A lot of spinning photos, and no weaving

(Most of the photos in this post can be biggified by clicking on them.)

But first, why I love the guest/craft room in the Spring:

Both the crabapple and the viburnum are blooming like crazy, and the viburnum has the most heavenly scent. So trying to get the room cleaned up and sorted out so one can walk in there isn't such a terrible chore. :-D


That which "cannot" be spun on a Babe:

There's not much on there yet because I ran out of time, and it's not frog hair, but I don't want super fine yarn.

Here is my first skein of three different types of prepared cotton - boy is there a difference!

The outside yarn on the niddy noddy was the last spun, and it was from a puni so it's much more even. From inside to outside - ginned cotton (prepared with a bow); spun from the seed (that was fun!), and spun from self-prepared punis. Ginned and spun-from-seed cotton will be bumpy.

This was the most fun, but it had the least amount of cotton:

We blended a bit of cotton with different colors of polyester - I really like how mine came out. I've never done color-blending before.

More varieties of cotton:

(L-R: Candlelite (Spindolyn); Fox Fibre (Babe); recycled denim (Babe)(all from sliver))

The Fox Fibre was really interesting - the sliver in the middle of the 'red' is what it looks like before boiling. The green, when unboiled, didn't really look green either (though it looks more green than it does in that photo). I did learn I can't ply for nothing from a cotton center-pull ball onto a Spindolyn. :-( That yarn looked much better before I tried to ply it.

A handy thing to have for a spinning workshop is a mini niddy noddy:

(mini niddy noddy, nøstepinde, Spindolyn, lazy kate)

The samples we got at the workshop didn't make a whole lot of yarn, so the 2-yard niddy noddy wasn't very useful. So I made a 1-yard for the second day, and yesterday I made this one that is just barely longer than the width of my hand. The mini is pretty fun to use with these small skeins.


I'll leave you with a photo of one of the lilacs on the other side of the house. I tried to catch a photo of the butterflies that were feeding, but they were too quick for me.

For spinning teachers, and a loom rant...

Well, ok - they are both rants.


Dear Spinning Teacher:

When I walk into a spinning workshop with a Babe spinning wheel, please wait until we've done some spinning or ask me about it - and try very hard not to be dismissive - before you dis my wheel. You don't know me or how long I've been spinning or what I've spun on which wheel. Dissing my wheel when I first walk in makes for an unhappy workshop attendee. And you basically told me that you weren't going to help me, because I have a Babe and one time someone else had a Babe and they had an awful time in your workshop. Huh?

And since you didn't ask -

YES, I can spin fine yarn on my Babe Production wheel.

NO, my Babe doesn't wobble hither and yon nor threaten to fall apart - my Babe is a sturdy, versatile spinning wheel.

No, a Babe Production wheel is not the optimum wheel for fine/super-fine spinning, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Address difficulties with spinning this stuff using Irish tension (Babe is only one manufacturer) along with Scotch tension spinning difficulties - adjustments have to made for both types of wheels.

I've done 99% of my spinning over the years on my Production wheel, and it has always done what I've asked of it, thankyouverymuch. I noticed that the expensive wheels didn't make spinning this stuff easier for everyone; several people with more-expensive wheels had much more trouble than I did. And I ended up with yarn comparable to the other students' when the workshop was over.

Pretty is as pretty does.

If I had thought of it (and wasn't so darned stubborn), I would've asked for my money back right then and there and LEFT - because you set a negative tone for me right off. And I won't be taking a workshop from you again because of this, even though you otherwise seemed to be quite nice. And I have difficulty keeping my mouth shut when I spend good money only to be dissed before even starting.

And you know what? I also like and use plastic knitting machines (gasp!) on occasion, and even acrylic yarn. The HORROR!

Cutting down other people's choices, just because you don't like them, isn't a good business model.



And now for your sort-of Urban-Legendy Loom Rant:

Those who keep saying Kromski Harps' ratchets & pawls don't hold - I've never had a problem with mine except for when I didn't make sure they were secure first (which I also do on the Flip - so it's not a Harp problem). Some of the early Harps did have that problem, which the Kromskis fixed as soon as they were made aware of the problem (and if you are still having a problem, contact the Kromskis - they will be glad to help you!). I keep seeing this repeated and repeated, but it's been a few years since the Kromskis fixed this problem. So those who are trying to decide between a Harp and a Flip - this should NOT be a deciding factor.

/loom rant


And now, back to your regularly-scheduled broadcast. I should have a new 'normal' post for you this weekend! :-D

Whew!

I did some more finishing this week:


Jane to the rescue ("Plain Jane" or Jayne from Firefly - you choose!)! The fancy sewing machine just couldn't handle the thickness even though I had used carpet warp on the hems, so I used the faithful treadle. No problem for Ja(y)ne - I love those old machines! :-D

The finished dishcloths:


These turned out much better than the blue ones I did back in June 2007 in my opinion. They are a bit larger too, but not too much so.


And I tried to take a better picture of the shirt - plus I added a bow to the front (I think you can click to biggify):


I tried fiddling with the picture to get rid of the distracting background and sharpen the texture's relief. The shirt is not quite that bright in real life, but I think the texture shows a bit more now.

I did a few more inches on the scarf; I'm using my homemade temples as the sides of the scarf keep wanting to curl under a bit making a good selvedge difficult. Because I'm using acrylic I can't tighten down the warp enough to fix it that way. And I can't tell if I need to tighten the side warp threads or loosen them - I've not had a warp behave quite like this before. The center threads are all bunched together - perhaps an effect of not using the heddle to 'beat'? I'll try doing another section with the heddle as beater instead of the shuttle and see what happens.

This weekend I spent a good part of my time looking for one of my weaving booklets - I cannot find it anywhere. :-/ I even took everything off my craft bookcase (and of course not everything would fit back on!) looking for it, but no dice. Luckily I had made a photocopy of most of it since it's an older pamphlet not in the best of shape, but I sure wish I could find the original. I did discover that I have a surprising number of weaving books/pamphets/printed stuff from the internet. And an even more surprising number of knit and crochet books - I see a major weeding-out in my future.

There may not be a blog post next weekend - I get to go to a cotton spinning workshop on Saturday and Sunday! It's quite rare to have any spinning workshops here, so even though I'm not all that interested in spinning cotton I'm going. :-D

FINISHED!

It was way past time to cut the fabric for the shirt, so I finally bit the bullet and did it:


And I did the sewing after managing to avoid it for most of Saturday:


I'm not crazy about the couching down the center - I had trouble doing it evenly, but if you don't look too closely it looks ok.


I didn't add the called-for braid around the neck, though I'm thinking of adding something at the bottom of the "V" but haven't decided what yet. Since I have a few more curves than the models in the photo (A Handwoven Treasury, Interweave Press), it doesn't lay quite as nicely on me and barely fits even though I increased the warp width. I do like it though, and if I lose a little bit of weight, which is on the list of 'things to do this year', it will look nicer. It's also a great look for a serape, using a heavier yarn.


I put another warp on the Harp while I was avoiding cutting and sewing the shirt:

This is the "Tweed So Fine" scarf pattern in Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson, and I'm using a shiny slubby acrylic yarn (that is actually taupe in color, not charcoal sigh). The heddle is abrading the slubby spots, so I'm going to stop using the heddle to line up the fell and just use the shuttle. And since it's acrylic, the warp tension is not as high as usual. Since I want this to be drapey, I'm not beating it at all - just pushing the picks in place. This will be a really quick project, judging by how fast it's gone so far.


And I started weaving this on the Flip last weekend:


This is the Brooks Bouquet place mat from the (revised) Ashford Book of Rigid Heddle Weaving. The pattern is not difficult at all, and I love the yarn (#8 perle cotton); it has a beautiful sheen to it.


I also started weaving this on the cradle loom (forgive the mess under the weaving!):


It's a sampler strip from a 70s book called Everybody's Weaving. I'm using LusterSheen that I had in the stash - what a nice yarn to weave with! I've only done 3 different patterns so far; I like that this is a narrow project as it goes faster. :-)

Wow - it looks like I've actually been doing stuff!