Diary of a Seamstress

[The Seamstress]

I learnt naalbinding a few years ago, and a sheep farmer friend offered me some wool to do go from raw wool right through to socks or something but I never got round to taking them up on the offer. Seeing this is making me want to learn spinning and do it, it looks really satisfying.

That's so cool! I definitely recommend spinning It's kind of meditative too. Naalbinding is also on my list of crafts to try. My very long list of crafts to try...

Unsurprisingly I approve of the colour scheme

It is a really nice colour, isn't it? I'm not sure yet what I'll make with the finished yarn, but spinning this pretty colour is fun in and of itself.

[The Seamstress]

Tadaa...! Behold the plyed and finished yarn:

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I'm quite proud of myself, compared to my first try this one looks much more even. And the colour is so pretty! <3

I have more of the green Bergschaf roving left so will spin more of this, and I also have some more Bergschaf in different colours. There was a problem with my parcel of other wool samples so it will probably take longer to be delivered (meh) but I certainly won't run out of material in the meantime.

[Jubal]

Daft question - does it matter whether you dye wool before spinning it or after spinning it, or can one do it either way round?

[The Seamstress]

Daft question - does it matter whether you dye wool before spinning it or after spinning it, or can one do it either way round?

I'm not sure either if it makes any real difference, but I've seen both methods so maybe it's just preference or depending on the effects you want? The spinning teacher I learnt from seems to usually dye the rovings before spinning, and she also sells these dyed rovings. If you dye the roving you don't 100% know how the yarn will turn out once it's spun, whereas you have more control about the colour if you dye the finished yarn? Just my guess though.

[The Seamstress]

This weekend's spinning practice!

This is Corriedale. Wikipedia says the sheep is "white-woolled and white-faced", though there seem to be more colour variations out there, since e.g. World of Wool offers three different undyed rovings (white, brown, and grey). I got mine from a German webshop which sells World of Wool products so I guess it's the same. The colour is a richer brown IRL than in the photo, my phone camera just isn't the best...

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It's nice to work with! After the rather short and coarse Bergschaf fibres I needed a bit of adjustment, Corriedale is longer and softer and thus behaves quite differently. Still a bit uneven here...

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I like the colour a lot. This probably goes on the "will buy more of in future" list. (Only downside I guess: It very noticeably is sheep, smelling Very Much Sheep. But I hope to mitigate that a bit by washing and airing out the finished yarn.)

[Jubal]

Hm, yeah, smell is not something I'd ever really thought much about with "raw" wool. I assume it must decrease a lot with airing.