End Of Year 2025 Spinning Projects
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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Tour De Fleece 2025
Hello friends,
The month of July is known to yarn spinners all over the world as Tour De Fleece month, where spinners who want to join in, prepare their spinning supplies and spinning wheels for spinning along beside the Tour De France. On the days that the cyclists spin their wheels, so do Tour De Fleece spinners. It's an online spin-along, and spinners from all over the world often share their spinning on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Ravelry, during the 21 days of the Tour De France.
You don't need to officially sign up to anything, or pay any money, or join a team (though some people do), just spin when you can during the Tour De Fleece and make whatever yarn that appeals to you. My goal this year was just to spin every day of the Tour De Fleece, using whatever roving and fleece I had in stash, using both my drop spindle and spinning wheel.
The first project I spun up was a 100 gram roving of Union Fibre's fine Haunui breed sheep in shades of pink, purple, yellow, green, brown and teal.
I spun up the singles on my Majacraft Suzie Pro on two bobbins, with the intention to make a 2 ply yarn. The plied yarn was so pretty, coming out at an approximately fingering weight/4 ply yarn with a total of 237 m of yarn. I don't have any plans for this yarn yet, so it'll just go into storage along with all my other spun yarn.
Next up to spin was 200 grams of Ashford 80% Merino/20% Mulberry Silk roving in the colourway Gelato. I just love to periodically spin up some of Ashford's beautiful colourways for fun, with the intention to use the spun yarn for handwoven and handspun scarves for my Felt store Hearth and Oak.
Once the two single bobbins were spun, it was time to ply them 2-ply style. The resulting yarn was approximately fingering weight/4 ply and had a length of 423 m.
After a quick warm soak to set the twist in the yarn, my gelato yarn was all finished and ready for weaving.
I just love the shades of blue, pink and white, and I think it'll make a pretty nice scarf when it's all woven up.
I just loved making so much time for spinning in July, it's such a cold month and it's really cozy to spin on my spinning wheel on freezing winter nights. I already look forward to next Tour De Fleece next year.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yarn's The Dark Woods Solstice Yarn Advent
Hello friends,
Back in May while on Instagram, I noticed that Yeah Yeah Yeah Yarn in Dunedin had up for pre-order a winter solstice yarn advent called 'The Dark Woods'. The advent theme up on Instagram was totally in the vibe that I love, with forests, woodland creatures like foxes and owls, and deep dark night colours. Twelve days of the advent had 20 gram mini skeins of 4 ply sock yarn, and the thirteenth day was one 100 gram skein of 4 ply sock yarn.
So I excitedly handed over my money, and patiently waited until the yarn advent arrived at the end of June. With the yarn advent all packaged up in a box, I then waited impatiently for the 1st of July start date, and opened one advent yarn package each day for the next 13 days.
And I was so pleased with the yarn advent colourways as I opened them day by day. The first day started with a beautiful orange and brown fox colourway, and as the days went on, the colours got moodier and darker. By the time the advent got to the last couple of days daylight began to appear in The Dark Woods mini skeins, and the final 100 gram skein was a beautiful soft dawn.
I thought I'd share with you all the colours in 'The Dark Woods' day by day, with the top left being day 1, and the bottom right being day 13.
The first 6 days mini skeins included a really lovely gradient of brown toned colours.
And the next 6 day skeins really worked lovely together as well with deep greens merging into dark blue nights, and then the approaching dawn.
And finally, the day 13 100 gram skein of Day Break sock weight yarn was just stunning in soft shades of blues, apricots, and pinks.
I'm really pleased with the yarn advent, and thought it was well worth the money I spent. I've always wanted to do a yarn advent, but the price of the 25 day advents were too expensive for me to justify. But this 13 day yarn advent was enough to be pleased to do it just once. The colourways were just what I hoped for, and I'm especially happy with the day 13 100 gram skein of yarn.
I now need to knit up the yarn advent into a wonderful project. I would like to use all the colours in one project, but it's taking me a while to find a project that is truly worth all the beautiful yarn. I have many project tabs open on Ravelry, but for now I'm undecided...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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May Handmaiden Spinning Fibre Club
Hello friends,
Today I'd like to share with you my May Handmaiden Spinning Fibre Club subscription, and how it looks now all spun up.
May's Handmaiden Fibre club, in autumnal shades of white, brown, orange and red, arrived all prettily wrapped up in tissue paper, and contained 100 grams of 80% machine-washable wool/20% nylon, a small plastic sock stitch marker, and a pattern for making Tinker Bell slippers. I decided to spin it up fine so I could make socks, so I broke the fibre braid in half to make a 2-ply, and then pulled out my trusty rimu drop spindle and got to work.
I love spinning with my drop spindle, because it's the easiest way to spin up super fine yarn for making socks, and it also increases the spinning time, which I find very relaxing. It took me a couple of weeks to spin up the two fine singles, and I loved the slow changing autumnal colours on my drop spindle as I spun.
I transferred the singles of yarn off the drop spindle and onto two spinning wheel bobbins for plying. Once that was done it didn't take very long at all to ply up the resulting 2 ply yarn on my Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel. I prefer plying on my spinning wheel, as my drop spindle can't handle large amounts of plied yarn.
The plied yarn was in general fingering weight, and the autumnal colours were very pretty. After the plied yarn rested for a couple of days, I set the yarn by washing it in luke-warm soapy water.
The yarn is now all dry, and waiting to be knitted up. The final yarn is 2 ply, and is 265.5 m long.
Once a couple of other knitting projects are completed, I will be knitting up this hand spun yarn into socks.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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