Something peculiar happened on my bike ride to work the other day. I met an ant with superpowers. I decided to call her Myra and she kept me company during the rainy bike ride. Read the whole piece on Substack: Ant Myra.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Today on Substack: Novemberness. About what the trees and November teach me about life and light.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Many of the fleeces I buy come from sheep with stories, and it is these fleeces that bring that extra depth to whatever I make from it. Today I share some of those stories.
Pia-Lotta I, II and III
The first fleece I got was at a city farm where I took my very first spinning lesson. I got a box in my lap, filled to the brim with small and crimpy staples. The name Pia-Lotta was written on the side. Pia-lotta was a Swedish finull lamb, just relieved of her wooly fleece and skipping about outside the barn where we sat.
On a course in small-scale sheep farming back in 2015 I got to shear Pia-Lotta the Finull sheep. One of the things I made of her fleece was a Shift of focus sweater by Veera Välimäki.
Pia-Lotta wasn’t supposed to live beyond the summer, though. She wasn’t one of the lucky ones that would be allowed to stay at the farm. But just as a large van was coming to take her and her friends to slaughter, the sheep farmer changed her mind. The much loved ram who had fathered her had been bullied to death by some local children, and Pia-Lotta looked so much like him that the sheep farmer couldn’t bear losing her too. From that first fleece and a few more of hers after that I spun yarn for a couple of sweaters, a pair of mittens, an array of hats and a Fair Isle vest. Since then, Finull wool always makes my heart tingle and sprinkle memories from my first years of spinning.
Gunvor, queen of stripes
I asked a sheep farming friend of mine, Claudia, if I could buy fleeces from one of her Gestrike sheep over a few of years to see how the wool changed over time. Claudia picked out Gunvor, a lamb born white with large black spots. I got her first and second shearings. I used them both in the same project – a pair of pants with black and white stripes. The pants have been traditional in the Moroccan High Atlas, and Irene Waggener has adapted the orally transferred description for a western audience in her book Keepers of the Sheep. Women spun the wool on traditional spindles and their husbands, usually shepherds, knit the pants.
Gunvor the Gestrike ewe who was my longitudinal fleece study sheep. The life through her first two shearings shows in the fading stripes of my pants.
I used a Navajo style floor spindle to spin and ply the bulky yarn.The black spots in Gunvor’s fleece had faded some in the second shearing, something that is common with the breed. I placed the black stripes in a gradient with black at the bottom and lighter up the legs.
Unfortunately, Gunvor got two diseases that were painful for her and not advisable to breed on, so she had to be taken away. Her life as well as my project was cut short. But afterwards I realized that I did get a study of the changing of the wool over time after all, in the way I had placed the stripes in the pants. I wear them in the winter when I go down to the lake to take an ice bath, smiling all the way in my warm and wooly stripes.
Härvor full of cuddles
Härvor is also a sheep in Claudia’s flock. I met her a year ago when I first came for a photo shoot for my book and a few days later helped Claudia on shearing day. Härvor has the loveliest, rustic grey fleece, quite typical for the breed with conical staples with airy and warm undercoat and long and strong outercoat.
The Gestrike sheep Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. One skein of Härvor’s yarn (here together with yarn from the white Doris in the same flock) is part of a secret project.
Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. She was a bit sceptical at first, but then she kept coming to me, poking me until I placed my arms around her neck. How could I then not smuggle her fleece back home? I have spun one skein as part of a secret project.
Lotta and the red barn door
Last autumn I taught a beginner’s class in suspended spindle spinning in Uppsala, just north of Stockholm. One of the students, Åsa, has a flock of Svärdsjö sheep and on day two of the course she brought a couple of bags of fleece from her girls. Svärdsjö wool is usually white with fine and glittering wool in curly staples that sometimes curl back on themselves like ringlets. One fleece, though, stood out. The Svärdsjö glitter was there, but the staples were open and airy and had quite long outercoat fibers. Lotta was the name of the sheep. On a few places the wool was red since Lotta had a favourite barn door she liked to scratch her side against.
The glittering (and occasionally reddish) locks of Lotta’s fleece are becomingyarn for a Danish night sweater with its typical stitch and star pattern.
I bought the 1200 grams of wool and spent several hours picking it while I listened to an audiobook by Valérie Perrin. I spun it into a soft and fine 2-ply yarn for a Danish night sweater. As I approached the middle of the torso I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn. I contacted Åsa and she sent me 300 grams from this year’s shearing of Lotta’s fleece. There were no red stains in this batch. However, Lotta seems to have scratched against the ground instead – I found of dark granules between the fibers. Luckily the fleece is quite open and a lot of the vegetable matter fell out as I picked the fleece while listening to Jane Eyre. The rest will fall out during teasing and carding.
Frida in my arms
I met Frida in April when I helped my friend Lena on shearing day. Lena shears her flock of Dalapäls sheep with hand shears and I was happy to help while my husband Dan took photos for the book. I started with Parisa, two years old and with very long and airy staples. Since it was so late in the spring, the lanolin was thick and waxy and a struggle to shear. On day two I turned to eleven year old Frida, Lena’s oldest sheep, whose fleece was a lot finer and airier and easier to work with.
From shearing through spinning and dyeing with Frida the 11-year-old Dalapäls sheep.
Dalapäls sheep is a forest breed with a distinctive flock mentality. They pay close attention to potential predators, as they should – this flock lives on wolf territory. I wouldn’t be able to come close to any of Lena’s Dalapäls sheep. But on shearing day Lena drives them into the narrow shearing pen where they have no way to go and I get to lean my body against the sheep I am shearing, feeling her warmth and her sheepiness.
A few months later I met my walking wheel for the first time. In my basket I had fourty-nine glittering rolags of Frida’s wool ready for a dance with the wheel. And we waltzed and twirled until the basket was empty. As a final step I dyed the skein with my homegrown fresh indigo leaves.
Tvaga of the Baltic sea
On yet another photo shoot visit to a sheep farm I met Tvaga the Brännö sheep. Dan and I visited Louise who lives in an archipelago a couple of hours north of Stockholm. Louise picked us up in her boat and took us to three different island where some of her sheep were grazing. On the final island, where Louise lives, I met Tvaga, a lamb. Or, I should perhaps say I saw her, she was too shy to answer my invitations. But I watched her sweet lamb locks in a gradient from white to almost black and knew I wanted to explore it. I asked Louise if she could spare it and before I knew it I got Tvaga’s fleece in the mail.
The staples from Tvaga the Brännö sheep comes in a range of colours, lengths and crimps.
As I picked the fleece, probably to the Jane Eyre audiobook too, I found not only different shades of grey, but a range of both lenght and crimp. I could have divided the fleece in numerous categories. However, the fleece was only 850 grams and I settled for three colour categories – white, light grey and medium grey. Perhaps there won’t be much difference between the greys and I might settle for only two categories.
Sheep with stories
All these stories add depth and dimensions to the spinning experience. Having met the sheep, walked its pastures or heard the sheep owned tell stories about the character of an individual gives the fleece life and an added value that is, in fact, invaluable. By having the fibers and the stories go through my hands I feel rich. The wool becomes so much more than just a material. It is a partner in craft and a song in my heart.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in seveal social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
A few weeks ago I bought Lina Odell’s book “Broderade vantar” (Embroidered mittens) mainly for the scrumptious photography. I figured I would get lots of inspiration from the excellent folkcostume garment and Lina’s neverending creativity with traditional, modern and and take-what-you have, use what you want solutions. I was not disappointed and found myself making a pair of embroidered tweed mittens.
My original plan was to just look at the photos and be inspired by materials, designs and details. And while I was, I also wanted to make some of the mittens.
Embroidered mittens
In her book ”Broderade vantar”, Lina has studied old mittens from areas in Sweden with a rich folk costume heritage. Many of the saved or documented mittens are bridal mittens and part of a geographical folk costume tradition. Lina has interpreted old mittens and composed new designs inspired by details and techniques in regional folk costumes and offered as patterns in the book.
”Broderade vantar” (Embroidered mittens) by Lina Odell is a beautiful book with lots of patterns for embroidered mittens. I made the Kattis half-mitts.
The book is written in Swedish and although I hope it will be translated into English, I honestly think people who don’t read Swedish can understand the patterns. The images are clear and the templates straightforward. A while ago I actually bought a book with sewing patterns in Japanese. The many illustrations are very clear and with the Google Translate app I can easily translate the text into English.
Kattis half-mitts
I have no heritage from any area in Sweden with a folk costume tradition and I am not interested in making a folk costume for myself. I just want to investigate techniques and materials for my own pleasure and make things that work with a modern wardrobe.
Embroidered tweed mittens with cashmere details. The pocket comes from the same Harris Tweed jacket. You can see the difference between the fulled sleeves I used for the mittens and the original fabric in the pocket.
For my first project I chose the Kattis half-mitts. They are inspired by patterns typical for Dala-Floda in country Dalarna and sewn in dyed leather, but I chose other materials.
Tweed
I like to use material I already have, and my mind went to an eBayed Harris Tweed jacket I had butchered two years ago to sew a tie-on pocket (which you can also see in the image above). I had used the side pocket of the jacket for the opening of my tie-on pocket. Just to make it a little bit more interesting, I had cut it on the bias, placing the pocket at a diagonal. To make the most of the sleeves I used for my mittens, I cut the pieces for the mittens lengthwise. I giggled at the mischief of cutting the fabric in unconventional ways.
Cashmere
Ten years ago or so, my mother got a bright red cashmere sweater from my father. Her joy didn’t last long, though, since the sweater was washed too warm and shrunk to the size of my daughter’s who was then around 9. My mother gave it to her, but as the felted material was too dense and warm, she never wore it. It was stuffed into the back of her closet and later into my fabric cabinet.
Second-hand butchered and fulled Harris Tweed + accidentally felted cashmere + fleamarket silk thread = perfect mitten love. The cashmere is the end of the sleeves, including the cuff. The sweater cuffs are just folded over the tweed cuffs (and sewn in place over the thumb and finger openings). The tweed comes from the lengths of the jacket sleeves.
When I planned the mittens I realized the fabric would be perfect for the inner mittens. Originally I had planned to cut the fabric from the torso, but when I looked at the sleeves I realized how perfect it would be to use them, with the sleeve cuffs as mitten cuffs folded over the tweed as a design detail.
Embroidery
I like to hunt on Swedish eBay (Tradera) for old haberdashery boxes with needles and notions in it. I bought one a few years ago and still see it as my treasure box. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my son, who recently moved to his own apartment, had saved the same eBay ad as I had – a haberdashery box with lots of needles, buttons and sewing silk. We decided to bid for the auction and share the content.. And so I have an assortment of silk thread, perfect for mitten embroidery. None of us wanted the box, though, it was hideous – although with a charming touch – and in plastic.
Old haberdashery boxes can reveal true gold. I mean, nylon mending thread, isn’t that to die for?
Embroidery with silk thread was a bit tricky, though, especially since I held the thread double. I had marked the pattern by basting it onto the mittens, which wasn’t the best choice. And hearts are really, really difficult to embroider! I don’t know why, but I struggled a lot with them.
Wonky
Lots of the details in this project are wonky. The hearts as I mentioned, but also seams and fit. The herringbone stitches over the thumb seams is not a pretty sight and there is a colour change in the chain stitch. But overall, it’s a beautiful pair of mittens, wonkiness included.
Colour changes and wonky hearts. Lilac and blue/teal are my handspun silk dyed with my homegrown fresh indigo leaves.
Lina writes about this in the introduction to the book – none of the old mittens she made her interpretations of were symmetrical or complete. All had their peculiarities like sudden changes of colours, assymetries, a missed mirroring in a pattern. She says that it is the wonkiness that shows the person behind the craft. The mittens are really just reflections of our own wonkiness. I embrace the beauty of both.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I love carding and spinning longdraws from carded rolags. I have carded literally thousands of rolags by now and developed a carding technique that suits me. But it hasn’t always been like that – in the beginning my carding was more straining and my rolags more wonky. At one point I watched a video where four spinners showed their personal carding techniques, that were totally different from each other. I picked the parts that suited me and built my own carding routine and it has made my carding smooth and joyful. I hope this short lecture can help as a guide for you to find a carding style that suits you, your tools and your context.
Course outline
The course is 40 minutes and divided into four shorter videos so you can watch smaller portions at a time. The video is in spoken English and all videos are captioned in English. I have added on-screen keywords for important concepts. The keywords also make it easier to scroll throug the videos if you are looking for something special.
I go through why I card, what types of wool I card and how I card. I have divided the carding process into three steps:
dress and frame
structure and transfer
lift and shape.
Card your wool is available at my online spinning school now (this is a screenshot).
There is also a trouble shooting section where I explain the most common setbacks I have experienced both myself and as a teacher through all the courses I have taught. In the comments section I welcome you to reflect and ask questions.
More courses
You can find more courses, challenges and short lectures in my online school. Two of the short lectures already published, on picking the fleece and teasing the wool, are essential to the carding process and I highly recommend them as preparation for carding.
Happy carding!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I did some eco printing on a second-hand skirt this summer, using leaves I picked and pressed last autumn and the other week I played with stitching around the edges of the blurry prints of the backs of the leaves. Today I write about it on Substack: Autumn stitches is an essay where I explore leaves and prints through the running stitches, and find cyclic lives in the service of beauty.
Happy reading!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Tie-on pockets are lovely projects for exploring new techniques without it taking forever to finish. I have made several pockets through the years in different techniques and materials. Today I have finished a sashiko pocket.
Making pockets is also a perfect opportunity to use scraps and material you already have. I have used a butchered tweed jacket, a couple of eBayed linen towels and a vintage evening clutch for some of mine.
Fabrics
I have had a sashiko pocket on my crafting list for a couple of years now. I found Chen, an Etsy seller in France who imports vintage handwoven fabrics from eastern China and I realized her fabrics would be perfect for my pocket. I had some scraps of her fabrics at home, and also ordered a sample pack of Indigo resist dyed fabrics.
I drew a shape for the pocket and arranged the fabrics until I was happy with shapes and composition.
Once I got the fabrics (Chen is super fast!), I had a hard time deciding what fabrics to use and how to arrange them. I wanted solid colour fabrics for the sashiko stitching and resist dyed for contrast—some for the pocket front and some to peek out above the pocket opening. I played a bit with shapes and patterns and landed in a combination I liked.
Sashiko stitching
The sashiko stitching was of course the main event of the pocket. I drew the grids and started the first thread and put it reluctantly aside. I wanted to bring it to the writing retreat I had coming up. It was hard, but I perservered.
Front and back ready to baste .
Hand sewing is deeply calming, helps me clear my head and open it for new ideas. As such it’s the perfect companion for writing. With the needle in one hand and the sturdy fabric in the other I stitched away in straight lines and geometrical patterns of endless interpretations. Vertical lines, wide and shallow angled figure-eights and finally horizontal lines. I still pull a bit, making the fabric pucker, but I’m learning.
Assembling
When I had woven in the final end I made a border between the sashiko and the resist dyed fabrics. I had woven a band from scraps of handspun yarn dyed with fresh Indigo leaves, which was the perfect candidate for the job. I even had some of the yarn left for the stitching.
Front and back of the finished pocket. I added some indigo leaf pounding to the back just for fun.
The other pockets I have made have been tie-on ones, menaing that the band was part of the straight top of the pocket. For this one I had bought a pocket hook. Therefore I wanted the top rounded. To make the shape sturdy I made a bias tape from scraps from a pair of pants I sew a couple of months ago.
A bias tape for the opening and the outer edge of the pocket.
Making your own bias tape is a lot of fun if you have sharp scissors and the discipline to draw straight and orderly lines. I added the band to the pocket opening and around the five layers—the front with a lining, the back with two.
A silk band and a hook and the pocket is done!
I stitched the hook at the top and a tassel at the bottom. I made the tassel a couple of weeks ago from thrums I found in a bag of finished projects. It was the perfect fit for a Japanese-style pocket!
The finished sashiko pocket fits perfectly with my handsewn pants. The pant fabric is from Indigoloom and the pattern is a traditional Chinese model.
Flaunting
The other morning the mist had draped itself over the lake and the morning swim was magical. When I got home I changed quickly and came back to the dock before the mist had disappeared entirely. Of course I paired the pocket with pants that I sew from Chen’s fabrics in a Chinese style pattern she provided me with. The fit was perfect and I giggled of joy at my mixed heritage pocket.
I love wearing my pockets, especially in the summer when I don’t wear a jacket. Even if most of my pants and skirts have pockets of their own, no garment is sturdy enough to house a smart phone without weighing down the garment.
Materials I used:
Handwoven vintage (1930–1970) cotton fabrics from China for front, inside, mini pocket and bias tape, from Indigoloom.
Remnants from antique cotton sheet for (double) back lining.
Indigo leaves for pounding on lining.
Band made from my handspun silk yarn, dyed with fresh indigo leaves.
Tassel made from thrums in handspun silk yarn, same as the band.
Påsöm embroidery, in wool on wool, commercial cotton bands and reindeer skin backning. All the material is store bought, but the pocket is embroidered, stitched and made by me.
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I sent my finished book manuscrip to my editor this week, after a solo writing retreat where I read the whole book aloud. Read about it on Substack: Press Send.
I know that no word is written in vain, that some words need to be written, peeled off the writing onion, for others to emerge, flourish, ripen and sing.
While I write mostly on spinning and other crafts in a blog style here on the blog, Substack is where I share more focused writing on a broader range of subjects. You are welcome to have a look. Substack is a platform where writers share their work. Perhaps you got an email yesterday about my essay. You can read it in the email (and respond from there if you like) or on Substack in your browser or app. It is totally free.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Last weekend offered the perfect weather to process my flax. I had water retted it in a kiddy pool like I did last year and it had dried, got rained on and dried again a few times.
Throug all my 11 years of growing an experimental flax patch I realize I have underretted it. It became particularly apparent last year, when my beautiful and plentiful harvest resulted in one thin strick of hackled flax. The quality was better than any I had managed before, but the yield was saddening. This year I stretched out of my comfort zone and aimed for a higher degree of retting. It was a nervous endeavour since I knew that overretting ruins the whole harvest.
Planting
I planted the seeds in early May, with the seed variety Nathalie. I had quite a bit from an earlier seed harvest, and I topped it up with a bag from a local flax husbandry society. This year I grew my flax in two small beds in my community garden allotment, of a total of around 2 square meters. The plants grew tall and even.
Retting
Even if all the steps of the process from soil management to hackling are vital, retting is the one that can really make or break the whole harvest. Previous years I have dew retted and been anxious that someone would step on the neatly spread plants on the lawn. That may be the reason it has been underretted.
After harvesting I dry my flax and ripple the seeds.
This was my second year of water retting. After the harvest I dried the flax in merry little bundles by length. Last year I remember it rained a lot in August, but this year it was sunny and warm and my flax dried in just a few days, which made it possible to ret it earlier when it was warmer outdoors.
I build a fake stream to water ret my flax. By placing the bundles in a kiddy pool and changing one bucketful of water every day I simulate a moving body of water. The retting losens the glue so the fibers can be separated from the cellulose core. Once the flax is properly retted (8 days this season) I dry it again.
Just as last year I water retted it by making a fake stream with a kiddy pool and daily bucketfuls of fresh water. I was very brave and waited longer this year, I knew I had some retting degree to spare before it would be ruined. And I was right! On day 8 of retting I decided I was done, the fibers loosened smoother from the stems than they had in previous years.
Breaking and scutching
It was fascinating to break this flax. The fibers loosened so easily from the core and the pile of core waste underneath my brake was bigger than ever before. As I worked the break handle up and down, my smart watch asked if I wanted to register indoor running. I declined. Through the breaking alone I could see much more of the bare fibers than I could previous years and I knew this was a good sign.
I use the break to break the cellulose core around which the fibers are arranged.
The same thing happened in the scutching – pieces of cellulose core flew wildly in the air as I scutched away. I managed to remove a lot more than I have previous years, and with less effort. The repetitive movements did get me bilisters though, since I forgot to remove my rings.
I scutch the broken flax to remove as much as I can of the bits of cellulose core. The skirt is second hand and eco printed with leaves of grape, Japanese maple, alder, cherry, oak and willow.
Hackling and brushing
Hackling went smoother too, with less effort and more yield than I usually get. I hackled on our balcony on the last day of summer. Meanwhile, I listened to an audiobook and suddenly all the flax had gone through both rough and fine hackle. As I stood there, hackling and swinging the bundle for the next turn, I smelled something anisy. When I turned around I noticed the fennel plants I had been swinging the flax into.
With two hackles (the finest here) I align the fibers and remove the shortest bits. The flax brush is the final touch that brings out the true shine.
The finishing touch was the flax brush, a traditional tool from Ångermanland in Sweden, to smooth down the fibers and bring out that extra shine.
I ended up with 106 grams of very high quality flax – long, fine, smooth and with only a few pieces of cellulose left. The shorter strick is the shorter fibers I got from a second hackling of the waste. I want to spin this outdoors, so I guess it will be a project for next summer, when the new flax grows in the 2025 experimental flax patch.
The quality this year was remarkable! Not my biggest yield (that was 2022 with 136 grams, this year 106), but the softest and best retted.
The day after I had hackled my flax, autumn came. The heat had calmed down and rain poured all day. When I went grocery shopping and put on my jacket for the first time in months, I felt something small and smooth in my pocket. It was some flax seeds that must have escaped from the seed bag when I planted them back in May. I smiled and thanked them for their gifts. In my home office window a bowl is filled to the brim with seed capsules, waiting for their turn to grow gold.
On my instagram you can see a reel where I process this year’s flax harvest.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Last weekend my friend Cecilia and I took a 4-hour class in the Japanese bookbinding technique Yotsume Toji. The teacher was Miro Burman, a bookbinder with long experience in traditional Japanese bookbinding in both Japan and Sweden.
I consume lots of notebooks in my daily writing practice, and when I stumbled upon a class in Japanese bookbinding I called Cecilia. We like to take crafting classes together, and I knew she would love this one. I was right. The course took place in the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, since the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, which usually hosts this sort of course, is closed for renovation.
Yotsume Toji – four holes
Yotsume Toju literally means four holes, and that is how the binding is constructed. The pages are bound together at the back with thread going through four holes. Contrary to western binding techniques, the pages are open at the binding and folded at the opening of the book.
Miro had brought samples from her collection of both antique Japanese books and books she had made herself, all in the same four-hole technique.
Miro showed us samples of books she had bound with the four-hole technique and some antique books bound the same way. She told us that a book bound in this technique is a lot easier to renovate if it falls apart than books bound in traditional western ways. She even showed us the anatomy of the construction by unbinding a book she had found in a Japanese antiquary.
Preparing the pages
We used Japanese paper for the books, in a mix between mulberry, bamboo, hemp and other fibers that are much longer than the fibers used in western paper. Therefore the sheeths can be a lot thinner without breaking. They are also more flexible and quite fascinating to browse through. Contrary to western bookbinding techniques, the fold of each sheet is where you open the book. In the picture below, the binding will be to the right.
We made A6 notebooks with only 10 sheets of Japanese paper. The paper has long fibers from mulberry, bamboo, hemp and other plants, and can be made thinner than western paper. It is also more flexible. The brown paper strip is for holding the pages together for the binding.
Miro had pre-cut the pages for us, so we started by neatly folding page by page corner to corner and securing them in a bundle with a strip of brown paper. We learned how to calculate where the binding and the holes would go and marked them on a template. But before we could make the four holes, we needed to make another two, invisible ones. These were for securing the pages behind the four visible holes, just as we had seen in the antique book Miro had disassembled.
Paper nails
As we had learned, Japanese paper has longer fibers than western paper. The paper with 100 per cent mulberry, kozo, has the longest fibers. We used this capacity to make strong paper nails. By folding the mulberry paper and rolling it we could make a tip to push through the two holes. By pulling tight, the tips were secured like wedges. We cut most of the excess and flattened the stumps, and – voila – we had made the most exquisite paper nails.
To secure the pages we used mulberry paper with very long fibers, folded it diagonally and diagonally again and rolled the tip into a sharp point. By pushing it through holes and pulling, the nail wedged itself into the hole. By cutting most of the excess and flattening the stumps we had made the most beautiful paper nails.
Cover, corners and care
Once we had secured the corners with little squares of coloured scraps, we folded the cover around support paper and added to our thin pages. You can see corners on the thick antique book above. We marked the four holes with the templates and bound the book with waxed linen thread.
And my very first notebook is finished!
The whole course was so beautifully prepared and Miro had organized it all in a very structured way. Every tool and material was carefully passed around and respectfully handled. The only waste I produced was a couple of inches of thread and four corner triangles of the cover.
Paper love
And the paper, oh the paper. I can’t stop touching it. The structure and the flexibility is like pure happiness in my fingers. It’s as fascinating as the fascination itself. I take it out of its pocket and look at all the beginner’s wonkiness, proud as a peacock.
In my notebook I have written the instructions for making it.
Holding the sweet little book in my hands filled my heart with tingles, but also fear of writing in such a precious item. What words would be worthy of the honour, what pen would fit such exquisite paper? After I had rolled home on my bike I knew the answer: I will write the book binding instructions in my newborn notebook.
Another book dream
As many of you know, I am in the last few weeks before the deadline of my first book, Listen to the wool. But this course has made want to make more books, notebooks, for more words to flow. Yes, it has happened again, an idea has poked me in the head and won’t stop until it has my full attention. There are a few ideas standing in line already, though.
The notebook fits nicely into the pocket of an organizer I made for my leather journal.
I have found a way to work when my ideas come knocking. You need to know yourself well enough to know how you can fool yourself. One example: I had a sashiko idea that I wanted to start now, preferably yesterday. But if I start making the template before I even have the fabric, and writing down instructions, I won’t rush through one step to get faster to the next. The template is now carefully planned and the instructions clear, and I’m waiting for the fabrics. And I won’t start the bookbinding project until the sashiko project is finished. Then I will buy a book about Japanese bookbinding before I rush into buying paper.
What do you do when ideas come and knock you over?
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
