Celebrating Distaff Day: carding and blending wool, sending packages, and spinning w/ a ring distaff

[@sweetdreamssleepambience]

Those batts looked so SQUISHY!! Gosh I'm sure the person receiving them will love them! Also, to anyone who is also worried about it: there's absolutely nothing wrong with park and draft!!! If it works for you, it works! Spinning is as individual as the person. As long as you're happy with the yarn and enjoy the process, that's all that matters!

[@MijnWolden]

They are the definition of squish :D

[@Suzco123]

I panicked when I remembered distaff day late, when the day was nearly over, but then I realised I don't have a distaff anyway and calmed down again lol. It looked to me like you were doing just fine though, beautiful yarn achieved at the end of your spin. Also I must say that's a really cute distaff, I really like that one 😊

[@winterwoodcottage3657]

Your lucky. I’m not instantly good at anything I’m smart but I have to jump in the mud, roll around and experience every slip and slide and dirt and water that mud has to offer. But then it will be hardwired into my brain forever.

[@SirAnimosity]

I like the "unpolished" part of the video.

[@thegreypoet9518]

Yep. I also think too fast and comprehend things quickly, and get mad when I dont grasp things quickly. I usually set them aside to cook in my brain and come back again later to try again.

[@MijnWolden]

and then double the frustration because all of a sudden it works? right?

[@etienne6916]

the way you phrased it at the end sounds like you're going to film the attack of the mailman to retrieve your St-Distaff package xD those batts looks so squishy!! :D

[@k3592]

That's what I thought, too! I will wait patiently for the attack of the mailman video :D

[@CallMeAL1]

I hope we get a dramatic reenactment

[@MijnWolden]

You know that it is not beyond me to do such things :'D

[@etienne6916]

@@MijnWolden xD hahahaha

[@CallMeAL1]

I would happily pay to buy some of that floof from your local farmers (shepherds? Sheep zaddies? Floof producers?) if it were ever possible. 10/10 here for supporting the sheepies.

[@MijnWolden]

Sheep zaddies... I'm dead :'D

[@BeQueerMakeStuff]

St Distaff's day exchange is such a charming idea! I love it. :)

[@stephanielaakson8960]

Hello everyone! While I love the idea of a distaff, sadly, my hands laugh and laugh at me. Ah well, such is life🤗. Have a fabulous today, Steph😁

[@MijnWolden]

Those hands always mocking us!

[@CallMeAL1]

When you said General Shenanigans I immediately flashed back to a bit from some American comedy show of my youth where the characters would suddenly salute 🫡 anytime anyone the word ‘major’ plus what ever came next. So I guess that means Jente is General Shenanigans of the Chaos Goblin Corps. 😂 Edit: I did a super vague google and figured out it was a bit from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ 😅

[@MijnWolden]

Oooh I remember those scenes!

[@doro5419]

I'm so looking forward to Wednesday evenings! Thank you for your fun, entertaining, inspiring and educational content. One of my favourite YT channels. ❤ And love your music choices.

[@MijnWolden]

Thank you

[@spunstricken9065]

Hmm… that might be the quick answer to spinning my angora. Sometimes it is just so clean and organised, I can just spin it as is, BUT I just don’t enjoy spinning it that way it doesn’t feel good. I think it has to do with the fine muscles movements whilst worsted spinning a bundle of silky, straight fibers in a clump in my hand. I prefer to spin it in rolags. I have some long distaffs, but they aren’t what this needs. Thank you. I always get inspiration from you. I can’t wait to see you open your Distaff Day gift.

[@hawthorngrove3629]

Oh wow, I wish I was your secret St Distaff. I'd love to try some of your local fleece.

[@alexvanderpol1]

It's too bad that your package hasn't arrived yet, but then again, more videos in the future! 😁

[@kimdegener3854]

I know exactly how you feel about not instantly good at things. I'm absolutely struggling with my knitting machines, and it's killing me

[@MijnWolden]

Then I say: kudos to you for not having chucked them out of the window already :)

[@kimdegener3854]

@MijnWolden ha, too much money, hopes, and dreams invested. I need to figure them out.

[@kristalburns3490]

Your mailman has to be made of sturdy stuff. I have been having thoughts about ring distaffs. I think this means its time to try one out.

[@MijnWolden]

He is haha, and his van is too ;)

[@knittingblackbelt40]

I wish you had stood up and modeled the sweater vest. It's gorgeous and would like to see it in all its glory.

[@MijnWolden]

You're in luck! I hav an entire seperate video about that vest. You might need to dig, as it is I think 2+ years old now...

[@knittingblackbelt40]

I did look for a video and did not find it. I will keep looking.

[@annasullivan2564]

Ive been experimenting with distaffs of different lengths lately. I think I prefer a handheld stick as opposed to a longer one, it lets me do a long draw, but I intend to try a longer distaff attached to the waist by a belt sometime. I'd love to try a ring distaff for my spindle stick basket, and the eastern style carved paddle types are gorgeous! It's worth trying different ways of loading a distaff, lately I like fiber batts wrapped around horizontally. Supposedly its better for more woolen spins.

[@MijnWolden]

The eastern paddle type distaves are indeed gorgeous!

[@brianlondon7858]

I'm looking forward to the next make along now that I've joined patreon. This floof exchange looks fun getting to try fibres you might not normally have easy access to. Gives me an excuse to buy extra floof just incase I need it in the future 😂

[@MijnWolden]

Every excuse for more fiber is a good excuse ;)

[@dawnmrodgers]

I’ve never tried a distaff but I’d like to try it. Otherwise I just make the batt into strips.

[@DeniseODaniels]

oh i want to get a ring distaff now! i didnt know there was such a great thing. I wonder if my hubby and i could make one? I have lots of spindles i got from taking apart a falling apart knitting caddy. How fun is this? love this video. Cant wait to see what kind of goodies u get in your mail package. 🎁🧶♥

[@MijnWolden]

There are probably a lot of tutorials/blue prints for making them yourself. I think you can even 3D print one!

[@DeniseODaniels]

@@MijnWolden on my! our library made me a 3D printed drop spindle. Oh my goodness! u hit the nail on the head on what i am gonna do to get one. Thank u so much for this!

[@paadoxal]

just realized i always draft with my left hand, wonder if using the distaff would be easier for me

[@esthervanderploeg2004]

Your floof looks like Scotch Blend by Meaningful crafts.

[@blackhellebore89]

Im with you on the gifted kid syndrome! Spinning isn't coming to me as easily as I would like but - off to Guild with Wendy again tonight to keep tryig

[@MijnWolden]

You'll figure it our eventually :D

[@bethgadsbycreates]

I'm still a pretty new spinner and I just kinda muddled through and found a method of spindle spinning that works for me but I'm pretty sure it's not the "right" way, and I do also feel a bit self conscious of that! So it's actually pretty reassuring to me that you're kinda doing the same thing! I also have been telling myself that so long as I'm making yarn I'm happy with, my method (which I just realised also involves my left hand kinda chilling while my right hand does ALL the work 😅) can't be *too* wrong! It's also oddly reassuring to me to hear you sharing the self-deprecating stuff bc my brain does a lot of that stuff too so it's reassuring to know it's not just me fighting my own brain on these sorts of things! I mean, I wish neither of our brains did that, but hey, here we are 😅 I sometimes think it's better to share these thoughts and get them out of our heads than to bottle them up, I feel like that just makes them worse, but idk. Anyway, I guess I just mean, thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that with us ❤

[@MijnWolden]

Thank you, I'm always a bit scared to share the vulnerable stuff because not everyone wants to see that :)

[@MissMeganBeckett]

Who made your distaff from this video, it looks really nice.

[@MijnWolden]

Regenbogenwolle.de :D

[@raevynwoods9403]

I completely recognise the frustration when something doesn't come naturally immediately! Especially if it's something that I feel I should be good at, like hobby-related skills. Weirdly, although I am a right-handed person, I draft left-handed. So when I spin with a spindle, I turn it with my right hand and draft with my left (although I have not yet mastered drafting from a distaff, it's like doing the same motion but backwards?)

[@MijnWolden]

I also turn the spindle with my right hand, but then my left does nothing haha

[@CrownedLadybug]

Fingers crossed your floof gets freed from customs jail soon! And I hope whoever got the package you sent is having a lot of fun with it (if it's not stuck in customs jail as well) I'm personally pretty meticulous about cleaning our drum carder (between my acid dyed colour schemes and the black Ouessant fleece we've been working through, there's room for a lot of accidental Colour Mud), but pulling a whole batt off it without any intervention is not something I've managed to achieve so far. And there's always a bit of stray bits here and there that need to be cleaned out My partner and I started making Very Loud Agreement Noises at the screen the moment you brought up struggling if you're not good at something immediately. It's tough! Big props to you for persisting despite it. Also, while your drafting style may not look like the coolest to you, to me it Absolutely Does. The fact that you can draft with the same hand you're spinning with And it's by pulling on the yarn! And yet you get consistent yarn that doesn't snap in your hand! It literally looks like magic when you do it. It's So Cool

[@MijnWolden]

My package was delivered in the US on Sinterklaas and they were spinning the floof while watching me prep it :D

[@Dedicatedfollower467]

i feel like i have the exact same problem with not being instantly good at something. i also learned to sew from my mom giving me a 30-minute rundown of how to use the machine (and also watching her for most of my life - she's an incredibly talented seamstress!) - and i found it very easy to start spinning gorgeous yarn on my drop spindle almost immediately. i just can't seem to quite get the hang of support spindling yet, although that might be because i'm just using a wooden dowel and a weight i made myself from polymer clay lol.

[@MijnWolden]

Support spindle spinning came quite natural to me, but I had some pretty nice spindles to start with of course :)

[@countbaldwiniv]

Is it that staff or is it distaff? ❤

[@MijnWolden]

these staffs

[@mysticmaven6261]

I wonder if switching hands would be helpful?

[@sharonjansen425]

Thank you for this video. It makes me want to try to spin with a distaff as well. I hope to find one tomorrow at the handwerkbeurs in Houten. I also hope to find a supported spindle. Are you going as well? And if so, what are you hoping to find?

[@MijnWolden]

Sadly I have to work (and Houten is quite a bit of a drive and it is snowing in Belgium...)

[@sharonjansen425]

@MijnWolden we had snow here. Most of it has been melted away, luckily. For me it is about 1 hour drive, so that is okay. As long as the roads are not covered in snow... or traffic..

[@resourcedragon]

The video I watched _just_ before yours was of someone doing a sort of park and draft on a Canadian Production Wheel (or an antique wheel that looked similar in style to a CPW)! And what's even wilder is she was actually getting a pretty decent yarn! She's got a lot more wool to spin and after that, she plans to weave it into a tartan. EDIT: Here is a link to the video if you find this hard to believe: Tartan Fabric - Handspun Yarn kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqvNq3aceJqkj7c Meanwhile, I've been making cordage from flax (that is going well) and attempting to make it into a bag with a sort of early form of nalbinding and there are definitely some issues to iron out there. I'd probably describe it as a yarn barf crossed with the Gordian knot. So I wouldn't worry about your spinning with a distaff being a bit park and draft. Managing a distaff and a spindle at the same time has always looked difficult to me. Besides which, you can ply from a plying bracelet, which defeats me.

[@MijnWolden]

Yarn barf crossed with Gordian knot sounds like mythological levels of frustration!

[@AmyMcScience]

I feel the same when I try to do something and can't immediately figure out how to do it. For me, trying to teach myself how to use a sewing machine by watching youtube videos has been frustrating. The machine just sits in a corner collecting dust now. Also, as for "thinking too fast", do you also laugh like a split second before everyone else when someone makes a joke? I've noticed that about myself. I also get frustrated and have to stop myself from talking over people because I've already figured out what they're going to say and I want them to hurry up so I can answer. 😅

[@MijnWolden]

Yep and yep haha

[@TJtheBee]

I’ve never tried a distaff! It might help me though; I’m always fighting to keep my loose fiber from getting caught. Have you gotten any practice with it since last year?

[@MijnWolden]

I did spin a bit more of that greyish floof, but other than that not much

[@jessicaadams9771]

How do you keep your sweaters from catching on your drum carder? I would most definitely ketch my sleeves on it

[@MijnWolden]

It happens often yes

[@carollalicker]

Instead of depressed, how about just bummed?

[@MijnWolden]

I feel like that doesn't convey the self doubt as much?