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Cold baths

Many readers have asked me about my cold baths. Today I give you a whole post straight from the tub. If you’re cold, grab a cuppa and come with me to the lake.

As some of you know, I take a cold baths in my lake every day of the year. The only times I skip the bath are when I’m ill or if I don’t have access to a lake. -18 °C hasn’t scared me. Only once have I skipped the bath due to harsh weather, a combination of -12 °C and strong wind.

Each day a new bath

The night has left a 10 centimeter cover of powder snow. Parents are leaving their kids at the kindergarten, dog walkers take their usual routes, joggers whoosh by, flustered in the cold air. I am curious about what the ice looks like today. You see, it’s always different, always new.

A ladder down into a hole in the ice of a lake. Spruce twigs are arranged around the hole, small pieces of ice in the water.
A ladder down into a hole in the ice of a lake. Snow covered spruce twigs are arranged around the hole, the water is mushy from newly fallen snow.
A ladder down into a hole in the ice of a lake. The ice is covered with snow and there is snow in the water.
Every day a new bath. Left, January, around -5 °C. Center, mid-February, snowing, above 0 °C. Right, early March, newly snowed, temperature above 0 °C

Depending on temperature, downpour, clouds and humidity the ice can take endless shapes and textures. Yesterday, after a cold night, the ice in the hole was solid, dense and a challenge to break. As I arrive to the dock this morning and peak over the edge, I see the hole crowned with a humbly opaque lid. I can’t tell yet whether it is solid or mushy. Still, it is -6 °C and the possibilities are many. A starry night sky makes the ice stronger while a cloudy night may leave just a thin crust.

A woman on the ladder down into a hole in the ice on a frozen lake. She is holding a shovel.
Cracking the lid in early January. Since I’m wearing my warmMoroccan High Atlas pants I assume the temperature is at least below -5 °C. If it’s below -10 °C I go down to the lake in the evening to break the lid again so it won’t be so hard to break the next morning.

I wait for my cold bath friends to arrive before I break the lid. I want them to see the beautiful hole too.

Descend

When they have admired the lid I skip down onto the thick ice and start poking the cover of the hole with the shovel. The cover is sort of a lightly frozen snowfall slush that yields softly under my poking. Carving out the lid along the edges is done in no time and I get to take the first dip. Dressed in socks, mittens, hat and bikini I descend the ladder with the anticipation of a child at an ice cream stand.

A woman dressed in bikini, hat and mittens in the hole in the ice of a frozen lake. Her eyes are closed and she is smiling.
Early January cold bath. The world around me stops spinning when I am in the water. Only the movement of my breaths and the lake around me matter now. Hat pattern by Marie Amelie designs.

As my foot slides below the surface, the slush yields and invites me into its royal mushiness. A firework of bubbles instantly rises from underneath, covering my descending body with a thousand sparkles, tickling, tingling, fizzing. I giggle out loud as I settle in the ice throne, neck deep in the water, hands and feet on the rim, head comfortably leaned back against the softly cushioned edge. Last night’s snow has added to the height of the edge, and together with the deep slush I feel gently held in my winter tub. The metro moves across the bridge as I lift my gaze above the snowy edge.

Eight breaths

The thermometer is deeply frozen into the ice and I haven’t seen more than the string it is attached to since the new year. I have no reason to believe that the water has changed from the 0 °C it was back then.

A woman in hat, mittens, socks and bikini is bathing in a winter lake. The surface is covered with a thin sheet of ice..
A woman in hat, mittens, socks and bikini is bathing in a hole in the ice of a winter lake. She is throwing out ice floes from the hole in the ice.
A woman in hat, mittens, socks and bikini is bathing in a winter lake. The surface is covered with ice floes. One large floe is covering her.
Tranquil morning dips in January, February and April. The ice is new every day.

Eight slow breaths in the water, two minutes. That is what I allow myself in these temperatures. Body wants to breathe fast and furious, in panic, run away from the lion. Brain says ”Stay. Slow down, Inhale. Feel the embrace of the water. Put the world on hold. Exhale. Relax into the lake. Nobody will die.” I go with Brain and stay. Still, Body keeps persisting for the first seconds, then silences, muttering, and finally yields to the cold, allowing it to come.

Presence

I breathe. Water, ice and bubbles surface from deep below. The hole has been shaped by the meeting of ice and water. Feet and arms on the ledge like a slice of star fruit in a fizzling punch bowl, mittened hands softly touching the rim. Cold perforating my skin. I don’t know where my legs end and the water begins.

A woman in hat, mittens, socks and bikini is bathing in a hole in the ice of a frozen lake. The sun is shining on her face. Ice floes are floating in the surface of the hole.
A morning bath in the rare December sun. The hat is my nalbound, fulled and embroidered.

Exhale. Steamy white smoke slowly billows out of my nostrils. Inhale. Air warms up in pirouettes in my nose cavity, warming up my whole body as it whirls through me to keep me safe. I am in my breath, yet I hear the floes softly tinkling in the water. I am in my body, yet I see another metro arch across the city bridge. I am in the lake, yet I feel the warmth from within. In stillness, yet in constant movement between my inside and outside worlds, my breath connecting me to the elements. My body smiles. I am here. I am strong.

The breath of Mother Lake

As I stretch my breaths I hear the sound of a ship breaking the ice in the middle of the bay. After a while I feel it – the water softly and slowly rising and falling inside the hole, like Mother Lake breathing. The waves from the ship have travelled 200 meters underneath the thick ice and play peekaboo in my morning bath.

A woman is bathing in a frozen lake. She is wearing a woolen hat and a bikini. Ice floes surround her. The sun is rising and she looks peaceful.
A December dip in the delicious dawn.

Two minutes, eight breaths. I allow my legs to effortlessly sink and find the bottom of the ladder. As I climb up my skin is pounding red, from the edge of my socks up to my neck. I look back down at the hole and the covered lake all the way to the waking city on the other side. I whisper ”Thank you Lake. I’ll see you tomorrow”. And I will. Come day, come bath. Come what may.

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. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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.
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Slot-slot-hole-slot

I don’t know how to weave. Still, I do it. Join me as I move through warping a shawl in my handspun and hand dyed silk singles, in a slot-slot-hole-slot dance across the heddles.

Slot-slot-hole-slot. My hands move mindfully between the heddles, picking one thread at a time from the back heddle to the front. 40 + 40 threads per 10 centimeters for a width of 40 centimeters is a lot, all slinky, single, silk threads.

A drawstring bag full of marbles

A drawstring bag full of marbles was the key to keeping the yarn taught for warping. I spent a few evenings on the couch winding all of my 16 skeins onto medium sized marbles from the treasure box my now grown children had stored in the attic. The yellow cotton bag crowned with a red drawstring made me suspect that my husband had stored his marbles in it back in the late -70’s and early -80’s. Perhaps some of the marbles had been his too. The marbles can’t have been anything but surprised by being wrapped in shiny silk goodness.

Round balls of shiny yarn in shades of blue and teal, next to a speckled glass marble.
A drawstring full of marbles came to my rescue as I warped my silk singles.

A couple of days ago I had brought the yarn marbles to my local weaving room to warp. Transferring the fine threads to the loom, and inviting them to an adventure neither they nor I knew anything about, had scared me. Marbles had rolled across the floor in a jumble as I walked back and forth, counting the turns.

The stories in my hands

I go to the weaving room again. As my hands concentrate on separating the threads I realize they are the same hands that danced the fibers onto the spindle through the summer, and the same hands that rubbed fresh indigo leaves into the finished skeins, to receive a glittering row of blues and teals. As I look across the heddle I see the sparkle in each and every one of them. Some are fuzzier from heavy rubbing in the dye bath, some smoother from just having been soaked in an ice and leaf blend. It’s also the same hands that planted the indigo seeds back in March, and pruned the sweet stalks as they emerged from the wool topped soil. So many stories are vibrating in my hands through this process, and more will come.

A warp beam filled with shiny stripes of blue, teal and gold.
My hands remember all the processes they have been part of through sowing, pruning, dyeing, spinning and now warping.

Just as the fibers had spread their wings like fairies from the static charge as I spun it, the warp ends rise in the dry indoor air when I thread the heddles. I tie the warp ends from one broad and one narrow stripe together to prevent them from getting tangled. Through the static charge and their singlehood they are desperate to jumble and move.

Memories of a missed weaver

Slot-slot-hole-slot. One broad blue stripe, one narrow golden muga silk stripe. Kerstin comes into the weaving room and turns the radio on. The reporter talks about the dramatic wintery weather, cancelled bus departures and people helping their neighbous ploughing their garage driveways.

A rigid heddle with silky single threads hanging out of holes and slots.
Slot-slot-hole-slot across the heddle.

I ask Kerstin for general silk weaving advice, she is an experienced weaver. She says she’s never woven with silk. “But Joyce would have known, she wove with every possible material.” My mind takes me to the plastic totes Joyce had woven from recycled plastic bags and sold at the spring fair. Kerstin looks at the empty spot where Joyce’s loom used to stand and we both remember her fondly. Kerstin and Joyce, two widows, spent every day of the pandemic together in the weaving room, drinking coffee at 2. The last time I saw Joyce she came in with the basket of her walking frame loaded with vital medicinal equipment, parked it beside her countermarch loom and crawled underneath the warp to tie the treadles.

Slot-slot-hole-slot (and a beat-beat from Kerstin’s loom). The weather report is followed quite suitably by Madonna’s Frost. It’s been a while since I heard it.

I don’t know how to weave

I don’t know how to weave. Still I do it. The knowledge of not knowing helps me discover through my mistakes – since I never learned the rules of weaving I don’t know when I break them. And I am grateful. Every new weave is a thousand new experiences.

A sketch of the colour sequence in a weave. Broader blue stripes separated by thinner golden stripes, a pink and two purple stripes in the center.
I draw my planned colour sequence to understand how I need to warp.

I have planned this warp based on the sixteen skeins in different shades of blue and one purple, calculated width and length. I warp one stripe at a time from the center out. And yet, my calculated 40 centimeter width quickly turn to 60 and I have skeins left. I scratch my head, shrug my shoulders and thank my miscalculations for having the good taste of going in the right direction.

As I add the second heddle I realize the first one was a 30/10 instead of the 40/10 I had based my calculations on. Slot-slot-hole-slot all over again, with the correct heddle. I wonder whether my 60 centimeter width on the warp beam will mean trouble for my now 40 centimeter width on the cloth beam. My answer is that I will learn from whatever the outcome.

Twists and tangles

I notice that the golden muga silk threads tangle more than the mulberry silk, twisting around each other. This will be a challenge, I note to myself, remembering my last weaving project with a singles warp yarn. And I will learn from this one too. In my next breath I spot a missing muga silk stripe.

A row of warp thread bundles tied onto the warp beam bar.
Slinky little knots add to the challenge I face through the weaving process.

Slot-slot-hole and the last slot. All done and my hands are blue. I tie the ends around the cloth beam bar. It feels different than tying wool – the slippery surface makes the knots glide and I have to retie some of them several times.

Warp threads between two heddles. A hand reaches down to separate and lift the threads.
I need to fiddle between the heddles for a clean down shed.

This is it. This is when I find out if I have threaded the heddles correctly. While I have worked with double heddles before, I haven’t done it to double the thread count, only for a double layered weave and for twill. The lower shed is fiddly and I need to lift and separate the threads between the heddles to find the shed. But it works. This will be a slow weave, and I embrace the slowness.

A striped weave on the bias.
Close/up of a loose weave.
Close-up of a loose weave.
Slowly but steadily my silk shawl emerges.

The first golden thread breaks. This is my cue to call it a day. I will deal with it with a fresh mind and deblued hands tomorrow. I loosen the warp beam handle to relax the threads, pet the weave and thank it for the company and a good day’s work. Kerstin is on the floor tyeing her treadles. As I leave I hear the 2 o’clock news jingle behind me and Kerstin’s footsteps toward the coffee maker.

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. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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
Posted on

Danish wrist warmers

I fell for Danish star patterned night sweaters, bought the book and decided to practice the technique in a small scale by knitting a pair of Danish wrist warmers.

It happened agan. An idea came and poked me in the eye and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Lina Odell, a talented journeyman in folk costume tailoring, has shown image after image on Instagram of the most beautiful knit bodice-like sweaters with knit and purl damask patterns.

Danish nattrøie and Swedish spedetröja

The sweaters are called nattrøie in Danish, night sweater. In the county of Blekinge in southernmost Sweden they are called spedetröja and the versions look basically the same. I asked Lina about paterns for night sweaters and she recommended a book: Traditional Danish Sweaters by Vivian Høxbro.

A book titled Traditional Danish Sweaters. A woman on the cover is wearing a knit and purl damask style top in burgundy.
Traditional Danish sweaters by Vivian Høxbro.

Høxbro has dived deep into museum artefacts, stories and patterns. Despite the name in Danish, the night sweaters were not used only at night, though. A night sweater was a sweater to be worn over a shift at any part of the day.

Of all the sweaters in Danish museums, not one is like the other. However, they are put together in very similar ways. Sweaters can often be connected to a region via patterns, colours, embellishments and combinations. Still, no sweater looks exactly like the other. I checked the Swedish digital museum – oh how I love it – and found lots of examples of the Swedish spedetröja.

An antique sweater knit in a knit and purl damask star pattern. The cuffs and neck are embellished with silk ribbons. A metal clasp in the front.
A Swedish spedetröja from digitalt museum. The sweater features the typical edge pattern at the bottom, the vertical panels in the sides, the main pattern and the silk ribbons. It was probably worn around 1825–1850.

The typical pattern is a damask knit and purl pattern with a main pattern featuring different kinds of stars. An edge pattern at the lower edge of the body and sleeves, followed by a border pattern before the main pattern. Sometimes there are vertical panels too. Many of the museum sweaters are embellished with silk ribbons. The sweaters are usually knit with a natural white fingering or light fingering yarn and 2–2.5 mm needles and then dyed.

Danish wrist warmers

Once the idea had planted itself in my head I was very eager to knit myself a night sweater, but I had no yarn for a whole sweater. I couldn’t wait until I had spun enough for a sweater, though, so I decided to knit myself a pair of whist warmers in the night sweater pattern to practice the technique. I found a light fingering Shetland yarn in my handspun stash and a pair of 2 millimeter needles and started playing.

Høxbro’s book has a chapter with over 200 patterns, divided into the different sections of the sweaters. After having browsed the paterns back and forth I chose two edge patterns, one border pattern and two main patterns. I picked the main patterns from the vertical panel section, though, I figured the main patterns were too large for my narrow wrist warmers.

A pair of natural white wrist warmers knit in knit and purl patterns similar to a damask table cloth. The edge patterns, front and back main patterns and border pattern are marked in the photo.
A pair of natural white wrist warmers knit in knit and purl patterns similar to a damask table cloth.
In my practice Danish wrist warmers I chose the sections that are common for the night sweaters.

I loved putting together and knitting my own Danish wrist warmers. Høxbro writes in the book that mistakes were common in the antique sweaters she had investigated – knitters seemed to embrace their mistakes and happily move on. And so did I.

A person weaving a checquered tabby weave. She is wearing a pair of natural white knit and purl wrist warmers.
A woman drinking tea outdoors. She is wearing a pair of natural white wrist warmers in knit and purl patterns.
A person is preparing a weave. She is wearing a pair of natural white knit and purl wrist warmers.
My Dansh wrist warmers go perfectly with 3/4 length sleeves.

The modular technique suits me perfectly. I love that I can put pieces together as I go. The important thing is to keep count of the stitches and make sure the patterns match at the end of the round. And mine weren’t as wide as on a sweater.

The main pattern is quite large – 39×24 stitches – and quite takes a lot of focus to knit through. This is not a commuting knit! But I found a way to divide the chart into bite-sized sections that made it easier to remember and keep track of where I was.

I decided to taper the wrist warmers as I knit, to fit the shape of my arms. I incorporated increases at the main pattern on the back of the wrist warmers. This gave them a perfect fit and they go very well with the 3/4 style sleeves that I love.

A dreamy fleece

I have the loveliest fleece from the Swedish Svärdsjö sheep Lotta. She is quite untypical for a Svärdsjö sheep but has the loveliest soft and lofty dual coat staples with almost on crimp. I intend to spin it into a woolen 2-ply yarn for a night sweater. Perhaps it will be enough for a pair of leg warmers in the same style too. The fleece is not at the top of my fleece queue, though, so it will be a while before I can dive into it. But I will. Wearing my Danish wrist warmers.

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. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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
Posted on

Looking forward to 2024

In looking forward to and reflecting 2024 I have created three intentions for myself. These will help me focus for the year ahead and in clearing off things that do not serve me.

Back in January last year I filled in a perfectly imperfect 2023 planner, by Beth Kempton. I had never done that before, but I challenged myself to do it. At the time I had just started to explore my own writing process, allowing myself to write wilder and more unrestrained. I had come to the conclusion that all writing is good and all writing leads to deeper writing. In my planer wrote that I wanted to focus on developing and exploring my writing during 2023. I listed three intentions for the year:

  • getting started on writing my book
  • create an online short lecture, and possibly a course
  • finish my knit sleeve jacket.

During the year I did create a short online lecture, Pick your fleece, plus the five-day challenge Flow. I also published an online course, Spindle spinning for beginners. I also finished the knit sleeve jacket I had worked on since 2019. But when it comes to the first bullet on the list, so much morse than I could ever imagine happened – I got myself a literary agent and a book deal with a U.S. publisher for my book Listen to the wool. You can read more about that here.

Intentions for 2024

Since I managed to fulfill my intentions for last year, and then some, I decided to repeat the challenge for 2024. These are my intentions for 2024:

  • Write, write and write some more
  • Follow a textile
  • Connect with fibery people.

Write

Since 2023 was so dramatic in terms of real-life adult things with deadlines and expectations regarding my book, I need to keep deadlines in 2024 too. I need to submit my manuscript on October 1st. So, naturally, writing will be one of my intentions for 2024. It would be anyway, though.

A notebook in which someone has written in longhand: Listen to the wool.
My upcoming book Listen to the wool is a high priority this year.

I have spent every morning since Christmas in my writing cave. Just the other day I finished one of the longest and most research heavy chapters. When I get back to work again on January 8th there will of course be less time to write, but I will still be able to write a few times a week.

My morning ritual, that includes a writing practice, will still be an important part of my day. I need a space for wild writing and for welcoming whatever wants to be written onto the page, not just the structure of my book. I do this with a pen and a journal. Writing on a computer has its charm, but crafting my words with my hand allows me to write less restrained and from a deeper place in my heart.

A solo writing retreat

Beth Kempton offers a virtual writing retreat that I have been curious about. I enrolled in the retreat and booked myself four nights at an Airbnb tiny house in a town just a three hour train ride from my home. The tiny house has large windows with a spectacular view over a lake. Those were actually my requirements when I browsed for accommodation – a tiny house, a spectacular view from my writing space and just steps away from a dip. I will have my retreat in the end of March, and the hosts promised to keep a hole in the ice open for me and my daily dips when I arrive. I am so looking forward to this and where it may lead me.

Write some more

I also enrolled in a live 7-week writing course in May and June. At the moment I have no idea if I can carve out the time to do it live, but if I don’t, I will just do it later, when the book manuscript has settled.

Follow a textile

I have lots of exciting fleeces in my fleece stash at the moment. As I have picked them I have got ideas of how they may want to be spun and with what kind of textile I want to make them shine. Some ideas involve knitting yarns for different sweater projects, others involve loose weaves to full in a fulling mill with my wool traveling club in May.

A checquered weave in a loom. The weaver’s legs are visible through the weave.
I’m weaving (with stashed commercial yarn in this picture) to full in a fulling mill.

I also have four meters of a seriously yummy linen/wool twill fabric for which I have an idea for a larger project.

Connect

As I read through the planner I had filled in for 2024, I saw that almost all of it were solo things – writing, enrolling in online courses, spinning and sewing. I am very much of an introvert, but all the more reason for me not to hide in a cave. I need to connect with people to stay connected to the world. And by connecting with people I mean one at a time with deep conversations in a nerdy subject.

A person photographing a horned sheep. Cows in the background.
Dan photographing a gute ram for the book on one of our sheep farm excursions.

As Dan and I have started taking photos for the book we have visited a number of sheep owners and their flocks to take pictures of Swedish sheep breeds. These trips have been so valuable, and Dan and I have talked a lot about how deeply the visits touched us and how much we learned. These meetings, I have realized, are such important parts of the book and of my understanding of wool and spinning. I want more of these connections, for myself as well as for the crispiness of the book.

I have said no to new course inquiries before the manuscript deadline, but I will be teaching my five-day course at Sätergläntan as I have for the past years. That is also a lovely opportunity to connect to fibery friends.

A commitment

In the winter writing retreat I am enrolled in, I got the assignment to make a commitment for the year to come. This is what I came up with:

Dear Writing,
thank you for being a solid rock in my life
for encouraging me to make space for words.
Thank you for making moving my pen so beautiful,
for giving me that tingling in my hands to shape lines into letters and words,
all the way back to when I was twelve
and wanted to style me p:s and r:s in the same
bobbin-lace shapes
as my dear aunt Harriet’s.
Thank you for opening the door to exploring inwards
where there is no limit beyond the sky.
Thank you for offering me a writer’s eye
who can see the stars in a piece of moss on a sunlit rock.
Thank you for serving me a soup of hot and nutrutious imagination
about things I could actually never have imagined
without your gentle support.
I will return your generosity by writing,
every day,
to writing wildly, softly,
sparkling and whispering.
I will commit to you
by reading others’ words to fill my writing belly,
by exploring my crafting process
with wool flowing through my hands and mind,
and by moving my body,
because I believe that moving the body helps moving the mind
out of stagnation and into new worlds and possibilities.
I will peek out from my writing cave once and again
by connecting to other spinners and wool people
to fill my crafting belly,
to being curious about those around me
and seeing others’ views than my own.
I will keep choosing writing,
listening to what wants to be written
and being kind to my writing life.
I am a writer and I will keep myself nourished
with words.

In that, my friends, you are my most important critics and I thank you for reading my words.

Happy spinning!

You. can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

Looking back at 2023

This time of year I like to take a look back at the blog posts (52 as it turns out) I have published and see where they have taken me. Come and join me, there is lots to read and dive in to.

Destashing

This blogging year has been a lot about destashing fleeces and handspun yarn. A full fleece queue where the fleeces are older than one year can be quite stressful, so I wrote about the ladies in waiting and what I planned to do with them. I also reflected over all the projects I had going. I do like to have parallel projects, but there were a bit too many at the time and I managed to destash some of them and also some of my knitting project.

A woman is sitting cross-legged outdoors. She is wearing a cropped handknit sweater in blue, grey and white.
Seven knit hats in a ros.
A woman wearing a handknit linen sweater in a sea green colour.
A yoga top and seven hats all from destashed and/or ripped handspun yarns. The linen top to the right is made from commercial yarn I ripped from a top I knit back in 2014.

During the autumn I have knit several things with either destashed or ripped yarns:

  • the Seguin top from commercial linen yarn
  • a yoga top from stashed handspun Icelandic yarn
  • A shawl from stashed and ripped handspun yarn
  • Seven hats from stashed and ripped handspun yarns.
A woman looking at the view over a lake. She is wearing a grey garter stitch shawl with blue short-row lace sections.
The Waiting for rain shawl swallowed a lot of my handspun stash.

My handspun stash is considerably smaller and even I feel lighter. I also have new ideas about how to use the remaining skeins. During the autumn I have bought lots of new fleeces, though, contrary to my plan of fleece moderacy. I do blame the book, though, I want to be able to show as many Swedish breeds as possible in it.

The vest that went viral

In April something unlikely happened. I had woven a twill vest in my local Vävstuga (weaving room). After having blogged about the finished vest I published a reel of me showing it. After a couple of weeks the reel went viral, and after a month it has over 3 million views. I went from 4500 followers to 32000.

A woman is wearing a blanket-like draperi shawl vest in green with a big collar. She is stand-ins in the snow.
A woman is putting on a blanket-like draperi shawl vest in green. She is stand-ins in the snow.
A woman is wearing a blanket-like draperi shawl vest in green with a big collar. She is stand-ins in the snow, looking up at the sky.
The vest that went viral.

It’s totally insane and I was overwhelmed during the craziest weeks. I feel I haven’t earned a following of that size, but most of them have stayed and they are all welcome to the community.

Birthday raffle

Later in April I turned 50. I decided to host a birthday raffle and donate the earnings to the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (CTTC). I made an embroidered spindle case for the raffle and 79 people raised 395 USD! I still don’t know if the winner ever got the prize, though, I haven’t heard from her.

A cylindrical case in grey wool. The case is embroidered with bold flowers in rich colours.
A cylindrical case in grey wool. The case is embroidered with bold flowers in rich colours.
A cylindrical case in grey wool. The case is embroidered with bold flowers in rich colours.
The birthday raffle spindle case.

The knit sleeve jacket

One of my most massive projects ever is the knit sleeve jacket. I started spinning the yarn for it in 2019 and I finished it in June this year.

A woman is wearing a jacket with a white broadcloth bodice and knit skeves with embroidered flowers in rich colours.
The knit sleeve jacket is finally finished!

The jacket features five different techniques:

  • the yarn that I spun on a supported spindle from teased locks of dalapäls wooland Z-plied
  • the sleeves that I two-end knit between 2019 and early 2023
  • the bodice that I hand-sew from commercial high quality broadcloth
  • a band I wove on a backstrap loom
  • Påsöm embroidery on the sleeves.
A woman is wearing a jacket with a white broadcloth bodice and knit skeves with embroidered flowers in rich colours. She is buttoning clasps in the front.
A woman is wearing a jacket with a white broadcloth bodice and knit skeves with embroidered flowers in rich colours. She is spinning on a suspended spindle.
My knit sleeve jacket goes very well with the midsummer light, a tie-on pocket and a suspended spindle.

I have learned so much in this project, not the least from ripping the sleeves a couple of times and having to spin more yarn with a new fleece when I ran out of the first batch.

Blue

A lot of my time this summer has beed dedicated to my indigo experiments. I grew two kinds of woad and two kinds of Japanese indigo and dove deep into their care and into fresh leaf dyeing and pigment extraction.

A woman wearing a blouse with leaf prints on the yoke and blue flowy cuffs.
A row of small skeins of yarn in shades of blue.
A small mason jar with a liquid in intense blue.
Under the theme of blue I have done some fresh leaf pounding and ice bath dyeing (left) and extracted indigo powder (right). I got a wide spectrum of colours from my fresh leaf experiments (center).

I have written a number of posts about my blue dreams, the fox that dug up the woad patch, my first ever fresh leaf dyeing experiments, the story of Ms Klein (who woke up one morning thrown over a hedgerow), dyeing with the few plants I had left of my Chinese woad, making an ice bath, showcasing all my fresh leaf dyed handspun silk samples and extracting indigo pigment.

Words flowing

Sometimes my words flow freely and wildly and I end up with a piece written in more of a poetic style. I put Taiko drum music in my ears and let the words lead the way. I love writing this way I learn a lot from it.

A band weaving setup on the train. A pile of books in the background.
A piece of seaweed floating in shallow water.
A woman cuddling a sheep.
I wrote some poetic style posts about a woven band, the sea and the breath of wool.

Here are some blog posts written in this spirit:

  • In One more beat I weave on the train and submerge myself in the beat of the tracks, the taiko drums and on the weave against the fell.
  • If wool could talk is an experiment where I allow a few fleeces to introduce themselves.
  • To the sea is a piece totally unrelated to wool, but in the same spirit.
  • A breath of wool came to me after I had handled fleece that had been freshly shorn off sheep that I had cuddled just before the shearing.
  • Stitch by stitch and Stitches and garden beds are sweet reflections from the embroidery needle.
  • In Pick me three fleeces pin me down onto the couch and hijack my blog.
  • In The journey of words and wool I reflect over the process of writing and spinning, that occur before the words land on the page and the fibers adjust in the twist.

Do you have a favourite?

Summer flax

In the summer I like to spin flax in the shadow on our balcony. And, of course, tend to my tiny flax patches in the community garden allotment. I did start in the spring, though, by hackling last year’s harvest. In the summer I finally finished the linen shawl I started last summer. I spun the yarn from 120 year old Austrian flax from the Berta’s flax project.

A woman is standing with her back to the camera on a country road, holding up a lace shawl. The shadow from the woman and the shawl is cast on the road.
A woman is standing in front of a cow pasture. She is wearing a lace linen shawl.
A woman is standing on a country road, holding up a lace shawl.
The linen shawl is finally finished.

I have grown flax in a tiny patch since 2014, but never spun it. This summer I spun all the harvests, some so small that I bundled them together, some large enough for a skein of their own.

Usually I dew ret my harvest in the autumn. This year, though, I tried water retting it in a kiddy pool. And, since I managed to underret it again, I reflected over flax yield.

Meeting fibery friends

This year I have met fibery friends from near and far and cherished every moment. In August I first met Christiane Seufferlein, initiator of the Berta’s flax project. She was on a European tour and we spent a whole day together in the former Viking city of Birka. Back in April Christiane and I also did a live webinar together.

Two women smiling. They are both wearing knitted lace shawls.
Two women smiling. They are holding each other's hands in the air and wearing black and white knitted pants.
Josh
Meeting Christiane (left) and Irene (right, photo by Josh Waggener) were such special moments.

Just a couple of weeks later I met Irene Waggener, author, knitter and independent researcher. She lives in Yerevan, Armenia at the moment, but she was taking a course in Copenhagen and I decided to take the train down to Malmö and meet her there. We spent a day in the park and the hours flew by. I was so glad I had decided to make the trip and that she wanted to meet me. I hope we can meet again soon.

A woman squatting in a pasture with a flock of black and grey sheep.
A woman squatting in a pasture with a flock of black and grey sheep.
A woman squatting in a pasture, holding out her hand to a black and grey sheep.
Boel (to the left on the left photo, by Kristin Jelsa) and me, Kristin and Anna with Boel’s parents’ flock of Gotland sheep.

In September it was time for the annual wool journey with my wool traveling club. This time we met at Boel’s house and spent the days weaving, knitting and chatting.

Meetings like these mean so much. Spending time with a fiber friend, merging my wool experience with theirs is such a gift. I hope to be able to do more of this in 2024.

Creating yarn

Miscellaneous spinning posts were a presentation of my spinning wheels, a guide to spinning on the road, a presentation of my year in wool. I also presented a pair of new Moroccan High Atlas socks and my collection of antique hand cards.

A spinning wheel and a red chair with a sheepskin on it are standing in a wintery landscape.
A person carding wool with antique cards.
A woman swinging her legs at a dock ladder. She is wearing hand knit socks. There are autumn leaves on the dock.
Spinning wheels, antique cards and new socks are themes for blog posts during the year.

Thank you sweet readers for staying with me. I learn so much from your questions and I cherish your comments. Thank you for making me a better spinner and writer.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

Daily hat

Hats are the ultimate knitting projects. They are small enough to fit in a pocket, they are usually knit in the round, they don’t have to be matched with a twin, you can experiment with difficult techniques without giving up and you can finish them within a week. Join me in my daily hat parade.

It all started with the Waiting for rain shawl I knit in November, from stashed and ripped handspun yarns. When I had finished it there was still yarn left, so I knit a hat. And another. And another. Suddenly I stand here with seven hats that I have knit during November and December from my stashed handspun yarns. That’s a daily hat for every day of the week.

Seven knit hats in a circle.
A daily hat for the whole week, all from my handspun stashed yarns.

Stranded knitting and Algae

The first hat I fell for was Algae by Marie Amelie designs. It’s a stranded colourwork hat with an algae pattern, which suits my daily dip in the lake perfectly. The folded brim together with the stranded colourwork keeps my head toasty and warm on even the coldest of days.

The wrong side of a stranded colourwork hat in petrol, turquoise and white. An elephant patterned purse and a needle case in the same colour scale beside it.
A woman wearing a stranded colourwork hat with white algae growing up from a folded brim. The background colour begins in petrol at the brim and change to turquoise and dusty blue towards the crown.
TheAlgae hat has a stranded colourwork algae pattern and is nice and warm.

The original pattern is knit in a white main colour and yellow background colour. I chose three different background colors that on a sunny day resemble the colour of the water. I used all three of them in the Waiting for rain shawl.

A woman hanging in the lake from a buoy pole. She is wearing a stranded colourwork hat with white algae and a petrol, turquoise and dusty blue background. She is also wearing a bikini and gloves. There is snow on the buoy pole.
The algae hat fits my daily dips perfectly in both design and warmth.

The Algae hat has quickly become my favourite hat for this time of year. The folded brim is soft and gentle and I love the colour scheme.

Mindless ribbing hipster hat

I have knit a couple of hats for my husband, but they are all starting to fall apart. I wanted to knit him a new one, a fairly plain hat. The HipsterHat by PetiteKnit was my choice, together with a soft 2-ply yarn I spun ages ago from an Shetland Eskit fleece.

A woman wearning a dark grey ribbed hat with a folded brim.
A woman in the water holding on to a ladder. She is wearing a bikini, gloves and a dark grey ribbed hat with a folded brim. There is snow on the ladder.
The HipsterHat is warm and cozy and can be worn unfolded or with a single and double fold.

This was a mindless knit, just the 2×2 ribbing all the way plus some sweet decreases towards the crown. I love how the hat can be worn in different ways – straight, folded or double folded.

Arkanoid garter building blocks

I have always been curious about Woolly Wormhead’s hat patterns, so I searched among her hat designs. I wanted to knit something for my son who is an architect student. Woolly Wormhead calls herself a hat architect and the Arkanoid pattern resembles a brick Wall, so the match was perfect.

A woman wearing a turquoise semi-slouchy hat with a brick-like pattern.
A knitting project on a wooden floor. The knitting has a brick-like structure. A ball of yarn in the background.
Just the ringht amoung of slouch in the Arkanoid hat.

The yarn I used was a 2-ply finull yarn I spun a couple of years ago and dyed in an ice bath with fresh indigo leaves.

Greystone cables

My daughter has sensitive skin, so I used the softest handspun I could find for her, Swedish Jämtland wool. I had ripped this yarn from an older project. Since the yarn was so fine I held it double throughout the knitting.

A woman is bathing in a hole in a frozen lake. She is wearing socks, mittens, bikini and a white cabled hat.
A cabled knitting project on a wooden floor. A ball of white yarn in the background.
I used the softest yarn I could find for a cabled hat in natural white for my daughter who has sensitive skin.

I chose the Greystone hat pattern by Melissa Thomson (Sweet fiber), a fairly simple cable pattern. My daughter is quite picky, but I hope a subtle cabled natural white hat works for her.

Jessica Jones and linen stitch

Okay, so if a hat is called If Jessica Jones had a hat (by SMINÉ), don’t you just have to knit it? I know I do.

A woman wearing a petrol coloured hat with an envelope crown.
Both the linen stitch and the envelope crown were new to me. While I didn’t enjoy the slowness of the knitting, I love how my If Jessica Jones had a hat hat turned out.

The hat is knit in linen stitch, which gives the loveliest weave-like structure. The pattern is knit one, slip one with the yarn in front, from bottom to top. This took ages. The moving of the yarn from back to front and back again slowed the pace down, but I do love the result. The yarn I used (the same yarn as in the brim of the algae hat) was very fine, so I held it double. I realized there was a risk there wouldn’t be enough yarn for the whole hat, so I started to think about what colour to use for the crown, but in the end there was just enough yarn.

Growing plants

I had a few skeins of gradient yarn from a brown fleece I had sorted into different shades. I wanted to use the gradient in another hat, and I chose the Gro hat by Fiber Tales.

A woman standing in a bikini and brown cabled hat on a ladder by a lake, ready to get in between the ice floes.
Two hats mounted on balloons on top of two vintage liter measures. One hat natural white, the other natural brown, both in cable patterns.
My Gro hat in a gradient of browns from one and the same sheep. To the right the Gro hat together with the Greystone hat, in my favourite hat blocking setup.

I started at the brim with the darkest colour and ended two shades later at the crown. The pattern is sort of a cable pattern with grass-like plants. The pattern also includes knitting three stitches together right after a cable, which was quite cumbersome, at least the way I did it. So not the most comfortable and swift knit, but I love the design and my subtle gradient.

Shortrows and Rhinebeck

Another Woolly Wormhead design is the Rhinebeck hat, this time with an intricate bauble pattern made sideways with a gazillion shortrows. The pattern description looks daunting with its 88 row pattern repeat for 13 panels, but once you get the hang of it you can knit it with relative ease.

A woman wearing a slouchy hat with a bauble-like pattern in browns and blues.
A woman in a lake wearing a slouchy hat with a bauble-like pattern in browns and blues.
I’m not used to this amount of slouch, but I am sure I will get used to it if it stays with me. But knitting the short row baubles was

At first I was reluctant, I didn’t want it to look too loud. After having browsed through the projects on Ravelry I knew how I wanted to combine the colours. I chose blue-ish and brown colours for the baubles and white for the stripes to keep it all together. I love the result.

My plan is to hang the hats in the Christmas tree and let my family find them. Perhaps they go for the hats I had in mind for them, perhaps they surprise me. I’m keeping the Algae for myself, though.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

The journey of words and wool

A couple of weeks ago I published a blog post where I played with the idea that three of my fleeces had taken over the blog and wrote their little wooly hearts out. It turns out that the journey of words and wool can be adventurous.

The title of the blog post was Pick me and refered – in my mind at least – to the picking of a fleece, as in picking out staple by staple from the fleece mass. As I wrote it (yes, it was me and not the fleeces) I listened to Japanese taiko drums, and when I do that the piece tends to get rather free and wild.

The wild spilling of words

This time was no exception. I love writing this way, just allowing the words to spill uncensored onto the page and letting them have their way with me. The writing process can get very intense and fizzy. Some of my best pieces are written in this spirit. One example is One more beat, which I wrote on a train on the way to teaching a spinning class.

Weaving, writing, traveling and listening to taiko drums. A true journey of words and wool (or linen).

The process is very much alive as I write, the music and the words blend together into a dance, a rhythm that fills my mind with a pulsating vibe. They make the decisions, I just follow along and jot them down, entering a space where I am just the vessel of the words.

Landing

When the words land on the page they transform. They are no longer part of my writing process. Instead, a new process begins the second I share the post – the process of the reader. I have no say in this either, it is a private matter between the reader and the words. The piece takes a new shape in the mind of the reader. I am usually quite curious about what kind of mischief the text is up to in its brand new process.

The process is in my mind and my body. As soon as it comes out in one form or another, it is a a project that holds the memories and connotations of the process.

When I had published the Pick me post I got a few very sweet comments from readers, all about how the post had struck something in them – laughter, recognition or appreciation of the process of creating yarn. But they were also all about a different interpretation of picking than the one I had had in my mind as I wrote it.

A new journey

All the comments indicated that the readers had interpreted “pick me” as in “choose me” (over the others) rather than “pick my staples out of the fleece mass”. This gave the post a whole new dimension – suddenly the presentation of the fleeces looked more like Tinder profiles to swipe left or right rather than the plead to start processing them that was in my mind as the stories presented themselves to me.

I’m picking my gute fleece.

This is quite fascinating to me, how the process, that has been so tangible in my mind for the vastness of a moment, starts a new journey the second they land on the page – the journey in the mind of the reader, equally fleeting.

The beauty of creating

This is the beauty of creating, what goes on in the mind of the creator during the process of creating. The creation, whether words on the page or yarn on the spindle, is just a reminder of that process. When I spin I feel the spinning in my mind, in my hands, between my hands and in the cooperation between them. The rhythm keeps me in the moment, breathing the process in and out between hands and mind.

New memories

The yarn that comes out is something new, the memories of the process, where I was and what was happening around me. When I pick up a spinning or knitting project, my mind instantly throws me back to what I was sensing the last time I spun or knit. When I put on a handspun and hand knit hat to go out, my head is wrapped in the memories the hat holds between the stitches. Sometimes when I pick up a knitting project I hear the audio book/lecture/podcast or sense the train ride/landscape or whatever was present when I knit the last time.

The reciprocity of gifts

The difference between the words on the page and the spinning or knitting is that the words travel to someone else and are reshaped through their memories and connotations, while the handspun yarn or knit garment sparks new memories and associations in my own mind since I create them mostly for myself.

Write whatever wants to be written, spin whatever wants to be spun.

Spilling words from deep in my soul onto the page is something personal and corageous. They are gifts to you and I wish you joy as you recreate them in your personal reading process. As you connect back to me about your reading experience I feel the gift returned.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

New online course: Spindle spinning for beginners

During the past months I have recorded, edited, structured, captioned and created a new online course: Spindle spinning for beginners – prepare your wool and spin on a suspended spindle.

I have been planning for this course for a few years now and this August I finally started recording the videos. October and November were the months of editing and in December I have put the course together on my course platform.

Get Spindle spinning for beginners here!

Beginner

Every now and then perple have asked me to create an online course for beginners. I have been a bit scared of it, though. There is so much responsibility with beginners and I haven’t been sure I am the right person to do it. But then, last year a friend of mine asked me if I could create an online course in suspended spindle spinning for beginners in Swedish, and I did, and it was a success. And so, this new course, in English and with English captions, is based on that course in Swedish, with a couple of additions based on questions I got from the Swedish course.

Two hands pulling staples of wool out of a bundle of staples.
Two hands pulling a wool staple out of the tines of a hand card.
Close-up of a person carding wool.
Picking, teasing and carding the wool to prepare for spinning.

Even if I still feel like a beginner at teaching beginners, I decided that this is the time and I am so happy to be able to publish this course.

Onlinekursen på svenska lanserades hösten 2022 och fanns tillgänglig under ett år. Är du intresserad av att kursen ges igen, hör av dig till Ullförmedlingen.

What you need

To take Spindle spinning for beginners you only need four things – a suspended spindle, a pair of hand cards, wool and time. Even if spinning may develop into a material sport over time for some people, a beginner’s course should be accessible with as few tools as possible. I do however show a couple of techniques with other tools as bonus and inspiration, but they are not necessary.

What you will learn

The course is about creating yarn on a suspended spindle, not just spinning it. This means that I go through all the steps of preparation – picking, teasing (with four different techniques) and carding. Then we move on to spinning, both with a park and draft method to keep the sequence linear, and then unparked for those who are ready to spin, draft and keep control over the spindle simultaneously. We transfer the singles to prepare for plying, ply them into a 2-ply yarn, make a skein, soak and finish. If you want to work with washed wool you need to was your wool beforehand, the course doesn’t cover washing.

We also look at drafting theory, spindle models, trouble shooting and spinning with both left and right hand as spindle hand. All through the course we look at how to work in a way that is sustainable to you.

Who can take the course?

Anyone can take this course. You may be a total beginner in spinning. Perhaps you learned decades ago but haven‘t practiced since then. Perhaps you have sheep and want to learn how to spin their wool. Or perhaps you spin on a spinning wheel and you want to learn how to spin on a suspended spindle. Do spread the word to friends who want to learn or who you secretly want to want to learn. Either way you are very welcome to the classroom!

Get Spindle spinning for beginners here!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

Pick me

Three fleeces crawled out of their paperbags that had been strewn out in the corners of the living room for quite a while, pinned me down on the couch and hijacked my blog. This is what they wrote.

Doris the Gestrike sheep

I’m Doris the gestrike sheep. Feel my soft staples, they are not your regular gestrike fleece. No, my staples are curly-wurly-crimpy, they shine like the inner sky of a seashell, softly, kindly, with a twirl right at the tip end. I have skipped about in the pastures, brushing sweetly against the grass in the late autumn sun until shearing day.

Hands holding a section of white and crimpy fleece, picking out one of the staples so that the fibers straighten. The fleece has both fine fibers and white and black kemp.
I’m Doris the gestrike sheep and I truly enjoy getting picked. Reply to Wicked Rolags!

Pick me, pick my staples, mindfully, and you will feel my glide, my length and my give. Yes, I will give – give you the sweetest rolags once you shape my fibers into spinnable rolls of heaven. Pick me and you will learn my secrets, see what I can do, how I work in movement, in stillness. Close your eyes and feel who I am, follow my lead, search for my deepest secrets and I will guide you along the way. Listen, listen to my whispers and go with my flow. When I have your attention, when you feel my most subtle vibe, you will know how to make me sparkle and reflect that seashell shine.

Glorious gute

I’m the gute glory! It took me two weeks to get here, I was bundled up and rolled into a paper bag with meter after meter of transparent tape rolled around me. It really itched! I looked like a yarn ball, and nobody paid me any attention. When I finally got to my destination and had a hot bath, I was thrown into a dark drum, spun around for ages and came out felted. The brutality! I am deeply humiliated. My cut ends are all stuck together in a tight carpet.

Hands holding a section of white and grey fleece, picking out one of the staples so that the fibers straighten.
I’m your favourite gute fleece! Know that I’m full of surprises with my oh-so-soft undercoat fibers and quirky kemp.

I’m not done in yet, though, I will be picked, I will be freed from the felted slippers and allowed air between my fibers. You see, I have many to choose from! I offer many a kemp quirk, in both black and white. They keep my staples open and upright. They are excellent travelers, they will spred through the living room like the rustling leaves when you open the front door on a windy September day.

Two hands holding up a bunch of wool staples, grey in the cut ends and vanilla white in the curly tip ends. Kemp sticks out here and there.
Will you look at my glorious vanilla shine!

Some of them will stay in my fleece, but most of them will fall out and leave sweet pockets of air between the softest fibers you can ever imagine. The colour of vanilla at the tips, smooth like velvet, I tell you. Rustic grey at the bottom, strong and sturdy. As you pick me you will see what I can do for you. You already found out I can felt into a beautiful structure that will withstand wind and rain, just like I could before I was shorn off that sweet gute lamb.

Rya as dark as the night sky

Do you see the length of my fibers? On and on they go, from the solid cut ends to the tips with the sweet lamb’s curls. No, don’t play with them, it tickles! I’m black as the night, what were you thinking there, really? You know you can’t see to spin black!

Two hands picking very long, straight and black staples from a mass of staples.
I’m your rya diva! Come, let’s admire my long and shiny staples together.

But don’t you worry, I’ll help you. Just close your eyes and feel my sweet undercoat, soft and fine, enjoy the length of my strong and shiny outercoat. I will give you so many options to play with, to dive in to, to get utterly and senselessly wild with. Perhaps blend it all together, perhaps spin one soft and warm, one strong and shiny. Do explore! But pick me first, get to know me deeply, lean in and let me guide you to my strengths, my gifts, my spirit. Lean in some more as you pick me, staple by staple, feeling all my wealth, my treasures and my soul. Meet me in my core and spin from your heart.

Learn how to pick your fleece in this short lecture.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Posted on

Antique cards

I haven’t been very interested in antique cards before, I have bought modern cards because I have thought they were of the best quality. Recently though, I have become very interested in antique cards and the gifts they bring.

When I was teaching at Sätergläntan this summer I met Ingrid. She wasn’t in my course, but she was a spinner and we talked about spinning when we met at breaks and meals. Many years ago, it must have been in the 1980’s, she had written some sort of report on old Swedish hand cards. She had met the last card maker in Sweden and even learned the craft herself from him. She still had cards left that she had made herself, with leather pads and all.

Diagonal teeth

Ingrid told me that the best cards have the teeth placed diagonally across the carding pad. That way more teeth would catch on to each fiber and card it more thoroughly. Most of the cards that had been made in the region of Västergötland she had researched were made this way.

An antique hand card with leather pads and the teeth placed diagonally across the pad. The leather is tacked down.
All the antique cards I bought have the teeth placed diagonally.

I was amazed at this detail and went home and looked at my own antique cards. I did have two pairs with leather pads. They were tucked away somewhere because I thought modern cards were better. When found them in an old and dusty box and picked them out into the light I saw that one of the pairs had their teeth placed diagonally. The leather pads were neatly fastened with tacks.

Waves in the carding dance

With this new knowledge, my antique cards had suddenly turned into something valuable. I tried them and they carded like butter. Smooth and silent from all the years of work, with the teeth following my movements like waves on the ocean, like a dance in the choreography of the wool. With a smile in my heart I put my modern cards in the dusty drawer.

A person carding white wool with antique cards. The image is partly blurred from the motion of the cards.
The wool dances across the carding pad.

Antique card frenzy

A couple of weeks ago I got into some sort of antique card frenzy and started looking for antique cards on Swedish ebay. I had a few terms for the cards to pass. I wanted them to

  • have leather pads in reasonable condition
  • be tacked onto the handles
  • have the teeth – preferably without rust – placed diagonally on the pads.
Five pairs of antique hand cards, wood side showing.
Five of antique hand cards, carding pad side showing.
My five pairs of antique cards.

To my surprise I found a few that matched my terms. I placed bids on (clearing my throat) four pairs. For each pair the final price went up a little more. I probably annoyed the other buyers by taking home all the pairs. But I wanted to explore the properties of different models and makers of antique cards.

Size

Two of the pairs are of approximately the same size and proportions as the modern cards I have. Two are a bit longer. Too long for me actually. I realized I like the pads to be just a few centimeters longer than my hand. That way I can use my flat hand as I tuck the end in when I shape the rolag. With a longer card my had won’t reach the whole length of the rolag. I did not know this before I started this collection of antique cards.

Weight

When I investigated my antique cards I weighed them. It turned out that the two cards in each pair were different. Of course it can be the artistic expression of a craftsperson working with natural material, but still, all of the pairs? In three of the pairs the difference was only 10–15 grams, but in one pair the difference was 40 grams.

A pair of antique hand cards, one with wood side facing, one with carding pad facing. Just below the handle the letters SB are visible.
A pair of antique hand cards, one with wood side facing, one with carding pad facing. The wood side is burned with the letters MHS.
A pair of antique hand cards, one with wood side facing, one with carding pad facing. A label on the wood side says J.A. Bolivar Gullerud.
The SB cards weigh 200 and 215 grams, the MHS 201 and 210 and the J.A. Bodvar in Gullered 218 and 258 grams.

I wonder if the difference in weight has a purpose. Perhaps the heavier card is supposed to be the stationary card and the lighter the moving? I have no idea, but it’s intriguing, isn’t it?

A setback

The other day I skipped along to the package delivery to pick up my latest auction find. I didn’t have time to open it at the time, but a couple of days later I did. To prepare for the photo shoot for this blog post, I dressed them with teased wool and started to card.

A person picking up wool from a crumbled carding pad. She looks at the carding pad with disgust.
The expression of disgust as I see the carding pad rise and crumble in my hands. I think the technical term is eeouww.

After just a couple of strokes the carding pad started to crumble and lift from the card, inside the frame. It tore like liquorice. Several teeth rose and ended up in the jumble of wool and carding pad carcass. It was a sorry sight.

A pair of antique hand cards. The leather pad has crumbled and left a hole. Some of the teeth have liften and got stuck in the wool.
A sad, sad card carcass.

I looked at the ebay add. It said ”Fine antique cards. Work just as well today”. Well, it turned out that they didn’t. I contacted the seller and asked for a refund. She said I should have counted with it when I bought them antique. I replied that I assumed that she had tried them since she wrote in the add that they worked. She didn’t budge, but I persisted. I suggested we could split the cost. After a while she did pay me back half of the cost and we wished each other a nice weekend. Of course I knew I could get cards in bad quality, but in my naïveté I thought she had tested them with a description like that.

Carders and makers

Some of the cards have the names of the maker printed, burned or labeled on on one or both of the cards. I wonder who they were, SB, MHS and J.A. Bodvar in Gullered. Did they card themselves or did they just make the cards? When and where did they live? Whose hands have held the cards before me, and softened the edges of the handles? Have the cards been handed down in generations?

A person holding a pair of antique cards with one hand. A carded rolag of white wool is placed on top of the top card.
A sweet rolag of Fjällnäs wool made with my favourite antique cards.

My heart sings when I hold the softened handles. It’s like I hold the hands of the spinners who have used them before me.

Results?

My favourite pair so far is actually still the pair I happened to have at home. I think I bought them on a flea market a few years ago, and actually in the area (Västergötland) where Ingrid had made her research. The area was rich in card making tradition and had produced the highest quality cards. You can see a card maker at work in Rånnaväg in Västergötland in this video.

A pair of antique hand cards, one with wood side facing, one with carding pad facing.
My favourite cards were the ones I already had at home. They weigh 186 and 201 grams.

Eventhough I had my favourite cards in that old and dusty box all along, I didn’t realize it until I talked to Ingrid and later compared them to the other ones. Just by investigating all the pairs I learned a lot and found a lot of new questions and reasons to keep exploring.

Happy carding!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where 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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.