For those of you who spin yarn...

[PhoenixRising]

I just got an angora, but I haven't been able to find someone local to teach me how to spin yet. I'm hoping maybe I can find someone who would be willing to take my raw fiber ( I would be purchasing a wool to mix it with) and spin yarn for me. I'm curious if any of you who spin yarn would be interested. She was recently plucked so it will be a few months before I have anything to get started with.

ETA: I would be willing to pay for this service, or find a way to exchange services if there is anything I can do that might interest you.

[Chancellor]

Both Valerie and I spin yarn. I've never spun angora though. Where are you located?

[PhoenixRising]

Both Valerie and I spin yarn. I've never spun angora though. Where are you located?

I'm in the US, Missouri.

[Baroque]

Probably a bit too far away for me as I'm in New Zealand!

I started spinning this year to have something to do with all my Arapawa sheep fleeces. [Arapawas are rare NZ coloured sheep breed].

I'm enjoying it a lot now I have a decent wheel to work on, the previous one was an animal which kept trying to eat/break my fingers!

I purchased a Majacraft Aura in September for all my spinning but also to produce art yarn for weaving, I'm learning to spindle as well with drop spindle and supported spindles and am enjoying that for finer fibres and for portability.

[Paints]

I've never spun angora either but would love to try. Sigh - sending fleece across the border might be a challenge. I'm in southern Ontario (Hamilton). Nice to see we have some spinners on the board!

[PhoenixRising]

I've never spun angora either but would love to try. Sigh - sending fleece across the border might be a challenge. I'm in southern Ontario (Hamilton). Nice to see we have some spinners on the board!

Would it really be all that difficult to mail it across borders? I've never shipped outside of the US so I don't really know how those things go

[Paints]

It would depend on how much fleece you are sending. Because fleece is fairly light, probably not too bad. It could be sent USPS as a gift with little value. It would then not attract brokerage or duty.

[PhoenixRising]

I finally received a response from my local weavers guild, I'd been trying to reach them for weeks. They are looking into seeing if there is anyone local who could/would help me out. BUT I'm still looking for options if that falls through!

[Paints]

It would be great for you to work with someone local. There are lots of ways to design yarn (thickness, twist, colour, smooth or more rustic, etc.) and you could be more a part of the process. A man who owned a Wheaton terrier contacted my spinning group. He had been collecting his dog's hair for some time and wanted it spun. I did it for him and the best part for me was meeting the dog!

I'd love it if you kept this thread going with some pictures.........

[Valerie]

Wow- I didn't know there were so many other spinners here I have spun angora, but only 100%- I am still figuring out how to blend either colors or fibers, and I don't have a blending board. I do like 100% angora, though. My Cinnabun's fluff is piling up, though, while I work on all the other fleeces I have. And, right now I need to be knitting, not spinning so I can finish something for our work Yankee Swap.

Baroque- congratulations on your Majacraft! I have seen them at the fairs and they seem to be a great production wheel. I have a Lendrum and an Ashford Traditional from about the 70's. I'm looking to buy a Canadian Production wheel (if anyone knows of one anywhere I'd be interested!)

[Artemis]

I'm a weaver, so if ya'll have a lot of yarn you don't know what to do with think of me!
I'm in Oregon - there is a big fiber community of spinners. They do lovely work. I'd love to learn one day.
You all should post some pictures of what you've spun sometime. I'd enjoy seeing it. We weavers are always drooling over yarn and planning an expansion of our stash!

[PhoenixRising]

I'm super excited. I believe I've found someone about an hour from me who will teach me. She raises sheep and processes their wool. She's going to meet me at one of the local spinning/weaving meetings Jan 16th and bring me fiber and a wheel to learn with. I'll definitely keep this thread open, I'm sure I'll want to post pictures!

[Baroque]

I now have about 50 fleeces to process this year from my Arapawa sheep! I will be selling off quite a few I think but I have some off being carded at the moment for the next couple of projects. Next year we will have even more...... as I am keeping about 9 or 10 ewe lambs from this years lot as future breeding stock.

As you can see this years lambs are all very colourful and we have a huge variety of coat patterns now with 3 rams so we get black, brown, black spotted, brown spotted, moufflon, grey stripey and we also have a few unusual "sparkly" lambs which are mainly white with tiny flecks of black. You can see a pair of sparkly twin ewes in the centre right of the photo of my ewes.

ewes.jpg (121.3 KiB) Viewed 15996 times

2015 lambs.jpg (230.75 KiB) Viewed 15996 times

BamBam.jpg (145.66 KiB) Viewed 15996 times

The Arapawas are a rare NZ feral breed of sheep which we now believe were descendants of sheep escaped from passing Spanish or Portuguese explorers after DNA results were done, they have been on the island for at least 250 years breeding very hardy intelligent sheep with great personalities and fantastic fine fleeces which feel like merino fleece. The rams have impressive sets of horns and many of the ewes are horned as well.

I also have a couple of even rarer Pitt Island sheep which are merino descendants.

[Valerie]

Those sheep are amazing- I love that spotted ram. His horns are impressive! I am a fan of heritage breed sheep, and I suppose yours are a "heritage" as it gets And Merino soft fleece is a lovely bonus. The Churro sheep (Navajo heritage breed) fleeces tend to be a bit harsher in the hand. I am processing one now. It is a hard, long staple, with a great sheen, but not terribly soft.

[Baroque]

Those sheep are amazing- I love that spotted ram. His horns are impressive! I am a fan of heritage breed sheep, and I suppose yours are a "heritage" as it gets And Merino soft fleece is a lovely bonus. The Churro sheep (Navajo heritage breed) fleeces tend to be a bit harsher in the hand. I am processing one now. It is a hard, long staple, with a great sheen, but not terribly soft.

Thanks Valerie! We like them a lot because they are a lot of fun to have, they look interesting so you can tell them apart and the lambs charge around the paddocks like a bunch of demented puppies playing chase and most of them come when I call them.

We think the breed is similar to many found in parts of Spain, when I was there earlier this year I saw many athletic looking long legged sheep with fine fleeces, and of course the DNA testing proved that they have other relatives which come from Europe initially.

Mr BamBam [not named by me] is quite large, I can vouch for the fact that his horns are in full working order and that they really hurt! He hit me in the leg a couple of years ago when he was being impatient about being fed some pellets and knocked me right off my feet. I was quite lucky not to break any bones that day.

I discovered after I'd paid for him and had got him in the stock trailer that he had been a kids pet which had been taken to Calf Club and other farm shows, if I had known that before I would not have bought him as pet rams tend to be rather dangerous because they have no respect for humans. I try to manage him carefully and no-one is allowed in the paddock with him without a stick for protection. He is not nasty in nature, just a bit over friendly and he won't run away if you shout at him.

He has 2 sidekicks BountyBar [because he is chocolate coloured] and Crunchy [also named for a chocolate bar]. Both these boys are respectful and I find them quite good to work with but I would never trust a ram so always carry a big stick and my jumping boots so I can keep myself out of trouble by jumping the fence!

BountyBar + Crunchy.jpg (143.08 KiB) Viewed 15973 times

Bounty's horns are trimmed because he broke one fighting with BamBam and it was pressing into his face so I got the vet to come and trim them back so he was comfortable.

[MissDee]

They're beautiful! Thanks for sharing the pictures. I'd love to learn to spin, have been thinking about it for awhile. I recently took up quilting, and will be learning to weave when I get the loom from my MIL. I guess I'm into the textile arts - there's just something about the colors and the textures. Even when I wasn't sewing I still was drawn to and tempted to buy fabric. Now that I'm actively quilting it's even worse!

[PhoenixRising]

I love the sheep photos! I would love one day, when I'm finally living in the country to have a few angora (not just one) and a couple sheep for fiber.

[Valerie]

This was my Spinzilla accomplishment this past fall. I spun my mile! The lime green and purple (that doesn't show as purple as it came out) are Churro dyed with kool aid, the gray is spindle spun Romney, the white is Cormo, and the blue was a Merino/silk roving I bought instead of processing it from raw like all the rest of it.

[Artemis]

Lovely yarn - wow, I'm impressed!

I loved seeing the sheep too. Amazing coloration.

[PhoenixRising]

Valerie, your photo, those skeins look wonderful! This is why I want to learn to spin or at least raise my own fiber.

[Baroque]

Beautiful yarn Valerie!

I'm waiting for 4 fleeces to come back from carding, only another 45 or so to go....!

[Valerie]

I can't even imagine having that many fleeces to spin. It takes me 2 years to spin an entire fleece. Of course, I have distractions- like other fleeces. So I don't stick with one until I finish. I get bored too easily.