Hello Spinners, old and new!

I'm still alive but not spinning quite like I use to, meaning daily.  Retired from work now, I find I am actively trying to downsize my environment (house and stuff) to get ready for the eventual move.

In that process, I found that I had a supply of the Spinner's Journal I designed years ago.  I'll keep a few. and plan to list a few on Ebay.  And as always, they will stay available on Lulu.com

I have not caved into selling my fiber stash yet, although I suppose it is SABLE (Stash Above and Beyond Life Expectancy)  After all, I am sure I will feel the pull to spin again.

Meanwhile, for those who cling, as I do to the old blogs, thanks for stopping by and may you life be blessed.

Cindy  AKA Yarnspinnerstales

Other places I hang out on the internet now

 Back in the day, blogging was -the- thing to do.  I did many posts to this blog.

As time passed and the internet expanded, and learned new ways to connect everyone and everything, blogs became old hat.  All that reading!  Instead, give me pictures...and sound!

Then a well kept secret in the gaming community hit the main population, and streaming was born.  On Youtube, on Twitch  and other platforms.  I wandered along behind many months, until finally in Sept 2020 I got behind the camera, grabbed my spinning wheel and launch my Yarnspinnerstales stream.  

I am still doing it.  Now what use to take 100's of words to explain everything in podcasts under that name, the viewers could see it!  I have spun many skeins of yarn, processed (even washing) fiber, explained but most of all, show the whole process of turning fiber into yarn.  And further, now and then I knit or crochet with it too.

I expect the internet will find yet another way to be of use to our everyday life, but for me, this feels like my place to be for awhile.  I invite you to come join me.  Not only can you see me spin, you can hear my voice telling you about it, and other bits and pieces of my life.

Follow these links:

To see me streaming live   Yarnspinnerstales stream  If there is a button that says live, click that picture.

If it does not say live on the picture, you can watch it, just like a recorded show on your TV.  The channel for yarnspinnerstales will hold a couple of weeks worth of shows.  Clicking on any of them will play it.

For many more of the older shows, I am using Youtube to archive.

Archived streams

I hope to see you live sometime though!

YST Episode 189 Spinning cotton and picking wool

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.

Here's the latest episode

YST Episode 188 How old is that fiber

A short podcast talking about the last five skeins in the yarn wash up, and my recent spinning.

I mention fiber from a Phatt fiber box, they can be found here.

The other fiber I have been spinning awhile is from Hobby Lobby.  I finally looked it up online and can provide a link.  I am spinning Yarn Bee Showstopper in the Winter Solstice colorway.

 

Here's the latest episode

YST Episode 187 The big wash up

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.

Here's the latest episode

YST Episode 186

This podcast is for the week of Sept 5th, and talks about prepping cormo fiber for the dyepot, and spinning a merino silk bamboo blend.

I also refer to two past podcasts so here are the links:

Episode 38 talks about buying a fleece.  Episode 39 talks about buying non wool fibers and how to store all fibers.  Also the ghost story that I wrote is at the end of this episode.

The fiber I was spinning was from Wooliebullie.  Right now the Etsy store is only selling art batts, and hand knitted items.

Here's the latest episode

YST Episode 185 A Yin Yang fleece

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

Here's the latest episode