Episode 17: LIVE

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   Michelle is

            Ravelry: MichelleTF

            Instagram: michelletfcrafts

            Facebook: Valdelia Maker

    Erica is

            Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary

            Ravelry: weavemage

            Instagram: weavemage

            Facebook: Weavolution
Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!
FO:

Michelle finished spinning Evan's (moorit gray Icelandic fleece). Some of it needs to be dyed to be made into a teddy bear for her daughter.

Erica has finished spinning her Finn Breed and Colour Study yarns. She finished off by spinning up the batts she created with the Artic Berries colorway, from Crafty Jaks, the larger skein in the image below left. She combo plied some of what was left with another colorway grapevine, which is primarily very dark purple and green. She also combo plied the Lakeside colorway, also from Crafty Jaks with the colorway riproaring. Listeners may remember this color way from the beginning of the podcast and Erica's color management study.

Erica finished spinning her lasted superwash yarn, in the colorway Petal, more on this spin posted on Weavolution. Although she got rid of most of her superwash stash in last year's destash, there were some colorways, like Petal, that were so beautiful they did "spark joy" and she kept them. Although she still does not like the feeling of superwash fibers in her hands, this colorway was so beautiful it was still a joy to spin. Erica is actually looking forward to weaving or knitting with these superwash yarns to see how they behave and see if that changes her mind about superwash wools.

WIP:

Michelle started spinning another Icelandic fleece. This time she's trying to make a Lopi style yarn by spinning it bulky without lots of twist. She's then putting it back through the wheel as if to ply, but leaving it a single. This takes some of the twist back out. This leaves a very squishy, airy single.

She may have taken too much of the twist out in some areas as it pulled apart a few times while putting it on the niddy noddy.  It sits as a nice flat skein though, which she thinks is a good sign that it doesn't have too much twist for a single.

Michelle has also been carding some Romney fleece from a local farm called 3L&S. It has much more lanolin in it than she's used to and ended up washing this fleece again after opening up the locks.

Erica has been spinning up a storm! She recently spun two different colorways from Sweet Georgia Yarns Tea Leaves on BFL/Silk bleand (braid undone and wound in large ball below) and Falling Leaves on Gotland. Erica loves Sweet Georgia Yarns fibers, she loves them so much most of the braids she has bought from SGY have remained stashed. Unfortunately this was a bit hard on the Gotland braid (below right). The first single of Falling Leaves was left to air out for several weeks, but was still quite compacted, not unsurprising from a long wool. She took advice she received in the Wool N Spinning Community and is steaming the second half of the braid in the bathroom.

Tea Leaves Fiber                                                               Tea Leaves single on the bobbin

Tea Leaves single rewound onto storage bobbin             Falling leaves rewound       

 Erica was actually fortunate that Ply Away was cancelled this year. Erica generally is unable to attend Ply Away without taking a significant amount of time off work, hopefully it will fall over Spring Break one year! Due to the unfortunate cancellation of the event, she was able to purchase several One of a Kind colorways from Fiber Optic Yarns. The first one she chose to spin was the below Wensleyday, her first longwool spin for her 51 Yarns study. The staple length was about 8". Erica saw first hand that longwools do not need much twist at all before they become a bit ropey. She is going to study up and practice a bit more, before spinning the purple one of a kind colorway she also ordered in Wensleydale. It has been a lot of fun to have some new fibers to spin and become familiar with, especially since Erica has actually traveled to the actual town of Wensleydale. :)

Erica is glad to be back at her damask weaving, she has resleighed the reed and is again sampling different color weft and refining her design.