{"id":3373,"date":"2019-10-05T08:04:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T06:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=3373"},"modified":"2019-10-05T08:04:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T06:04:45","slug":"swedish-spinning-championships-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/swedish-spinning-championships-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish spinning championships 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This past weekend I went to \u00d6str\u00f6\u00f6 sheep farm outside of Varberg on the Swedish west coast for the 2019 fleece and spinning championships. It was a wonderful day. I met lots of people, cuddled with heaps and heaps of fleece and got the people’s choice medal around my neck. In this post I will show you how I made my competing yarns for the championships. In an upcoming post I will share my experience of the fleece championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
I got the people’s choice medal for my competing yarns in the spinning championships!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Swedish spinning championships 2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

August kept me busy with spinning for the spinning championships. It has been a lot of fun and a real challenge. There were two categories in the championships \u2013 one intermediate and one advanced. I competed in both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year we got fleece to start with. Most of the previous years we have got machine carded batts, which I don’t really like. I want to get to know the fleece from the beginning, I want to dig my hands into a dirty fleece and work all the steps in the process myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All participants got the same fleece sent to us on the same day. We got about one month to finish and ship the finished yarns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intermediate Gute sock yarn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the intermediate level of the championships the assignment was to spin a sock yarn. We got raw wool from a gute lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gute sheep is a primitive breed with both outercoat, undercoat and kemp. You can read more about gute wool in a previous post<\/a>. This lamb’s fleece has probably both under coat and outer coat, but it is hard to distinguish since the fibers are so very fine, probably in the cashmere range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Raw
Gute (lamb) fleece. Extremely fine fibers but also lots of black kemp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My original thought was to spin a 3-ply, but then I decided to make it a cable yarn. It is quite difficult, but it makes a really pretty structure and a strong and sturdy yarn, perfect for socks. In the Swedish spinning championships of 2017 I got a medal in a spinning championship<\/a> for a cable yarn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I started by flick carding the locks. A lot of the kemp stayed in the flick card. After combing the wool even more kemp disappeared. I was left with soft and silky bird’s nests. I can hardly believe it is Gute wool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Balls
Soft and silky bird’s nests of Gute wool. Some kemp is left, but a lot less than when I started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spinning a cable yarn<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I spun the top worsted, with short forward draw. As I spun I pulled more kemp out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how I made my cable yarn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n