Hello friends,

In the spring of 2025 I managed to accomplish a couple of spinning projects using my drop spindle and spinning wheel, spinning up two braids of fibre I had in my stash.

First up was 100 grams of Fibre to Go "In The Shade Jewels" braid, made from 70% merino and 30% Silk, that my best friend Karyn picked up for me at Fibretron in Hamilton in the winter of 2025. Unfortunately after searching through all my photos I couldn't find any pictures of the braid, or of it being spun up on my drop spindle, but here is the finished yarn in all it's glory.

The rainbow jewel shades against the black are just so pretty, and I can't wait to use it in a weaving project in the near future. Unfortunately the yarn colours ran when I washed the skein of yarn after plying, but it did clear up in the rinses afterward. This yarn ended up being fingering weight width.

And secondly, I spun up a 100 gram braid from Handmaiden's July 2025 Fibre Club, containing 75% Corriedale, 15% Llama, and 10% Rayon, in shades of graduated pink, purple, blue and white.

With the rayon content being flecks of fibre that would come out easily all over the place while spinning, I decided to spin it with a high twist on my spinning wheel, in order to reduce the amount of mess all over me and my craft room floor. I split the braid vertically down middle to retain the colour changes in the braid, and then spun up the two singles in the same direction, followed by plying them together as a simple 2-ply yarn. The resulting yarn was my usual fingering weight yarn width.

The resulting yarn mostly kept the colours and colour graduation together, but there is always some sort of shifting that happens due to unbalanced dyeing on each side of the braid, as well as uneven splitting of the braid when pulled apart.

The yarn was then set in place using a gentle wool wash, and then dried, before being stored away in my large pile of hand spun yarn.

I'm very happy with the resulting yarn, and plan to use this yarn as a warp in an experiment to create a stained glass scarf for my online store Hearth and Oak. It is always very fulfilling to take a braid of fibre, and spin it, before weaving it into a finished project.

Have a wonderful day

Julie-Ann

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Tags: 2025, 2026, Crafting, Crafts, Drop Spindle, Fiber, Fibre, Spinning, Spinning Wheel, Spring, Yarn