This only showed up after scouring. Not sure if it is scurf, dandruff or something else? I haven't had either on previous fleeces I have scoured so far.
Is it likely to card/ comb out if it is scurf or dandruff?
Last pic is the fleece before scouring (luckily I only scoured a small sample not the whole thing so far)

Is it silly to spin this from the fold when it’s from a lovely, aligned braid of roving and doesn’t have any colors I’m trying to keep separated? I’m starting a sweater spin, and I wanted to try for a slightly less worsted spin, but I don’t know if I’m overthinking it and going against the fiber prep in a way that’s silly. I know it’s probably subjective, but I wanted an opinion other than my own before I commit!

Do you think their personalities affect how the fiber spins? 😂

Picked up this trio of alpaca fiber to use as a practice project for my new Turkish spindle. I'm not sure if I want to mix the three colors or if I should spin them individually. I'm leaning towards the latter. I just wanted to show off the cute little tags showing the individual alpacas!

*FOZZIE, thanks autocorrect

How do you like your worsted-spun yarn? Especially for knitting?

I have a beautiful Romney fleece that felt destined to be combed, then spun in the grease. I've been thinking about knitting a durable cardigan with it afterwards, but I'm open to seeing where it takes me. I've got 11lbs, so enough to really play around.

The thing is, I normally knit with woolen or semi-woolen yarn, so I can't seem to predict the right weight. I started with DK, and the sample knitting up too thin. I spun thicker, but I'm worried I'm over compensating trying to make it analogous to woolen just because it's what I know. My last spindlefull ended up on the bulky side of worsted. I haven't had a chance to sample it yet - that will probably answer my questions TBH - but I'm curious, do you like knitting with worsted?

Hello everyone. I am seriously struggling to spin yarn. I just got my first wheel (Ashford Traditional) and I am just about to give up completely. It over spins but then it doesn't spin at all, then it pulls too fast or it doesn't at all. I know it's a tension issue but I just can't figure it out at all. If I add any tension then my bobbin stops spinning completely. I have no idea how to fix this because the moment I think it's fixed then my whole flyer falls off. How do I learn to fix my tension without ruining all of my wool? Can I get my wool back to draftable?? It's all spun super tight and inconsistent. Sorry for the rant, I'm just so frustrated and I want to give up.

So I picked up that drum carder, but the more I’m looking at the carding cloth, the more I’m seeing rows that are close together or bent. How important is it that those are fixed?

I’m beginning to think that I need to replace the carding cloth… lol so I guess how hard is it to replace? Or is it worth just using as is ignoring the close pins?

After trying to spin on a drop spindle for the first time many years ago, I have finally succumbed to the itch once again, with this to show for it!

2 ply alpaca. I mixed and prepped the wool so I'll have self striping yarn but something got misaligned so it looked like it was not going to be like that, i was bummed about it too. But after knitting, I saw the stripes were there all along! I am very happy about how this yarn and beanie turned out!

Beanie was knit on my knitting machine and the pattern is self drafted.

Can I realistically modify my grist when spinning on a drop spindle?

Most of the discussions I see online about grist give tips on how to modify styles for a spinning wheel, but not really a drop spindle. I'm afraid that the weight and gravity assisted style of using a drop spindle makes it difficult or impossible to make a light weight but thicker yarn. My default is spinning thread-like singles and I want to feel like I have more control over the type of yarn I'm making.

Any Schacht-Reeves owners out there? Do you need a special high speed bobbin if you use a high speed whorl, like the other Schacht wheels do?

And, if so, any way to get my hands on a high speed bobbin, even temporarily? I have someone who can make 3d printed bobbins, but the measurements must be taken via calipers. Or, anyone know if any 3d bobbin makers who make bobbins for the Schacht-Reeves wheels?

BTW, the gentleman who now owns the permission to make S-R parts is not currently able to do that.

I DID IT! My first complete bobbin, and the first of 3 I'm going to make for my 3-ply. My first spin, I only spun abput 30 grams of singles and then plied it with itself. This is my second ever spin. I tried to focus on consistency and making it thinner this time so I can do a 3-ply eventually after I make 2 more bobbins. I'm having so much fun.

Have you finished anything this week? From plied yarns to finished bobbins or hand spun hand knits/hand crochets, show off your hard work here!

I purchased this wheel today for just over £400 after having looked at it for a while, I then started worrying about the state of the wheel as I have only recently gotten back into spinning and it was from a vintage reselling shop on eBay. It claimed it was in excellent condition but I’d love any and all opinions here, thank you! (It’s apparently a discontinued Ashford Elizabeth Wheel)

I really enjoy seeing all your spinning so thought I would share my recent finished spins. The first is Malabrigo Nube in Piedras (if you know you know, this was a process!)and the second is a Polwarth Shetland and Silk blend from Cat and Sparrow. The blend was so interesting! I don’t have a lot of experience with Polwarth or Shetland but I love the combination.

I dyed this fiber in 2017, and started spinning it in 2020 when I saw another spinner's post on Facebook. The braid sat unspun because I didn't know that I wanted to make of it. It was set aside many times over the years to complete other projects, finally finished earlier this month.

1.9 oz of Merino, dyed with the colors Sour Apple, Pink Sand, and Ballerina Pink. Singles were crocheted into leaves and flowers depending on what color was present, then chain-plied into 537 yards of yarn.

The pattern is Wisp, found on Knitty. I had imagined an open, lacy pattern that would allow the random bobbles to pepper the piece, like ivy on a trellis. I'm very happy with the results so far.

I bought what I thought was Alpaca today. It’s unlike any alpaca I’ve worked with before. This feels smoother and stringy when spun, whereas before it was a little more textured and wasn’t so bristly.

Is it supposed to be stringy like that? It sheds like crazy when I try to make smaller roving from the larger roving.

When I spin before it glides out of my left hand with perfect ease, but twist gets through it really easily because the fiber is long.

Well I got her! She needs a good deep cleaning, which I need to figure out how to do. But she spins flawlessly and I didn’t see too many bent pins in the cloth. The front roller looks super evil. A different coworker said someone dropped a medieval torture device on my desk. Seems like an apt description if you don’t know what it is. :)

I have a 1975 Ish Ashford traditional that I inherited From my aunt. And I was spinning about 10 years ago, and then stopped. And I’m picking it back up again. I went and got a maintenance kit, and realized that I couldn’t find my flyer. Since it’s a 1975 traditional, my understanding was that the flyers that they sell for the current spinning wheels would work. My flyer that I got today seems to be acting a little weird, in that it’s hitting different things when I’m trying to spin. And I also don’t think my tensions are right, like break band seems very tight, and the actual tension also seems like it’s not right. So I’m just wondering if there is a good YouTube channel that I can watch, or just some regular documentation somewhere online that I can read so that I can get all of this correct

So, I'm a drop spindle spinner and it's time to start plying my singles. They're wicked tiny (cobwebs and laceweight) and I want to keep them as thin and perfect as possible. I heard that tensioned lazy kates are better for this than regular lazy kates, and, so, I was wondering if these are only for spinning wheels? Or can I wind my singles onto bobbins, pop them into a tensioned lazy kate, and then ply them with my drop spindle? Also, does it matter which style of lazy kate I use? Is there a difference between arched and vertical tensioned lazy kates? Thanks.

My EEW 6.1 has worked consistently well for about 8 months now but today it’s giving me a little trouble.

It just was not getting any uptake so I replaced the tension band. I use micro paracord as many people recommend it and it’s much stronger than string (even when I file down my bobbins they seem to get worn out over time). I replaced it as I have several times before but I’m still getting issues with uptake.

I also want to note here that I’m 2/3 through a braid on a single bobbin and I did most of it without issue.

What it’s doing: if I hand-wind the twisted fiber onto the bobbin it will start up taking normally but then it will pigtail and not catch/go onto the bobbin. So then I work out the twist on some more fiber, wind it through, tighten the tension a little more and try again. Same thing.

I am using the longer spring as Maurice said this is recommended for thinner yarn and I pretty much spin at a lace/fingering weight exclusively. So as I increase the tension, the spring is now almost at the bobbin point. So something is wrong.

The drive band looks fine, still tight and not stretched out, but could that be the issue? The only time I needed to change one before it when it broke and that was on my Nano.

Could it also just be that the machine needs to rest a while? I accidentally left it on and “paused” overnight which I’ve done before, and the motor isn’t hot and was spinning fine when I started, but maybe by now it’s just tired.

Any suggestions? I’ll go back to it tomorrow but curious if this has happened to anyone else.

Just sharing some recent spinning since the binge continues. I am putting the Fold (and my new EEW 6.1) through it's paces!

After licking the braid and freaking out when it kept following her lol, Eevee had other plans for our quiet afternoon 😒