#hand spinning

[makerandbean]

behold! my beautiful pile of children! (they are questionably-shorn alpaca rolag-punis)

#maker spins #handspinning #hand spinning #rolags #punis

[spinningabout]

Spinning right from the bunny. He was off course naturally shedding, and was perfectly content to let me take the fiber from him.

#angora rabbits #fiber artist #spinning #hand spinning

[blackbearmagic]

So I recently learned how to spin yarn, and I'm enjoying it immensely. But yesterday I was at the craft store before work, and I saw this:

And I thought "that looks enough like roving that I bet I could spin it", so I got it, knowing full well that my one spindle is already engaged in spinning some wool.

Because I also thought "people were spinning fluff into string for thousands of years before they were able to just buy a new spindle, it can't be that hard to make one".

Turns out, it's not.

Is this going to be a good spindle? Almost certainly not, and I can't wait to see how much it sucks and in what ways. But it should at least be a functional spindle, and that's all I really need for this.

#the bear roars #my art #hand spinning

[cucumber-of-doom]

She is finally done :D

Between weather, work and initially buying the wrong supplies ( don't be like me, know the difference between wood glaze and varnish) getting the wheel set up took way longer than expected but now I am quite proud of the outcome.

She is an Ashford Traveller 3 if anyone is interested :3

#spinning wheel #hand spinning #i did a thing #lotr

[caves-crafts]

everybody look at my cat in my lap as i was spinning

he had never done that before!!!! he just sat on my lap and fell asleep!!!

Fun fact! I drove 3 hours with my mom to get this spinning wheel. I have absolutely no idea how old she is but she was hand made by someones uncle. I call her Oma since that's whats etched into the lazy Kate that I also got from the nice old lady who sold it to me.

#bastlerei und fäden #hand spinning #handspinning #spinning #spinning wheel #cat

[humphreyhippo]

20240207 - Inside the Turtle

The interior of a centre-pull 'turtle' ball from a turkish spindle after pulling out half the yarn.

#original photography #hand spinning #spinning #yarn

[disgruntled-lifeform]

On the left we have yak and on the right baby alpaca and together they become the softest most annoying thing I've ever spun

#spinning from the fold appears to be my only option with how little the yak cares about staying put in my blend #destined to be a knit hate for my father-in-law #the staple length of the yak is at most 1.5“ #wishing I had something like bfl or polwarth to bulk it out #hand spinning #yak #alpaca #wool #fibre #yarn #handspun

[skylarkspinner]

fiber art adventures in egypt

I recently got back from a trip to Egypt & finally got around to organizing some pictures to share. One of the things I was most excited about was seeing what I could find on fiber arts and textiles.

Dropping everything under a read more, 'cause this will be a long post haha

first visit: the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC)

At the time of visiting, they had a special textiles exhibit. It covered Pharonic Egypt all the way up to modern times, although I only had time to check out the dynastic & a bit of the Coptic portion of the exhibit (which was what I was really hoping to see anyways)

Was super excited to see this diorama in person. I knew about it but had never seen good pictures of it. From the little I've seen of ancient Egyptian spinning, spinning with two spindles seems to be the norm rather than a master technique? It also shows up in tomb art, which the exhibit also shared:

They also used a different fiber preparation (splicing to create a rove of fiber, no traditional drafting to my understanding) so that probably made a difference? Regardless I really want to see if I can replicate the technique, especially because their spindles look so similar to modern spindles??

I took so many pictures of spindles, guys, and I fully intend to either have a few replicas made or to learn to make some myself. Also, although they were unlabeled... I'm pretty sure those are beaters for weaving? That was a bit of a trend with this trip, so much stuff was unlabeled :( I would've killed to at least get some date estimates for some of the stuff they had on display. I was nerding out in here though, and my family took a few pictures of how excited I was getting. A bit embarrassing, but eh haha

The exhibit also had a section on natural dyes used with a fun visual;

There was several diagrams specifically describing each dye source, but in the interest of not overloading on pictures I'll just list them out. For blues; woad, Yellows; turmeric, safflower, saffron, or yellow ochre; reds; madder, henna, pomegranate, and kermes. I originally thought kermes was another way to say cochineal, but it only seems to be distantly related.

next visit: Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center

A small art center dedicated to hand-weaving wool and cotton tapestries. All of their work was museum quality & awe inspiring!!

Was even invited to their back rooms to watch a few of their weavers working; no I don't have room to put a room-sized loom anywhere but heck do I want one now

Our guide that took us through talked a bit about the natural dyes they use (all of their dyes are dyed in house with what they grow in their dye garden!!!) and got excited to hear I was also interested in natural dyes! He seemed a bit disappointed I'd never worked with indigo and. while indigo scares me, I'll take it as a sign that maybe I should try some time this year haha.

final visit; the Egyptian Museum

we really had to rush through this one which was a huge shame because it's packed full of artifacts. Also, the lighting in there is atrocious, so apologies for the not great pictures ahead.

They had a fascinating display of textile tools, more than what the NMEC had;

(Hand for size reference) I want all of these spindles! So badly! But a few of them look so much like a few of the spindles I own already?? A few of them had a spiraling notch, that's so cool? But also, what's going on with the one with two whorls? I have no idea. I'm fascinated.

Look at these whorls!! Although again, I'm a bit confused; the lack of labeling strikes again. Unsure why some of these "whorls" have two holes, or what the metal object with the wooden handle is. The display implies sewing needles, and some of them do look like it, but others.... really don't look like sewing needles. I'm absolutely enchanted by this little whorl though. I think it has birds on it?

More objects that I'm baffled by- the signage doesn't really indicate what some of this stuff is, if it's even known. Also confused by the object wrapped in white string in the right pic; it looks like a distaff but to the best of my knowledge the (ancient at least) Egyptians didn't use distaffs. It probably popped up in later times and was put in this display since it was still relevant, but I'm still not sure.

I have so many more pictures & thoughts but I'll save those for more specific future projects. I've been doing research outside this trip on ancient Egyptian spinning techniques and desperately want to go deeper into that, this trip just solidified how excited it makes me. If you made it all the way through this, many thanks for reading!

Bonus; look at this ancient linen 🥺

#hand spinning #archaeology #extant artifact #weaving #fiber arts #long post #letters from skylark #sorry for the overall low quality images in this post. Got a new camera and wasn't the best at using it this trip #also the raw image files were huge so I heavily downsized them to make sure this post wasn't a beast to load #would be happy to share the raw images if desired though

[comfortabletextiles]

Look!!!

All used up!

Now I only have the scraps over that I cut from the fringe

Now back to some spinning (the rolag I got with the calendar)

This is probably the thinnest I have ever spun, every time I'm scarred the thread will rip 😬

Extra pic of the mittens

#hand spun yarn #regenbogenwolle #hand woven #hand knitted #mittens #hat #hand spinning

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

50/50 yak silk | thread/light lace weight single | 1754 yds | ? wpi | 4oz

[id: three picture of yarn that thin and dark brown/warm grey, with some white mix in, shiny. first picture on golden muddy niddy noddy, second picture separate out individual strand to show thin, third is curly untwisted hank. end id]

took 2 week & half see how thin can possibly spin. plan is ply self together to make lace weight yarn for shawl :o

yak silk very very soft n nice

#🍞.txt #fiber arts #fiber art #fiber artist #spinning #yarn #wool special interest #fiber crafts #handspun #handspun yarn #hand spinning

[spinningabout]

I'll answer some frequently asked questions about this.

Angoras have been bred for hundreds of years for their temperament. These rabbits require so much grooming, they need to be able to tolerate and even enjoy it. Spinning directly off of them isn't much different than brushing, or gently plucking.

I don't do this for long stretches, about two to five minutes at a time. This isn't a very efficient method, I spin right off of them to demonstrate it doesn't bother them to give up their fiber. It's all about education.

I gently pluck the fiber before the twist goes into it, so their skin is never twisted or yanked on. The wool is released from the skin very easily when they are molting.

I've spun off of about eight angora rabbits, they all tend to just chill out. This one in the video is Petunia.

#fiber artist #yarn #spinning #angora rabbits #hand spinning

[trashpandacraft]

hey, fellow fibre nerds, if you've always wanted to take classes about fibre stuff but hate going places (or learning in front of people or whatever), here's your chance.

abby franquemont runs an online school called franquemont university. there are real-time classes (usually at 5pm gmt), but there's also a ton of recorded classes about spinning and andean backstrap weaving, and the real-time classes are recorded and posted so those of us who can't make that can watch them. there's also a discord with channels for every class where you can talk about it and get help.

we signed up the other day and y'all, it's so fucking great. i'm a pretty adequate spinner, but we started watching spinning one, which is... you know, spinning for beginners, and i'm incredibly annoyed but also pleased to report that i've already learned things that are making me a better spinner. i also started watching the spinning for socks class, which is four hours of discussion about spinning for socks!

they have a whole learn to spin series, several levels of andean weaving classes that teach you both how to do the weaving and also present it in the appropriate cultural context, a course about drafting styles, one on yarn design, on ply structures, on using bast fibres...

there's a *ton* of stuff, and i can already tell i'm gonna learn so much. it's $45 usd a month, which is a lot if you think of it as a streaming service, but is an incredible deal if you think if it as unlimited access to classes, which is really what it is. there are even office hours, where you can drop in and ask about specific stuff.

it's all on discord, zoom, and youtube, so it's pretty easy to use, and i'm really, really liking it.

i'm not affiliated with them or anything, i just think it's cool and thought some of you might be into it.

#handspinning #hand spinning #fibre arts #fiber arts #weaving #smartest raccoon i know

[fyresnow]

finished the electric rainbow rambouillet! it’s sooooooo pretty!! I hope plying doesn’t ruin it (planning to chain ply- I can’t imagine doing anything else.) I almost hate to take it off the bobbin since it’s so pretty from the side. But I want to keep using the spider bobbin so that won’t work 😅 I am obsessed with the gradient, seeing it fill the bobbin was super fun.

See this post here for pics of the braid, which is from SpinningSiren on Etsy (same as the bobbin!)

#spinning #handspun #hand spinning #electric eel wheel #feyspins

[amimere]

i swear spinning by the sea is like balm for the soul

#my stuff #fiber art #hand spinning #hand spun yarn #sea #ocean #eel wheel #eel wheel nano #furby #furby buddy #wool #the braid is a merino/tencel mix #gods its so nice just sitting here #listening to the waves

[diddlysquash]

My two most recent spins! Both were braids from Apothefaery, the first being a fine merino in the colorway “gathering” and the second a fine wool/silk blend that I got at a wool market and did not have a name on the label. Pretty sure both of these are destined for my loom eventually

#hand spun yarn #hand spinning #handspinning #yarn #yarnblr #kim blathers on #my projects

[disgruntled-lifeform]

Yearning for a leather pouch belt attachment that would function as a spindle holster and fiber pouch

#wtb #looking for something functional and stylish that isn't made out of fabric #craftblr #hand spinning #yarn #fibre #wool #drop spindle