I finally finished my felted spinning wheel bag project and I ended up with a nice assortment of little felted bags. I think that they came out really cute and it is handy that my wheel has a convenient place to hang this little bag.I've got a WPI tool, diz, spinner's control card, oil, and a little pair of pliers stored in my bag. I know that all wheels aren't equipped with some place to hang this bag - but it is perfect for my folding Lendrum. I made these bags in several types of wool to test out the pattern and to see how different wools would work with my pattern.I think that in the end all the bags turned out great and I don't see a huge advantage to one wool over the other. There was a huge difference in the rate at which the wools felted though. That is something you will want to be mindful of when felting.You need to be sure of the felting rate for the wool you pick or check the results often. I put all the bags into the washer together and ran the agitator cycle three times and then checked the contents. I probably should have jumped in for a look after each round of agitation. This photo shows the results after those three rounds and you can see that all the bags but the ones knit from Kureyon (top 3) are basically finished. I was actually afraid that two of them had gotten a little small. But I gave them a little tug to stretch them a bit and they fit on my wheel perfectly. I continued the wash the little bags made from Kureyon for another 3-4 agitation cycles before they were felted like I wanted.I did learn that if I was combining wools into the same project for felting that I would probably leave the Kureyon out. It always takes forever to felt. I also notice a difference in the thickness of the final fabric. The Kureyon is slightly thinner than all the other choices. All of the other wools ended up being thicker overall and much closer in to each other than the Kureyon did.Although it really didn't matter for this project, I could see it making a difference in other projects. Although I could probably run the Kureyon through the washer a few more times and tighten the fabric up a bit, but it will serve the purpose here. I think it basically comes down to personal preference. This project is also great for leftovers and scraps. All the bags I knitted are from leftovers from other projects and the Kureyon bags each are made up of multiple colors. Well without further rambling here is the simple pattern. Let me know if you see errors and I'll make corrections. Felted Spinning Wheel Bag Yarn: About 70 yards of worsted weight wool suitable for felting. I have tried the pattern with Noro Kureyon, Cascade 220, Pattons Classic Merino, Lambs Pride Worsted, and Wollmeise Merino-Lammdochtwolle. All will work well. Make sure you know the rate of felting for the wool you choose. Needles: US #11 (8mm). I used two circular needles, but DPNs would work just as well Supplies: stitch marker; 2 stitch holders; tapestry needle for weaving in the ends Measurements: I didn't measure my gauge, I usually don't when felting. I've provided measurements both before and after felting fora guide. Pre-felting Measurements: bag bottom - 4.5 x 3.5 inches; 6.5 inches tall Final Measurements: Instructions: Cast on 14 stitches and knit 20 rows. Pickup up 10 stitches along the first short side of the rectangle, pick up 14 stitches on the long side and then pick up another 10 stitches on the remaining side. (48 total stitches) Distribute stitches even between two circular needles and mark beginning of the round. Knit in stockinette stitch until side of bag measures 6.5 inches tall. Move first 3 stitched to a stitch holder and then cast off 8 stitches. Move next three stitches to second stitch holder and continue binding off until 1 stitch remains of the right needle. Move the 2 stitches from the first holder to the left needle and bind off one more stitch. Knit the 2 stitches that are still on the left needles. You will have 3 live stitches on the right needle. Using these 3 stitches, knit 8 inches of i-cord. After i-cord is knit, stitch the bottom of the i-cord together with the 3 remaining stitches on the last holder. I break my yarn and thread a tapestry needle for this part of the project. I run the threaded needle through the first stitch on the handle and then the first stitch on the bag and alternate like that until all the stitches have been threaded. Weave in the tails and felt!
Spinning an Alpaca Gradient Yarn Free Knitting Pattern for Handspun Yarn This project was spun on the Schacht Sidekick Spinning Wheel Sometimes the fiber tells us what yarn it wants to make, and sometimes we plan a spin from start to finish. When some local alpaca fiber came my way, I was inspired b
Let me share how I made these cute little flowers. Anyone that has tried needle felting will tell you what a hugely satisfying craft it is. There's something strangely therapeutic about stabbing a big ball of fluff and watching it turn into a solid piece of sculpture. It's the perfect craft for letting off steam. My first attempt at needle felting resulted in these funny looking chaps. They were excellent fun to make and really, you can't go wrong when you're putting silly faces on pumpkins... One of the easiest techniques for creating needle felted shapes is using the cookie-cutter method. Basically, you just stuff a cutter shape with loose roving, tops, or carded wool and then keep prodding and poking it with a felting needle until all the fibres felt and mesh together into a solid shape. I'd still class myself as a novice needle felter, but you get pretty passable results even as a beginner. These flowers are the perfect starter project if you want to try out needle felting for the first time, as they combine both cookie-cutter needle felting and some simple sculptural needling techniques. Needle felting is pretty inexpensive to get started, and the supplies are becoming easier to find. Materials needed Wool tops, roving, sliver or shredded pure wool yarn. I buy mine from World of Wool in the UK. Felting needles. A lot of needle felters use thicker felting needles to begin with and then gradually reduce the width of the needles so that the holes become less prominent as the piece is finished. I tend to use just a size 38 triangular needle, but I use 4 or 5 at a time to start with. I then reduce it down so that I'm doing the final sculpting with just 1 needle. Thick foam or felting brush to felt on. I use an old memory foam pillow, (hence the unattractive towelling cover). Carders or wool combs are optional, but they do help with blending colours and seperating the fibres before you begin felting. Cutter shape. I use this sugar flower cutter as it's sturdy and there's a ridge of plastic to hold onto How to needle felt cookie cutter flowers Firstly you need to prepare your fibres for felting. I have a stash of dyed merino tops as I do quite a lot of spinning, however the fibres are a little too neatly lined up for felting, so I need to tease them and mix them up a bit. I hand card the fibres, but just separating the fibres with your hands will help in the felting process. I blended 2 colours together to get a more natural look. I've used a sugar flower cutter as opposed to a cookie-cutter as it's just a bit more comfortable to hold and the extra circle around the base of the cutter keeps your fingers a little further away from the felting needles - watch out, those needles are sharp! Stuff your combed fibres into the cutter, making sure that they all pass across the centre, so that all the petals are firmly attached. With practice it's possible to get a finished flower that has lighter outer petals and a darker centre (or vice versa). Now take your felting needles and just keep prodding inside the cutter until all the fibres have reduced down and are just filling the bottom of the cutter. Here's a short animated gif showing my needle felting technique. The felting needle has little tiny barbs on the edges causing the fibres to become tangled and compacted with each insertion. The more you poke and prod, the denser your wool will become and the more it will shrink or felt. I found that turning my flower and repeating the felting process when it appeared to be quite compacted at the base of the cutter helped to create a nice dense flower. Here it shows the flower becoming more and more felted with each turning. By the end of the 4th stabbing it was time to move onto the next stage. This process combines 3 steps in 1 - adding additional colour to the petals, creating a flower centre and further felting of the petals. I use just a single needle for the remainder of the flower. Pull out a thin wisp of fibres in a contrasting colour and lay it over one of the petals. I tend to place it so that one end is positioned just past the length of the petal I want to work on. Now insert the needle repeatedly at the base of the petal and gradually work your way up the petal until there is no more contrasting fibre left to secure into the petal. Secure the tail end of the contrasting fibre by needling it into the flower centre. Try to work it into a dense circle. To speed up the process of bringing the long, loose tail together I use a combination of gently swirling it around the needle end and prodding the loose fibres into a circle shape. The flower centre will become bigger, denser and higher as each petal is worked. Work your way around each petal, adding a thin layer of colour and needling the remainder into the centre. Keep working on the centre until it becomes quite dense with very few fibres sticking out. Once the centre has come together, the flower just needs a little neatening around the edges to get rid of its slight fuzziness. I tend to do this by lifting the loose fibres with the end of my needle and almost 'folding' the stray fibres in. Needle felting is not an exact science and everyone's style is different. Some people leave their pieces quite loose, while others keep working until it is very dense and solid. I tend to keep poking and prodding until it feels like a fairly durable piece, with very few fibres sticking out, but it's still fairly soft and squashy. I added this one to a headband for my daughter and I'm thinking of stringing a rainbow of pastel flowers into a garland to decorate her bedroom. If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy my post about making a Remembrance Day poppy. or my post on how to make a slightly more advanced layered flower using the same sugar flower cutter. ---------- Please be sweet and share the love. Leave a comment, subscribe to my YouTube channel, like my Facebook page for regular updates or follow me on Pinterest, Bloglovin' or Instagram
Minicombs are handheld tools with one or two rows of tines and are used for creating a worsted or semiworsted yarn.
Want to try spinning? Drop spindles are a great way to start!
Learn everything you need to know about felting fiber in this exclusive, FREE eBook that includes expert tips on preparing and felting fiber and yarn.
Whether you’re just getting started Needle Felting or have a few projects under your belt, you might discover something new after checking out this list!
The wonderful ladies of Quirky Bits-n-Pieces sent me some gorgeous Leicester Longwool locks from Deborah's new dye lot to play wi...
She's not a scientist, but she plays one on the internet and you can custom order this amazing spine art! "I needle-felted the spine out of undyed wool roving, with some darker shadows felted out of a random grey wool yarn. This is a custom order for a chiropractor's office!" This knitted brilliance brought to
The wonderful ladies of Quirky Bits-n-Pieces sent me some gorgeous Leicester Longwool locks from Deborah's new dye lot to play wi...
While I love spinning and knitting cardigans that incorporate beautiful buttons, I used to struggle to find the right ones. Then I learned to make my own buttons—and you can, too!
Courses on demand- contact to arrange a date Blending for spinningA full day of fun with fibre and colour a chance to use hand and drum carders, blending board, combs and hackle £95.00Click here to…
To make the loftiest, finest handspun yarn, a supported spindle can’t be beat, so it’s time to pull out a Tibetan spindle or a tahkli and practice spinning supported. Here is some of Heather’s expert advice, which appeared in Spin Off Winter 2016.
This is a list of my 5 favorite how to spin yarn books for beginners. If you are building a library of spinning books, here they are!
Guest blogger Beth Abbott is here to share with us her experiences spinning “Lopi” style singles yarns and using them in her knitting. Follow along with her exploration of the history of these yarns and her efforts to engineer a way to spin them for herself. ———————————————————————————————- When I started my study on Icelandic fleece, …
Learn everything you need to know about felting fiber in this exclusive, FREE eBook that includes expert tips on preparing and felting fiber and yarn.
A blog about hand spinning, spinning yarn, knitting, weaving, crochet and craft inspiration.
There are many benefits of spinning yarn with a drop spindle. We will discuss how to use a drop spindle, so if you are brand new, this article is for you!
I finally finished my felted spinning wheel bag project and I ended up with a nice assortment of little felted bags. I think that they came out really cute and it is handy that my wheel has a convenient place to hang this little bag.I've got a WPI tool, diz, spinner's control card, oil, and a little pair of pliers stored in my bag. I know that all wheels aren't equipped with some place to hang this bag - but it is perfect for my folding Lendrum. I made these bags in several types of wool to test out the pattern and to see how different wools would work with my pattern.I think that in the end all the bags turned out great and I don't see a huge advantage to one wool over the other. There was a huge difference in the rate at which the wools felted though. That is something you will want to be mindful of when felting.You need to be sure of the felting rate for the wool you pick or check the results often. I put all the bags into the washer together and ran the agitator cycle three times and then checked the contents. I probably should have jumped in for a look after each round of agitation. This photo shows the results after those three rounds and you can see that all the bags but the ones knit from Kureyon (top 3) are basically finished. I was actually afraid that two of them had gotten a little small. But I gave them a little tug to stretch them a bit and they fit on my wheel perfectly. I continued the wash the little bags made from Kureyon for another 3-4 agitation cycles before they were felted like I wanted.I did learn that if I was combining wools into the same project for felting that I would probably leave the Kureyon out. It always takes forever to felt. I also notice a difference in the thickness of the final fabric. The Kureyon is slightly thinner than all the other choices. All of the other wools ended up being thicker overall and much closer in to each other than the Kureyon did.Although it really didn't matter for this project, I could see it making a difference in other projects. Although I could probably run the Kureyon through the washer a few more times and tighten the fabric up a bit, but it will serve the purpose here. I think it basically comes down to personal preference. This project is also great for leftovers and scraps. All the bags I knitted are from leftovers from other projects and the Kureyon bags each are made up of multiple colors. Well without further rambling here is the simple pattern. Let me know if you see errors and I'll make corrections. Felted Spinning Wheel Bag Yarn: About 70 yards of worsted weight wool suitable for felting. I have tried the pattern with Noro Kureyon, Cascade 220, Pattons Classic Merino, Lambs Pride Worsted, and Wollmeise Merino-Lammdochtwolle. All will work well. Make sure you know the rate of felting for the wool you choose. Needles: US #11 (8mm). I used two circular needles, but DPNs would work just as well Supplies: stitch marker; 2 stitch holders; tapestry needle for weaving in the ends Measurements: I didn't measure my gauge, I usually don't when felting. I've provided measurements both before and after felting fora guide. Pre-felting Measurements: bag bottom - 4.5 x 3.5 inches; 6.5 inches tall Final Measurements: Instructions: Cast on 14 stitches and knit 20 rows. Pickup up 10 stitches along the first short side of the rectangle, pick up 14 stitches on the long side and then pick up another 10 stitches on the remaining side. (48 total stitches) Distribute stitches even between two circular needles and mark beginning of the round. Knit in stockinette stitch until side of bag measures 6.5 inches tall. Move first 3 stitched to a stitch holder and then cast off 8 stitches. Move next three stitches to second stitch holder and continue binding off until 1 stitch remains of the right needle. Move the 2 stitches from the first holder to the left needle and bind off one more stitch. Knit the 2 stitches that are still on the left needles. You will have 3 live stitches on the right needle. Using these 3 stitches, knit 8 inches of i-cord. After i-cord is knit, stitch the bottom of the i-cord together with the 3 remaining stitches on the last holder. I break my yarn and thread a tapestry needle for this part of the project. I run the threaded needle through the first stitch on the handle and then the first stitch on the bag and alternate like that until all the stitches have been threaded. Weave in the tails and felt!
I have finished the edging on the capelet that I am currently knitting. The capelet is my original design -- the Sierra Aspens Capelet, so . . . . I am hoping to complete the pattern and offer it for sale in my Etsy shop . . . some . . . time . . . soon. Of course, I've been saying this for quite a while. I figure I better write up the pattern or I just have to stop wearing the the various capelets I've made with my handspun yarns. I am keeping very accurate records this time. The first skein I spun for this project was a combination of my "Cinco de Mayo" and "Northwoods" colorways. Both of those were BFL. This second skein for the body of the capelet is a combination (plied together) of "Cinco de Mayo" in BFL and an 80%/20% merino/cashmere blend in "Indian Paint Brush". I'm trying to keep one colorway -- "Cinco de Mayo" -- running through the entire project and plying that with other colorways. It's a fun project and it will be interesting to see how the colors play off of each other. Knitting needles are poised and I've got the first season of "Call the Midwife" ready to go. Oh, and BTW, I managed to score some Inglenook Fibers batts when Macrina did an update on Etsy last week. I couldn't believe it. The first few I bought were gone by the time I went to pay for them. Went right back to Inglenook's store and started clicking on batts. I felt like a little fishy in a tank full of sharks having a feeding frenzy. WOW! That's all I can say. But, of course, when they arrive in the mail, it's pretty obvious why they are so popular. They're just the best.
I've never been super impressed with the "gradient" yarns available commercially. The color changes are always too abrupt. You know what they say, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself! Learn how easy it is to spin your own gradient yarn in today's post. Our friend malia.mayed.it over on Instagram breaks down
This batt weighs 2.4 oz I carded it with my hand dyed merino and noil . The noil gives it the look of colorful sprinkles al throughout the batt. Merino is so soft and wonderful to spin, felt or weave with. You will love the feel of this batt! The last picture shows all the birthday batts I have on my shop
A GORGEOUS Finnsheep fleece inspired me to corespin it for maximum loft, and to showcase those gorgeous curly tips. Soft chunky, lofty, SOFT, this is an AMAZING yarn to use for weaving, knitting, or felting! Often these yarns are completely one of a kind, but occasionally I might have doubles, or may be able to custom-spin larger amounts if you need. Please convo me if you have any questions or requests. These yarns are spun in my home; I have on cat and burn incense, so if you have allergies, act accordingly!
Spinning Yarn: Yarn has been spun on spindles for thousands of years. With a little fiber and a spindle, you too can participate in this oldest of alchemies. This instructable will show you how to spin a single from wool roving, using a top-whorl spindle.
Few subjects in spinning are as contentious as handcarding. Explore three completely different ways that excellent spinners approach these tools.
Last month, I shared the final two yarns in my Spinning into Focus series, demonstrating the two most popular methods used by spinners to avoid completely blending the colours in a multicoloured top together. My idea was that by the end of this blog series, I would have a sweater quantity of different yarns, all spun from the same multi-coloured, commercially available blended top - Slack Ma Girdle from John Arbon Textiles. The yarns all have varying levels of colour blending so that I can eventually knit a garment that has the colours appearing to come into focus as they work their way down, up, or across the garment. The yarns are unquestionably complementary as they will all have the same primary colours at their base. I rarely have the patience or attention span required to spin a sweater quantity of fibre, so dividing it up into lots of little spins has really helped to keep me motivated. Well, I didn’t know how many different techniques I was going to use when I began, but I’ve finally finished spinning my original 700g of fibre into 10 different yarns - And here they all are! From a distance, you get the impression that they’re all a warm autumnal brown colour… … but when you get just a little bit closer you start to see those pops of colour more clearly. The other reason I love this approach to spinning a multi-coloured blended top is that it satisfies the dual sides of my personal taste - When it comes to spinning yarns, I would much rather spin a glorious array of ever-changing colour that holds my attention and keeps me interested; however, when it comes to my fashion choices, I'm much more reserved. By spinning the yarns into focus, I have a range of coloured yarns that go from an understated, neutral to a colourful statement yarn, and all of the possibilities in between. It has been such a satisfying project! In the images below you can see that I’ve hand wound all of my yarns into nostepinne style balls as I think this is one of the best ways of showing the length of the different colour sections within a variegated yarn. The following is a rundown of all the techniques I used in this blog series and their accompanying videos. Click on the heading to read more about how the yarns were spun. There’s also a rundown of all 10 yarns in video form here - Technique 1: Drum Carding for a Homogeneous Blend. Technique 2: Using Mini Wool Combs Technique 3: Drafting the Top and Spinning from the End. Technique 4: Laying the fibres onto a blending board and then dizzing them off Technique 5: Spinning from the end of the top without pre-drafting Technique 6: Drafting 3 Layers onto a Blending Board and rolling off 3 Rolags Technique 7: placing a single layer onto the blending board and pulling off 3 rolags Technique 8: placing a single layer on the blending board and then rolling off a single rolag The Wildcards Called such because they don’t really fit into the pattern of the colour sections becoming progressively longer and less muddy with each yarn. The first has much longer colour sections but the colours are quite muted, and the second has the brightest colours of all the yarns, but also the shortest colour sections. Wildcard #1: Breaking the Top into a Fibonacci Sequence and then Splitting it Vertically Wildcard #2: Spinning From the Fold Sampling Well, I normally find swatch knitting very tedious but I don’t think I’ve ever been so motivated to knit up a square of handspun yarn - Here are all 10 yarns knitted into focus. I knitted 4 rows of each yarn, apart from the final spun from the fold yarn at the bottom which is also carried through to the garter stitch bottom edging. It really is the busiest and most colourful of yarns so I’m still a little undecided as to whether I will include it in my final garment… As an aside, while I was spinning all of my different yarns, I designed some yarn tags so that I could easily keep track of which technique I'd used with which yarn. I designed them to fit on the back of my printable handspun yarn labels. I can see them coming in handy for sampling small amounts of fibre before going on to spin for a larger project. I will definitely be using them a lot in the future. The yarn geek in me also couldn’t resist making these little Spinning into Focus WPI tags to record my project. It feels like it’s been such a worthwhile exercise and I wanted to have a reference to look back on after I’ve knitted up all of my yarn. I'll probably share the printables in a future blog post soon. I don't imagine many spinners will want to spin all 10 techniques but a few of my Instagram spinning friends have said that they’d like to try spinning into focus on a smaller scale so hopefully they’ll come in useful. Thank you so much for coming along with me on my Spinning into Focus journey. I’ve had so many lovely comments about this spinning series and I’ve been so very grateful to all the spinners cheering me on along the way. I’ve had a blast! If you’ve enjoyed this post or found any of this series useful, please pin it to Pinterest. It really makes a big difference to me and helps other spinners find it too. At this point, I normally suggest similar related blog posts, however, my list of spinning-related content is becoming a little unmanageable... If you'd like to read more blog posts about spinning and fibre preparation, please take a look at this page here where you will find links to all of my spinning and fibre articles. Thank you for reading, and happy spinning! Other Spinning-Related Blog Posts Spinning into Focus Techniques 1, 2 and 3 Spinning into Focus - Techniques 4 and 5 Spinning into Focus Techniques 6, 7 and 8 Spinning into Focus - The Two Most popular methods used by spinners to avoid 'Spinning mud' 9 Different Ways of Spinning a Multicoloured Blend While Trying to Avoid 'Spinning Mud' Spinning into Focus Linear Blending a Gradient Hackle Blending a Long Gradient Free Handspun Yarn Labels Spinning Dog Hair DIY Hackle DIY Mini Wool Combs Yarn Gauge Reference Tool for Hand Spinners Spinning Supercoil Yarn Using Waste Fibres Spinning a Complex Fractal 3 Ply Yarn
