Yarnspinners Tales's Podcast

In this podcast, I talk about what I learned about cotton and spinning cotton in a class at SAFF this year. I also had the chance to do some fiber and fleece shopping, and talk about that experience. I mentioned that I would list the four currently grown species of cotton plants and their details. Gossypium hirsutum Known as upland cotton and native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Southern Florida. This species accounts for 90% of commercial cotton grown. Gossypium barbadense Known as extra-long staple cotton, and is native to South America. This species accounts for 8% of all cotton grown. Gossypium arboreum Known as tree cotton, it is native to India and Pakistan. This species accounts for 2% of all commercial cotton grown. Gossypium herbacaum Known as Levant cotton this species is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is the last percentage of the cotton grown world wide. Extra long staple cotton requires special ginning, known as roller gins. This type cotton can only be grown in a few places in the world, because it requires a long season and will not tolerate rain before harvest. Currently California and Arizona are the two US areas growing this cotton.

After I spin a skein of yarn, it needs to be washed. I put this off until I have enough to take several days of washing. I also talk about doing a burn test on fiber to determine the fiber content. One was a very big surprise! The flow chart I was using for this burn test can be found here. My pack of luxury fibers contained white angora and it is shown on the Nano spinning wheel in the photo with this podcast. The pack of fibers came from Sericin Silk Etsy store.

A catch up podcast talking about Stashdash, the state fair and a black and white Shetland fleece. Stashdash is a challenge created by the podcast TheKnitGirlls. The young spinner I mention in the state fair has grown up and now has her own fiber business at Cedar Ridge Fiber Farm. If you would like to see the daily streams I did during Tour de Fleece, they are archived here. I am still uploading those, but all will be there soon. My current streams can be found at Yarnspinnerstales on Twitch.TV

A tiny but perfectly acceptable spinning wheel is being 3D printed by Dreaming Robots. I have the smaller version called the Nano and I talk about it in this podcast. I purchased it at the Hoosier Hill fiber fair at the booth for Susan's fiber shop. I referenced the book Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos. This is just one source for the book.

Podcasting for me is on the back burner at this time. I plan to return with the Tour de Fleece in July 2021.

In the last two podcasts, for some reason I said the livestreams were archived on Facebook, which is not true. I didn't even catch it as I was editing. Instead of the tedious process of edit and releasing the episodes, I decided to record this separate little audio. The livestreams originate on Twitch.TV under Yarnspinnerstales The videos will stay there for a month to six weeks, if you do not catch me when I am live streaming. After that, the videos are archived to you tube. Once you go to you tube, in the search box type lusi222 channel. That should take you to my channel. Be sure when you go to the video area, you find where it says all videos, to be able to catch them from the beginning. Or the most recent will be quickly available right on top. If you subscribe to my lusi222 channel, you should be notified when a new video is uploaded. I will try a direct link here, but if it doesn't work, follow my suggestion above. I have to decide which of the livestreams are uploaded to archive, so I am not selecting all of them. Much of the Sunday afternoon livestreams, are just for spinning and chatting. I am focusing on the livestreams that I teach something about spinning or using hand spun yarn, to select what I am uploading. I hope that will let these livestreams have interest over the years ahead, just as my podcasts have over the last thirteen years. Happy listening, watching, and of course, spinning!

First up in the podcast is a report on my study of the Lonk Sheep Breed. It's short so I went on to talk about all the spinning projects I have currently going that involve the Merino Breed. Later, I will do a more complete breed study for that breed. Finally, I talk about the second Tour de Fleece that ran from Aug 26th to Sept 20th, and what I spun during that time. Lonk fiber was purchased from Wychwood Spinner Superwash merino that I spun into sock yarn was purchased from Yarn Hollow. Sadly, the Ozark Carding Mill I mention is permanently closed. The Facebook group I have been using for the study of different sheep breeds is called 52 weeks of sheep. I am not sure if FB will allow the link to work.

The Coopworth Sheep breed is a relatively new breed, as sheep breeds go. The sample I worked with was from a lamb and contained long lovely locks. I cover in this podcast how to wash and spin locks, and the specifics of this sampling. Information on the Breed is from the Fleece and Fiber Source Book. Another book I mention is Merino by Margaret Stove. Previously I reviewed Coopworth in Episode 45. I have also done a live stream on washing locks. In the second part of this live stream, I show how to spin those locks. All of my live streams are being archived on my channel on YouTube, so if those links above do not work try going to this channel.

So much behind that title! I am not stopping the audio podcast. I am moving forward on the wave of technology and taking my concept for YST with it. I have set up a channel on TwitchTV You can find me under the same name as the podcast, yarnspinnerstales. I plan to live stream twice a week and during those videos you can join me, chat by typing, watch in the video what I am working on (and have been trying to explain with words for 12 years in the podcast!) ask me questions,tell me what you are doing, and so on and so on. I think as the community of listeners/watchers/chatters grow we will come close to a vision I have always had for YST, a spin in. I also have a Discord channel set up for us to chat, and share photos. It would be a great place to ask questions you would like me to answer there or show on the next live stream. Click this link for the invitation to join the channel. Live streams will be Weds evenings and Sunday afternoons. Once you are on Twitch and are following my channel, make sure you also click to be alerted when I go live. The alert will always tell you in your own time zone. If you can not watch the live stream, the videos will be available on my channel for 2 weeks. Be sure to check in and watch it.

This breed review, second of the three I did at the same time, covers the Shropshire breed, another Down breed from the British Isles. I had two sources of the fiber. The first, a small sample, came from Wychwood Spinner. The second was from Marie Redding Fiber Arts Etsy store. The samples were completely different, so I combined them into one yarn, a tail spun yarn to display the lovely long locks in the Marie Redding sample. I mention the book The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs, as a source for one way to make tail spun yarn. Another method for tail spinning can be seen on this You Tube video.

The sheep breed for this podcast was new to me, after all my years of reviewing. The Gulf Coast Native was raised long ago for it's tolerance to the conditions of the deep US south regions. But it lost it's favored position, and is now on the critical list of sheep breeds. The group 52 weeks of sheep included it this year in it's list to study. I purchased my fiber sample from Herie7 in the Etsy store. I also spend some time talking about washing fleeces that are very dirty. Beside the dish detergent Dawn which is readily available, I review Namaste Farms washing products from Natalie Redding. It is available from the Woolery here.

This is another short breed review podcast. The East Fresian fiber I spun was a lovely brown color and very easy to spin in roving. There is a short information portion included at the end for a breed of hair sheep called Barbados Blackbelly. Unfortunately I have not been able to get a fiber sample yet for this Shave 'Em to Save 'Em passport breed. But the group 52 weeks of sheep had it on the list for week 8, which is part of this podcast timing. If I ever have the chance to spin some of the fiber, I will review it again.

Today's podcast includes an interview with Deborah Niemann, who has the wonderful job of working for the Livestock Conservancy organization. In our interview, she shares all the details of the next two year program to introduce spinners and fiber artists to the 22 rare and recovering breeds of sheep through the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program. I recently got the passport that is used to record whenever you use a fiber from one of these breeds and will be talking about working with these fibers in future pod casts. Here are some of the links for this podcast: Livestock Conservancy SESE program Teaching videos for sheep breeders of rare wools Woolhalla Tunis a provider of SESE breeds fiber Incredible Edible use of waste fleece for mulching Finally I will be renewing my efforts to remind my listeners about the Spinners' Journal I have for sale, by periodical posting a promo pod cast. If you are interested now, you can find it on Lulu.com here