Have a safe and sane Labor Day weekend!

I hope to have a new post on Tuesday!

Picture Sunday!

I'm running a bit behind, so this will be brief! And no, I didn't get to sewing the towels today :-( (but I did get the weed-whacking done!).

First, the floor loom:

Looks ready to go! I think I need to re-tie the treadles though.


The Brown Sheep mill-end roving:

I still can't get over how silvery-gray it looks - what happened to the brown? I still like it though. And I think I found a pattern for it in my stash last night.


I've also spent quite a bit of time googling for a sideways funnel-necked garter stitch sweater for the red Colonial. Good thing it's taking awhile to spin because I sure am striking out! I did just run across a book listed at Amazon - I'm going to see if the library can get it for me so I can see what patterns it has before I decide whether to buy it though.


And I forgot to mention yesterday - I'm 2-plying the Polwarth.

It's not coming out very well. I started spinning this two years ago, did about a half of a bobbin, and then put it aside until now. My spinning skills have improved a little bit since then so of course the new stuff isn't the same as the old stuff. Also, I'm plying from one ball again - this time by holding it in my hand instead of setting it on the floor (that caused all kinds of tangles). I've discovered my fingers are too short for this, and I lack strength in my ring finger & pinkie so I'm having quite a time tensioning it properly. And parts of it is looking overplied. Sigh. So this is going to be a... very "special" yarn. :-/ And the plying is taking FOREVER. I have to stop treadling and re-do my hands every. single. time. I finish adding the twist to a section.

Time to put the big wheels away and play with the Liten Spindle. I haven't been practicing and oh boy can I tell!

Good night!

It's a No-Pictures Saturday!

I actually have a bit of weaving content today - I finally re-assembled the beater bar on the floor loom and put a narrow 10-dent reed in it. :-) My current plan is to do a very simple plain weave scarf or (relatively-narrow) shawl, perhaps out of Lion Brand Homespun since I have a TON of it (I wish I had a larger-dent reed - though by the time I get around to warping I might have one).

I still need to do the hems on the towels from the Harp, and it's on my list of things-to-do-this-weekend (so far I've only crossed off two things!). Then wash the towels & the dishcloths and see how I like the hand of them since I used different dents, pick a hem method, and then warp up both the Harp & the Flip for another set.

On the spinning front, though I feel like I'm doing a lot of spinning on it, I'm not getting through the red Colonial mix from The Fold (shown in the previous post) very fast. I really like it though, and bought another pound of it so I have enough for a sweater (I hope). It's very easy to spin - I've not pre-drafted it at all like I usually do. I realize that since a couple-three years have passed since I bought the first batch I will have to make allowances for the second batch being a different dye lot, and be sure to mark them well so I don't screw them up. :-) I also have found I prefer to spin this in daylight, so that kind of limits my spinning time (on that, anyway). I'm planning to make this a 3-ply as well, and I've emptied and found all of my bobbins so I'm set - until I start spinning something else at the same time.

I Navajo-plied the silver/really-light-gray & brown Brown Sheep mill end yarn, and though I'm not happy with the lumps Navajo-plying leaves in the yarn, I really like the yarn itself - so I ordered two pounds more from the Sheep Shed Studio (I don't know how much I started out with, but I doubt it was a pound - probably 8 ounces or so - I hope 2 pounds will be enough!). Carol was extremely accommodating in finding matching roving and quite fast to answer e-mail, and I'll be doing business with them again. :-D I want to make this yarn into a weekend-type sweater. It's rather 'fuzzy', and bloomed nicely after washing. It is over-twisted and over-plied though - I had little pigtails sticking out of the skein the first time I washed it, as I wasn't able to weight it very well. So I wound it back onto the niddy noddy and wet it down in the shower and dried it again - it looks good now. This isn't super-wash, so I'll have to be very careful with it. What an easy spin though!

I spent most of the day cleaning up the basement, which includes the craft room and the floor loom, so I probably won't do a lot of anything tonight. I'm planning to post pictures of the floor loom and the BS skein tomorrow - if I get started early on the towels perhaps I'll have pictures of those too. I need to do some weed-eating in the yard first - the invasive chives are blooming again. :-(

Stay tuned!

Wowser!

I'm turning this:

into this:


Isn't that pretty? I'm going to need more bobbins though - I don't know how much I have, but it's more than I've spun of one batch before and all of my bobbins have something on them now!


And I turned this (Brown Sheep wool/mohair blend):

into this:

It's pretty fuzzy, due to the mohair, but we'll see what happens after plying and washing. I'm debating trying Navajo plying with this - there is two-bobbins' worth, so I'd get good practice. And as fuzzy as it is, it might not show uneven plying too much. I'll have to find the video again of Navajo plying to refresh my memory.

Speaking of washing yarn - I washed the alpaca and the red variegated today - the alpaca is looking more and more underspun - I hope it holds up for knitting. The red wool is looking good though.


And I came up with this for a slightly-better-looking (or at least in keeping with the pvc theme we have going) support for the Pedal Pusher:


It does a good job and is adjustable, since I didn't screw it into the frame. The only 'bad' thing about not screwing it into the frame is that when I pick up the wheel it falls out. It's just a tiny bit long, which is why it is at an angle. I think the pads will indent over time, so it will work out in the long run. I'm going to have to paint it since I can't get the red lettering off though.


Your nature pic, to make up for lack of weaving content (again!):

The sweet pea outside my computer room window, valiantly trying to hide the tv antenna tower. :-D

The good thing about...

using Gorilla tape and cardboard -

to make your spinning doo-dads is...








You can peel off the tape from the cardboard (though not easily) to fix your radiator hose when it springs a leak coming back from a spinning demo. :-\

Luckily I still had two small bottles of water left as well, and some melted ice in the cooler - whew!

Never a dull moment at 'Chez-WhatNow?'!

Yep, it's another spinning post!

Since I'm demoing spinning tomorrow I figured I'd better spin this week (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). I'm still figuring out the charkha, and trying to a little bit on it every day. I finished spinning the Polwarth (YAY!), and it's definitely going to need to be plyed - there is quite a variation in size all along the yarn. :-/ I started the new stuff - the wool/mohair blend that I still haven't gotten a picture of for you yet (I'll try to remember tomorrow) - I quite like it thought it's a bit 'rough'.

I'm planning to take the Production wheel with me as well, which I also do at the spinning club meetings so people can try spinning if they want. I use the roving that Babe's Fiber Garden sells, and split it lengthwise once or twice plus pre-draft it for the newbies. My friend also brings her Fiber Starter - you can't mess up a Babe!

Some can, however, develop a wobble. Now the wobble itself doesn't bother me - it's the SQUEAKING. It's driving me nuts! IMO the maiden is too heavy for the upright, and pushing up on the maiden does stop the squeak. Nels at the Garden suggested putting a support between the maiden and the base or floor (and I've seen one online as well), so this is what I did this afternoon:


Oh dear. Actually, that's not bad for cardboard and Gorilla tape. And it works. It will tide me over until one of us gets around to making a wooden one, which hopefully will be soon! I might have to modify it a bit tonight as well. I'll take it along to the demo tomorrow, but I'll try not to use it as it's so unattractive!

How to do a twisted fringe

Warning - lots of pictures!

Doesn't this look scraggly?

This is what happens when you use a fine warp with a much heavier weft. I used Euroflax linen for warp, and a worsted wool (Tahki Shannon) for weft. DH's not going to want anything extra long or fussy, and the weft yarn is not sturdy enough to do a regular fringe, so we're going to add some fringe and do a twisted fringe.


Using a handy-dandy fringe measurer (I used a magazine reply card), measure out how long you want your extra fringe to be and cut:

Using a crochet hook or a latch hook, pull the ends of the new fringe from back-to-front through the edge of the scarf:

Make sure you catch the original fringe in the loop of the new fringe:

Pull the fringe 'legs' through the loop and tighten:

Since the warp has such a wide sett, I'm adding a piece of fringe in-between the linen fringe as well:

And here is your new thicker fringe ready to be twisted:
That looks a LOT better! If the new fringe yarn wouldn't fall apart, I could just do fringe knots across. However, I''m going to have to do a little bit more.


For twisted fringe, separate into two sections the fringe pieces that you want to end up twisted into one:

Go get your favorite weaving book and lay it on the scarf to hold it in place, and then twist each of the two sections in the same direction that the yarn is twisted:
Now you have both cords twisted to the same degree. The way I determined that is by easing up on the tension and letting them kink - if they kink about the same amount you're good to go.

Now, twist the two 'cords' together but TWIST IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION that you originally twisted the cords.

Twist it tight, as it will relax once you tie the knot at the bottom:
and then tie a knot.

First one done!
This would look very cool with beads on the ends, but I don't think DH will go for that. :-)

Here it is with the knots even but the ends untrimmed:

And here it all ready to wear (except for washing):
Now wasn't that easy? :-)

Ta-da!

We have an FO! All that's left is washing. This is the scarf that came off the Mattel loom. I'll be doing a separate post on how to do the twisted fringe, but that's going to take awhile so I thought I'd do this first. First up, DH's scarf:

(dog paw optional)

I really like how it turned out - it's very drapey due to using such a fine warp compared to the weft, though it caused a bit of a finishing dilemma.


I did a spinning-fiber inventory Friday night, and discovered some beautiful stuff I had completely forgotten about (some of it is surprisingly old as well). What really grabbed me is this beautiful variegated-red Colonial roving from The Fold:

(the photographer's efforts do not do it justice) and it's up next after I finish off the Polwarth I started two years ago, also from The Fold:

I'm demo-ing spinning next Sunday so I fished out a Brown Sheep wool+mohair blend roving in natural colors (brown and almost-gray) that I didn't think to photograph.

I'll be setting up a fiber inventory in Excel, to keep on my pda so I have a bit of an idea of what I have, though a lot of what I have is "?" or "blue". :-\ Hopefully I'll keep better records in the future.


Your parting nature shot:

Though it turned out how I expected it would, but not like I had hoped, I kind of like it - it looks like a painting, though it's really hard to see the swallowtail butterfly - just a little splotch of yellow on the right side (click on the photo to enlarge).

Woohoo!!

Look what showed up at work today! :-D


It's a Babe Liten Spindle - an upright charka (or 'charkha'). It's usually for spinning fine fibers such as cotton and silk; my understanding is that Babe's version is more versatile. I tried it at lunchtime, and didn't do too badly considering it was the first time I've tried spinning from the fold. I definitely need a lot more practice though. (I'll get back to weaving soon, I promise!)

This little guy is so compact it fits on the other (unoccupied) desk, and I may take it to work often to spin at lunchtime. It fits in this bag really well:


so it will be easy to haul around.

I found the bag at Hobby Lobby in the art section for only $10! Definitely check out the art section at HL if you are looking for craft equipment bags - I also found the bag for the Flip there. This is what it looks like on the outside:


The tag says it's a "small backpack", even though it's very flat. It does have backpack straps, plus the handle you can see in the picture, plus a shoulder strap.


On the weaving front, I'm doing a twisted fringe that I am planning on doing a mini-tutorial on. I'm also working on a 'how to get started' post - that one might take a little longer. :-D No promises on when I'll get either one done though!