Not-much-to-report Saturday!

Yep, that's all I've been doing - 2-plying the pretty blue stuff (merino/tencel blend). Apparently I spun it thinner than I thought, as it is taking much longer than I anticipated.

As soon as I finish this plying, I'll be sending the treadle section of the Pedal Pusher back to Nels for repair. Hopefully it won't take very long!

Since I've been trying to get the Brown Sheep roving finished, to the detriment of all of my other projects, maybe the wheel being out of commission will get me back to doing other crafty stuff. Maybe I'll even WEAVE! :-D

The Good, the Bad, and the YIKES!

The good news is, I actually wove on the Flip this weekend!

The bad news is, I'm sure I did less than an inch. I don't know why I can't get excited about this project - it's colorful, I get to do different color variations on each dishcloth (I want to add a green that wasn't what I had expected when I ordered it, and see if the yellow tones it down), and they go fast if I actually work on them. :-/

Perhaps I should set it aside and come up with a new project for the Harp.


Spinning Stuff:

More good news! I'm almost done with the beautiful blue merino/tencel roving on the Polonaise!

The bad news? I'm almost done with the beautiful blue merino/tencel roving on the Polonaise! I'm lovin' this stuff. I'm having a bit of trouble getting used the Polonaise because I am not spinning on it very often. It's easy to spin on, but it also spins backwards really easily and I need to watch out for that. Plus I'm used to being able to pull back on my thread and everything not turning - doesn't work that way on this beautiful wheel! I just need to spin on her more often. I've been trying to get the Brown Sheep roving done on the Pedal Pusher, but I'm going to finish spinning this tonight and it will be ready for plying (I think I'll try doing a 2-ply from a nosty).

More good news! I FINALLY got a bobbin filled of the Brown Sheep wool roving. This stuff is taking forever, mostly because I am a pokey spinner.


The YIKES news? The wheel I'm spinning it on - the Babe Pedal Pusher - is broken.
There used to be a piece of plastic on that side - the break goes all the way to the footman. The entire wheel is twisting quite badly every time I push that pedal down now, plus there is a new 'click' when it starts going down from the top of the revolution. I don't know if it will last through this project since the pedal is also cracked between the two screws you see on the top of that metal plate, and I'm concerned about getting different results if I move the project to a different wheel. Though the Production DT is the same brand with the same-sized wheel, it's a much-older model and it doesn't act the same (it's a lot 'stiffer', for one thing).

I really loved this wheel when I first got it, but it sure hasn't been holding up to being the most popular wheel here - the squeak that was driving me nuts (probably a precurser to the current problem) developed in the first 4 - 6 weeks. And I don't spin every day - I commonly go for a few weeks without spinning. Sigh. I don't know what I'll do if the PP doesn't hold up - I'm sure I have at least another pound of that roving to go - though perhaps subconsciously I knew there was a problem and that's why I haven't been getting much done. Hmm....

Oh well. I'll just be spinning on the Polonaise (I keep wanting to call her 'Polly' for some reason) tonight and listening to old Sherlock Holmes radio shows. I'll worry about the PP while I'm spinning on it.

Late Sunday Edition...

Unfortunately I don't have anything to show fiber-wise for this past week since I've spent most of the week researching new cars. My car's odometer just went over 275,000 miles, and is starting to need to go to the shop a little more often. It's been a great car, and I'd buy another in a heartbeat if they still made them. Luckily my car should still have quite a few miles to go, but I don't know if it will last until the new model year (then again, it's probably a moot point as I don't think there is anything exciting - as in great mpg, room for the dogs & DH, affordable - coming out next year either). I almost bought a Rav-4 - but looking at it in the daylight it looked surprisingly cheap (though the price tag sure wasn't!).

I did get about an hour of spinning in, but that's it. I think I need a break from the car shopping though so I'm planning to do more craft stuff this week. (Oh, and never ever EVER give the salesman your last name - though 'thanks' to him we discovered our phone number is no longer unlisted. GRRRRR I explicitly told him not to call me EVER - he's called me TWICE. Needless to say I won't be buying anything from him!).

Happy New Year!

I have a rigid-heddle-weaving book review for you today!

I received Creative Weaving by Sarah Howard & Elisabeth Kendrick this week (thanks Mom & Dad!).


It was written for rigid heddle looms and has a nice section in the front covering warping, beginning weaving, a few techniques including using a pick-up stick, and a short bit on cardboard looms and peg weaving. There is an index in the back.

The rest of the book serves as inspiration for colors and materials in your weaving. It doesn't have projects per se, but it does have very minimal instructions for weaving the patterns/colors shown, and ideas of what to make with the fabric you create.

As the cover indicates, the photography is beautiful. But... the pictures are very close-up of small sections of fabric, so it's hard to tell what the fabric will look like more than 6 inches from your nose. There is a gallery at the end, showing some of the fabrics used in projects (and sometimes you just see a corner of the fabric), but the pictures are very small - those are the pictures I would've like to have seen larger.

All-in-all, it strikes me more as an art book. Someone who is more imaginative than I am would probably get something out of this book, and perhaps this will help stretch my imagination a bit, but I probably wouldn't not have bought it at Amazon's current full price if I had seen the book first. Very pretty, but not especially useful to me. But perhaps my opinion will change once I try to make one of the fabrics from the book.


Spinning stuff:

I also received two spinning books for Christmas - Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning by Judith MacKenzie McCune, and Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey. I haven't had a chance to look them over very thoroughly yet, but so far I am impressed with the McCune book - I wish I had it when I first started spinning, and I'm sure it will be useful to me now and in the future. There are great pictures in there!

I've barely looked at the Okey book so far, but a brief glance leads me to believe its another good and useful spinning book. If anyone is interested in spinning book reviews, leave a note in the comments and I'll do a bona fide review in another post.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year!