Isn’t it? The top is downright scary, but I love the resulting brown is beautifully complex.

A circle of six handspun yarns in semi-solid, muted, earthy colours.

The same six yarns lined up in a row of skeins.

Two bobbins part-full of a complex mid-blue yarn.

Day 3 of #tourdefleece2025 I finished the last of my @jarbontextiles Mineralogy samples, Azurite Adventure. They’re all spun short forward draw, trying to get all the colours in each draft.

TdF total: 379m/414yd from 159g. Not including the green (spun before TdF started).
#gifted #handspinning

Mineralogy ‘Blue Slate’, a top containing royal blue, teal, black and white which spins up to a complex dark blue. Pictured in tops form and handspun singles on a bobbin.

A bobbin containing Mineralogy ‘Malachite Magic’ (a mid-teal) on a Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel.

Mineralogy ‘Malachite Magic’, a top containing green, turquoise, grey and white wool, which spins up to a lovely mid-teal. Pictured in tops form and spun singles on a bobbin.

Mineralogy ‘Carnelian’, a top containing green, pink, orange and white wool which spins up to a warm brown/pink. Pictured in tops form and spun singles on a bobbin.

Day 2 of #tourdefleece2025. After finishing ‘Bog Oak’ and Blue Slate’ yesterday (plus one bobbin of ‘Carnelian’, the @jarbontextiles Mineralogy sampling continued today…

(These were provided to me for the purpose of spinning up these samples) #handspinning

A Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel fitted with the lace flyer. On it is a half-full bobbin of a complex, green-leaning brown yarn

The same yarn, but with the fibre it was spun from. The top contains bright yellow and orange along with black and white.

Yarn on the bobbin and the tops alongside on a wood background, revealing that there’s also some raspberry pink in the top.

Day one of #tourdefleece2025 …first job was to ply this sample of John Arbon Textiles Mineralogy ‘Bog Oak’. One of those colours where the top looks kinda scary but it transforms beautifully into a gorgeous complex brown. Swipe for the before & after! #handspinning (gifted to spin up as a sample)

A bright yellow bobbin 3/4 full of creamy white, woollen spun singles on a Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel.

A close up of the yarn on the bobbin .

Spinning some Shetland carded roving that’s been in my stash for 6 years. I suspect the tips were a bit tender — there are a lot of nepps that look like they were probably tips — but it’s an enjoyable bit of supported longdraw.

A 2cm wide band on an inkle loom. The design features diagonal stripes of black and aqua which traverse the band in triangular blocks. It’s not quite a symmetrical design. Each alternate triangle on the right is bordered either with the main or background colour.

A small, dark grey, roll-top bag, rolled up and fastened with a side-release clasp in a matching aqua colour.

Another tablet-woven band off my loom and this time it’s been put to use immediately as the webbing for a roll-top project bag #tabletweaving #inkleloom #bandweaving

Looks like you’re doing great though! Spinning involves a lot of little muscle movements that your body’s never done before and it takes a while to pick that up so be kind to yourself and enjoy the process.

I teach on Ashford Kiwis. Before we add fibre I get my learners to just practice treadling as slowly as they can while keeping the wheel turning in the same direction. You’re on the slowest speed in your photos which is good. Continue to practice and your hands will be able to ‘keep up’ more easily.

Four skeins of handspun yarn. From the left, a giant skein of green fractal spun 3-ply from a limited edition John Arbon Textiles blended top; natural Jacob; John Arbon Textiles Hangy Down and natural Zwartbles.

It’s grist measuring day for a bunch of recent skeins. And yes, the one on the left is actually a giant. If you’re maths averse, lucky for you I had an ADHD hyperfocus some 18 months ago and made a free online grist calculator. 😂 www.tinyfibrestudio.com/gristcalculator

Two drop spindles. One 3D printed with a pink whorl and bright green yarn wound in a standard cop; one wooden with a brass inlay around the rim and wound with a mysterious mixture of bright pink and… all the colours! Displayed in a fancy-looking cop where each make is visible in the criss-crossed pattern. The fibre they’re spun from sits beside them.

Just announced: I’ll be teaching two classes at the @jarbontextiles.bsky.social Mill Open Weekend in June: ‘Drop Spindle for Beginners’ and ‘Spin the Yarn You Actually Want’. So if you fancy a trip to Devon in the Summer, come and join in the fun!

Thank you! ☺️

Three spindles of handspun cotton single mounted in the built-in lazy Kate of a Bosworth book charkha. Imagine baby bear, mummy bear and daddy bear in cop form and you’re pretty much there! Handspinning

😂 part way through plying… yep, definitely got carried away on that last spindle! 👀

A cherry wood box charkha containing a driven spindle. Both the cop in progress and those on two spindles in the onboard storage are rather full of fairly fine cotton singles. Handspun yarn

A spot of cotton spinning today on my Bosworth book charkha. Really need to stop and clear these spindles but it’s too addictive. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Four knitted swatches of handspun yarn. On the left, one is very blended in colour, the middle one contains short stripes and in the bottom one half the swatch is dark, the other light. On the right is a gradient which looks like a sunset. Dark brown at the bottom, through orange to a pinky coral.

A spiral of blended tops (lengthways colour stripes), containing pink, orange, brown, white and black.

These swatches were all spun from the same blended top. I love experimenting with what’s possible… so much so I did a class for @jarbontextiles.bsky.social and you can watch it free on YouTube, if you fancy! youtu.be/XOUMRkmxTPY?...

Little nests of spinning fibre in different colours litter a kitchen work surface.

Such is the ADHD life! 🙄 I think there’s a place for both the rolag and tops methods but it sometimes seems a shame to mess with the worsted prep. For the record, this is the physical manifestation of hyperfocus after I decided I wanted to spin a gradient from blended tops for a specific project.

You’re very welcome - hope it’s useful! @craftmehappy.bsky.social has also done a ton of work on this subject.

😂 Also ADHD but I think I get into a hyperfocus with it. I don’t usually bother with rolags (yours look fab though!) - if I split the colours out and spin from the tops I can control the length of the colour repeat better.

MOW Sessions: Tips for Colour Management when Hand Spinning Tops with Becks of Tiny Fibre Studio YouTube video by John Arbon Textiles

Ooh, I love a bit of tops-spinning experimentation! I did a whole class on it for the @jarbontextiles.bsky.social Virtual Open Weekend a couple of years ago. youtu.be/XOUMRkmxTPY?...

Thank you so much. ☺️

Thanks for the cop-liment! I typically just go for a structurally-stable ‘throw the yarn at the spindle’ style, but sometimes my brain demands something prettier to hold my attention!

A spindle cop wound with multiple crosses so the multi-coloured singles change to a muted coral in a zig-zag.

Anyone for spindle candy?
#handspinning #handspun #spinningyarn #handspunyarn #spinning #dropspindle #spindlespinning

Absolutely! There’s something about the whole-body motion of it. When you get it right it’s like a little dance.

The spindle of a great wheel, with a cop of white wool in a more bulbous formation than would be ideal! #handspinning #handspun #spinningyarn #handspunyarn #spinning #spinster #yarnspinning #greatwheel #walkingwheel

My guild has a Great Wheel and I’ll take any and every opportunity to brush up my skills… after I’ve helped other folks get the hang of it. The top layer of the spindle is mine. We need to work on our cop-building on this wheel!

Thank you! Not sure about perfect, but it’s structurally sound and keeps my brain interested so that’ll do for me! 😂🧶

That’s a lovely compliment. Thank you! 🧶

I’m on a spindle spinning mood at the moment. Fibre: Appledore ‘Pig Snout’ by @jarbontextiles.bsky.social spindle by IST Crafts. 🧶❤️ #handspun

A glass jar full of colourful fibre and a spindle on a kitchen counter

ADHD crafter hack: this is how I remember to work on my spindle project. Every time I make tea, I see my spindle jar and am prompted to do a few minutes of spinning while my tea brews… still have to set a timer to avoid ending up with a full spindle and a cold cuppa though! 😬