I've been working on a small project, blending our Shetland wool with some of our farm dog Cash's undercoat to handspin into yarn and then knit into mittens. The blending board seemed the perfect tool to use for the smaller quantity I needed. Every time I sit down at the board, I am reminded just how easy and fun it is to use!

One of my favorite things about blending boards is that they only do a little blending (unless you want them to do more) so are a great tool for making colors and fibers really pop with less chance of creating a "muddy" over blended fiber. The other reason I love blending boards is they are fast! In a matter of 10 minutes you can blend up a good ounce of fiber that is ready to spin. Tools you need:

Tools:
Blending board – hand card
flicker or brush (a stiffer bristle paint brush works too) to push down fiber
fiber – top or roving strips is easiest to start. medium staple length or so to start
fun stuff to add if you would like (silk, silk noils, alpaca, cashmere, and on)
dowel(s) - 2 makes is a little easier (knitting needles could easily work too)

Loading a blending board

• It is easiest to load the base layer with wool so that it pulls up off the board easily when time and other more slick fibers are held in place with the wool.
• Load strips of fiber onto the blending board, using one hand to load and other to guide the fiber into the teeth of the card cloth. 
• I like to load starting on one side of the board, working down the board in strips, then repeating across the board. Basically top to bottom in a strip and then across. You can load the board however feels best to you but starting at the top is always recommended.
• Be sure to leave about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fibers hanging loose off the bottom of the board. These fibers will make it easier to remove the fibers off the board.
• After you load your first layer, use your brush to tamp the fiber down. 
• Load the next layer then tamp down. Continue in this manner until you hit the knees or bend in the tines on the carding cloth. About 2/3 high on the tines is the maximum. 
• You should be able to fit at least an ounce on most standard size blending boards.

Removing the fibers from the blending board - called doffing
There are several ways you can remove the fibers from you blending board. The most common is rolags, but you can also do batts and even roving. 

Rolags

• Wrap the loose fibers on the bottom of your board around the dowel. If you have 2 dowels you can use the second dowel to help pinch the fibers together between the dowels.
• Now start pulling the loaded dowels towards you at a small angle while lightly drafting the fibers off the board. The angle (roughly 45 degress) helps make it easier to loosen up the fibers and allow for a bit of drafting. 
• Continue in this manner, lightly drafting the fibers off the board while rolling them onto the dowels as needed until you are about 1/3 of the way up the board. 
• Allow the fibers to break off the board. Give the dowels a quick roll to tamp down the end fibers on the rolag. 
• Pull dowels out of middle of rolag. Voila!
• Repeat this moving up the blending board. I generally make about 3 rolags per loaded board.

Batts

• Load the fibers as you would when making a rolag being sure to leave those loose fibers along the bottom of the board. 
• Once loaded you will use the dowels to start as you would with the rolag.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: you will NOT be drafting when removing a batt. 
• Tip I learned from a class with Amelia Garripoli (www.askthebellwether.com), lay a piece of paper, like a cut out section of a paper bag, on top of the board. As you roll the fibers off the board, keep the paper in between the layers as you roll the dowels. This keeps the fibers from getting re-stuck on the blending board.
• Simply roll the dowels up along the board with the fibers being pulled off as you go in one large piece. Voila! Once done unroll it to see your batt. 
• Optional: For an even easier fiber to spin, re-load the board one more time with these fibers and remove as above. You will need to strip the batt down to do this. 
• Spin as desired

Roving
Roving is long thin strips of fiber. You will need a diz or button with a large enough hole that you can pull fiber through.

• Load the fibers as you would when making a rolag being sure to leave those loose fibers along the botton of the board. 
• Now using your diz, start at the bottom right corner of the board. From that corner, grab an amount of those loose fibers that will fit through the hole in the diz. Now start slowly draft the fibers out through the diz working across the bottom of the board to the left. When you get to the end of the bottom row, repeat the process by moving up a bit on the board and going back towards the right. You can leave the fibers all in one long roving. No need to break the roving at any point. 
• Tip, as with the rolags, it is again easiest to have a slight angle as you are drafting the roving off the board.
• Once complete you should have a nice long bit of roving ready to spin.

Need some visual aid? I recently did a video demo of loading a blending board, removing rolags and some handspinning with those rolags. You can watch the demo in the below video. If you don't feel like watching the whole episode, the blending board demo starts at minute 13:37.

Now go grab that blending board that has been collecting dust and have some fun!

You know those "aha" moments when you are learning a new craft? They seem life changing at the moment but with proficiency those moments fade. Well I am in the midst of learning to spin yarn on a supported spindle and having those aha moments left and right. While I am not an expert at this craft yet, I wanted to share the top learning moments with you while they are fresh in my mind. 

1. Take a class! This was the best thing I could have done. I was doing the endless YouTube searches trying to find that perfect video with the perfect angle and someone explaining what they are doing. Finally it dawned on me a a course creator myself, hey why not take a course. I had come across  Josefin Waltin and remembered she has online courses for spindles. Best decision!
2. Use a shorter staple fiber. Twist goes in very fast on these spindles making them perfect for spinning shorter fibers. I had the best early success with a wool about 2" in length.
3. Make sure the twist can get above your spindle finger. I was having issues with getting the twist into the yarn once I started drafting while the spindle was turning. Simply making sure the twist was getting up and over my forefinger made a huge difference.
4. Get out of your own way. Again once I started drafting with the spindle spinning my hand kept getting in my way. Making sure to raise my hand up to the very top of the spindle allowed my hand to stay out of the way and the spindle to turn more freely.
5. PRACTICE!!!! Just about everyday I sit with the spindle and practice. 10 minutes each day. And a couple weeks in, I know it has made all the difference. 10 minutes is enough to keep learning the muscle memory and just enough that if you get frustrated you are done for the day!

I did a recent YouTube episode on learning this craft and it also has videos of me spinning along the way. To view this episode click the video below!

I work with a lot of different breeds of sheep wool here at the mill. Lately I have been busy washing and carding up different breeds of natural white wools. I kept a sample of their locks for comparison and wanted to share a bit about each of the pictured breeds as they apply to handspinners. 

1. Merino. The most well known of all the sheep breeds. Merino has a wonderful crimp making it a very bouncy yarn. Plus it is one of the finest of wools making it comfortable to wear next to skin. For handspinning I would recommend waiting a bit to spin this merino wool. It can be extra slick to spin (meaning it will slip through your hands quickly) and often has a shorter staple length so is not the easiest breed to learn on. 

2. Gulf Coast Native. This breed is often found in southeast US states among other places and is currently registered as a critically endangered breed by the American Livestocks Breed Conservancy. It is a lovely wool, often overlooked and not always easy to find. The handle is going to vary from next to skin soft to better for outerwear or mittens and hats. The staple length averages a lovely 3-4 inches which is a great length for beginning handspinners. 

3. Shetland. I am a bit biased about Shetland as I have my own small flock. That said this is a wonderful and versatile breed. The wool tends to fluctuate wildly depending on what the breeder is breeding for. There are single coated Shetlands whose wool tends to be on the finer end and often is better for next to skin wear. There are also the traditional double coated Shetlands. They often have very fine parts to their fleece and other more coarse parts. Shetland fiber tends to spin wonderfully making it a nice beginner fiber for handspinners. And it comes in a wide variety of natural colors!

​4. Wool cross breeds. Sheep that are a cross of different breeds of sheep can have some of the most beautiful fiber, especially if they are being bred for wool. Generally these shepherds are taking the best attributes of the different breeds wool types and aiming for the best. An example is the above pictured Blue Faced Leicester/Shetland cross. The BFL puts out a lovely "french fry" crimp and nice soft wool. The Shetland adds its own wonderful qualities as described above helping to curb some of the felting that can happen with BFL and keep the fiber a nice length. Combined the wool from these sheep was easy to wash, card and practically spun itself. While purebred sheep breeds are wonderful to spin and more predictable in fiber type, keep an eye out for interesting cross breeds as well!

Interested in spinning any of these fibers? I process loads of U.S. grown wool through my wool mill. I take my time to be able to produce lovely fibers that make handspinning a dream. To shop Ewethful processed fibers head to my online shop...

     

Above samples are using a Yarn Twist degree gauge to look at samples. 
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At some point after you learn to hand spin yarn singles, you will decide it's time to ply those singles together. Plying singles together strengthens your yarn as well as increases the weight of our yarn. I know plying can seem a little intimidating as a beginner because you don't want to mess up that lovely single you worked so hard to spin. Don't be afraid! Plying is the end game and should be fun!

Here are a few tips I have taken from my students questions to help make plying a bit easier for you.

1. The one and only rule to plying is make sure you are spinning your wheel in the opposite direction from what you spun the yarn in. So if you were spinning to the right (clockwise), be sure you are plying to the left (counter clockwise).
2. Ideally have a Lazy Kate and move it lower than your wheel (on the ground) and a little bit away from you. This allows for a little extra room and tension between your hands and the bobbins giving you some extra room to work out an squiggles in your yarn before you ply them.
3. Count! As you get more comfortable plying you may not need to continue to count but to do this day, I still count while I am plying. This gives you a measurement point to easily adjust if you decide you want more or less twist in your yarn.
4. Do a check on the yarn after you have plied a bit. Allow a sample to feed all the way onto the bobbin. Then pull back a bit of is off the bobbin and see if you like it. If you are happy, keep plying as you were. If you want more or less twist, this is where the counting helps! If you want more twist and you were counting to 4, try counting to 5 or 6 and look at your sample again. 
5. Adjust the uptake on your wheel as you ply if you are on a Scotch or Irish tension wheel. As the bobbin fills it will start to cause a drag on your uptake so be sure to keep notching up the tension as it starts to feel like the yarn isn't being pulled on as well. (Note: the same goes for when you are spinning, but because plying fills the bobbin so much faster you'll need to adjust the tension more).

Just like with spinning your yarn, plying is totally subjective. We all spin and ply differently and that is the wonderful part of the craft. There are very few rules! As long as you like the yarn you are making, you are doing it right. Have fun!

Starting in March I will be adding live Q & A spinning sessions available to my Patreon members. This will be available at the $5 level. These sessions will be available via Zoom. You will be invited to come on in and ask questions that have you stumped with your spinning. I won't be teaching spinning on the Zoom (I have a course for that! - Let's Make Yarn!) My goal is to make myself available to troubleshoot hand spinning issues for those new to the craft or are just feeling frustrated. Join the Ewethful Patreon community now or be sure to get signed up for my newsletter to stay up to date! You can join the newsletter on my website ewethfulfiberfarm.com

Owning a wool mill means I do a lot of washing raw wool, also know as scouring. I wanted to share some of my top tips for washing wool which you can use at home. Hand processing wool can be time consuming and has a bit of a learning curve but once you get a routine it is a lovely way to process a fleece right from the beginner. Here are some of my top wool washing tips I have learned over the years.

1. Be sure the fleece is skirted thoroughly prior to washing. 
2. For ease of washing and rinsing, use a soap that is designed for scouring wool. I use Unicorn's Power Scour at the mill. The perks of this  detergent are it doesn't get super sudsy like a lot of soaps, it is easy on the environment and you can use a slightly lower water temperature.
3. Be sure you use hot water! Minimum 140 degrees farenheit is required to wash wool as that is the temperature that the lanolin melts at. A lot of the dirt on a fleece is attached to the lanolin, so when the lanolin melts off a lot of the dirt goes with it.
4. Don't wash too much at one time. Just like washing clothes, you don't want to pack things in too tight or the detergent and water can't do their job.
5. Open up the locks. This is one of  my biggest tips! For the same reasons as apply to tip #4, the more the cleaning agent and water can move around, the more clean the wool will get. This is especially true with finer wools and really dense down wool types. I open the locks up gently during each successive wash as well. Watch the video below to see this in action!

I hope these tips helps you in your wool processing journey. For more tips and tricks, head to my website to sign up for my newsletter where I share helpful wool tips and other Ewethful updates.
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Have you been watching others hand spin and been enamored with the calm and ease they seem to exude? Maybe this has got you thinking that learning to hand spin seems amazing but where do you start? Trust me I have been there. It seems like there are so many words, fibers, tools and that doesn't even touch on the spinning wheel or how it works. Well, I am here to help put you at ease! I believe that understanding your wheel, starting with the right fiber for beginners, and having a good teacher are all you need to have an easier transition to becoming a hand spinner. There will be a learning curve of course, but if you are willing to commit just 10 minutes a day to practice, you can get there!

I am hosting some live FREE webinars starting on October 24th 2023 to help you start to understand some of the basics as well as the simplicity of making yarn and the joys that come with it. You do need to sign up in advance so follow the link below to save your spot. I hope to see you there! Let's get you spinning!

Sign up for the free webinar here

When you first start hand spinning it seems like there are a lot of things going on that you need to manage. When learning to drop spindle handling the tool is one thing while trying to understand and learn to draft the fiber is a whole other component. Trying to do them both at once! Whoa! Park and draft is a technique used when learning that let's you focus on and practice your wool drafting. 

Looking for a good beginner drop spindle? Check out the Ewethful Fiber website for great top whorl drop spindles and fiber for beginners.

Here's how it works:
1. While pinching the fiber so that no twist builds up, give your drop spindle a good twirl and let it go until it is about to stop spinning.
2. Now use your legs to "park" the spindle. Now that the spindle isn't moving you can focus on the fiber.
3. Draft a little fiber with one hand while still keeping the fiber pinched with your other hand.
4. Now release the pinch you have on the fiber and let the twist travel up the fiber. Pinch at the top of the fiber once the twist travel is just about done.
​5. Rinse and repeat.

As you get more comfortable with drafting you can start to ease back into working your spindle and fiber at the same time. Remember to commit to practicing! 10 minutes a day and you will make quick progress.

Check out the Ewethful Fiber Mill website for online classes, drop spindles and easy to spin wool and fibers.
ewethfulfiberfarm.com

 I just had to cast-on the Sophie Scarf by PetiteKnits this week and after deciding to change my needle size it got me to thinking about drape and how to get the drape of your dreams. We've all been there, worked up that project we thought we were going to love only to have the finished item not look quite like the pattern picture. Often times when we picked out our yarn we didn't take into account how that yarn would drape. So here are my 2 tips for dreamy drape:

1. Use a yarn that has fibers that will provide that flow-y drape you are looking for. The crimp in most wool yarns does not lend itself to being super drapey. To get that drape find a yarn with some alpaca, mohair, pygora, cashmere, qiviut or other luxury fiber. These animal fibers have little to no crimp - and since crimp causes that bounce back effect which equals less drape - if we use yarn with these luxury animal fiber  you will also get a finished product with more drape. If you want to stick to 100% wool find yarn in breeds with less crimp such as Gotland, Coopworth or even a lot of the heritage breeds like Shetland or Icelandic.
2. Increase your needle (or hook) size. Often times if a fabric is dense going up several needle sizes with  give you a fabric with more drape. With my latest cast-on I started on a size 4 knitting needle as the pattern called for and then went up to a size 6 to get a little more drape out of the 100% wool yarn.

Now you know what I'm going to say right? Once you choose your yarn, be sure to do a swatch so you know that you really are going to get the fabric you want! I'd love to hear how you get your dream drape in the comments!
Head to my website to join my email list for more great tips and to shop local yarns and hand spinning fibers.

ewethfulfiberfarm.com