.

It's the podcast for the finish line of the 2012 Tour de Fleece!  A short but very satisfying recap for all of our spinning during the tour.

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

This is the third and final week of the Tour de Fleece, and I must say there's not much finished yarn in my projects, but there definately is for Digitaldurga.

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 started these frequent updates on the Tour de Fleece spinning projects, and found I was so chatty in most of them that I have used up my allotted storage space.  Not to worry though, for the MB archive thirty days from when they are uploaded.  After Aug 1st, I will start having space open up again, and Digitaldurga and I will continue with the updates.

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.

How do decide just how a fiber should be spun?  I talk about this and the continuing Tour De Fleece spinning projects in this podcast.

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!

We are more then half way through the Tour de Fleece, and so it seems time to make some yarn from all those singles we have been spinning.  In this podcast two types of plying are described, chain (navajo) plying and working with a plying ball.

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.

In this unusual year, even the Tour de Fleece was affected.  The Tour de France did not run in July as usual, but was celebrated on Ravelry anyway.  Then when the Tour did ride in Sept, we did it again.

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!

The Tour de Fleece spinners have been spinning ten days now and are looking forward to the day of rest.  This update covers the three days right before that.

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.

This is the third installment of the daily updates for the Tour de Fleece spinning event.

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.

Here's the second Tour de Fleece update podcast.  Today Digitaldurga (ravelry name) joins me with her updates too.

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

Daily Tour de Fleece updates, that is the new experiment I am doing for this podcast.  All during the Tour de France cycling event, Ravelry members, especially spinners, get out their spinning wheels, set goals for themselves, and keep those wheels spinning as much as possible.  I love this event and use it to challenge myself back into spinning something everyday.  This year I decided to add the goal of short podcasts about each day's spinning, combining several together into a podcast.  So here we go go go....

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

Straight from the meet up at a fiber festival we have interviews of three phat fiber folks.  Don't know about Phat Fiber?  Listen in to learn, and then go to their website or find the Ravelry group by searching groups for phat fiber sampler box.  The indie dyer in the meet up is found at NaturalObsessions fiber and is a wonderful source for non wool fibers.  The fiber producer of the group is found at her Etsy shop or at Fluffington Farms blogspot site.  The fiber festival I went to is the Indiana Fiber and Music Fest.  The fiber I was spinning was from The Painted Tiger.

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.

Two sections of the post for support spindles, a book review and a discussion of my recent experience spinning angora on my three support spindles.

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!



OK so I'm playing on words with today's podcast title.  I do two sheep breed reviews, Columbia and Rambouilette.  Then I talk about the explosion of spinning information going digital.  Hence, digital sheep.

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.

It's actually magic, taking washed but clumped fiber, putting it through the drum carder and getting fluffy batts ready to spin.  It's a spinning project I only do now and then, after accumulating those piles of fleeces and other fibers ready to blend.  Then I spend several months, in an hour here and there, creating the batts.  After that, the fun begins, as I get to spin them and see what those blends will look like in yarn.

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.

There are four reviews in today's podcast, two rare sheep breed's fiber, a spinning DVD and my trip to Stitches East.

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 press

The specific DVD I review in this podcast "Spinning for Lace" by Margaret Stove is found at this link:Margaret Stove DVD link

For information for your own trip to a Stitches convention, check out the Knitting Universe website:The Knitting Universe

Prism yarns  is also available at many yarn stores

Teacher 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:  Trindleman
Need to get your spinning projects organized?  Then my Spinner's Journal  is just what you need!

Janilee and Chris are both post graduate students at the Manchester England college.  Both are spinners and weavers, but have two different concepts for their doctorial thesis.  I was able to interview each and had a wonderful time talking to them.  Listen in, and learn about early weavers and spinners, and the modern day archeological study of them.

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.

The Coopworth Sheep breed is a relatively new breed, as sheep breeds go.  The sample I worked with was from a lamb and contained long lovely locks.  I cover in this podcast how to wash and spin locks, and the specifics of this sampling.

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.

A Spinner's Journal, your own place to record all of the processes of the projects that turn fiber into yarn.

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.

This month celebrates the fact that I have been doing this podcast for four years.  If you've listened since the beginning, THANK YOU!   If you just found me today, WELCOME!

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

Fluffly, that's what woolen spinning is all about.  You spin from fluffy batts, and you spin a lofty yarn.

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