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.

[The Seamstress]

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.

It's strange, I have a few samples from different sheep breeds and not all of them smell as strongly, some just very faintly. (The Bergschaf for example has a distinct sheep smell too, but it's not that noticeable unless you're very close to it.) I've no idea why, I guess maybe it could be related to how "fresh" the wool is? Or the washing process of the fleece? The Bergschaf is dyed too, while the Corriedale isn't.

I think the smell does fade with airing, at least I hope so, lol.

[The Seamstress]

And here we have Herdwick.

I haven't tried spinning it yet, but I couldn't wait to show it off on here Herdwicks are my favourite sheep because they're so cute! The wool though isn't as soft and fluffy as the sheep look, so I'm not sure if I'll use it for anything clothing-related. I was so curious about how it would feel & spin that I ordered a sample. It said "40 microns" (micron = used for measuring the diameter of the fibre, the lower the number, the finer the wool). It doesn't feel as coarse as I had expected, but I guess it would still itch quite a bit when worn? We'll see how the yarn turns out.

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This is also undyed, a rather pretty natural colour!

[The Seamstress]

So I finished spinning the Corriedale, and thought I'd combine it with this nice Manx Loaghtan. A many-horned rare sheep from the Isle of Man!

It's undyed as well. The colour is called "moorit", and I like it a lot. (I realise I've said that about every natural wool colour so far, but it's true! Sheep do happen to have nice-coloured hair, lol.)

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Here's what I've spun so far:

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I've got a bobbin full of Corriedale and once the Manx Loaghtan is ready, I'll ply the two together.

When that is done I'm going to try the Herdwick! Will keep you updated on here, of course.

[The Seamstress]

Here we go, Corriedale x Manx Loaghtan, I think it turned out fun!

I ran into a few problems while plying, the singles (i.e. the spun threads before plying) kinda unravelled or un-twisted themselves a bit, maybe I initially didn't twist them enough? I hope to find out somehow. It's tricky to get the twist right, especially when plying, so I'll definitely need to practice a lot more.

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Now onto spinning the Herdwick.

Today another parcel with fibre samples arrived (hee hee), containing more Herdwick, some Zwartbles, and Gotland!

[Jubal]

Very pretty

All your spinning here is wool - is spinning plant fibres like linen very significantly different as a process/does it require different kit?

[The Seamstress]

Very pretty

All your spinning here is wool - is spinning plant fibres like linen very significantly different as a process/does it require different kit?

Thanks!

I haven't really looked into spinning other fibres yet, though I think cotton or silk aren't too different regarding equipment (?). I only know that flax is better spun using a distaff and you'll need to keep the fibres damp while spinning (which is why people have little water bowls on hand). I guess you'd have to adjust tension/twist on the spinning wheel too for different types of fibres. Right now this all seems like some Mysterious Magical Knowledge to me, but I will do my best to learn it! I plan to try at least cotton and flax at some point, will report back once I do.