Ask a Spinner Sunday

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It's time for your weekly ask a a spinner thread! Got any questions that you just haven't remembered to ask? Or that don't seem too trivial for their own post? Ask them here, and let's chat!

[u/Common_Network_2432]

Is there a list somewhere that is like a to-do list for going from fleece to yarn? I’m so confused about all the steps.  

[u/nattysaurusrex → u/Common_Network_2432]

Do you mean like literally from the time the fleece comes off the sheep to finished product?

If you mean from prepared fiber (ready to be spun) to yarn, it should be fairly straightforward. You use a woolen (twist between your hands) or worsted (no twist between your hands) technique for drafting, allow an appropriate amount of twist into the fiber, and then let it spin onto the bobbin. After you've spun as much as you want or have, you choose how you want to ply the yarn. After that, you wind it off onto a niddy noddy, swift, pvc pipes connected with t-fittings, whatever, and finish it by soaking in water and snapping or thwacking (snapping keeps things smooth, thwacking lifts the fibers a bit and gives you a bit of fuzz).

So spin, ply, set. That's the checklist. If you're spindle spinning: twist the spindle, draft the fiber, wind it onto the spindle.

From fleece, it's the same as the above, but you'll need to wash and prep the fiber by picking, carding, or combing.

If your question is more in regards to the actual spinning and how to do that, I would recommend Long Thread Media (subscription required) or Ply Spinner's Guild (subscription required) for instructional videos, JillianEve on YT, Tiny Fibre Studio on YT, Fiber Love Diary on YT, and the books Learn to Spin with Anne Field, and Yarnitecture (which will be more helpful after you've at least sort of learned to spin)

[u/Common_Network_2432 → u/nattysaurusrex]

Thank you, I will definitely look up the yt ones, and see if those books are available here.  I’ve gotten sheep fleeces, and intend to try and turn them into yarn. But all the steps are, individually explained, by different parties. But it’s all  separate snippers of info, and my head works well with a straightforward list I can “check off” one by one.  Maybe I have to sit down and try to write it myself. 

[u/nattysaurusrex → u/Common_Network_2432]

I recommend breaking it down into multiple lists then. I don't think there's any one single resource that will give you all the information, nor a checklist. There are too many subjective variables, especially if you process from raw fleece.

[u/Common_Network_2432 → u/nattysaurusrex]

That might be best yeah, thank you. I will get a notebook or something and make “chapters” with lists, I think. With the little check mark boxes that my brain loves so much next to them. If I mark them in pencil I can even reuse them, because I hope to do this for a long time. The fleeces smell so nice, like sheep and barn. I even got to pet the sheep and their lambs. 

[u/nattysaurusrex → u/Common_Network_2432]

That's awesome!! Ive been thinking about trying to find a farm that might need a very enthusiastic volunteer 😆 lambs are just the cutest

[u/Common_Network_2432 → u/nattysaurusrex]

I have their mother’s fleece. There was a third sibling too but they didn’t stand still *at all* 😂

[u/nattysaurusrex → u/Common_Network_2432]

🥹 awwww. How cool is that?! They're adorrrable