Welcome to the Spinning Study Guide: Working from Fleece!
If you love spinning and working with wool, this is the study guide for you. If you have never scoured raw fleece and are intimidated by the whole process, never fear!
Work along Kim McKenna’s beautiful new course Working from Fleece and some of the content in Nuances to Spinning Better Yarns, available in their totality in the School to watch at your own pace.
You can choose to either start from raw fleece, clean fleece, or if you prefer, commercial top. Work through the scouring process to wash your raw wool or if you choose to start from a clean fleece/hand-dyed top, you can then join in the fibre prep and sampling.
Syllabus
- Get Ready: Prep & materials
- Week 1: Scour a small sample
- Week 2: Scour the rest of your raw fleece
- Week 3: Progress meetup via Zoom
- Week 4: Fibre prep the clean fleece
- Week 5: Spin singles, ply and finish
- Week 6: Finale meetup recording
In this guide you will find support as you go from raw wool straight from the sheep to the handspun yarn of your dreams. You can work through the content with as little as 30 grams / one ounce of wool or try the small batch technique for 100g /3.5 ounces.
If you choose to join in the study guide with clean wool, you will find lots of fibre prep techniques to prepare your fleece, be it lock by lock or even if you are joining with commercial hand-dyed top.
Once you spin and ply your singles, find different finish techniques so your hand spun yarn serves your crafting purpose.
Find the weekly guidance and the progress meetups recordings. All of the questions and members discussion is taking place over in the Spinning Study Guide: Working from Fleece forums.
This art batt by fatcatknitsdyer simply took my breath away. It’s soft (BFL), sparkly, full of texture, and I haven’t quite experienced anything like it!

This art batt by fatcatknitsdyer simply took my breath away. It’s soft (BFL), sparkly, full of texture, and I haven’t quite experienced anything like it!
As the change of seasons and the back-to-school routines get settled, with the holidays and gift planning still weeks away, this is the perfect time to plan a project just for you. Join us this month for an SOS Spin-Along!
As Greta @gretacornejomakes shares in her new SOS post—
I’m celebrating the change of season by prepping fibre and getting it ready for spinning a fractal 2-ply yarn. I hope you join us in spinning for a project, plus share your spin-in progress with us and meet with new and old friends. You can join the spin-along at ANY time, so dive into your stash or visit the @sweetgeorgia shop to find some beautiful fibre (Felicia`s handspun 3-ply fractal in BFL+Silk Salted Caramel is shown here) and spin along with us!
Read more about the spin-along and meetup information over at the SOS articles section... direct link in bio »
We’d also love to see your spinning progress! Tag your posts with #sosspinning or #schoolofsweetgeorgia, or join other SOS members and instructors over in the Community Forums.

As the change of seasons and the back-to-school routines get settled, with the holidays and gift planning still weeks away, this is the perfect time to plan a project just for you. Join us this month for an SOS Spin-Along!
As Greta @gretacornejomakes shares in her new SOS post—
I’m celebrating the change of season by prepping fibre and getting it ready for spinning a fractal 2-ply yarn. I hope you join us in spinning for a project, plus share your spin-in progress with us and meet with new and old friends. You can join the spin-along at ANY time, so dive into your stash or visit the @sweetgeorgia shop to find some beautiful fibre (Felicia`s handspun 3-ply fractal in BFL+Silk Salted Caramel is shown here) and spin along with us!
Read more about the spin-along and meetup information over at the SOS articles section... direct link in bio »
We’d also love to see your spinning progress! Tag your posts with #sosspinning or #schoolofsweetgeorgia, or join other SOS members and instructors over in the Community Forums.
Beautiful skeins and sweet beginnings of my Attune shawl! The liveliness and crisp texture that you feel and see when knitting with handspun is a wonderful sensory experience.

Beautiful skeins and sweet beginnings of my Attune shawl! The liveliness and crisp texture that you feel and see when knitting with handspun is a wonderful sensory experience.
Fractal spin on my Schachts ladybug spinning wheel in the center. I have 4 braids of hello yarn fiber club august color pit a pat. The wool is Corriedale. I run it through my steamer 2x to open up the braid. It is a joy to spin worsted weight yarn. #helloyarnfiberclub #helloyarn #corriedalewool #schachtladybug #spinningyarn #sosspinning

Fractal spin on my Schachts ladybug spinning wheel in the center. I have 4 braids of hello yarn fiber club august color pit a pat. The wool is Corriedale. I run it through my steamer 2x to open up the braid. It is a joy to spin worsted weight yarn. #helloyarnfiberclub #helloyarn #corriedalewool #schachtladybug #spinningyarn #sosspinning
I really needed a palette cleanser, so I chose this this “Glorious” and happy color by woundupfiberarts during my staycation.🍭

I really needed a palette cleanser, so I chose this this “Glorious” and happy color by woundupfiberarts during my staycation.🍭
In case you still believe that a blending board doesn`t fully blend fiber, here`s proof otherwise. Each batt weighs 1.1-1.3 oz and was made with carded Rambouillet fleece, hand-dyed by me, plus three different silks, angelina, and bamboo. #blendingboard #fibreprep #sosspinning #herhandspunhabit #fleece #canonphotography #handspinning #handspinnersofinstagram

In case you still believe that a blending board doesn`t fully blend fiber, here`s proof otherwise. Each batt weighs 1.1-1.3 oz and was made with carded Rambouillet fleece, hand-dyed by me, plus three different silks, angelina, and bamboo. #blendingboard #fibreprep #sosspinning #herhandspunhabit #fleece #canonphotography #handspinning #handspinnersofinstagram
I make time to spin almost daily, even if that means spinning a single rolag or puni from my big bag of samples. Here, I spun the singles on one day and then plied them another. I’ll use the yarn in a small tapestry once my collection is large enough. The bowl is by charansachar and the gorgeous #Twindle spindle was gifted to me by someone especially close to my heart. #spindlersofinstagram #spindler #igspinner #sosspinning #spinnersofinstagram #handspinnersofinstagram

I make time to spin almost daily, even if that means spinning a single rolag or puni from my big bag of samples. Here, I spun the singles on one day and then plied them another. I’ll use the yarn in a small tapestry once my collection is large enough. The bowl is by charansachar and the gorgeous #Twindle spindle was gifted to me by someone especially close to my heart. #spindlersofinstagram #spindler #igspinner #sosspinning #spinnersofinstagram #handspinnersofinstagram
Course Content
About Instructor
