It's actually magic, taking washed but clumped fiber, putting it through the drum carder and getting fluffy batts ready to spin.  It's a spinning project I only do now and then, after accumulating those piles of fleeces and other fibers ready to blend.  Then I spend several months, in an hour here and there, creating the batts.  After that, the fun begins, as I get to spin them and see what those blends will look like in yarn.

In today's podcast, I talk about my recent drumcarding projects, as well as some information for those spinners that may want to buy a carder, or have one that they still haven't worked up the nerve to use.

I will be putting pictures of the fiber, before and after on my blog. 

Music in the podcast is from Music Alley  and includes Proof of Love by Old Man Luedecke,  also February by The Distants.

The Spinners Journal, a book I wrote to help you to document your carding or any spinning project is available to buy at this site.

I am talking again about the new Majacraft Aura wheel and my learning process as I've spun on it.  Although you may not have this specific wheel, you can listen and apply some of my ideas to any wheel that you would like to expand in your spinning skills.

The second section discusses my crazy idea of putting beads in the yarn before I knit, and how I finally got that idea to work.  The photo here shows that yarn on the bobbin of the Aura.

The music today is a bit different than normal as I recently discovered there are some techno tunes I really enjoy.  So I've included a techno interlude called Hestor is Amused by Johnjack.  If techno is really not your thing, the interludes are short and I give you a chance to turn the podcast off before the end song.  But I really urge you to listen, as I do like the song, Pas De Deux by Lee Negin. 

All of today's music is from Music Alley with my extra thank you to Clare Dowling for my use of her Spinning Wheels as the podcasts intro music.

Until later, happy spinning!

Fibers combs all are designed to give the spinner lovely top to spin.  But with such a wide variety of type of combs available to the spinner, how does one decide which is right for them?  That is the question I talk about in this podcast, discussing things I know from experience, and from internet research.

One interesting webpost I discovered was about a person's attempt to recreat an old Icelandic comb, which was probably used both from human and animal hair.  That site can be found here.

Several web sources to purchase combs are:

Forsyth Combs

Woodland Woolworks

Susan's Fiber Shop

The music today is from Music Alley

The interlude is by Blake  and is called The Hungarian Love Song

The closing song is by Debbie Cunningham  and is the jazz classic, My Funny Valentine

Until later, happy spinning!

A big thanks to Ravelry's Kashimama, for putting this list together for our Ravelry group's reference.  I thought it would be a good idea to put the list here and occasionally update it to keep it on the current page.

Beta
Episode 1 Using Combs / Shetland
Episode 2 Spin In
Episode 3 Raising Angora Rabbits
Episode 4 Christmas Music 2 episodes
Episode 5 Spinning Angora
Episode 6 Spin In Border Leicester and BFL
Episode 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece
Episode 8 Spin In Cheviot and Corriedale
Episode 9 Washing a Fleece
Episode 10 Spin In Finn and Perendale
Episode 11 Book Reviews
Episode 12 Cotton Dyeing Part I Chemical Dyes
Episode 13 Cotton Dyeing Part II Natural Dyes
Episode 14 Spin In Cormo and Montadale
Episode 15 Cotton Spinning/Preparation Techniques
Episode 16 Spin In Romney and Targhee
Episode 17 Andean Plying, Picking a Fleece, Spinning Bulky Yarn
Episode 18 Spin In CVM and Maine Island Sheep
Episode 19 Wheels: How they work
Episode 20 Spin In Navajo Churro and Jacob
Episode 21 Felting a Fleece
Episode 22 Spin In Alpaca
Episode 23 Drop Spindles
Episode 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk
Episode 25 Spin In Cashgora
Episode 26 Spinning Woolen vs Worsted
Episode 27 Spin In Tunis and Karakul
Epidose 28 Dyeing Wool / Discolored Fleeces
Episode 29 Spin In Wheels at the Woolery / Spaelsau and Icelandic
Episode 30 Plying
Episode 31 Bamboo and Tencel
Episode 32 Silk, Soy and Milk
Episode 33 Spin In Dog Hair / Spinning Designer Yarns and The Intentional Spinner

Just a note to say I had to set the comment function for this website to moderate, because the spammers finally found me.  So for all of you lovely listeners that take the time to leave me comments, be patient, your comment will show up soon as I OK it.  I know no one wants to see the spam in the comments either.

Yarnspinner