You’ve just had your sheep shorn or you purchased a promising fleece from a fellow wool lover and, of course, you are planning to use as a spinning project! It’s always a big day when you get a new fleece to work with! Now that you’ve got a bag chock full of an awesome fleece,…
Raw versus washed, it’s quite the debate! Some folks love to spin “in the grease” and others, to be blunt, can’t stand the idea of spinning raw wool. What’s the real story here: can you spin raw wool or not and in which situations is washing before spinning the better option? Raw (unwashed) wool can…
Washing raw wool, that can be an intimidating task! But, it doesn’t have to be! With a little bit of preparation work, you can wash your raw fleece in less than an hour at home using common household containers and some fiber wash. To wash raw wool you need two water tight containers, a mesh…
Do you really need to buy wool hand carders for your fleece preparation? Why not just use dog brushes, instead? Dog brushes are pretty cheap and available just about anywhere. Sounds good so far! Now, the big question: do dog brushes actually work for wool? Dog brushes will work for small amounts of very clean…
You may be wondering, why spin wool to begin with? Do you really have to spin it or can you make things with wool that has not been spun? Wool must be spun to make yarn for most knitting, crochet or weaving projects. Wool can be used unspun for felting and is occasionally used unspun…
Merino wool is a handspinning classic! You hear about this wonderful fiber everywhere and have surely seen it for sale in nearly any color and blend you can thin of at most any fiber shop. Merino wool is definitely available and popular, but is merino right for you and how easy (or hard) is it…
When looking around for fiber to spin, you’ll notice that combed top pops up everywhere. Combed top is commonly available for all kinds of breed specific wools, other fibers and blends. Obviously, more than a few folks are using combed top, and a lot of it, but for what, is combed top good for handspinning?…
There are a ton of handspinners out there who love to handcraft custom yarn and, of course, there are also scads of folks who love to work with yarn and will happily buy it from someone else. Should you buy it or spin it? Is spinning your own yarn worth it for you? Spinning your…
When you are looking around for fiber to start handspinning with, you’ll see a huge amount of choices! Choices are wonderful, once you get some practice and know what you like, but for a beginner, too many choices is more confusing than anything else! What is the best wool for handspinners to start with and…
Roving, roving, everywhere! And you can add a new one to your list of possibilities: pencil roving. Before you can figure out if you should try it or not, you need to know how to work with it, so how do you spin pencil roving? Pencil roving is spun in a worsted style. Pencil roving…