Join Me as I Spin Vibrant 2-ply Targhee Wool Yarn

Spinning a Basic 2-ply Yarn

Join me as I spin hand-dyed Targhee top roving into a 2-ply yarn using my electronic spinning “wheel,” AKA e-spinner. I spin the singles first and then ply, using joins where I decide to detach and reattach the singles when the color doesn’t match up just right. The yarn is finished via wet finishing and thwacking.

This video was made with the beginner or novice spinner in mind, or those curious to see how another spinner creates handspun yarn. I am a self-taught indie dyer and spinner with over 12 years of experience. I am by no means an “expert,” but someone passionate about the fiber arts who hopes to inspire others to take up the craft or expand their skill set without intimidation.

You may want to check out my post on How to Dye Yarn in a Crockpot. I hope to do a video in the near future of dyeing roving this way.

I filmed this video in the winter of 2023 – and I’m just getting around to finishing it, in the Fall of 2024. Better late than never, right?

The truth is when I filmed myself making this yarn, I wasn’t sure I was going to do anything with it. Last winter is when I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to make videos for the blog, so much of this was just me playing around with cameras and angles to see if I could get useable footage. All I can do is improve from here, right?? 🙂

Spinning Targhee Wool Roving from Start to Finish

I’ve subtitled the video, so feel free to watch with the sound off. 🙂

I’m still pressed for time so I don’t have the time to write a detailed blog post on this subject, but I am always happy to answer questions or support others in their spinning journey, as best as I can from a distance, anyway! So feel free to ask any questions to this seasoned but by no means perfect, or expert self-taught spinner. 🙂

Video Description

In this short video, I cover:

  • Different ways to split roving for spinning
  • Spinning two sets of singles and weighing them to see if I have an even amount on each bobbin
  • attaching the singles to the leader with a square knot
  • plying two singles together, with my advice for those getting started
  • how to do joins for reattaching yarn in the middle of plying
  • wrapping yarn onto a niddy noddy
  • how I tag/inventory my handspun yarn
  • wet setting my super fast way, great for small skeins
  • thwacking yarn
  • showing the final 2-ply yarn

This is not detailed instruction on how to do the above, but a quick example that will (hopefully) inspire you to continue spinning or to appreciate the art of spinning. 🙂

A person with glasses holds colorful skeins of yarn in front of their face. They are in a room with shelves filled with books and more yarn in the background. The yarn is vibrant with green, blue, yellow, and orange hues. Join me as I spin this yarn in the above video.

Thanks for joining me as I spin this hand-dyed targhee top. 🙂

Until next time…

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Other Fiber Arts Posts

Joyous Jubilant Jam-Packed July: Fun in the Sun and Soaking in the Inspiration

“Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.”

– Lao Tzu
Here in the Annapolis Valley, you know it’s officially summer once the strawberries are available! We enjoyed picking a flat of no-spray berries

July Update

As with most of our lives these days, June did not go as planned, at least with my creative endeavours! I had laid out a plan of what to update, what to revamp, re-price and how to execute it all, but per usual, the creativity had other plans. Mostly, it’s taking me a lot longer to finish the goals I had laid out for the month of June. Things weren’t, shall we say, cooperating. Projects would take a completely different turn. On top of it all I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden (something I should have anticipated!) and on (much needed!) day trips with the fam.

In the end I decided to go with the flow. I’m enjoying the refinement of some older products and listings here on the website. I have some new features coming to make shopping simple, easy & affordable. I don’t mind that it is taking me longer as I think it will be a benefit long term.

New Products/Features

One of the biggest epiphany’s I had last month, was that I want to concentrate on making the website more about bulk ordering and Etsy would be the place for individual products. Not to say you can’t order just one thing here on the website, I want the option for discounts up front if you were to order more than one product. To go even further, I have set up a contact form for wholesale/bulk orders for small businesses, events or fundraisers that would be interested in my creations.

Offering bulk ordering sets me up for my future goal to offer my products to local and small Canadian businesses in the future, and reward shoppers in general for supporting my work.

The first step was to try out a new bulk pricing plugin and I now offer bulk discounts on my engraved advocacy charms. It takes a bit to come up with the proper pricing, but I am happy with the outcome. I also revamped the advocacy charms to a more simple design/offering, as that seems to be the most preferred, and easier for me for bulk orders. I manually engrave these charms at time of order which can be time consuming as well as very hard on my already bad shoulder. It was important for me to streamline the design to something I could execute quickly.

New Cool Tool: E-spinner

I mentioned in a past blog post that I was considering an electronic spinner. I went for it with an affordable design from Dreaming Robots! I had my eye on this tool since first seeing it on Instagram a while back. I also had plans to buy a SpinOlution e-spinner since I own the parts that would work with it already, but they never got back to me as the best way to order it and have it delivered to me in Canada. So for now, we’ll stick with Maurice’s wonderful design that is a dream to work with! I even bought the battery pack her recommended so now I don’t even have to contend with plugging it in when I use it.

Bonus: I really wanted a yarn counter to make dividing up my yarn for sale more easy, so I got one of those too!

I will have to do a post just on these tools at a later date: simply no time at the moment. But do head over to Dreaming Robots website and check it out.

On Sale/Discounts This Month

I’ve been so busy playing around with new features on the website, I didn’t feel inspired to run a particular sale or coupon code this month, but you can always check out what’s in the sale/clearance section or see what’s on sale on Etsy.

Okay! Back to it!

Until next time…

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