[bloomer]

ok daughter has a spinning wheel for xmas and we have purchased some batts of prepared fleece for her to start with but going forward we will have our own fleeces to prepare for her/with her...


what else does she need as a beginner?


i have heard of cards/combs whats easier for her to start with? the fleece she will mainly be working on longer term is shetland if that helps...


anything else to consider?


just planning more peoples xmas presents for her :-)

[FiB]

Do you need any more daughters? VERY well behaved 48 yr old available for adoption here?   Lucky lucky daughter! How about a few good books? I've ashford carders and they are fine.... Combs and drum carder remain on my lottery list.

[bloomer]

oooh yes recommendation for good books for complete beginners she's 12 going on about 45...

[Fleecewife]

For Shetland fleece, she'll be fine with carders.  I like the curved variety, but you can get flat ones too.  They come in different pin spacings - she will need the middle one - someone will remember the number I hope because my mind has gone blank 
Another useful tool is a flick carder (Ashford make them, very inexpensive) - if the fleece is really good she will be able to spin it straight from the staple, with just some flicking of the tips and butt, no carding.

I like the Ashford books for beginners; they do spinning and weaving ones, dyeing,I forget what else.  Too many posh books can end up being confusing.

At some point, if she takes to spinning, she may want a drum carder, and once she expands into other sheep breeds for fleece, she may want to try combs (I didn't get mine until I'd been spinning for about 17 or 18 years)

Membership of Ravelry is a must, but of course that's free.

[FiB]

Well, although it is focused on the drop spindle (which is ALWAYS a good stocking filler :-) ) my fave book is spin it (lee raven) which spends most of its time on the principals and some nice projects at the end. Does she know she's getting a wheel?

[bloomer]

yes she asked for it Sally helped me locate one (manchester) so we collected it last time we were in england and she was with us and they are a bit hard to hide in the car :-)

[Fleecewife]

I think it's best to keep it simple in the early stages.

DVDs are good for seeing the hand movements, but, being a bright lass, she'll want to know 'why' about everything, and that's where books are good.
There's loads out there on Youtube, but you need to know what you need to know, if you see what I mean, so a good book which explains the basics is worth it's weight.

[bloomer]

ok so any suggestions on a good book covering the basics?

[Fleecewife]

ok so any suggestions on a good book covering the basics?

I would recommend the Ashford one I mentioned above. There's also an Ashford book of carding.

Another excellent book is 'The intentional spinner' by Judith Mackenzie McQuin, by Interweave press.  It includes a DVD as part of the package and has plenty of explanatory photos.  Worth the outlay.

[SallyintNorth]

A book I found helpful was another Judith Mackenzie one, Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning.  I was lucky enough to be loaned a copy as it's not one you need forever.

If you advertised for a secondhand copy on Ravelry, I bet someone would sell you one.

Ditto hand cards, actually.  I bought my first pair secondhand on Ravelry, because I wasn't sure what type I'd want, so figured if I bought 2nd hand I could sell on again if I didn't like them.  Actually I have loved them and still have them.

One book I did buy and still refer to is Maggie Casey's Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn. 

If she joins Ravelry, tell her to join the Lovers of Ashford UK group.  It's a really friendly helpful group, and her friends castlemilk and Fleecewife will be there, amongst others

We can point her at good vids for whatever she wants to learn next - the trouble with YouTube is there are so many vids out there, and they're not all giving good advice, so it's a good idea to get recommendations when she's starting.

Another place for really excellent videos is Interweave.com.  You can buy and download videos on every aspect, and video versions of many of the top books are on there.  Don't ever pay full price, get yourself on the mailing list and wait for a sale.  They do up to 30% off very frequently, and occasionally go up to 50% and even 60% off.

As she'll be spinning mainly Shetland, I'd get her a dog comb and a simple flat cat/dog slicker brush to go with her hand cards, and that'll do her for starters.

[SallyintNorth]

Interweave have a '50% off many things' sale on right now, until Weds eve (their time)

This is the Maggie Casey video, just $15 today.  A good starting-out video.

[bloomer]

On phone as at work currently but will look at that tonight :-) thank you!!!

[Lesley Silvester]

Sally, I thought after reading your post that here is a Ravelry group I don't belong to, only to find I do. Has it changed its name recently?


I use a dog flick comb on my fleeces before opening the fibres up. Bought one in a pound shop and it does the job.

[SallyintNorth]

Sally, I thought after reading your post that here is a Ravelry group I don't belong to, only to find I do. Has it changed its name recently?

Yes, it has! 

Originally 'Ashford UK Spinners' (AUKS), but we didn't want to preclude weavers joining and participating, so after much discussion we settled on 'Lovers of Ashford UK' (LAUKs) primarily because the acronym made us laugh and was memorable.

And the thread 'We weave!' is pretty active, so hopefully we've accomplished our goal

[Fleecewife]

I always read it as 'Lovers on Ashford'