# Spinners, tell me your favorite



## dmm1976 (Oct 29, 2013)

What is your favorite fiber to spin? How do you purchase it? How do you prefer it prepared? 

What's a good all purpose ? 

And what's one you'd save up for to make a special project?

TIA!


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## hiddensprings (Aug 6, 2009)

I like Merino wool with Mohair. My friend had the sheep and I had the Angora Goats. We shared fleeces.


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

dmm1976 said:


> What is your favorite fiber to spin? How do you purchase it? How do you prefer it prepared?
> 
> What's a good all purpose ?
> 
> ...


 For new spinners, I suggest a medium to relatively long-stapled fiber - mixed breed wools are great for this and don't cost an arm and a leg. I usually buy my fiber at fiber festivals directly from the grower or from shepherds and shepherdesses that are local. I like to buy raw fleeces and process them myself but sometimes I will buy roving. I am not crazy about spinning commercially prepared top - I truly like the more natural feel of roving. 

Lincoln is a good all round fiber as is Bluefaced Leicester as is Shetland as is Icelandic and Jacob.
(and I love a blend of 65% medium wool to 35% mohair)

As to what to save up for to make a special project - it depends on the project. 

For me personally, the fibers I am holding onto for a very special project would be my stash of cashmere, paco vicuna, yak/silk blend or qiviut.


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## dmm1976 (Oct 29, 2013)

What about fiber from rabbits?


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## Wind in Her Hair (Jul 18, 2002)

dmm1976 said:


> What about fiber from rabbits?


 Angora is kind of challenging for new spinners at first since it is slippery. It can be spun by beginners but making a consistent yarn from it is challenging. I recently knit some mittens and lined them with angora bunny rabbit fluff I had spun. They are dreamy. Here they are as I was finishing them.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

I absolutely love Icelandic fleece! I have done many different kinds now and for ease of all steps of spinning...oh my is it my favorite but hard for me to get where I am. I have had fun with Mohair but also found Angora to be more challenging when I started learning....for easier spinning just blend with another fiber. Romeldale was another surprisingly easy fiber....My first was a Suffolk wool and that was harder then these others I found as I went along. I have not done Mohair silk blend but that is my next venture.


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## fibrefarmer (Apr 24, 2018)

A favourite fibre. It's hard to choose. 

When I'm teaching spinning I usually use Corriedale or (home) carded flax tow as these have the highest success rate of keeping people spinning after the classes are over.

The Corriedale is from Ashford and I get it from my local yarn shop. The flax tow is homegrown and left over from processing line linen. Taprootsfibrelab also sells some fantastic flax tow fibre for learning. Spun wet it makes a very strong yarn, good for warp and weft when weaving kitchen towels. 

Most favourite of all - anything I've grown at home and whatever I'm working on at the moment. I just finished some cotton towels from home-grown cotton. Love it! Over the winter I was spinning a lot of wool from my sheep. Love it! Right now, I'm big into flax spinning for some more towels. Love it! I love it all.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Favorite fiber to spin? So far it's probably been Clun Forest raw sheep's wool. Mostly because it was the easiest, just grab and go. It was also spun as fat as possible to make a rug, so it went really fast.

Good all purpose? Probably that Clun Forest again. It's a nice soft wool that has enough stretch to it to make a yarn good for socks, sweaters, etc. Soft enough for next to the skin, too.

Special project fibers? Probably depends on the project. There's a dark brown Merino fleece around here I keep thinking should be spun into a cardigan. Otherwise, single rabbit sourced angora for a scarf or shawl. There's one or two English angora rabbits out there who have really excellent texture to their wool, single sourcing just those would make for some really nice angora yarn.


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