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.
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.
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!
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.
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 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.
It’s done. The knit sleeve jacket I have been working on since I started spinning the sleeve yarn four years ago. This is one of my biggest projects. It includes five different textile techniques, and I am glad to share it with you today. It’s really done.
It started with sweet locks of dalapäls wool and a dream of a knit sleeve jacket. This project has been with me for such a long time and I can’t believe it’s finished.
The making
Creating this knit sleeve jacket has been such a joy. I have had this project in my hands in one way or another on and off since 2019. The sleeves have been with me on many train rides and vacations. Lately also on coffe breaks and meetings at work.
In 2023 I have worked on the sleeves more focused and finished them, and since mid-April I have sewn and embroidered almost every evening. I have felt the soft and safe wool in my hands over and over again.
A five-technique project is finished and I am very proud of it.
Sometimes when I craft I watch a series or listen to an audiobook. But for this project, I have mostly just enjoyed being in the materials and in my hands, letting my thoughts come and go like the wool between my hands, the stitches from needle to needle, the thread up and down the cloth and my breath in and out.
The model
This jacket has elements that are traditional in the County of Dalarna. I am not from Dalarna, but I am intrigued by the techniques and the rich textile heritage of the area. The techniques are sometimes used together, but probably not the way I have put them together. So, while to an untrained eye (like mine) the jacket may look like something of a folk costume jacket, it is not. It is just the result of my exploration and celebration of various techniques and designs.
The lining is almost in place, just the front opening left to stitch.
Five textile techniques
So, in this project I have used five textile techniques:
I spun the yarn on a supported spindle. The wool comes from the longest locks of several dalapäls sheep.
I two-end knitted the sleeves with my spindle spun yarn
I bought the broadcloth and hand sewed the bodice with waxed linen thread (commercial). I ebayed the lining and machine sewed it together and hand stitched it onto the broadcloth
I wove the band with a commercial linen yarn
I embroidered the greenery with påsöm technique and commercial yarn.
I will walk you through the techniques and my journey with them.
Supported spindle spinning the yarn
I started this project in 2019, spinning the yarn from locks of dalapäls wool on a supported spindle. This has of course taken a lot of time, but I have loved every spinning second. Dalapäls wool is very shiny and has strong outercoat fibers and fine undercoat fibers.
I have spun the sleeve yarn on supported Björn Peck spindles from teased locks of dalapäls wool.
I opened up and lightly teased each staple and spun from the cut ends. This was to make sure I got both undercoat and outercoat fibers evenly in the yarn.
Since I wanted to two-end knit the sleeves I spun the yarn counter-clockwise and plied clockwise. This way the yarn looks its very best for this particular technique.
Two-end knitting the yarn
Tvåändsstickning, or two-end knitting is a technique that has an old history in Sweden, and particularly in Dalarna. The knitter alternates two yarn ends, usually the inner and outer ends from the same ball, and wrap them around each other at the back between the stitches. Tvåändsstickning means two-end knitting. A common translation is twined knitting. This translation came about since someone decided it was more commercially pleasing than two-end knitting. I prefer the latter.
From lock to sleeve through teasing, spinning, plying, skeining and hand winding a centerpull ball.
After some adventures with running out of yarn, finding a suitable substitute sheep, frogging and reknitting I finally knit up to the armholes this spring. In April this year Karin Kahnlund, master knitter with two-end knitting as her specialty, helped me calculate how to decrease for the sleeve caps. I knit the caps in the round and cut the steeks when I was happy. All of a sudden I was done! And very happy.
The finished sleeves. Right side out (top) and wrong side out (bottom). The twisted stitches create horizontal ridges on the wrong side, making the fabric very sturdy and wind proof.
The sleeves weigh approximately 250 grams each, without the embroideries. Here are some resources about spinning and knitting the sleeves:
Karin Kahnlund also helped me find a pattern for the bodice, a model called Gertrud. This also happened to be from the County of Dalarna. I had been thinking about having a professional seamstress sew the bodice for me, but Karin cheered me on to do it myself. And I am glad I did, I got to spend some lovely time with high quality broadcloth and waxed linen thread in hand.
I made a tuile out of an old sheet and felt very grown up.
The bodice pattern is quite simple. Two back panels and one front panel with two vertical darts on each panel. The front opening is also shaping the garment. I made a tuile out of a sheet first to make sure the fit was right. The bottom hem was originally straight, but I added some shape to it.
Gertrud the bodice, in fine broadcloth.
Years ago I had an itch for ebayed textiles. In one Ebay raid I found a piece of printed cotton cloth that I immediately knew would serve as the lining for the bodice. However, the piece was too small, so I paired it up with a similar fabric from the same raid. I did machine sew it, but stitched it to the bodice by hand.
A woven band
You know when you get an itch to weave a linen band in candy store colours? Well, I did, and I happened to find colours that would perfectly match the jacket lining, in Kerstin Neumüller’s web shop. Initially I had planned to do something with the band on the lining, but as I saw one version of the bodice pattern with woven bands along the front openings, I knew that was where they should be.
A woven linen band in candystore colours, perfectly matching the ebayed cotton lining. Clasps from DiviniCouture. Right photo by Nora Waltin.
I wove the band on a backstrap loom, using just a bundle of hand carved sticks. Here is a blog post poem I wrote while weaving the band on a train ride back in February.
Påsöm embroidery
Påsöm is also a technique that is traditional in Dalarna. Bulky, almost paw print like flowers stitched with 4-ply, airy yarn in scrumptious colours. Who wouldn’t want that on their two-end knitted sleeves? As it turns out, the dense quality of two-end knitted fabric works perfectly for påsöm embroidery. A tradition in Dala-Floda, where the påsöm technique has been mostly used, is to stitch påsöm patterns on two-end knitted mittens. I decided to fill parts of my sleeves with the bombastic flower arrangements, with commercial yarn from Flodaros. I wouldn’t dream of spinning this yarn myself, let alone dye it.
The finished sleeves, Left underarm and right upper arm. To the right are some traditional two-end knitted sleeves. On some of them the pattern is larger the closer to the shoulder they get.
In some older knit sleeve jackets with knit patterns, the shapes are larger the higher up on the sleeves they are placed. I wanted to do something similar with my embroidery. On the right upper arm the top flower is larger than the middle and the bottom one and the arrangement also narrowes downward. On the left underarm the pansies are the same size, but the greenery gets larger towards the elbow.
You can read more about påsöm embroidery here. And here are some of my other påsöm projects: A hat, a pocket and a spindle case.
If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see some of the påsöm embroidery on the sleeves in the May 2023 video postcard.
Embroidering on two-end knitting
Påsöm embroidery has been traditional on two-end knitted textiles. Because of the technique with the tight knitting, the twisting on the wrong side and the fine needles, the fabric is quite dense and inelastic. In this sense, it behaves more like woven fabric than knitted. I can stitch my embroidery without using an embroidery hoop and without running the risk of the sleeve getting bubbly or the embroidery pulled together.
Two-end knitting is a lovely textile to embroider on.
Still, it’s different than embroidering on broadcloth and it was a delight to get to know the cooperation between the påsöm embroidery and the two-end knitted material.
Wearing the knit sleeve jacket
As I put the jacket on I suddenly wear all those hours of making – spinning, knitting, sewing, weaving and embroidering. I know every nook and cranny of this jacket and I am proud of every corner of it, including the wonky stitches. Perhaps especially the wonky stitches. This jacket has been made with such love, dedication and curiosity.
The sweetest linen shift, from the Berta’s flax project (video screen shots).
The other day I picked up a parcel from my friend Christiane of the Berta’s flax project. She had sent me the most beautiful handspun, handwoven 120-ish year old shift that was just perfect to wear underneath the knit sleeve jacket. It was likely worn by an Austrian woman named Josefine.
Wearing this jacket is such a joy!
I had no idea of the finished result when I started spinning the yarn. All I knew was that I wanted to make a knit sleeve jacket. It’s here now and I love it.
The early summer light
There is a spot near our house that turns magic for around fifteen minutes every evening during just a couple of weeks in June. The evening sun shines through the trees onto the light green and fresh grass. The light is truly magic. It’s there for such a short time (provided the sky is clear), yet I giggle at the thought of the limits. I can’t get everything the way I want it. Nature decides, just as it should.
Greenery in the early summer light. Photo by Nora Waltin.
Yesterday I went to the spot for a photo shoot. I was back at the time and the spot where I, three years ago, shot a video of me spinning the yarn for the sleeves, catch the light. I brought my tripod and my daughter to the spot and shot a series of photos and a video with the finished jacket A special feeling indeed. Pop over to my Instagram account to see a reel from the photo session.
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.
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.
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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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.
79 people entered the raffle, which would mean that you raised 395 USD. But 11 of you decided to donate more than the 5 USD ticket fee, so the total sum you raised is 443 USD! That is amazing and I can’t thank you enough. I emailed with Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, founder of the organization and she asked me to thank you all for your generous donations.
The spindle case was the perfect container for the raffle tickets.
Now, for the winner in the raffle: My daughter helped me draw the winning name. The winner is
Susan P.
Congratulations Susan! I have contacted Susan but she hasn’t replied yet. Please get back to me so I can send you your prize!
The spinning community is built by such generous and kind souls and I am so happy to be part of it. You all help me become a better spinner. So once again, thank you for your generosity.
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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.
My 50th birthday is coming up at the end of next month. Just like Pippi Longstocking gives gifts to her best friends I have decided to give a gift to one of you in this spindle case raffle. In return, you will give a gift to someone else.
In last week’s blog post I wrote a poem about an embroidery. Some of you might have guessed that a giveaway of some sort was coming up, and you were right. The richly embroidered spindle case is the prize in a raffle. There is only the one spindle case and only one happy winner.
Påsöm embroidery on needle punch felt and a hand woven band from my handspun yarn.
How to take part in the spindle case raffle
The raffle is over and the winner will be announced in an upcoming post.
Deadline for entering is March 16th at 4 pm CET (World clock here).
I will donate all the ticket payments to the Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, the CTTC in Peru when the raffle is over. The CTTC is 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. You are more than welcome to donate more than the ticket cost to support their causes, but you will still only get one ticket to the raffle. If you win you may need to pay an import tax or something similar.
Påsöm extravaganza for a sweet spindle case.
The spindle case
A few years ago I designed a spindle case that I now make (without the embroidery) and sell to students on my in-person courses . I do not sell these online. I did have a giveaway of three cases back in 2019, where the lucky winners lived in Sweden, Canada ant the U.S. This time I have only one spindle case, but it’s a pretty one.
Påsöm embroidery looks very good on a spindle case, don’t you think? The lining is a vintage 1950’s linen fabric by designer Viola Gråsten (shown underneath the spindle case to the right).
Here are the details:
The design of the spindle case is my own.
You can put one or two spindles in the case, perhaps some wool. In the bottom of the case is a loose circular piece of needle punch felt. You can remove this, put a spinning bowl (for supported spindle spinning) in the bottom and place the circular piece on top of it to protect spindle tip and bowl from scratches.
The needle punch felt comes from Ullkontoret and is made of Swedish wool.
The seams to assemble the spindle case are hand sewn by me with my handspun yarn from outercoat Rya wool.
The lining is a 1950’s vintage hand printed linen fabric by Swedish/Finnish designer Viola Gråsten.
The button comes from a cardigan that one of my Austrian grandmothers knit for me back in the -70’s.
The button loop is my handspun yarn from a skein I won a silver medal for in the Swedish spinning championships back in 2017.
I have woven the strap and lid band on a backstrap loom with an Andean style pick-up technique. I have spun the band yarn from hand teased Norwegian NKS wool on a Peruvian Pushka spindle and dyed it.
I planned and embroidered the spindle case, the lid and the lid brim, stitch by stitch.
A sweet dahlia at the base of the spindle case.
Please enter to support the CTTC in Peru and good luck in the spindle case raffle! Hopefully I will be able to announce the winner in next week’s blog post.
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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.
In the classroom I want to find each student’s way of learning. I want them to flourish and feel that they have achieved something when the course is over.
If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see more of the course and the surroundings in my February 2023 video postcard.
Last Friday I took the train six and a half hours north of Stockholm. I ended up smack in the middle of Sweden, in the city of Östersund. Since Östersund is on Sami land it also has a Sami name – Staare, meaning city. I spent most of the train ride weaving and blogging. It ended up in sort of a train weaving poem you can read in last week’s blog post One more beat.
Östersund/Staare at dawn
As soon as I had found the hotel I dumped my luggage and went out hunting for a hole in the ice for the next two days’ morning baths. I did find it. Saturday morning, 7 am, I took a 20 minute walk in -8° C through the empty high street. Flanked with two story wooden buildnings from the turn of the last century it meandered itself along the lake. I crossed a pedestrian’s bridge across the lake to Frösön island and the jetty with the bathing ladders. They all had neatly organized holes in the ice and I enjoeyd the shy and quiet dawn from the bubble tub. The ice sang and my heart tingled by the thought of my sweet morning adventure and kept tingling all the way back to the hotel.
Early morning ice bath in -8 °C in Östersund/Staare.
Ullforum Yarns and Barns
The aim of the journey was to teach a beginner’s class in suspended spindle spinning. The local spinners had specifically asked for me, hence the long journey. One of the organizers, Karin, was sweet enough to pick me up at the hotel and drive me to the venue 20 minutes outside the town centre.
Lake Storsjön and the Oviksfjällen mountains from the Ullforum spinning mill.
The spinning course was held at Ullforum spinning Mill and the Yarns & Barns yarn shop, all housed in a large barn on a hill with a breathtaking view of lake Storsjön and the Oviksfjällen mountains. As I opened the barn door the smell of wool and fleece greeted me with a warm embrace. This was a place of wool. I have taught in dull and soulless premises. Even if the group of students always is sweet, the environment does matter. The Ullforum spinning mill was one of the loveliest venues I have ever taught at.
Inside Yarns & Barns yarn shop at the Ullforum spinning mill.
The owner Ingela Fredell was there as a host and she also joined the class. She told us about the mill, its stories, the people in it and showed us the machines and a lot more than three bags full of Swedish wool.
In the classroom
When I come to a new group of students I am always nervous at first. I obsess for a bit about whether they will like my perspective and my way of teaching, whether I will be able to teach them something and whether they will enjoy the course. But quite quickly I make myself at home as a teacher and enjoy all the activity around me.
Welcome to class!
I generally start with an introduction and some theory before we dive into teasing and carding the wool. I try to talk about why we do things rather than about dos and dont’s and how it “should” be done. With the whys available it’s easier to understand why things go wrong.
Sitting in a circle
In the classroom I always arrange the chairs in a circle, like the spinning bubble we will all enter mentally once the initial chatter settles. In the circle we are all facing each other, nothing blocking our view. I want to have an undisturbed connection between us. I want the ability to move within the circle to be available to the students. To be able to see the students’ activities properly I squat or sit on the floor in front of them. In the close circular setting we can have a conversation about whatever they are focusing on. Without tables the students can come closer to each other and listen to individual tutoring and conversations should they choose to. The circle makes it easier for the students to learn from each other and to take part of each others’ challenges and successes.
A conversation
As the initial buzz has faded I look around the room to see where I can be of service. The students have closed the door to their own spinning room, a personal bubble within the group bubble. Every expression is a signal I can pick up and react to, the beginning of a conversation. A frown about an uneven rolag, a sigh about not remembering what to do next, a bewildered look about which card to transfer the wool to. I may see a struggled combing in the corner of my eye or a spindle that keeps falling to the ground. A movement, a gaze, a pattern that I respond to. I see a tense shoulder and ask if it is more comfortable to rest the card in the lap. I see an over charged comb and a grimased face and ask them to see what happens if they rest the card in the lap.
One of my best party tricks is to ask the students to place their rolags in chronological order in the floor in front of them to see the progression.
Even if the students don’t always ask me questions directly I pick up on the signals. I ask them what they need or if they know what caused their struggle. Some welcome the support, others need to work it out in solitude before they are ready to invite me into the conversation.
Moving from park and draft to continuous spinning in a flash. This student and shepherdess had never spun before the course. Look at her sweet white rolags on the floor!
After six years of teaching spinning, I have a big bank of teaching experiences. By now I know some of the most common mistakes, questions, challenges and struggles for students, beginners and advanced alike. I know how to address issues. I reuse the previous deposits in the bank and refine my approach to them to create a learning situation. And I always learn more.
Learning styles
Every student has a different way of learning and prefered way of taking on a new challenge. I want to find each student’s learning style and guide them in the best way for them. Some ask a lot of questions, some are quiet. But I try to look at their body language to see beyond the verbal questions.
Teaching in the right environment makes a big difference.
I want to guide the students to find the answers themselves. When someone asks a question I often ask one in return. Can you explore this? Test your theory? See what works for you? If a student is struggling I ask them to take a step back and see if they can find the cause in an earlier step. Did you tease the wool properly? Have you charged the card with a proper amount of wool? Did you tuck in the edge of your rolag in to make it more compact?
Added value
My goal with the course is for every student to feel that they have achieved something. I want them to be able to walk out the classroom door with some added value, something more than just a lovely weekend, something to build upon when they get back home. In skills, understanding and flow I want them to cherish the progressions they have made, to understand more about how wool behaves and what they can do to trouble shoot the process. I want them to feel proud.
Look at how casually this student makes a shank hank!
I want them to be able to find the answers themselves and challenge themselves rather than worry about what “the teacher said”. A ground to stand on and explore from. During the class I gave them a few mental tools. I want them to be able to use them in several ways and understand why they do it and when.
Bursting the bubble
When the course is over we gather in the circle for some final reflections of what we have learned, what has been challenging and what we are proud of. This is one of my favourite moments of any course, a time for my heart to sing the song of the progress and growth of the students that I have had the pleasure of guiding.
Ingela, the owner of the mill showed us this luscious Klövsjö wool with outercoat a mile long. Believe it or not, but this fleece is raw, straight off the hoof.
As we put the chairs back in the traditional classroom seating we burst the spinning bubble. It’s time to go home and bring the contents of that bubble into the day-to-day spinning in their own environment and keep exploring.
Thank you Östersund/Staare, Ullforum and sweet students for inviting me!
And oh, my next course is En slända om dagen (A spindle a day) at Sätergläntan this summer with a few spots left.
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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 years ago started spinning and two-end knitting a pair of jacket sleeves. I have been working on them more off than on through the years and almost forgot about them. Recently my auld acquaintance was brought back to mind.
Back in early 2019 I had recently finished a pattern for a pair of two-end knitted mittens in Spin-Off magazine. Tvåändsstickning, or two-end knitting, is a time-consuming but very rewarding knitting technique, resulting in a sturdy and wind-proof material. The structure is dense and inelastic and in that sense more like woven than knitted fabric. When I finish a two-end knitted project there are lots of hours invested in it, but somehow it’s hard to let go of. The technique may be slow, but such a joy to dance my hands and mind in.
Jacket sleeves in tradition
A century or so ago two-end knitted jacket sleeves were common in county Dalarna in Sweden. I have been itching to knit myself a pair of jacket sleeves, but as I realized they would take a very long time to knit due to a slow knitting method and two millimeter needles, I hesitated.
Two-end knitted jacket sleeves from Karin Kahnlund’s impressive collection. The sleeves were generally knitted in natural white and black and then dyed red. Every village in the area had their own significant pattern.
However, back in 2018, when a shepherdess asked me if I wanted to buy some singled out very long locks of her flock of dalapäls sheep, I thought of my imagined jacket sleeves and I couldn’t resist the offer. Dalapäls wool is very fine and has a remarkable sheen. Since both the tradition of two-end knitted jacket sleeves and the breed Dalapäls sheep originate from county Dalarna there is a possibility that Dalapäls wool has been the traditional wool for the sleeves. When I got the locks they were the spark for my jacket sleeve project.
Long and silky locks of Dalapäls sheep. The locks come from different sheep.
I mean, who could resist knitting jacket sleeves with yarn from locks like these, despite the overwhelm a project like that could bring?
Two-end knitting
Tvåändsstickning, or two-end knitting is an old technique mostly found in Scandinavia. The oldest finding of a twined knitting textile dates back to around the mid 16th century to the early 17th century in county Dalarna in Sweden. There are many garments and accessories left in County Dalarna – mittens, socks and jackets. Usually the sleeves only were knit in two-end knitting while the torso was sewn of broadcloth.
Two-end knitted jacket sleeves in the making. The twisting of the yarn ends at the back of the project also puts a twist in the yarn ends coming from the skein. To untwist the two-end knitter regularly lets the yarn ball hang to untwist itself.
As the name of the technique suggests you use two strands of yarn in two-end knitting. The passive strand is carried at the back of the project. You knit with the strand furthest from the active stitch. This means that after one stitch is made the two yarns are twisted around each other at the back of the work. This also means that even though two-end knitting is done with fine needles, the twisting of the yarn ends makes the fabric strong, sturdy and windproof. It will last for generations. You can read more about two-end knitting in this blog post.
A common English translation for tvåändsstickning is twined knitting. Read in Knit (Spin) Sweden! (second edition) about why two-end knitting is a more fitting translation.
From the cut end
For my jacket sleeves I spun the Dalapäls yarn – S spun and Z plied as is the tradition for two-end knitting – on a supported spindle. I chose to lightly open up staple by staple with a flicker and spin from the cut ends. You can see a glimpse of it in my video Catch the light, where I dwell in the sweet midsummer light, right at the opposite end of the year from when I am writing this.
I open up staple by staple with a flicker.
After having teased with the flicker I tease it more with my hands, draft it out sideways like an accordion and roll it into a burrito and spin from the cut end. I used to only open up the staple with the flicker, but lately I have added the hand teasing, sideways opening and burrito roll. I think it paves the way for a more thorough preparation while still keeping some of the integrity of the original staple. You can read more about this technique here.
After having opened up the staple with the flicker I tease it again, by hand. I spread the loose staple accordion sideways and roll it into a burrito and spin from the cut ends. Hence, an accordion burrito.
Spinning from such a light preparation can be a challenge, but it is also deeply satisfying to be able to create a yarn from such light a preparation. The staple is still nearly recognizable and the opened up fibers fall into the twist next to each other pretty much in the same order they were in the staple.
Cast on and on
Back to the spinning of my z-plied two-end knitting yarn. Eight skeins and a few months later I cast on for my jacket sleeves. Since the technique is very slow the sleeves have accompanied me on many occasions – in the shadow at the allotment, on trains and on a trip to Gotland. And, of course, in a video that I made in Visby, Gotland back in 2019.
Jacket sleeve two-end knitting in St Clemens’ ruin in Visby, Gotland, 2019.
As I reached above the elbow I realized I needed to rip a substantial part up to alter the size, which was moderately fun. For some reason I forgot about the sleeves for quite a while. When I reconnected with them again I needed to alter them back. Just recently I caught up to the clean and un-frogged yarn and I realized that I needed to spin some more yarn.
During this recent autumn the sleeves have been a solid friend on office meetings and conferences. Several colleagues have whispered to me how calm they have felt by just watching me knit.
A cup of kindness
As I paid my dalapäls sheepheredess friend Lena a visit a while ago I bought a bag of newly shorn wool from her ewe Nehne, who had the right length of staples for my two-end knitting yarn.
Raw locks from Lena’s dalapäls sheep Nehne.
Lena is a strong and kind woman, doing all she can for her sheep and for others. She knows all of her sheep by name and by fleece. Dalapäls sheep is a heritage breed. As such usually has a wide spectrum of wool types and wool qualities over the breed, within a flock and even over the body of a single sheep. As I asked Lena for the kind of staples I was looking for, she immediately replied “Well, that would be Nehne or Ninni”. And she was right. Nehne’s fleece had long staples with very soft undercoat fibers and strong outercoat fibers, and with that very special Dalapäls shine. A perfect candidate for my jacket sleeves. Lena wouldn’t even charge for the fleece.
The fleece of the Dalapäls sheep Nehne is drying in front of the fireplace after washing.
That evening Lena and I talked for hours over a sweet dinner she had prepared for us while the fire mumbled quietly in the background. I picked up my jacket sleeves and started knitting. The paper bag with Nehne’s fleece stood on the floor by the fireplace.
Bringing back to mind
I washed the fleece as I got home and started spinning. I used the same technique I had used back in 2018. Within seconds it all came back to me – the joy of spinning on a supported spindle. It’s funny, supported spindle spinning may be the technique that others most associate me with, and yet I haven’t spun on a supported spindle for anything but teaching for the past few years. As I started spinning Nehne’s wool I immediately fell back in love with the technique.
Auld and new acquaintance
I have a long fleece queue and I try my best to spin the oldest first. This means that the bag I pick up to prepare has been compressed in the bag in my storage for a while. Even if I have picked all staples prior to the storage, they can be a little flat and the fibers catching on to their neighbours.
Spinning Nehne’s Dalapäls wool on a supported spindle by Björn Peck. The mini heddle around my neck was carved by Kerstin Neumüller (and the band woven by me, with the mini heddle).
With this project, however, I wanted to finish my sleeves, so Nehne’s fleece very rudely cut in line in the fleece queue. Spinning this very fresh wool was (is) such a joy. The wool had just been lightly placed in a paper bag, never put in the storage. The staples were bold and bouncy and with such a sweet shine. Since I make the preparation directly before I start spinning I had the joy of spinning my accordion burritos very freshly prepared. The fibers are so light, so smooth to draft, softly singing their way into the twist like fairies in the early morning mist.
Plying and making a skein of my sweet dalapäls yarn.
Spinning the freshly prepared wool from the newly shorn fleece on a supported spindle reminded me of breathing – the constant changing back and forth between the inner and outer worlds, light as a feather. The rhythm of spinning is not far from the rhythm of life.
New horizons
Even if the spinning of this yarn instantly came back to my spinning muscles and mind, it was still with a new perspective. I have learned so much in the five years that have passed since last I spun this yarn. It was a true joy to bring these new horizons into the familiar spinning landscape. I’m so glad I revisited my auld acquaintance.
Staple to sleeve via teasing, spinning and plying. Supported spindles by Björn Peck.
During the holidays I have been spinning a lot on this project – I have already finished two skeins. Even though spindle spinning is a sweetly slow process it doesn’t take that long to fill a spindle and then a second. Alternating between spinning and teasing keeps a sweet rhythm and change in perspectives.
Two finished skeins of Z-plied Dalapäls wool, spun from lightly teased locks of Dalapäls wool on a supported spindle by Björn Peck.
Have you revisited an old project lately?
On my Instagram page you can watch a series of videos where I work from opening up the lock to knitting the sleeves. At the top of my profile are some highlights. The series is called stapletosleeve (I omitted the spaces between the wordsbecause the thing wouldn’t accept too many letters in the title).
Happy new spinning year!
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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 have several little bands in my project basket that are only half-finished. The other week I decided to actually finish six little bands, in four different techniques.
My problem is that inspiration jumps me from behind and craves all my attention and I jump from one unfinished object to another. On the one hand I like having parallel projects. If I get tired of one I can always work on another and then get the mojo back for the first one. Working in different techniques is also a good way to stay our of strain. But I can also get very stressed knowing I have several unfinished projects in my basket, not to mention all my ideas for unstarted projects. It feels very good to finish some sweet little bands.
Little bands
Once you start weaving bands you realize there is always a need for one. Even if you don’t necessarily know the practical purpose of the band as you create it there will come a time when that very band is the perfect candidate for a job.
Six little bands have been the loveliest companions on inner and outer journeys this summer.
The more obvious purpose of the band is of course the making of it – spending time with a small, often handspun, project, watching it grow into an actual something and enjoying the weaving process without having to drag a loom around. All I need is a couple of sticks and I’m ready to dive into the process.
Parks, trains and automobiles are lovely places for weaving little bands. A nettle band in the car to Gothenburg for my aunt’s funeral and the same band in a park, soaking in the city where my aunt spent all of her life (left and middle). A pick-up technique band on a train to county Dalarna with my wool traveling club (right).
One of the sweet things about little bands is the portability. I weave all my bands with a backstrap loom – just a couple of sticks, a belt of some sort around my waist and something to hook the back end of the warp with and I’m ready to weave. I have spent time weaving in cars, trains, parks and office coffee breaks on both inner and outer journeys.
Braiding a band on a coffee break at work (left) and weaving a pick-up technique band in the September sun on my recent wool journey. There is a band for every occasion.
Recently I have also learned to appreciate my feet as part of my backstrap loom – I simply loop the end over my foot propped on top of my other knee and I weave until the foot falls asleep. Then I just change feet.
Three braids
First up in my collection of finished bands are three braided bands from odd balls of handspun wool yarn. Making braided bands is a technique I wanted to learn, so I tried different amounts of ends, different colours and different patterns.
Three 16-strand braids made of leftover balls of handspun wool yarn.
The first one was a simple grey band, I think I like that one the best. I also did one in blue with white patterning and one green with pink and white patterning. The pattern bands revealed my beginner’s mistakes, though, and they look quite sad. But it was a sweet technique to explore and I’m still happy with all of them.
You can see a lovely video where Sally Pointer braids a twelve-strand braid in linen yarn here. A twelve strand linen belt like Sally’s is on my to-craft list.
Nettle band
In July of last year and February this year I harvested nettles that I processed. There was a lot of waste, but I did manage to spindle spin two balls of nettle yarn, one tiny with the dew retted July nettles and one less tiny with the root retted February nettles. You can read more about the process in this blog post.
I wove my 2-ply spindle-spun nettle yarn into a 6 millimeter band.
Throughout the processing and spinning the two retting techniques showed different colours. Once I had scoured them, though, the colour difference was smaller. Still, I used the dew retted yarn as a stripe down the middle of the warp. You can see it very subtly on the picture above.
Weaving the nettle band was lovely, it felt so good to make a little something out of material most people would frown upon. Weaving from weeds makes me feel rich, it’s sort of empowering to know that I can make something useful with my hands should I need to. And I do need, not of some material necessity but for the sake of making, to feel the making in the hands and the connection between hands and brain.
Scrap nettle yarn lucet cord
When I had finished the nettle band I had one tiny little ball left. I wanted to use as much of it as I could, so I decided upon a lucet cord. This is a very old technique that can be described as a 2-stitch I-cord. You use a fork-like tool called a lucet to hold the stitches. With this technique you can take advantage of all the length of the yarn except for the beginning and end.
A lucet cord made with the last little ball of handspun nettle yarn.
I have made a few lucet cords before, but only with wool yarn, which has some bounce, even in the worsted spun outercoat fiber yarns I have tried. Making it with plant fiber is a totally different story. Pulling the loop over the new yarn is more of a struggle and the yarn is less forgiving when it comes to uneven settling of the loop into the cord, but it was still very interesting. As always, spending some time with a material allows you to get to know it and how to work with its characteristics and its own mind.
Pick-up technique backstrap weaving band
I have a secret project going and for that I needed a band. I realized that it needed some extra sparkle, so I decided to make it with a pick-up technique. This takes a lot of time and is quite fiddly, so it’s not ideal for train rides or coffee breaks at work. But I did that anyway. I wove most of it at home, though, with full focus on the 16-row pattern.
A sweet band in a pick-up technique. The yarn is my handspun on an Andean Pushka.
One of the big perks of working with a pick-up technique is all the time you get to spend with the yarn. The technique is time-consuming, but that doesn’t bother me. Quite the contrary, I relish the moments when I get to dig my hands into the warp and pick the pattern up into the weave with a naturally curved wooden stick (or, I think I used a shawl pin made out of a twig). The natural materials in my hands make my skin sparkle with joy.
I spun the yarn from hand-teased Norwegian NKS wool on an Andean Pushka. You can see the process of spinning the yarn for this band in this video and the pick-up technique (for a different band) in this.
Little band in progress
When you read this I’m on a weekend getaway with Dan. Naturally, I needed a band to weave on the train. I warped, failed and rewarped, but all went well in the end. I used two colours of worsted spun outercoat wool from Swedish rya sheep from the same flock. The dark brown yarn is from the ram Bertil. The light fawn may be from the ewe Beppelina.
Band in progress: A wool band for an upcoming tie-on pocket project.
I will use the band for an upcoming tie-on pocket project I’m working on. I like playing with stripes in bands. There are so many possibilities and no right or wrong.
Weaving bands with handspun
Most of my handspun yarns are spun from Swedish breeds, and most of these breeds are prone to felting. This can make the yarns sticky, even the smoothest worsted spun outercoat yarns. A project that would be almost impossible to weave wide (like my Frida Chanel bag and loom stick wrap) is far less fiddly as a band. I do have to uncling the warp threads one by one for every new shuttling, but it doesn’t bother me at all when there are only 20–30 warp pairs. I’m just happy to see a brand new band take shape, ready to take its band space in the world.
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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.
As I wrote in my previous post I have spent this week at Sätergläntan craft education center, teaching a five-day course where I teach four different spindle types and wool processing by hand. Today I invite you to a sneak peak of the course A spindle a day 3.
Sätergläntan is a place vibrant with crafting hands and crafting hearts. It is such a beautiful environment to be in, where every corner of every room and every mind is sloyd.
80 students were at Sätergläntan this week, learning shrink pots, forging, embroidery on wool, felted images, folk costume dresses, forging and, of course, spindle spinning. All wearing their best visually mended, knit, embroidered and patchworked clothing.
On my way to the train station with four spindle types, wool and tools for twelve students plus my own packing.
There is always some excitement before a course, especially a longer course like this one. What level are the students at? What are their learning styles? How will the group work together? Will I be able to find all the students at their level and their pace?
Beginners
I knew the course was full – twelve students. I haven’t had such a large group before, but with five days together it’s easier to give individual guidance to the students than on a one- or two-day course. Usually my courses are aimed at intermediate to experienced spinners. This one is too, but I open up for beginners too.
As it turned out, most of the students in this course were beginners and some hadn’t ever held a spinning tool in their hands before. This is a big challenge for me since I am used to my students having basic knowledge about wool and some spinning vocabulary. I’m always a little scared to have beginners in my courses because I fear I won’t have the tools to find them at their level. But then again, it’s by practicing I will find and refine my tools. With a class of twelve with lots of beginners and no intermediates I will hopefully get a lot of practice.
I’m demonstrating how I spin on the floor spindle (screen shot from video).
I want to find the students at their level, I want to speak their individual language of learning, catch them there and guide them to their own discoveries. I want them to have their aha-moments, to find the missing link and see, feel and be proud of what they have learned.
Day 1: Wool preparation and suspended spindles
Day 1 was all about wool preparation and suspended spindle spinning. The students have teased, carded and combed and made lots of progress. There has been lots of frustration but also happy cries when the body has understood in practice what the mind has accepted in theory.
Rolag progression!
As a teacher I try to emphasize what they have actually learned when they are frustrated about a step they have trouble taking. I always encourage my students to place their rolags and yarns on the floor in front of them so they can see their progress over time even if they don’t always see it in the moment. And they do see that there is a vast difference between the first and the latest rolag or the first and the latest ball of yarn.
Suspended spindle spinning on day one of A spindle a day.
The twist model
The first thing I talked about before we started spinning on suspended spindles was the twist model. In short, the twist model is about where between no twist at all and very much twist the spinner can find an amount of twist where there is enough twist for the fibers to slide past each other without coming apart. I call this the point of twist engagement.
Finding the point of twist engagement is to me essential to understanding twist and spinning. With the students’ newborn rolags and the twist model in their mind there were some first precious aha-moments in rolag carding, opening up the twist and finding the point of twist engagement.
Switching hands
Another concept I work with already from the beginning with my students is switching hands. I always encourage them to learn to use both hands as spinning hands and both hands as fiber hands. To prevents strained shoulders and to help them understand both hand roles from the perspective of both hands. And they all do it. Not always enthusiastically, but they do it and see the benefits of it.
Check out my free five-day challenge Hands on where I encourage you to switch hands and get acquainted with the roles of the hands.
Day 2: Floor spindle
On day 2 we dived into floor spindles. Here their rolags are really put to the test – spinning on a floor spindle brutally reveals any uneven rolags and the students get an understanding of what in the wool preparation process – teasing, carding or rolag shaping – that needs adjusting.
Floor spindles by Björn Peck.
With the floor spindle we practice longdraws. The long draw a spinner can make on a floor spindle are longer than on a spinning wheel – the yarn can go from the spindle shaft on one side of the body, across the torso and out in the hand of the outstretched arm on the other side of the body.
Lots of aha-moments when we spin on floor spindles.
Students that on the day before have had a hard time finding and working with the point of twist engagement with the suspended spindle have understood it with a lot of joy today with the floor spindle. And who, when, going back to the suspended spindle, suddenly have come past their struggle. This really warms my wooly teaching heart.
Day 3: In-hand spindle
This is the third time I teach the A spindle a day five-day course. I know that the students usually are very tired and sometimes a bit overwhelmed on day 3, which is also the day of the most complicated spindle type: In-hand spindle with a distaff. That in combination with the large proportion of beginners made me a bit nervous. Would I be able to give them the sense of accomplishment?
The students, most of which were beginners when they arrived, work comfortably with the in-hand spindle and distaff.
I didn’t have to worry. They were working very independently by now. They analyzed, experimented and were dedicated to understanding what went wrong and why. And after just an hour or so all of them were spinning with their in-hand spindles and distaffs. I was amazed at all they had learned so far and at how they used their knowledge to understand new tools and techniques. I didn’t even have to tell them to switch hands, they did that automatically.
Day 4: Supported spindle
When I teach supported spindle spinning isolated I usually do it slowly in a step-by-step fashion. In the A spindle a day course though, the students have successively learned all the components of the technique and already know about changing the angle, opening up the twist and working with upper and lower cop. It’s just a matter of getting to know the tool and transfer the technique to a new context.
Björn Peck’s beautiful supported spindles spin like rockets.
This course was no different. Even if they were intimidated by the small motor movement and the speed of the spindles, they quite quickly got the hang of the tool and the technique and spun away happily.
Supported spindle spinning in action and deep concentration.
Narrative spinning
At this stage, on day four, they had got to know each other and we did an exercise I call narrative spinning. This is when they sit in pairs and one students spins and tells the other what is happening in the spinning, why it is happening, what they are doing and why they are doing it. The other student listens and asks constructive questions. By narrating their spinning they put words on what may be difficult to grasp. The one listening gets inspiration from a fellow student. I was given this exercise when I was learning to drive and it always works very well in spinning courses when the students have gotten to know each other a bit.
Evenings
The students line up their precious yarn balls by one of the floor looms.
When class is dismissed for the day the students stay in the classroom and practice and/or prepare for tomorrow’s class. So much happens in these evening sessions. Hearty conversation and usually lots of progress without the teacher bothering them with questions and ideas. I’m usually still in the classroom (blogging), but I try not to bother them.
Day 5: Wool tasting and spinning meditation
Day 5 is only half a day so I don’t introduce a new spindle type this day. Instead I offer them a chance to understand how much they have actually learned, by hosting a wool tasting. In the wool tasting they get to try wool from five different breeds that they haven’t worked with before. On this A spindle a day 3 they got a brown silver medal winning Helsinge wool, chocolate brown alpaca, black Klövsjö wool with subtle silver sparkle, white silver medal winning finull wool and light grey and unusually soft gute wool.
Their task is to, for fifteen minutes per breed, prepare and spin the wool and reflect over the wool, technique and choices they make during the process. After the fifteen minutes have passed they get the next wool. We do this in silence so that they can focus on their process.
Focus is the key word of the wool tasting.
Apart from working with new wools and using what they have learned in the course, they get the chance to, in a short time, make decisions about preparation and technique without over thinking things. The students usually love this exercise and they get to go back home with the form they fill in, showing all they have learned.
Diligent work with the wool tasting form.
The wool tasting is done in silence for 5 x 15 minutes. I love this part of the course, where I can sit and watch the students work – how they make decisions and work with the wool with the tools and techniques they have got acquainted with during the course.
Spinning meditation
The very last thing we did was a spinning meditation. I guide the students through spinning in mindfulness and without prestige. Towards the end of the meditation I encourage them to close their eyes and feel their way in the spinning. And most of them did, surprised at how much they could actually feel in a situation where they usually relied on their vision.
The wool tasting form was their diploma of what they had learned and the spinning meditation an extra treat for them to reflect over and be proud of how much they had learned.
I’m finishing this blog post on the train back home to Stockholm. I’m going home with a lighter suitcase, many insights, and a warm heart, thrilled over what I have learned and of having been able to guide my students down a new rabbit hole. I hope to come back next summer.
Thank you M, L, S, E-B, E, A, C, L, M-L, H and K for letting me guide you through wool, tools and techniques. Thank you for lots of laughs, many insights and sweet conversations. A special thought goes to M who turned ill and couldn’t make it to the course.
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.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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.
It’s easy to get carried away or stressed by everything you see other spinners do on social media, especially since they only show a small and polished portion of reality. Today I encourage you to spin where you are, in terms of place, tools, skills and mind.
I am a volunteer cultivation advisor at our allotment association. Many of the tenants are enthusiastic and dream of abundance in bloom and harvest. But depending on the circumstances of the allotment it is not always possible to grow the plants they have dreamed of.
For the past week I have been preparing a presentation for the allotment tenants about cultivating where we are, in our allotment and the context in which it is situated – the type of soil it offers, the trees around it and the roots underneath it. I want the allotments gardeners to be able to grow an allotment in their context and with their experience. It may flourish, just not always in the crops they had imagined.
Josefin the cultivation advisor. Parsley is a perfect crop for a shady patch. Also not very appealing to slugs and deer, it seems.
As I was planning the lecture I saw parallels to spinning. Sometimes I get the sense that spinners feel bad because they think they should be able to spin better, more and know more techniques. Spinning to me is a place of ease, an activity that doesn’t make demands on me and a place of allowing. But it’s also easy to get carried away from things you see other spinners do online or in person. Today I want to encourage you to spin where you are.
Experience
We are all on different levels. Some people have spun for decades and some for only weeks. Even if the experienced spinner probably will know a thing or two more than the beginner we all bring our unique perspectives. I love being a beginner since I don’t feel any expectations. I don’t know any of the established dos and don’ts. Sooner or later I will, and I will also learn why they have been labeled as dos and don’ts, but in the moment I look at the craft with fresh and innocent eyes.
Processed flax from my experimental flax patch 2014–2019. I was once a beginner. Year by year I have added to my experience bank. Some years I succeed and some I don’t. But I always learn and that’s my goal with growing flax.
I learn a lot from my students, sometimes I think I learn more than the students themselves. Often the questions from a beginner give me more to reflect on that the question from the experienced spinner. A beginner will challenge my established pattern of teaching and understanding spinning. I need to challenge my methods of teaching, peel off the layers of my habitual patterns and come back to that blank slate to find a channel to the beginner.
A beginner spinner challenges my way of teaching and talking about spinning. I need to find the channel to where they are in their spinning . Supported spindle and bowl by Björn Peck.
I have actually been a beginner several times as a spinner, especially connected to changing hands in the spinning project. If you are up for an adventure, take my five-day challenge Hands-on, where you will play with switching your spinning and fiber hands.
Tools
There are a lot of spinning tools out there and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by them. Like so many other hobbies, spinning can be a tool sport, but it doesn’t have to be. All you need is fiber and a weight or a stick and you’re good to go. Even if I have a lot of spindles I only have two spinning wheels, one of which is my stationary wheel that I use. I don’t own a drum carder, wool picker or blending board. My go-to tools for fiber preparation is my hand cards and my combs, sometimes a flicker, sometimes just my hands.
I use combs and/or cards for nearly every spinning project.
It’s a great idea to try new tools at spinning guilds or fiber festivals and see what they are like. Chew on them for a bit. Do they suit you? Your wallet? Your home? Use what you have and what you are comfortable with.
Time
Sometimes we don’t feel we have enough time to spin. So many thing crave our attention. But even just a few minutes of spinning/wool preparation/knitting or just cuddling with a staple can get us a long way. I like to see spinning as a state of mind or an inner process rather than a craft or something that demands a physical result.
I’m listening to my Icelandic wool. Sometimes just digging your hands in raw fleece is enough to feel the closeness to the wool and to getting to know it.
Sometimes we do have times but don’t feel we produce enough yarn in that time. To me, time is a superpower. The more time I spend with wool the more I get to know it. And for me, preparing with hand tools and spinning on spindles give me more quality in the time I spend with the wool. The slowness allows me to spend more time with each fiber, getting to know the wool, how it behaves and how it wants to be spun.
Place
Spinning where you are can of course also mean physically, in a certain space. Sometimes there just isn’t enough space to keep the tools you dream of. I would love to get hold of a walking wheel, which isn’t very likely since they are very rare here, but even if I would there would be no space for it.
I’m spinning where I am. By Lake Torneträsk in Sápmi in this case, with a suspended spindle and a pair of mini combs.
Other times I’m spinning away from home, perhaps in the woods or on the train. It’s not always possible to bring and use a lot of tools and I need to negotiate with myself to find a solution that allows me to spin where I am.
Mind
I have had very hearty conversations over the years with students and supporters who talk about spinning as therapy more than anything else. A place to rest their minds, without expectations or prestige. A place where they can peel off the demands of the world around them and just be in the process. I imagine a lot of emotions are spun into the yarn from those sessions. Which, in itself could be quite therapeutic. A skein to some day look back at and remember where you were emotionally at the time.
Spinning for the soul.
Spinning for me is quite meditative. Just as the fibers come from the fiber supply, into the twist and onto the shaft or bobbin, so do my thoughts. Lightly effortless and and without expectations. They come and I let them go.
Whether we spin for the process, the project, the mind or a quantitative goal we always get a result, even if we don’t always think so. The result can be a meter, a skein, a collection of samples, relaxed shoulders, a balanced mind. Or, sometimes we get a result, an outcome or reaction much later, a cumulative effect of the superpowers of spinning.
Relaxed shoulders and a balanced mind can be a result too.
When I get migraines I spin to get some space, a moment to focus my dull mind on something other than the nails-on-the-blackboard sensation in my head and all my senses. The sensations don’t go away, but I can relax some from them for a little while, catch my breath and get a sense of ease from the pain. Even if the pain comes back afterwards I’m convinced that the room to breathe I get from spinning through migraines does me good in the long run.
Creativity comes from within because it is there and needs to come out, not because anyone else needs it to be in a certain way. Grow your spinning garden in the abundance that is available there and then. Be kind to yourself. Spin for you and spin where you are.
I’m going to sow my flax patch today.
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.
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.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.
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.
It’s that time of the year again – the Swedish spinning championships. If I remember correctly I have participated in the championships since 2015. I don’t want to miss this opportunity to spin from wool and instructions that I haven’t chosen myself and learn from the experience.
Last year I won the gold medal for my embroidery yarn. This year I didn’t get any medals, but I would still like to share my yarns and techniques with you.
Championship format
In the spinning championships all spinners get the same fiber and the same rules. The spinners get around one month to spin their yarn and submit it. A jury confers and the medalists are revealed a few weeks later. Usually the prize ceremony takes place on the fleece and spinning championships in different locations every year, but this year and 2020 they were both digital.
There were two competitions this year: Värmland wool and flax.
Värmland wool
The assignment for the Värmland wool was to spin a yarn for knitting, 2-ply or more. We got raw Värmland lamb’s wool in two shades.
Colour separation
Since we got two different colours of the Värmland fleece I figured they would want me to do something with the colours. But two seemed too few, so I decided to make three shades out of the two colours. Using combs I teased each colour separately. I blended a third batch of half dark and half light wool into a shade between the two browns. After that I hand carded each colour separately into rolags.
I teased the two colours with combs in three piles – dark brown, light brown and one blended 50/50. After that I hand carded each pile into rolags.
As I went through the wool I realized that the two colours had different qualities. The darker brown was silky soft and the lighter a bit coarser. I should have listened to this and blended the colours for an even quality. But I was so hung up on the colours so I kept going with the separation.
The wool was a bit difficult to work with. There were lots of very short sections, and the combination with basically no crimp made the fibers quite slippery and reluctant to conform in the twist. This was especially true for the light brown staples with coarser fibers.
Also I realized that I may have used the wrong hand cards ( 72 tpi) but with the very fine fibers I probably should have chosen my finer cards (108 tpi) for a more even fiber distribution in the rolags.
I divided the colours into two piles for two singles with the same amount of the three shades. Somehow I hoped that I would be able to card and spin consistently enough to make the singles equal in length and sections. It didn’t really work out the way I had planned, but still looked good.
Consecutive spinning
I spin a lot on my floor supported Navajo style spindles. I choose them when I want to spin woolen yarn on the bulkier side, but also for finer yarns. You gotta love those arm’s length longdraws.
With this project I wanted to practice in something of a consecutive spinning. I don’t know if this is the correct term, though (please let me know if you have the correct term for this technique). I’m referring to a technique where you spin one spindleful of yarn into a roving or sliver with a very light twist. Then you slide the cop off the shaft and spin the yarn again. A bit more, but still not finished. You keep going until you are happy, 3–4 times is not unusual.
As I understand it, many Navajo spinners often use this technique when they spin yarn for Navajo rugs. The technique facilitates an even yarn and goes a bit faster than a double drafting technique.
First round
The first round I just drafted the rolags into a very lightly twisted sliver, just enough to keep the wool together.
For this yarn I chose to spin in three rounds. In the first round I just made a long roving with a very light twist, just enough to keep the fiber together. I made sure I was at a point where the fibers could slide past each other without coming apart. This is the point I call the point of twist engagement. This is where I feel the spinning most alive, where I, with just a very light roll with my thumb, can manipulate the twist so that the fibers work with me towards an effortless draft.
Second round
The second round I drafted a bit more and brought some yarniness into the yarn. I left the twist around the point of twist engagement to be able to spin a third round.
The second round I drafted some more and added some more twist, but still close enough the point of twist engagement to bring me the freedom to work more with my yarn in a third round.
Third round
For the third and final round I drafted a little more and added the final twist before I 2-plied the two singles on my spinning wheel.
The third round became my final round, where I drafted a little more and added the final twist. As it turned out, I had added too much twist in the second round, making drafting in this third round somewhat of a challenge. But, that’s what I like about these championships – I learn a lot along the way.
A soaked and finished Värmland 2-ply yarn spun in rounds on a floor supported spindle and 2-plied on a spinning wheel.
Final touch
I have no problem plying on spindles, but I know I can achieve a consistent plying twist on the spinning wheel. Since I didn’t want to jeopardize things I plied the spindle spun singles on my spinning wheel.
I was very happy with having tried new techniques and having learned so much from this project. I wasn’t very happy with the yarn, though. But one nice thing with the Spinning championships is that every contestant gets access to the jury’s assessment and learn what they can develop their skills. I’m looking forward to reading it when it comes.
Flax
For the other competition we got industrially prepared line flax. I bought the same brand of line flax a few years ago and I had worked with it all summer, so I knew its challenges. The assignment was to spin a yarn with two or more plies. The purpose with the yarn was knitting. I was very startled by this since all literature on flax preparation and spinning is aimed at weaving yarns. I literally had no clue to how I could adapt my spinning to a knitting yarn.
As I prepared for this post I realized that I hadn’t taken any photos of the flax preparation steps. Therefore most of the photos are from a different flax spinning project. So the fiber is different but the techniques the same.
Rehackling, brushing and dressing
The flax was very dense. Therefore I rehackled it with two different hackles. I knew from before that this flax had lots of different lengths, so I also knew that a lot of shorter fibers would be removed in the rehackling.
After that I brushed it with my lovely flax brush to bring it some extra shine and to remove the last short bits. I lost almost 50 percent of the weight in these steps, but ended up with the longest fibers in my preparation. And I saved the removed fibers for a later tow yarn.
Since the flax top was quite dense I re-hackled it with two hackles. Just before I dressed the distaff I brushed the flax with my flax brush (images from a different flax project).
Dressing the distaff
I dressed the distaff the only way I know how to – in a fan shape. This takes a lot of time, but I imagine all ways of distaff dressing take time. The fibers need to be well separated and easily catch on to each other in a consistent way. You can see how I create my fan and dress my distaff in this video.
I used the fan technique to arrange the flax before dressing the distaff (image from a different flax project)
Spinning and skeining
I wet spun the yarn (counter-clockwise) to make it strong and shiny. I tried to give it a little less twist than I would for a weaving yarn. This was the only thing I could think of to adapt the yarn for knitting.
I wet spun the flax counter-clockwise on my spinning wheel (image from a different flax project).
I used my niddy-noddy to wind a skein after having plied my yarn. The yarn went through a bowl of water to avoid fraying, and then through a niks. A niks is an Estonian tool for tensioning the yarn when skeining, but without breaking skin. I made mine from a willow stick. You can see a lovely video about the niks here.
The skeining tool (niks) in action
The 2-plied flax yarn before scouring
I used an Estonian niks to keep the plied yarn under tension without risking having the yarn cut into my skin while winding the skein (skeining image from a different flax project).
Scouring
This summer has been my summer of flax spinning (more on that in an upcoming post). I think I have spun around 500 grams of flax yarn. But I haven’t dared to scour it. To be able to submit my championships yarn I would have to, though.
After a few scourings the yarn was considerably lighter and softer.
I read a couple of flax books, but most of them had scouring methods that involved a whole home chemistry lab or ingredients that aren’t readily available. So I asked around online and finally bought soda ash. It seemed like a chemistry lab on its own, but I managed to use it without any injuries. I boiled the skein in two one hour baths with soda ash and soap and they turned out light and soft.
My finished contribution to the 2021 Swedish spinning championships.
I’m very happy with my flax yarn and especially about all that I have learned from spinning it. I will continue my flax journey next summer. Perhaps I will even dare to spin my homegrown flax too.
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.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from mypatrons 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.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new 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.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.
