Wool n' Spinning Radio

Dear Spinning Circle,

This month is the follow-up to last month's episode with Melissa Goulet of MellyKnits. We refer back to that episode a few times so be sure to follow the links below to listen to that episode as well.

Episode 107 | Putting Wool back in the Limelight with MellyKnits here

I hope you enjoy our dive into wool, getting started with first-time drum carding and beginning to delve into sheep breeds. For those new to spinning wool, remember that there are roughly four classifications of sheep breeds, including the fine wools, medium wools, longwools, downs and down-like breeds, and primitives. Fine to medium wools are often classed together, rather than separately. Think of them as being on a continuum from one another. We use the term ‘micron count’ several times throughout our conversation but never define the term for those who haven’t heard it previously.

Think of how wool is classified as being on a continuum. At one end, we have the Fine Wools with much crimp and bounce. At the other end, we have the long, lustrous curling crimp structure of the Long Wools. In between are the Medium Wools who, depending on their micron count, fit closer to the Fine Wool versus Long Wool end. Micron count uses computer imaging to assess the diameter of a fibre. The lower the number, the finer the fibre and conversely, the higher the number, the coarser the fibre. Within one fleece, micron count might vary significantly and as hand spinners, we use the averages to help us communicate with one another roughly how fine or coarse a fibre is.

If you have questions about what we discussed in today’s episode, please post them below. Of course, we would love to welcome you to our community. The Join button is also on the landing page here on Patreon for those wishing to learn more.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Warmly,

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

This episode of Wool n' Spinning Radio has been a long time coming - Melissa and I have been trying to connect for a while, seeing each other at our local Knots & Hops each month, bumping into each other at Knit City and Fibres West throughout the years and so much more. It was a pleasure to sit down with her and chat about her business and love of wool - her enthusiasm is unbelievably infectious. You can't help but feel sucked in by her love of the process from her favourite part of the process, washing, to picking and carding.

Melissa's video on Picking Wool here

Thank you to Melissa for sharing her journey to date and I look forward to chatting with her again this summer to record a Part II. After we stopped the recording, she came up with topics for Part III, as well, so stay tuned!

Find Melissa:

• Instagram @mellyknits here
• Website here
• Ravelry @smellyknits here

If you would like to be featured on Wool n' Spinning Radio, have a story to tell or want to discuss your making, please reach out to Rachel. You can leave a comment below or message her privately!

Until next time,

Happy Processing!

Rachel

Dear Spinning Circle,

Today on the Radio show, Rebecca and I sat down to talk about the sheep and breeds that she came across at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival recently. We chat a little bit about getting fibre preparation done, some of the road blocks to getting things started and more.

Patreon Post here

This was a stream-of-consciousness at 6am Pacific time - I hope you enjoy this off-the-cuff episode!

For more on Spinning Sheep Breeds and getting further down the rabbit hole of various classifications of wool, check out my workshop on the School of SweetGeorgia here.

We have explored washing sheep fleece in previous posts, specifically here. Within this post contains a list of posts that go through the classification of sheep breeds, including Fine & Medium, Longwools, Down & Down-like, and Double-Coated in multiple parts.

I also chronicle (through photos) a Farm-to-Yarn-to-Sweater prep, spin, dye and knit that I made several years ago, right after my dad died. It was a meditative project that offered a ton of quiet while I processed what had happened in such a short period of time. This sweater still holds an incredibly special place in my heart.

Comment below if there's a topic you'd like us to discuss & explore!

If you would like to be featured on Wool n' Spinning Radio, have a story to tell or want to discuss your making, please reach out to Rachel. You can leave a comment below or message her privately!

Until next time,

Keep Spinning!

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

This month, on Wool n' Spinning Radio, Rebecca answered a bunch of questions from myself about preparing for a long trip. As many of you know, Rebecca and her family will be on Sabbatical from their work in Nunavut for 5 months. I wanted to understand more about how she prepared for the making she would be doing while away!

Patreon Link here

Here are the rough questions I asked Rebecca about her preparations to travel:

1. What were you thinking about when you were first preparing for your trip? What were some of the projects you thought about initially? Did that change in your preparations?

2. What kind of preparation did you do? Carding? Combing? Etc.

3. How do you envision travelling with your projects? IE. Do you see yourself crafting while you are actually travelling (planes, trains, etc) or are you prepping more for when you are actually staying in places?

4. Do you have any plans to pick up projects along the way? Purchasing while travelling? Any ideas about where you would like to go? Anything you are particularly excited about?

Thank you for tuning in today!

If you have a story to tell about how you got started on your handspinning journey, a project you're working on that you think others would be interested in or anything else, please reach out! We'd love to have you as a guest.

Be sure to check out last month's episode of Wool n' Spinning Radio here.

Until next time,

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

This month, Rebecca and I sat down to discuss a slightly different topic that we don't often explore, which is about our journey to intentional spinning. Rebecca asked some incredibly thoughtful questions to ground our discussion and I would love to hear some of your thoughts - please leave your comments here!

Link to Patreon post here

The Journey of Intentional Spinning:

1. Can you describe your journey toward becoming an intentional spinner? What was your spinning like when you started? What drove you to become more intentional? Who were your teachers/resources? What practices helped you the most? Do you remember a breakthrough yarn or project?

2. ⁠Now that you’ve been an intentional spinner for a long time, what has changed? What is easier or harder now? How is your perspective different than you thought it would be? What practices have you held onto or let go of?

3. ⁠As a podcaster and spinning teacher, how does that impact your intentionality? How do you spin differently when you are teaching or producing “content” vs not?

4. What are some areas you'd like to continue to grow as an intentional spinner? Have you ever plateaued in your spinning - are there more advanced skills you'd still like to work on?

A few of the resources that Rachel discussed throughout the conversation:

Yarn-i-tec-ture: A Knitter's Guide to Spinning by Jillian Moreno here

The Essentials of Handspinning by Mabel Ross here

If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio and share your story, please get in touch, either on Patreon through direct message or email (rachel (@) welfordpurls (dot) com).

Do you have any practices in your spinning that revolutionized your yarns? We'd love to hear about it - please share in the comments here. 

Be sure to share this podcast episode with friends and family, like and subscribe, and leave a review if you are able - it helps to increase the podcast's visibility when searching for new things to listen to!

Until next time,

Happy Spinning!

Warmly,

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

This month we are joined by Suzanne Reyes, a long-time member of our community who had the opportunity to work on a year-long project called The Importance of Every Day Creativity. We had a wonderful conversation about the depth and breadth of creativity in our every day lives. She has presented this to faculty, students and now shared her story here! Enjoy!

More is available on Patreon here

Thank you to Suzanne for taking time today to chat with us about her project - it was very inspiring!

Definitions:

Generativity - a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation, originally coined by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson; the ability to transcend personal interests to provide care and concern for younger and older generations

Fibonacci - a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc ...)

Suzanne mentions many books throughout the podcast & I have linked to many of them below:

A Fine Fleece: Knitting with Handspun Yarns by Lisa Lloyd

A Craftsman's Legacy: Why Working with Our Hands Gives Us Meaning by Eric Gorges

Craft in America (YouTube)

Great Barrier Reef Crochet Project here

Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

The Quilts of Gee's Bend by Susan Goldman Rubin

Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters by Patricia A. Turner

Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women's Domestic Needlework from the Italian Diaspora by Edvige Giunta & Josepf Sciorra

The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel

The Knitting Brigades of WWI by Holly Korda

The Secret Lives of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger

Connect with Suzanne for more information about her project:

Slack ID: @Suzanne_Reyes

Email: vsreyes4490 {at} yahoo {dot} com

Leave further questions about the project below, or this subject in general, and we will discuss them in a follow-up episode!

Until next time,

Happy Spinning!

Dear Spinning Circle,

Another month of Wool n' Spinning radio! I can't believe we are really into 2024 now! This is the second part (Part I here) of Rebecca and my conversation about our goals and thoughts about 2024. We recorded towards to the end of January so we have some initial reflections about the year, how it started and momentuum on projects.

Patreon Post here

Please take a moment to share with us your thoughts on one or all of the questions we were contemplating ourselves in this episode - we'd love to hear from you!

Specific to Our Making in 2024:

1. Are there skills you want to develop or projects you want to complete in your making?
2. Are there any time-wasting activities you want to reduce?
3. Connection within our making is such a huge aspect of what we do and who we are. How can you strengthen your connections with others in the coming year?

If there is someone or something you'd like to hear on future episodes of Wool n' Spinning Radio, please reach out! If you have a making story to share, we'd love to feature you on the show - get in touch be messaging Rachel directly on Patreon, Slack or leaving a comment below!

Until next time,

Happy Spinning & Making!

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

Welcome 2024! I hope this finds you happy, healthy & excited for the new year. I know here in my home, we have had a very quiet week, watching a couple of movies, soccer games & attending a hockey game (very Canadian of us). The kids had never been to a hockey game before so that was fun sharing that joy with them!

Today, Rebecca and I sat down to chat about the upcoming year here at Wool n' Spinning. The overarching theme of the next two years will be Sarah Anderson's The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs. We will be tackling the book in regular increments - see the syllabus here - with regular releases of content (Spinning Purls) from myself that touch on key points from within the book.

For a comprehensive overview of the options involved to engage in our 2-year book study - check out this post here. It is also available on the blog here.

Access to the Ravelry thread here

Access previous Wool n' Spinning Radio Episodes here

We also talked a little bit about the coming year. We began with tackling some overarching goals we both have for 2024, including a discussion of the following questions:

1. What are your top priorities for the coming year?
2. What specific goals do you want to achieve in the next year? What are your short-term goals for the upcoming months? What are your long-term goals for the upcoming months?
3. Are there any recurring challenges or obstacles that you want to address in the new year?
4. How do you envision your making or hobbies at the end of next year?

I hope you enjoyed our conversation! We have a few more questions we ran out of time to discuss today so we will pick up the thread of the conversation next month - see you then!

Have a wonderful holiday season - Happy New Year once again! Comment below with questions as they come up - if you're wondering, so are others!

Warmly,

Rachel

Dear Spinning Circle,

Today. On Wool n’ Spinning Radio. Rebecca and I sat down to reflect on the year, 2023. We started with a reflection on the highlights and standouts from the year. We talk about unexpected challenges, namely for Rachel throughout the year. Next, we talk about the community. There were some memorable interactions that really resonated with us as we interacted with you guys throughout the year.

Patreon here

Rebecca asked about some behind-the-scenes insights about how Rachel manages the Live Stream and some lessons they’ve learned throughout the year. We talk about how we’ve grown during the year and how we’ve changed our views and perspectives on certain things.

Looking forward, we talk about some of our goals and aspirations for the coming year, as well as talk about some of the things we have coming. More on that coming soon!

I hope you enjoy our conversation. Have a wonderful month!

Warmly,

Rachel & Rebecca

Dear Spinning Circle,

Welcome to another episode of Wool n' Spinning Radio - I am so pleased to be able to produce these episodes with Rebecca (@rebbiejaye). Rebecca took the lead on this month's episode, which was really fun for me as I was able to sit back and participate in a different way than I normally do - what a pleasure!

To learn more, please head to the original Patreon post here

To help ground the conversation, here are some of the 'primer' questions that Rebecca asked us to think about to prepare for recording. If it speaks to you, particularly if you are a journaller yourself, I would encourage you to write these down or use them as prompts to help you in your journey:

1. Some background: can you talk about how you feel generally about the October/November season? How has this year in particular been affecting your energy levels?

2. This year I think what’s different for me is that I’m really expecting the change. Not dreading it, just trying to be really aware. How has this year met/not met your expectations? Surprised you?

3. Sometimes our hobbies help us, and sometimes they get the better of us! Have you experienced crafting overwhelm this fall? Or have you been able to lay it aside when you need to?

4. How does your making change when you get tired or sick? Are there things that happen differently? Does being tired or sick feed your creativity in any way?

These questions really helped to guide our conversation around fatigue, making and energy. We also talk about Polyvagal Theory, which is the concept that the vagus nerve has a role to play in regulating our emotions, social connection and fear responses. There is much research still to be done on the subject and much has not been substantiated by neuroscience. The basic tenent is the following:

• Parasympathetic/Ventral-Vagal State/Vibe n' Tribe/Social Connection - our 'true' self, authentic, creativity occurs here
• Sympathetic State/Fight or Flight/Stress - feeling threatened, stress, perception of danger, 'doing' state, seeking safety, go-go-go
• Doral Ventral State/Freeze/Paralysis - numbing out, immobilization, lack of coping

I hope this is helpful to ground the conversation when Rebecca asks me to elaborate on Polyvagal Theory; and remember that it is a theory, something to think about, and there is much to learn/read about if you are curious to do so!

You can access the back-catalogue of Radio episodes here, if you would like to listen to more episodes like this one. As well, taking a moment to like, subscribe & rate/review the Radio show helps get it out there to other potential listeners!

Share your thoughts below, especially if you'd like to share some of your own journal responses, or in #podcastchat on Slack for community members.

If you would like to be a guest on Wool n' Spinning Radio, you can reach out to Rachel {at} welfordpurls {dot} com.

Until next month, I hope you are able to carve out some self-love. Tell us what you are going to do to LOVE YOURSELF this month - comment below.

Rachel & Rebecca