The Latest Addition to the Wheel Garage

I've browsed antique shops for years and rarely even found a great wheel, much less one that had all it's pieces and an unwarped wheel. But when I was least expecting it, a beautiful wheel found it's way to me! Since almost all of my patients are in the 80+ category, I often find myself chatting about things in the past. I love listening to their stories about how things were when they were growing up, and all about their families. And frequently my hobbies find their way into the conversation as there are just not that many people around who spin or weave these days.

So one day, I'm talking with a very nice lady and she tells me that she has a great wheel that has been in her family for a long time. They had tried to sell it at one time, but it was going to cost almost as much to ship as what they had it priced. And with the hassle of having it professionally crated, it managed to keep it's place in the living room for many more years. She was wondering, since I belong to most of the big guilds here in town, would I know of someone who would like to have it and that would actually use it. I said I would help her find someone, not really thinking that I would keep it. After all, it has a pretty big footprint! But the more I researched the wheels to see what they were selling for, the more I wanted to take it home with me! Kind of like when you foster that cute abandoned puppy, then he never leaves. So we settled on a fair price, plus a little extra since I knew it was probably in good shape.

Saturday came, and I picked up my mom for the big adventure to look at the wheel. It was supposed to be stormy all day, but we were just dying to see it. We were rewarded with a beautiful great wheel sitting in their living room. I looked it over with my inexperienced eye, and it looked like all the parts were there and that it would spin. So I took a bunch of photos before dis-assembly, then loaded it up in the car.





Our other project for Saturday was to get Mom (and me) up and running on our new Nook HD's. So after a quick drive through Burger King, we were ready to spend the afternoon loading apps, downloading books, and a general tutorial so she'd be ready for book club this week. It definitely helped being able to go through the steps together. Usually we just run over and fix things for her, so it was fun to let her experience the process. And I haven't had even one "tech support" question this week! Way to go Mom! And I'm loving my Nook. Just the right size to carry around in my purse.

Sunday was spent on cleaning, waxing, and re-assembly. During the cleaning process, I found a maker's mark on the end of the bench - "SR AL". I've since learned from the folks in the "Spindle Wheel" group on Ravelry, that it was made in Alfred, Maine around the period when Samuel Ring was Trustee of the Shaker colony there from 1809-1814. However, wheels continued to be made with that mark after 1814. The tensioning system on my wheel wasn't used until after 1823. But even at that, the wheel is around 190 years old! It is absolutely amazing to me that something so delicate could survive that long. Definitely shows how important a tool the spinning was to people of that period.



The only thing missing from the wheel, is the little rectangular block on the bottom right post of the miner's head.



And here I am. Working hard on my long draw to make my first yarn on the wheel. I'm kind of in that "park and draft" phase, but improving. I had some merino top laying around that I decided to try out first, but I think it would have been a little easier if I had carded some wool to work from rolags. It helped a lot that I understand the principles of spinning off a spindle from spinning on my book charkha. I do think that the great wheel is easier though. The charkha has a really fast drive ratio to spin cotton and other fine fibers. The great wheel is a bit slower and geared more to spinning wool, although you could spin cotton as well.



I'm practicing a little each day and my spinning is definitely improving! Here's where I stopped this afternoon. And I'm wasting less and less. While I was out on Sunday looking for a cotter pin for the wheel hub, I stopped by the storage unit and picked up a big bag of white Polworth to card. That will be my first real test after I finish the merino. So stay tuned! If you'd like to see more photos, I've got them all up on my Flickr page here.

Tour Update

I was cruising along in the Tour de Fleece and actually getting a lot of spinning done, despite a sore toe. I also warped the loom with some navy 10/2 cotton and started weaving the cotton I had spun on the charkha. When about 75% of the way through spinning the merino/tence roving, I found out that my sore toe was actually a stress fracture. So I was booted by the dr. and my spinning and weaving came to a sudden halt. Here are the last photos of where I ended up, well short of my original goal.

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As you can see, I managed to weave one bobbin of white, and was almost through a brown bobbin. That gave me one empty bobbin to refill. And since the charkha is hand-driven, I can spin on that. Guess I need to order more bobbins. There's always something I need...


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This is about 75% of the orange, and I still have all of the brown left to do. When I get through, I'm going to ply all three colors together.


I did have one nice thing happen though. At the end of the Tour, I won a prize in the Team Lendrum drawing - 4oz. of beautiful hand-dyed BFL roving from Playing With Fiber. Now I just have to wait until the 10th to find out if I've healed well enough to lose the boot.

Tour de Fleece 2010

Joined a big group of spinners on Ravelry with the goal of getting as much spinning as possible done during the Tour de France. So far it's going pretty well, but I'm kinda having knitting withdrawal. I've really got the bug to start something lacy after a long hiatus. Just going to have to wait. My projects for the TdF are to spin 12oz of merino/tencel on the Lendrum into a 3-ply fingering weight yarn for a yet to be determined project; spin enough white, green, and brown cotton to weave a simple scarf; and to finish dehairing the qiviut. Today is day 7, and I've posted some photos of my progress below.


The honey bobbin is finished, and just getting started on the rust. Sure has a beautiful sheen!


3 bobbins filled on the Bosworth book charkha. I'm going to have to do something nice for Susan at Yarnorama for getting me started.


Bought this beautiful walnut shuttle from Jonathan Bosworth of Journey Wheels that holds the charkha bobbins. Woo-hoo! No winding off! Just pop it in and start weaving!


Photo showing the 3 cottons I grew for this project


Ahhh! Luxury! Can hardly wait to get through cleaning this so I can start spinning!

An unfinished project

There's been lots of discussion on the Spin List of late on Bluefaced Leicester fleece and how wonderful it is to spin. Actually, it was the first roving that I bought when I was learning and it really got me hooked on spinning. I bought my roving from Copper Moose and can recommend them highly. Their fibers are wonderful, the prices are good, and the service is excellent.

BFL is a long and lustrous fiber that spins like butter, and it feels good against the skin. A while back I bought two lamb fleeces from Robina Koenig of Tumble Creek Farm. I washed them when they arrived, but thought that I had felted the butt ends so I hadn't done much with them since. All the discussion made me go get them out of storage and I sat down to really take a closer look. These fleeces have so much crimp, that when I would try to pull some locks out, it would make the cut ends tangle together in a knot. This morning, I very carefully began at one edge and pulled out individual locks, combing the tip and butt ends with Bailey's grooming comb. It's a slow process, but looks like I'm going to be able to use just about everything with very little waste. The fleeces were beautiful, clean, and well skirted, so it wasn't a problem with that. The problem was my impatience and inexperience in washing them. I really should have taken the time to do smaller batches. You could probably equate it with washing an afro. I'm just going to to have to chalk it up to a learning experience and look forward to spinning the final product some time in the future (this is going to take a LONG time). In the meantime, here are some pictures of "Mab" and "Piper". Sorry but I've forgotten which is which.


Fleece 1 - Notice that the locks on this one are longer, thicker, and with a little less crimp than the other fleece. This one will be easier to card so I'm saving it for last when my resolve may be running low.


Fleece 2 - This was actually the first one I washed and is the more matted of the two. Add that to the fact that the locks are a little shorter, finer, and with more crimp, and I'll be working on this for a long time. This shot really shows how fiber practically glows.


This is my original sample showing some washed locks and carded fiber.


This is a batt that I carded on my Louet Jr. drumcarder. I'm having a hard time not jumping in and spinning it!

Another Spinning Day!

January isn't even over yet and I've already got in another full day of spinning! 2008 is going to be a good year. Today Roddie and Paula came over to try out my drum carder (Louet Jr.). BTW, for those interested, Louet has a good little carding tutorial on their website. Roddie had brought a bag of red llama that we got from Jane's stash. The fiber hadn't been washed or skirted yet, so there were some second cuts and grass but she and Paula were able to get a lot of that out as they carded it. The final batts were soooo soft! Made me want to make a trip to storage to dig out some of mine!




After everyone left, I cleaned all the fiber off the small drum of the carder and ran it through my Indigo Hound combs and was able to salvage a nice little handful of fiber. Is that not the most fabulous color?


While Paula was carding, Roddie worked on spinning another batch of llama fiber that is more brown. It looks like it's going to be a wonderful laceweight yarn. The only bad thing about spinning for lace is the fact that it takes so long to fill up the bobbins! I'm still working on my moorit merino, but am on my last bobbin. Hopefully I'll have enough to do something good. Here are some pictures of Roddie at her Ashford Traditional. That's Bailey snoozing in the background. She had a great time having a houseful of people to pet her.






I spent the rest of the day (and evening) spinning up a couple of bobbins for a plying demo tomorrow. Early in my spinning days I bought a white fleece, that I have since lost the name of, and some Black Welsh Mountain roving. I did quite a bit of bulky weight "barberpole" yarn that is currently in storage. Then recently I found more white uncarded fleece. So now I'm trying to use it up and have enough yarn to make either the Einstein Coat or the Asymmetrical Jacket (pictured on the cover) from Sally Melville's book, The Knit Stitch. The two contrasting bobbins will make a good demo because the singles are heavy enough to really see the fiber direction while plying. I learned early to make sure the fibers lay parallel in the final yarn to be sure that it will be balanced after you wash it. That really helped since I normally am plying from bobbins that have taken weeks, if not months, to fill (I do mostly laceweight yarn). Below are pics of the singles and the final yarn. It is deliberately a bit "thick & thin" so there is approximately 30 yards in 100g of finished yarn, and it varies from 5-7 wpi. I'm planning on dyeing it a dark plum before knitting.




Originally I had started this yarn with another project in mind and knit this hat to test my sample yarn. The hat yarn was the same "barberpole", but I added locks of mohair every 4" as I plyed the singles together. It was a pain in the neck and that project was scrapped immediately. But I do love the hat and may make two more for my grandsons! Before knitting, the finished yarn was dyed with koolaid. I didn't keep any kind of records, but I think I used cherry, lemon, and lime. Don't hold me to it though. I do remember that the colors didn't come out the way I expected.


This does get some looks when worn!

Unfortunately, tomorrow I will be back to real life again and catching up on all the things I didn't do today. Unless of course, that my Lotto numbers come in! One can only hope! After all, somebody has to win it and it may as well be me.

Happy New Year 2008! (a little late...)

Ok, so I didn't quite finish up my 2007 projects, but December was a blur and I had a bad cold during the last week. But now I've finished spinning the green merino/silk that I've had on the bobbins for quite a while. I think I lost some of the fiber somewhere and ended up with 500+ yarns of fingering weight yarn. I was very pleased with how even it turned out. When I plyed the two bobbins together, they actually came out pretty even with only a few yards left on one. I think I'm going to make a present for someone out of it. Here's a picture of the finished skein. It is kind of a heathery bluish green.


I also finished the "Frosted Ferns" doily by Herbert Neibling. It is a free pattern, but is not charted. I knit it using a couple of OLD odd balls of J&P coats six cord mercerized no. 20 cotton thread on size 1 needles. It was ecru, but when I finished up there was a definite line at the spot where I changed balls. Since it wouldn't wash out, I bleached it white then treated it with "bleach stop". Don't cringe! This is not an heirloom in any sense of the word, so I'm not worried about it degrading the thread. I had some problems with this doily in several places (stitches slipped of the Addi Turbo needle), I don't like the hand of the thread, and I don't really like the edge. Mostly I just knit it to get of feel for Neibling's work before I start "Lyra". Frosted Fern will make a nice table topper, which is ok. Everything has it's place. It's funny how you just kind of know while you're knitting, when the project is going to totally exceed your expectations or when it's just going to be a learning experience. And materials play a big part.