Yarnspinners Tales's Podcast

The Black Welsh Mountain sheep is the only naturally black wool and has been prized for that quality for hundreds of years. Still being raised today, it's prized by handspinners and today's podcast talks to one of the very knowledgable breeders of this breed.

Shown here in the photo with a cape made from her sheep's wonderful black wool, Oogie McGuire raises the sheep at her farm Desert Weyr. She graciously let me interview her about raising this wonderful breed of sheep.

The Black Welsh Mountain sheep is the only naturally black wool and has been prized for that quality for hundreds of years.  Still being raised today, it's prized by handspinners and today's podcast talks to one of the very knowledgable breeders of this breed.

Shown here in the photo with a cape made from her sheep's wonderful black wool, Oogie McGuire raises the sheep at her farm Desert Weyr.  She graciously let me interview her about raising this wonderful breed of sheep.

Spinning a lock of wool is the traditional way to get a very thin yarn. That is because you can pull a small number of fibers out of the lock, and give the drafting zone a very thin prep of fiber. In this podcast I review how each of five different breeds of sheep's locks spun and how I made my decision whether to continue to prep the fiber for spinning by lock washing.

The five breeds discussed are Cormo/Border Leicester, Corriedale, Romney, Cormo and an unknown ewe lambs fleece.

This is one time a video is worth many podcast words, so I have posted a video showing me spinning from the lock on Youtube. You can find it here.

There's a second part to the podcast, discussing spinning from the fold. This technique is often used with angora, and I've discussed why and how to spin from the fold.

Interlude music is by Kevin Wood, and is called 'Twilight of Hope"

The closing song is by Lisa Redford and is called "Hope Never Dies"

Both can be found on the podsafe music network.

Spinning a lock of wool is the traditional way to get a very thin yarn.  That is because you can pull a small number of fibers out of the lock, and give the drafting zone a very thin prep of fiber.  In this podcast I review how each of five different breeds of sheep's locks spun and how I made my decision whether to continue to prep the fiber for spinning by lock washing.

The five breeds discussed are Cormo/Border Leicester, Corriedale, Romney, Cormo and an unknown ewe lambs fleece.

This is one time a video is worth many podcast words, so I have posted a video showing me spinning from the lock on Youtube.  You can find it here.

There's a second part to the podcast, discussing spinning from the fold.  This technique is often used with angora, and I've discussed why and how to spin from the fold.

Interlude music is by Kevin Wood, and is called 'Twilight of Hope"

The closing song is by Lisa Redford and is called "Hope Never Dies"

Both can be found on the podsafe music network.

Two rare sheep breeds and their fleeces are reviewed in this podcast, the Black Welsh Mountain sheep, and the Clun Forest. The lovely sheep photo shown here are those Clun Forest sheep.

Thanks to Ken and Oogie at Desert Weyr for their breeding of Black Welsh Mountain sheep. Oogie was an internet aquaintance and part of the rare breeds exchange I did many years ago. She provided the samples of fiber from this breed that I talk about in the podcast.

The book by Deborah Robson The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, is shown here on Amazon.

Music in today's podcast is from Music Alley Thank you to Wren Ross for the very appropiate It Had to Be Ewe.

The closing song is by Marina Tihvinskaya and is called Celtic Song, but is not what you expect at all! Enjoy! Marina writes: "please let your listeners know that my website is www.marinatihvinskaya.net and the name of the album is My Favourite Dependence."

Until later, happy spinning!

Two rare sheep breeds and their fleeces are reviewed in this podcast, the Black Welsh Mountain sheep, and the Clun Forest.  The lovely sheep photo shown here are those Clun Forest sheep.

Thanks to Ken and Oogie at Desert Weyr  for their breeding of Black Welsh Mountain sheep.  Oogie was an internet aquaintance and part of the rare breeds exchange I did many years ago.  She provided the samples of fiber from this breed that I talk about in the podcast.

The book by Deborah Robson The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, is shown here on Amazon.

Music in today's podcast is from Music Alley  Thank you to Wren Ross for the very appropiate It Had to Be Ewe.

The closing song is by Marina Tihvinskaya and is called Celtic Song, but is not what you expect at all!  Enjoy!  Marina writes: "please let your listeners know that my website is www.marinatihvinskaya.net and the name of the album is My Favourite Dependence."

Until later, happy spinning!

It only happens now and then in a spinner's life, the decision to buy a spinning wheel. I had that chance last month, and am now the happy owner of a Majacraft Aura. I talk about my story of finding the wheel, and what I have learned in the few weeks of owning it.

A big thank you to Clare Dowling for her Spinning Song, that I've used for the pod cast's opening for all these years.

The closing music for today's podcast is by William Saunders and is called Chasing Daylight.

If you'd like to join us in the spinning technique spin along, go to Ravelry, search for the group Yarnspinnerstales spin in, and find the specific threads for each month's technique. With done a single study, lock spinning, and spinning from the fold.

It only happens now and then in a spinner's life, the decision to buy a spinning wheel.  I had that chance last month, and am now the happy owner of a Majacraft Aura.  I talk about my story of finding the wheel, and what I have learned in the few weeks of owning it.

A big thank you to Clare Dowling for her Spinning Song, that I've used for the pod cast's opening for all these years.

The closing music for today's podcast is by William Saunders and is called Chasing Daylight.

If you'd like to join us in the spinning technique spin along, go to Ravelry, search for the group Yarnspinnerstales spin in, and find the specific threads for each month's technique.  With done a single study, lock spinning, and spinning from the fold.

We spin singles all the time, but seldom use them that way. If you think about it though, if you can learn to spin singles that behave well enough to work with, how much better you plied yarns would be! That was the idea behind the spin along study in the group on Ravelry for yarnspinnerstales. So for the month of March we all tried four different study exercises with spinning singles. In the first part of this podcast I talk about my experiences as well as some of the other spinner's comments.

For the second part of the pod cast I talk about a DVD that shows all the ways to use the Russian paddle combs made by Andrew Forsyth at Woolcombs

The music today is by the artist Blake found at Music Alley (Podsafe music network).

We spin singles all the time, but seldom use them that way. If you think about it though, if you can learn to spin singles that behave well enough to work with, how much better you plied yarns would be!  That was the idea behind the spin along study in the group on Ravelry for yarnspinnerstales.  So for the month of March we all tried four different study exercises with spinning singles.  In the first part of this podcast I talk about my experiences as well as some of the other spinner's comments.

For the second part of the pod cast I talk about a DVD that shows all the ways to use the Russian paddle combs made by Andrew Forsyth at Woolcombs

The music today is by the artist Blake found at Music Alley (Podsafe music network).