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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Back in January 2021, I was doing the New Year thing, thinking about podcasting again, and putting a discussion about the New Year in that podcast. Somehow, the podcast never happened, and this bit of writing I did, was never published. Is it still relevant? I think so, but in a softer way, in that we are really not totally motionless anymore by the Pandemic. I started the musing with the question 'why during 2020 and especially forced to stay at home, did I not burst into a shower of creative work?' I had to look at what I have needed in the past to be creative, for some answers. 1. Life in 2020 was an effort, no matter how little you did. I had to avoid the news, live with constant companionship, and all the noise that came with that. So the extra effort to be creative was asking too much, and I know from experience I am most creative, when there are no distractions. 2. Creativity needs questions. For years, the questions came first, the answer found usually with creative energy, and the results of all that, shared in the podcast. Somehow, in the noise of the pandemic, I could hear no questions. 3. There were no chances for in person sharing with my other creative buddies. As much as I love hubby, his skill is repairing things. Takes a certain creativity for sure, but never applies to spinning or knitting. So I had my answers, and also a year of rote spinning. I was working breed by breed through a 52 weeks of sheep program. I had a great time shopping for those fibers online, and usually enjoyed spinning them. Sometimes it did take great creativity to figure out just what to do with that super scratchy fiber (I made scrubbies). This rote spinning also took me to my fiber stash as much as I could, a goal I have every year and probably accomplished more in 2020 than in the past. This however made me realize what I was doing was productive, and not often creative. What is the difference between productive and creative? Productive feels less satisfying. That's because in my case, once the yarn is made, there is no further step. No financial goal (sell the yarn) no altruistic goal (donate or knit and donate item) The bottom line is that creativity needs goals that have nothing to do with money or charity. My creativity needs to learn something new (ask the question and find the answer), and teach what I learned. It also needs to be enjoyable, so I feel that the time is well spent. Unfortunately, working creatively and not production means the process stops here. Often the yarn I make is not good enough to sell. It may not be soft enough to wear. And for both cases, there may not be enough of the yarn. If I turn to production, I will find the whole creative process stops, and I am working, instead of creating. Here again, as I end this musing, will I stand by my life words, 'It really is all about balance'. Maybe my time scale is off, and several years from now it really will be all about production, after these years of creating. And I will be sharing that with you too, dear listener, probably in this podcast.

Just a brief note to fill those of you that haven't heard of my Mom's illness. I have to stop the podcast for awhile, as I spend time with her.

A tiny but perfectly acceptable spinning wheel is being 3D printed by Dreaming Robots. I have the smaller version called the Nano and I talk about it in this podcast. I purchased it at the Hoosier Hill fiber fair at the booth for Susan's fiber shop. I referenced the book Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos. This is just one source for the book.

The podcasts will have a new format starting with this one. The good news is they will be more frequent, and the maybe or maybe not bad news is they will be shorter. For years I have been using this podcast to teach many things about the spinning of yarn. Those are available on the website by checking under archives. There is even listings of the episode topics to find specific podcasts. With the future podcasts, I will be sharing my experiences and stories of working with fiber everyday. These will be dated with the episode number but not about specific topics. I am still streaming three days a week on Twitch.tv on Wednesday, Friday and Sundays. I just completed streaming all 21 days of the Tour de Fleece and these can be found on my Twitch page under Yarnspinnerstales. There is a lot of spinning there, and it is a good way to catch up on what I have been doing lately. Thank you for all the years you have joined me on this Journey! And as always, happy spinning.

Podcasting for me is on the back burner at this time. I plan to return with the Tour de Fleece in July 2021.

Last podcast of 2020 and maybe the last breed reviews I do for awhile. It is time to move forward into other areas of spinning and the new year seems a good time to start. The breeds reviewed today are Llanowag and Lleyn. The fiber was part of a Welsh breed study pack from Wychwood Spinners This podcast was created from the audio of a livestream I did when I reviewed these fibers. It is different than my normal podcasting, but I think the addition of the actual sounds of processing and spinning is unique enough to be interesting. Happy New Year! and of course may it contain much spinning!

When you go to my web page yarnspinnerstales.com there is a drop down box in the upper right of the page. In that, you can find archives. You will need to know the date of the podcast you want to find, then in those archives, go to that year and month. In that area you will find the specific podcast you are looking for. Use this list below, to know the podcast title, general information and the date. Epi # Topic Date 1 Using Combs/Shetland 10/28/07 2 Spin In General Chatter 11/13/07 3 Raising Angora Rabbits 12/01/07 4 Christmas music only 12/16/07 5 Spinning Angora 01/18/08 6 Border Leicester and BFL 02/02/08 7 Skirting a Shetland Fleece 02/16/08 8 Cheviot and Corriedale 03/02/08 9 Washing a fleece 04/02/08 10 Finn and Perendale 04/22/08 11 Book reviews 05/09/08 12 Cotton Dyeing part 1 Chemical 05/30/08 13 Cotton dyeing part 2 Natural 06/01/08 14 Cormo and Montadale 06/20/08 15 Cotton prep and spinning 07/08/08 16 Romney and Targhee 07/31/08 17 Andean Ply, Fleece Picking 08/17/08 Spinning Bulky yarn 18 CVM and Maine Island Sheep 09/01/08 19 Wheels and how they work 09/16/08 20 Navajo Churro and Jacob 09/30/08 21 Felting a fleece, faking pelts 10/27/08 22 Alpaca 10/31/08 23 Drop Spindles 12/20/08 24 Spinning and Dyeing Silk 01/25/09 25 Cashgora 01/31/09 26 Woolen vs Worsted spinning 02/15/09 27 Tunis and Karakul 03/14/09 28 Dyeing wool Discolored fleece 03/30/09 29 Spaelsau and Icelandic 04/23/09 30 Plying 04/30/09 31 Bamboo and tencel 05/16/09 32 Silk, Soy and Milk fibers 06/01/09 33 Dog hair,Spinning DesignerYarn 06/22/09 Review of Intentional Spinner 34 Carding and Blending fibers 07/07/09 35 Angora rabbits and the heat 07/31/09 Washing alpaca fiber 36 Spinning with a Charkha 08/21/09 37 Southdown,Polworth 09/13/09 Setting up a wheel to spin 38 Selecting a wool fleece 10/10/09 39 Selecting non wool fiber,storing fiber An original ghost story 10/24/09 40 Spinning for a specific yarn 11/21/09 41 Discussing grist 11/29/09 42 Changing yarn size by adjusting 12/18/09 tension 43 Spinners block unlocking creative 01/20/10 juices 44 Fiber Fairs 04/05/10 45 Coopworth and Polypay 04/18/10 46 Spinning tools 05/08/10 47 Natural Dyeing book reviews 05/31/10 48 Planning a dye day 06/22/10 49 Carbonized bamboo TdF 07/12/10 history of wheels I own 50 Saran Wrap dyeing 08/14/10 51 Dyeing for specific colors 08/28/10 tertiary color study 52 Natural dyeing with walnut leaves 09/28/10 53 Front porch spinning Creativity 10/23/10 54 Color Theory with digitaldurga 11/10/10 55 Color Theory part 2 11/10/10 56 Blending the Tertiary colors 01/10/11 57 Blending Hackle 01/29/11 58 Types of Fiber combs 02/14/11 59 Washing and combing 5 breeds 02/28/11 60 Spinners’ single study 04/07/11 Forsyth product review 61 A new Wheel Majacraft Aura 05/07011 62 Black Welsh Mountain Clun Forest 05/17/11 63 Lock and fold spinning 06/02/11 64 Oogie McGuire interview BWM breed 07/22/11 65 A podcast for knitters who want to 08/20/11 become spinners 66 Learning the Aura and beaded yarn 08/21/11 67 Spinning Woolen 10/05/11 Special Episode Happy fourth Year YST 10/15/11 Promo podcast for The Spinners Journal 11/05/11 68 Interviews with two scholar spinners 11/16/11 69 Leicester longwool, lincoln longwool 01/07/12 spinning DVD review and Stitches 70 Drum Carding projects 02/21/12 71 Digital Sheep 03/31/12 72 Support Spindles 04/28/12 73 Chatting with Fiber folks 05/26/12 74 Let the Spinning Begin 07/02/12 Tour de fleece 2012 75 The Wheel Keeps Spinning TdF12 07/05/12 76 Listen to your inner spinner TdF12 07/08/12 77 Is it rest day yet? TdF12 07/11/12 78 Two types of plying TdF12 07/15/12 79 How the fiber speaks to me TdF12 07/18/12 80 Fractal spinning and finished yarn 08/02/12 81 The finish line TdF12 08/07/12 82 California Red and combing CVM 08/16/12 83 Ryeland and Salish 09/17/12 84 Positive Spin YST on Stash naming 10/05/12 85 Five year anniversary podcast 10/31/12 86 Katahdan review and porch spin in 12/10/12 87 A Fresh Start Review of 2012 spinning 12/31/12 88 Exchanges, an angora spinning 01/27/13 exchange 89 Thin, thinner, thinnest, a froghair 02/04/13 spinning exchange 90 Plying with commercial yarns 03/16/13 91 The more I teach, the more I learn 04/26/13 92 Chain plying (navajo plying) 05/31/12 93 Preparing for TdF 2013 06/25/13 94 TdF13 day 1 and 2 07/02/13 95 TdF13 days 3 thru 5 07/06/13 96 TdF13 days 6 thru 9 07/09/13 97 TdF13 traveling with baby 07/19/13 98 TdF13 final report 07/30/13 99 Book Review Hand Designs for 09/09/13 Spinners and Knitters 100 Finishing yarn 10/20/13 101 Machine Washing alpaca 01/11/14 102 Spinning alpaca 01/30/14 103 Norfolk Horn 02/11/14 104 White faced Woodland 02/14/14 105 Portland fiber 02/18/14 106 Ravellenic spinning 02/22/14 107 Manx Loaghton and Hill Radnor 03/16/14 108 Dyeing Alpaca 04/24/14 109 Greencastle Fiber event 06/02/14 110 Ky Sheep and Wool Festival 06/25/14 111 Preparing for TdF14 07/09/14 112 TdF14 Team Painted Tiger 07/16/14 113 TdF14 Team Majacraft 07/21/14 114 TdF14 Team Farm Fiber Marketplace 07/26/14 115 TdF14 Team Support Spindlers 07/31/14 116 TdF14 Final recap 08/10/14 117 A Wool Gathering Yellow Springs Ohio 10/04/14 118 Spinzilla 2014 11/07/14 119 Fortuitous fleeces 11/27/14 Interview with Digitaldurga 120 Roc Day 2015 01/07/15 121 Wool Wash review interview with 02/03/15 Natalie Redding 122 Review of Norman Kennedy’s DVD 03/26/15 123 Alpaca in the dye pots 05/16/15 124 Spin In General Chatter 06/30/15 125 TdF15 part 1 07/15/15 126 TdF15 part 2 07/23/15 127 TdF15 final update 08/03/15 128 Washing handspun yarn 09/13/15 129 Spinzilla 2015 Ashford spinning quill 10/22/15 130 This, that and daydreams spin in chat 11/26/15 131 New Year, New spinning 01/07/16 132 A Hand spun hat and a mystery yarn 02/17/16 133 Review of Craftsy, and more knitting 03/30/16 with hand spun yarn 134 Fiber purchases, state fair prep and 06/15/16 Tdf spinning plans 135 Pre TdF and a swap 07/03/16 136 TdF16 podcast 1 08/01/16 137 TdF16 podcast 2 08/15/16 138 TdF16 podcast 3 08/27/16 139 Ravellenics 2016 and State Fair 09/27/16 140 Spinzilla and Natural Dye mordants 12/02/16 141 Spinning New Year’s resolutions 02/02/17 Book review Yarn.i.tec.ture A Spinning Sabatical 03/10/17 142 Life Changes,Why Worry? 06/16/17 A conversation with my daughter 143 Counting Treadles for even plying 07/03/17 144 Dyeing with Lichens part 1 07/14/17 145 Dyeing with Lichens part 2 08/19/17 146 Spindle Crane review 10/01/17 147 Spinzilla 2017 Recap 11/02/17 148 Dyeing with Lichens part 3 11/21/17 149 Ten Years of Podcasting 01/25/18 150 Ravellenics 2018 03/28/18 151 Episode 151 Fiber Fairs 04/20/18 152 Episode 152 July 2018 Spin in 07/04/18 153 TdF 2018 part 1 08/17/18 154 TdF 2018 part 2 09/03/18 155 Stitches Midwest 2018 10/09/18 156 Drafting 01/08/19 157 The Pegosa Project Alpaca 03/18/19 158 Post Op Spinning 05/15/19 Book Review Creative Spinning Allison Dayker 159 Finally a Fiber Fair 06/17/19 160 Book review Spindle Spinning 07/02/19 161 TdF2019 part 1 07/28/19 162 TdF2019 part 2 08/24/19 163 Review of a spinning video 09/18/19 found on Kanopy through library 164 Oct 2019 part 1 10/28/19 165 Oct 2019 part 2 Herding the Stash 11/02/19 166 Book Review Spinning Beyond the Basics 11/18/19 Anne Field 167 A Year of Perfect Vision 2020 01/22/20 168 Bleu de Maine and Charolais Breed reviews 02/29/20 169 Interview with Deborah Niemann Shave em to Save em project 03/25/20 170 Cheviot Breed review 04/25/20 171 East Fresian breed review 05/01/20 172 Black Welsh and White Welsh breed reviews 05/16/20 173 Gulf Coast Native breed review 06/19/20 174 Oxford down breed review 07/07/20 175 Shropshire breed review 07/07/20 176 Whitefaced Woodland breed review 07/07/20 177 Ryeland breed review 08/12/20 178 Coopworth breed review 08/20/20 179 Spinning yak fiber 09/12/20 180 Lonk breed review 10/29/20 181 Hebridean breed review 10/29/20

In the last two podcasts, for some reason I said the livestreams were archived on Facebook, which is not true. I didn't even catch it as I was editing. Instead of the tedious process of edit and releasing the episodes, I decided to record this separate little audio. The livestreams originate on Twitch.TV under Yarnspinnerstales The videos will stay there for a month to six weeks, if you do not catch me when I am live streaming. After that, the videos are archived to you tube. Once you go to you tube, in the search box type lusi222 channel. That should take you to my channel. Be sure when you go to the video area, you find where it says all videos, to be able to catch them from the beginning. Or the most recent will be quickly available right on top. If you subscribe to my lusi222 channel, you should be notified when a new video is uploaded. I will try a direct link here, but if it doesn't work, follow my suggestion above. I have to decide which of the livestreams are uploaded to archive, so I am not selecting all of them. Much of the Sunday afternoon livestreams, are just for spinning and chatting. I am focusing on the livestreams that I teach something about spinning or using hand spun yarn, to select what I am uploading. I hope that will let these livestreams have interest over the years ahead, just as my podcasts have over the last thirteen years. Happy listening, watching, and of course, spinning!

The Hebridean sheep have long dual coated wool in various colors. I used my study to not only spin the fiber but to show on live stream how to separate the two coats. The fiber was purchased from Wychwood Spinner Etsy shop. A short video on Twitch.tv show how to pull for long tog from the short thel using this fiber.

First up in the podcast is a report on my study of the Lonk Sheep Breed. It's short so I went on to talk about all the spinning projects I have currently going that involve the Merino Breed. Later, I will do a more complete breed study for that breed. Finally, I talk about the second Tour de Fleece that ran from Aug 26th to Sept 20th, and what I spun during that time. Lonk fiber was purchased from Wychwood Spinner Superwash merino that I spun into sock yarn was purchased from Yarn Hollow. Sadly, the Ozark Carding Mill I mention is permanently closed. The Facebook group I have been using for the study of different sheep breeds is called 52 weeks of sheep. I am not sure if FB will allow the link to work.

In this unusual year, even the Tour de Fleece was affected. The Tour de France did not run in July as usual, but was celebrated on Ravelry anyway. Then when the Tour did ride in Sept, we did it again. This podcast is about what I spun and learned during the first Tour. I also included the breed review for Yak fiber, since spinning it was one of my challenge day projects. The Yak fiber was purchased from Laughing Lamb fibers. If you are looking for my live stream, it is on Twitch.tv Need a way to document your spinning project from start to finish? I created the Spinners Journal for doing just that!

The Coopworth Sheep breed is a relatively new breed, as sheep breeds go. The sample I worked with was from a lamb and contained long lovely locks. I cover in this podcast how to wash and spin locks, and the specifics of this sampling. Information on the Breed is from the Fleece and Fiber Source Book. Another book I mention is Merino by Margaret Stove. Previously I reviewed Coopworth in Episode 45. I have also done a live stream on washing locks. In the second part of this live stream, I show how to spin those locks. All of my live streams are being archived on my channel on YouTube, so if those links above do not work try going to this channel.

A new computer meant a whole new learning curve on new software to record and edit podcasts. I think I finally have a set up I am happy to release. In this short podcast, I review one of the 52 weeks of sheep breeds, called Ryeland. I talked about this breed in the first part of a previous podcast, you can access that with this link. The Ryeland fiber was purchased from Marie Redding fiber on Etsy.

So much behind that title! I am not stopping the audio podcast. I am moving forward on the wave of technology and taking my concept for YST with it. I have set up a channel on TwitchTV You can find me under the same name as the podcast, yarnspinnerstales. I plan to live stream twice a week and during those videos you can join me, chat by typing, watch in the video what I am working on (and have been trying to explain with words for 12 years in the podcast!) ask me questions,tell me what you are doing, and so on and so on. I think as the community of listeners/watchers/chatters grow we will come close to a vision I have always had for YST, a spin in. I also have a Discord channel set up for us to chat, and share photos. It would be a great place to ask questions you would like me to answer there or show on the next live stream. Click this link for the invitation to join the channel. Live streams will be Weds evenings and Sunday afternoons. Once you are on Twitch and are following my channel, make sure you also click to be alerted when I go live. The alert will always tell you in your own time zone. If you can not watch the live stream, the videos will be available on my channel for 2 weeks. Be sure to check in and watch it.

The breed White Face Woodland was studied by the 52 weeks of sheep group on week 14. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain a sample of this fiber yet. But this breed is not new to me, I reviewed it way back on Feb15 2014. It is Episode 104 and I encourage you to hit the link and listen to it again. The picture I show with this podcast are the tiny skeins I did during that first study. The fiber came from Hilltop Cloud. In the second part of this podcast I talk about doing a virtual shopping tour of one of my local fiber fairs.