This podcast is very different and so you have a choice. There is a library based video website called Kanopy. I found a very interesting video on spinning throughout the world. I wanted other spinners to see it too, but they may not have access unless their library card (and their library system) grants access to Kanopy. The reason I do not include a link here, is because it is best to access it from your library's website. So first, if you have a current library card,go to their website and lo...
Sep 19, 2019•50 min
I was able to do so much during this Tour de Fleece, it took two podcasts to tell you all about it. See the previous podcast for part one of this two part series. The first fiber I talk about spinning is called Fake Cashmere, due to it softness. It is however, 100% nylon. I bought my fiber from a dyer whose business is Jazz Turtle. It seems most people like to spin this fiber blended with other fibers, but I enjoyed spinning it on it's own. Another source for the fiber is Paradise Fibers The nex...
Aug 25, 2019•1 hr 21 min
This is the first of a two part podcast, because I had so many projects to tell you about for the Tour de Fleece. In this podcast I talk about spinning cotton sliver on the Majacraft Aura, not a very traditional way to spin cotton. My challenge day project was finally achieving those beautiful tight rolags on my blending board. I also completed two skeins. The first was a dyed polworth from Yarn Hollow The second skein was a gray Horned Dorset fiber, which I got from Dyed in the Wool . I talk a ...
Jul 29, 2019•59 min
Here is the first of the book review only podcasts I mentioned in a previous podcast. After years of podcasting, I realized that the book reviews will be easier to find if in their own individual podcast. This podcast reviews the book Spindle Spinning from Novice to Expert by Connie Delaney. Links to possible sources for this book can be found on Abe Books Also seen listed on Ebay here In both cases, the exact listings may no longer be available, but it serves for you to see the book and descrip...
Jul 02, 2019•28 min•Ep. 160
It's that time of year, and the tents are up and the vendors hopeful as the cycle of yearly fiber fairs continue. I mention in the podcast my 'blue sky' dream of hitting them nationwide some year. A van full of fiber to sell, and be replaced by purchases, sounds just right! The photo for this podcast shows the Pegosa alpaca fiber I am currently spinning by the lock on my Roberta. There are lots of links for the podcast, for everyone that I mentioned, be sure to check out the webpages. The Wooler...
Jun 17, 2019•46 min•Ep. 159
I realize that is an unusual subtitle for a postcast. I recently had a total knee replacement surgery, and for the first 15 minutes or so of this podcast, I do talk about how the healing process delayed my spinning and fiber work for several weeks. But once the spinning wheels got going again, I had two WIP to talk about, the Pegosa alpaca project was continued and I finished spinning two fibers I had used for a project back in Sept. a babydoll Southdown and a Polworth. As promised I did one boo...
May 15, 2019•55 min•Ep. 158
It's official! I have joined the ranks of retirees. Now it is time to 'spend' my stash, or as I have decided to call it, my retirement 'fund'. We start this with a very large blanket of alpaca fiber from an alpaca named Pegosa. The first pound is washed, but not completely processed as I am using it to test various processing methods. This podcast talks about combing with handheld combs, and the yarn that I spun from that top. Needless to say there will be plenty more to podcast about Pegosa's f...
Mar 18, 2019•57 min
Happy New Year! It is always full of thoughts and plans for the spinning projects ahead. In today's podcast I talk about maintaining watch on the drafting zone to make your yarn more intentional. Watching the drafting zone will help you break out of making the same WPI yarn all the time to making art yarns that feature thick and thin singles. All of this is the topic of this podcast. I have done previous podcasts on drafting if you care to find those and listen to them. Just click on the links t...
Jan 08, 2019•52 min•Ep. 156
Links to vendors mentioned in the podcast: Stitches events in general Atlanta Ga event May 30-June 2 2019 Stitches United is on that page too. Youghiogheny Yarns Keri Fosbrink dyer Fiberlady bamboo fiber Buffalo Wool Co Buffalo wool yarn and fiber Franklin Habit Shirsty Cat Designs Merino silk fiber 2 Guys Yarn Company Soak Flatter spray Lost City knits Denise Bell Applecross Highland shawl Ravelry pattern Knitted Knockers knitbahpurl Stevenbe Vintage Lace book by Gladys Amedro The video blogger...
Oct 09, 2018•53 min•Ep. 155
In this discussion of what I did during the 2018 Tour de Fleece, I talk about the wool breed Zwartbles, spinning buffalo fiber on a drop spindle and finally a very rare breed of wool, Dor Galen. The buffalo fiber was included in the Clouds of Luxury from the Etsy store Sericin The Dor Galen fiber was purchased at a fiber festival several years ago from Sandy Ferguson's Dyed in the Wool Dor Galen is no longer available, the horned dorset at the bottom of the above linked page is probably a good c...
Sep 04, 2018•33 min
My favorite time of the spinning year, the Tour de Fleece event. As promised, here is the review of what I spun this year. This is part one of the two part podcast. A few links. To see photos of all of the lovely fibers and yarns I talked about, go to my group in Ravelry, yarnspinners spin in and look at the TdF2018 thread in the discussions. You must be signed into Ravelry for the link to work. Links to the fiber artists whose fiber I spun and talked about are: A Star is Shorn the Etsy store. I...
Aug 18, 2018•40 min
When I find that a podcast has no specific topic, but many different stories, I call them a spin-in. I also likened this to writing you a letter, dear listener! But mostly it feels like when we gather together with our spinning wheels and spin and talk. One never really knows what the conversations will be. I catch you up on my recent projects, spinning and otherwise, tell you about a few things I read online, rant a bit about books and bookcases, and end with the promise of lots of spinning to ...
Jul 05, 2018•41 min•Ep. 152
Ahhh, tis the season of freshly shorn fleeces. But what if your cupboard is already full? If you have an answer, come to the Ravelry group and search for Yanrspinnerstales spin in. Join us there for the conversation. A nice solution to at least organizing your fleece project is The Spinners Journal , a daily spinning book I created to sell. Your purchase supports the archiving of my past podcasts. Thank-You!...
Apr 20, 2018•40 min•Ep. 151
Ravellenics, for those that haven't heard the term, is an event hosted on Ravelry during the Olympics. There are events you can enter projects, and win digital medals. The rules state you start at the opening ceremony and finish by the closing ceremony. I have done this many years now, every two years. Most years I do a spinning project, but the last two times I have done knitting projects with hand spun yarn. This podcast talks about three of this years projects for Ravellenics, two completed a...
Mar 22, 2018•53 min
It's true, I have been podcasting for 10 years now! In the first part of today's podcast, I review the book The Weaving,Spinning and Dyeing book by Rachel Brown. In the second part I give a little bit of the download statistics for the podcast, some listener's comments about spinning in their lives over the last 10 years, and my favorite and least favorite parts of spinning. I was able to include music with this podcast, thanks for the website Free Music Archive . They have an archive on non tra...
Jan 25, 2018•1 hr 9 min
This podcast is the third on lichen dyeing and concludes the project for me. I talk about the ammonia extraction method and dyeing wool with the extract. I also tried a contact dyeing method on some silk and talk about that. The fiber is lovely and I am looking forward to spinning with it next year. The photo shows the corriedale roving dyed with the ammonia extraction method. Need a special holiday gift, for a friend or yourself? The Spinners Daily spinning journal found on Lulu is a special pr...
Nov 21, 2017•40 min•Ep. 148
I had a wonderful week, focused on spinning as much yardage as I could. I talk about all those yards in this podcast, plus a few thoughts on spinning on the electric Roberta and also what to do about fiber with high vegetable matter in it. Looking for a way to keep track of your spinning projects? I have created the Spinners' Journal to help you with that. It was done at Lulu.com, and is a reasonable 12.50 plus shipping. Your purchases help me pay the cost of keeping yarnspinnerstales podcasts a...
Nov 02, 2017•48 min•Ep. 147
This podcast has a review of my experience using Akerworks drop spindle tool called the Sprindle Crane. They were a prize sponsor in the Tour de Fleece 2017 on Ravelry, and I had the very good fortune to win this prize! Akerworks website for further information. I promised a few links, here's the easiest to find on Youtube. There is a difference between how the spinner in this video uses the spindle crane, and what I experienced. I did not get the twist to go past the plastic threader when I wor...
Oct 01, 2017•43 min•Ep. 146
This podcast talks about the boiling water method of lichen dyeing. I used the dye pot twice and dye fiber and fabric.
Aug 19, 2017•42 min
I have started the fun project of a lichen dye pot and in today's podcast I talk a little about the history of lichen dyeing, and how and where I collected my lichens. There's also a TdF2017 update at the end of the podcast. I had four books in my spinning library to use as references for this information. The main sources were from the same author, Karen Casselman. The books are: Craft of the Dyer Colour from Plants and Lichens and Lichen Dyes The New Source Book both published by Dover Press. ...
Jul 14, 2017•42 min
Today's podcast talks about how to achieve even, consistent 2 ply yarn by counting your treadle movements. Near the end I do talk about the start of the Tour De Fleece and what I hope to spin during it. If you want to join our discussions and sharing with the YST Team on Ravelry, the best way to find the group is to search under groups for Yarnspinnerstales Spin In. Hope to see you there!
Jul 03, 2017•29 min
Welcome to the newly redesigned web page. If you are looking for previous episodes, look in the upper right hand corner and click on episodes. The quickest way to the most recent and then later, is to click on 'category' and then podcasts. They will load with the new easier to use player. In the podcast,after a sabbatical from spinning, I am glad to be back. I update the spinning and knitting projects from the past few months, and then have a lovely recorded conversation with my daughter, about ...
Jun 16, 2017•1 hr 7 min
There is a saying in our family for many years: 'Life is too much with us now'. As it implies, I have to step aside from podcasting for a few months, while I deal with family life. During that time, I am researching dyeing with lichens, and I hope to get some dye baths started. That will be the topic of the podcast, when I return. Thanks for your patience and Happy Spinning!
Mar 10, 2017•9 min
Happy 2017! It's a new year and that always makes me think about my spinning goals. Along the way, I discovered some specifics about three ply yarn, and plying in general. I close the podcast with a review of the book, Yarn i tec ture by Jillian Moreno.
Feb 02, 2017•47 min
This podcast closes the 2016 year, with details on my Spinzilla 2016 spinning. Since one of the fibers I spun during that was dyed with natural dyes and the mordants tin and alum, I did a bit of research on those mordants. I end this podcast with that discussion. These are links to some of the things mentioned in the podcast. The original dye day for the columbia roving was Episode 52. The Jacob roving I spun was from the Ross Family Farm in Pa. One good blog post I referenced in the natural dye...
Dec 02, 2016•56 min
In the first part of this podcast I explain just what is this thing called ravellenics. Then I go into the details of what I did for the event. First is spinning, and after that, the next knit with hand spun yarn project, the Oslo Shawl. In the second part of the podcast, I talked about the seven items I took to my state's fair for the spinning category. A few links for sources of the fiber I used to spin the yarns: The Painted Tiger Yarn Hollow fibers Kundart Spindles The spindle shown on this ...
Sep 27, 2016•1 hr 15 min
Final podcast about what I did during Tour de Fleece this year. I talk about some yarn spun, including two breed studies, Romeldale and Racka. I also dyed two different shetland fleeces, and an unknown breed ewe lamb fleece. The Romeldale fiber was purchased at DyedintheWool , The wash and dye product I used while dyeing is available at woolshampoo . The shop I purchased the drum carder cloth from is no longer in business. However, there are other sources available on Etsy. Just got to that webs...
Aug 27, 2016•1 hr 1 min
This is the 2nd TdF16 podcasts, there will be one more. I talk about washing alpaca fiber, dyeing shetland and lamb's wool fiber, and as my challenge day project, spinning banana fiber. All of the links below are information I found on the internet about banana fiber. Home processing (something so unavailable to most of us!) is shown in a youtube video by Rix Jennings. Commercial processing (and very poor audio, sorry) is shown here. A non verbal commercial processing video. It is long, but if y...
Aug 16, 2016•51 min
Let the spinning begin. I have the Tour de France on my DVR and fiber ready, it could only be the tour de fleece! I do much more than spinning, as usual. I have alpaca blanket washing, fiber dyeing, a challenge fiber and challenge processing planned all during these three weeks. This is the first of three podcasts relating to this year's Tdf. All information on the sheep breeds that I review are from the book Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. The Devon fiber was pu...
Aug 01, 2016•50 min
It's tour time again, no not the spinning rock band, but the Tour de France. And that means Tour de Fleece is rolling too. In this podcast I give a synopsis of what I hope to accomplish during the next three weeks. I also was in a wonderful fiber swap, and I talk all about the box I sent, and the box I got. A few links for things I mention in this podcast: My blog is here . I will try a link to my Ravelry group , please be logged into Ravelry before clicking the link, then it should work. It is ...
Jul 03, 2016•48 min
