Yarnspinners Tales's Podcast

The sheep breed for this podcast was new to me, after all my years of reviewing. The Gulf Coast Native was raised long ago for it's tolerance to the conditions of the deep US south regions. But it lost it's favored position, and is now on the critical list of sheep breeds. The group 52 weeks of sheep included it this year in it's list to study. I purchased my fiber sample from Herie7 in the Etsy store.

I also spend some time talking about washing fleeces that are very dirty. Beside the dish detergent Dawn which is readily available, I review Namaste Farms washing products from Natalie Redding. It is available from the Woolery here.

This podcast is a review of spinning the fibers from two Welsh sheep breeds. The Black Welsh Mountain is commonly known in the US, but it considered a conservation breed, due to it's small number of animals. The Welsh mountain sheep is white, and not raised much in the US.

I had reviewed the BWM breed in several previous podcasts, so I will provide links to those.

Episode 62 is a review of the breed's fiber

Episode 64 is an interview with a BWM breeder Oogie McGuire. Her ranch is call Desert Weyr and she is still selling the BWM fiber and yarns and is now part of the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program.

Because of my participation in the fleece study group 52 Weeks of Sheep, I discovered the other Welsh Mountain sheep, with white fleece. I got a sampling of UK fiber for both the BWM and the Welsh Mountain from Wychwood Spinner and talk about both in the podcast. The fleece of Welsh mountain that I purchased at a fiber fair is unfortunately unidentified as to the vendor so I can not give a link to that at this time.

This is another short breed review podcast. The East Fresian fiber I spun was a lovely brown color and very easy to spin in roving.

There is a short information portion included at the end for a breed of hair sheep called Barbados Blackbelly. Unfortunately I have not been able to get a fiber sample yet for this Shave 'Em to Save 'Em passport breed. But the group 52 weeks of sheep had it on the list for week 8, which is part of this podcast timing. If I ever have the chance to spin some of the fiber, I will review it again.

This is the first of a series of sheep breed fleece reviews. Today's episode is about the Cheviot sheep. I was able to spin sample from two different families of this sheep, the Classic Cheviot from the US farm Yucca Farm. I was not able to find a web link for them on Google.

The Brecknock Hill Cheviot sample came from Wychwood Spinner. It was part of a Welsh Experience sampler pack.

I previously reviewed this breed in Episode 8 of this podcast, if you would like to listen to that also.

Today's podcast includes an interview with Deborah Niemann, who has the wonderful job of working for the Livestock Conservancy organization. In our interview, she shares all the details of the next two year program to introduce spinners and fiber artists to the 22 rare and recovering breeds of sheep through the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program. I recently got the passport that is used to record whenever you use a fiber from one of these breeds and will be talking about working with these fibers in future pod casts.

Here are some of the links for this podcast:

Livestock Conservancy

SESE program

Teaching videos for sheep breeders of rare wools

Woolhalla Tunis a provider of SESE breeds fiber

Incredible Edible use of waste fleece for mulching

Finally I will be renewing my efforts to remind my listeners about the Spinners' Journal I have for sale, by periodical posting a promo pod cast. If you are interested now, you can find it on Lulu.com here

One of my year long projects is being a part of the FaceBook group called 52 Weeks of Sheep. Each week we study a different breed of fiber producing animals, mostly sheep. In this podcast I talk about the last month of those studies, and go into detail on two new to me breeds. Both are French in origin, the Bleu du Maine and the Charollais. One thing I failed to mention in the podcast was after spinning the Charollais fiber, I used for the first time a small sampler loom. It is a fun way to sample texture or colors one would see if the yarns are to be used weaving. It's final product size is a perfect mug rug.

My fiber that I used to spin these breeds came from Wychwood Spinner.

Another breed was the BFL. The photo shows a Blue Faced Leicester skein I spun from top purchased from Hilltop Cloud.

The group also studied Cheviot. I did a breed review in Episode 8, if you want to listen to it again. Likewise Episode 45 is my previous review of the breed Coopworth. I was not able to obtain any of this fiber yet to add to this review.

I visited the yarn store in Nashville Ind, called The Clay Purl. There is a knit night there on Tuesday evenings, and it was lovely to meet the knitters and sit and listen and join the conversation. The shop is full of lovely yarn and some dyed fibers for spinning. I purchased a merino braid dyed by Bean Blossom Fibers.

Happy New Year! 2020 oh my. I start out this podcast with a yarnspinnerstales, about seeing life with perfect vision.

And speaking of new, Santa brought a brand new mic set up for the YST studio. It meant a new learning curve, and I think the sound will improve more as I work with it, but all in all I am happy with it.

Over the next two years, I am going to revisit and redo my rare breed sample files. It has always been a passion of mine to find and spin as many breeds of sheep as I can. I have found a group on Face Book called 52 weeks of sheep who have the same passion. Each week there is a new breed to study and hopefully have fiber to spin. This week's breed was one I had never heard about, Bleu de Maine. I love the blue black faces of these sheep and have included the photo for this podcast.

Here's the links promised in the podcast:

The designer of the mystery shawl I am currently knitting with my handspun is Lyrical Knits.

The yarn I am using was an experiment to dye the tertiary colors. I talk about it in episode 51.

The Shave Em to Save Em program and other good information about rare breeds conservation programs can be found on the livestock conservancy web page.

And the source I found on Etsy for samples of a few of what I will be spinning with the 52 Weeks of Sheep face book group is WychWood Spinner.

Finally the fiber I am spinning currently is a dyed Blue Face Leicester from A Star is Shorn.

The book Spinning Wool beyond the Basics is by Anne Field. This podcast is a review of the book.

There are two editions of this book. The first, published in 2010 by Trafalgar Square Publishing is shown here on Ebay. Google book link is here.

The second edition was published by A & C Black Publishers. It seems to be the same book and information, although I have not seen an actual copy of the book yet. It is shown in this link at Alibris.

I talk about her differentiating between four ways to spin, woolen, semi woolen, worsted, and semi worsted. The preparation of the fiber and the actual way it is spun, determines which type of yarn you are spinning.

This podcast continues from episode 164, for Oct 2019. I talk about a few problems I had to solve during the Spin Together, with my wheel and spinning.

The strange title of this podcast. is all about a major reorganization I did of my fiber.

The 100 year shawl along I mention, can be found as a group on Facebook. That is also true of the other group I am in called 52 Weeks of Sheep.

One of the breeds this group recently studied was Babydoll Southdown, and I talk some in the podcast about this breed's information.

The fiber fair I went to and talk about in this podcast has a web page here, if you want to plan to go next October.

My wonderful door prize at the fiber fair, came from Rock and String Creations.

So much happening on the spinning front for me this month, that I needed two podcasts to talk about it all. So this is the first one, and Episode 165 will continue with more spinning goodness.

As promised, some links to people mentioned in the podcast:

A lovely squishy package arrived at my house one day full of Baby Doll South down fiber. It was processed and mixed with lovely mohair and a tiny bit of nylon. The ewe's name is Lily and was white. The ram's name is Ray, and is a lovely silver gray.

This fiber is from Teresa at SpinHistory.com

Wooly Knob Fiber Mill, is only on FaceBook, search for them there.

Fall Apart Farm, McArthur, Ohio has purebreed registered Icelandic sheep. They also can be found on Face

Dream Weaver Fiber Arts where I met Kathy at the Wool Gathering and bought a lovely turkish spindle.

Alpaca Pines Fiber and Mill is the source of the beautiful alpaca I spun during Spin Together. They are in Illinois.

The Spin Together Group on Facebook is now a good choice for replacing Spinzilla, spinning during the first week of Oct. Check it out for next year's spinning.