I continue to spin the Soay fleece from my friends' sheep into usable yarn, and of course I tried some different techniques before finding the right one:
https://www.knittingpirate.com/2025/07/14/in-which-the-pirate-spins-soay/
#wool
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A team in Bairnsdale, Victoria recently participated in the Back to Back Wool Challenge where a team shears a sheep with manual shears, spins the wool, and knits a jumper in a day.
Read this for some drama and also to learn about a knitting yarn producer who uses the wool of her 90 year-old father's flock of merinos.
#knitting #textiles #Australia #wool #sustainability
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-05/wool-challenge-puts-spotlight-on-slow-manufacturing/105488282
ABC News · Back to Back Wool Challenge puts spotlight on slow and sustainable textiles
My first time trying a gradient spin. With rolags. I'm sure I'm not the first one to try this with this fiber prep, but I never heard of it before. It's going to be a little tricky when I get to the shortest repeats. I've made a cheat sheet to help keep track of all 7 of these very similar shades. This is BFL with mulberry silk, dyed with kool-aid. #handspinning #handmade #handcraft #wool #fiberarts
#HandSpinning some single ply in yellow 
today.
What are you spinning?
Donning heavy wool skirts and hobnail boots, this intrepid explorer retraces the steps of legendary women adventurers.#wool #history #adventure #explorers #exploration #hiking #mountains #podcastinternal #section-Articles
How Elise Wortley Climbed Mont Blanc in 1830s Women’s Attire
How Elise Wortley Climbed Mont Blanc in 1830s Women’s Attire
Atlas Obscura · How Elise Wortley Climbed Mont Blanc in 1830s Women’s Attire
I first watched A Muppet Christmas Carol two years ago, but it's now a holiday favorite. So I had to make an Advent calendar based on it, because that's what I do
Kermit is blanket stitched wool felt; the words were machine embroidered. The design is based on a performance poster from London Music Works and the lamppost is solar (plan to use it as a nightlight)
Still need to make the numbers, but there's time 
Replied in thread
Second update: here is the last of the locks, a little damp still. It sure does look like three years of growth, as if he *tried* to shed the fleece, but didn't quite get there.
Continued thread
Update: Turning fleece into spinnable fibre!
The top pile is about half of the sample of fleece I brought home yesterday. In the middle, the nice locks I've flicked open - darker at the base, sun-lightened towards the tip of each lock. At the bottom, the short, neppy, broken-off bits. I'm going to try to hand-card some of that to see if I can rescue any of it.
It does still have a bit of lanolin in it, so I need to decide if I'm going to wash the locks again. I also have to decide if I'm going to spin directly from the locks or if I'm going to card first. Leaning towards the former, because carding will surely introduce more neps into this very fine wool.
No one expected shearing activities yesterday, least of all the sheep. (Soay are supposed to shed their fleece every year... but this one didn't.)
More on the blog: https://www.knittingpirate.com/2025/06/09/in-which-the-pirate-helps-shear/
Ok I don't know a better place than #Defaidodon to ask this .. Getting close to shearing time we'll have sacks of wool this time I plan to wash the wool, dry it and use it to fill some pillows. But I am having difficulties in finding a #wool #detergent for hand wash that is : 1. Unscented 2. NOT irritant for the eyes .. maybe pure Marsilia Soap or what ? I plan to wash some wool by hand in the bathtub, put it into a drier sack, dry it and use it to fill some pillows. Any suggestions appreciated!
“Celebrating both the #Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing along with the academic and #scientific #research … It’s really a transformative work.”
Windspeaker.comPoint, counterpoint between Western and Coast Salish knowledge at play in new book on the woolly dogSnuneymuxw author and artist Eliot Kwulasultun White-Hill is hopeful that Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa’s The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog, a book to which he contributed, will open the door to “holding up” Indigenous knowledge with western academic and scientific research.
Do you have coloured sheep? Do they have nice wool? Are you a reasonable distance from western vic/eastern SA?
I would like to buy raw wool directly from you.
I'm particularly up for Polwarth wool in interesting natural colours (ginger, russet, chestnut, fawn). If you keep a couple of these sheep, hit me up, I will be buying this for years.
"All shall be well"
Feeling the pull of the tactile, the human, the creation of things imbued with place.
Side-trip to Ripples Crafts - hand-dyed yarn in a little workshop tucked into the hillside near Clachtoll, Assynt.
Online shop: https://www.ripplescrafts.com/
Does anyone have a good source for #knitting #wool (merino or merino blend) in #nz ? Something nice to work with and wear, good for a novice, and reasonably priced. I'll need about 800g of 8-10ply. I'm planning on making a sweater and the pattern calls for gauge of 10 cm on a 4.5 mm needle = 18 stitches. I've looked at some at #RibbonRose and at a shop when I was in #Oamaru. I really like some of them but I don't have much experience and having a hard time justifying the cost.
Masako Miki’s vibrant, playful sculptures come to life at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/05/masako-miki-midnight-march/
I made some rolags on my blending board, just a bunch of stuff I had small amounts of. There's some merino, mohair, peduncle silk, and some Wool of the Andes. It will be one of a kind, for better or worse. I think I'll call it Pennies. #handspinning #handmade #handcraft #wool #fiberarts
Here is Hawk's #fleece. 
This is my favorite fleece! It's EPIC! 
It is like a lion's 
mane.
It's a huge fleece, very curly and crimpy, with a long staple, and next-to-skin soft. I just drool everytime I shear Hawk. I think his #wool is MARVELOUS. I could keep taking more and more pics of it; I'm literally obsessed. 
We are done #shearing, but I have three more fleeces to skirt. To be continued...
ѦਹѤʞ 
My #wool is here! Came in a huge bag! And the seller threw in some extra as an apology for the 2 week delay. I'm using it to remember how this goes...
So far I'm worried about the short draft (if that's what it's called.) The fibres on the extra batch seem quite short, I'm used to something longer. So the thread is turning out a little lumpy, but it's only snapped once so I count that as a win 