A short announcement...

I've started a Babe Spinning Wheels YahooGroup, and have put a link in the right side column of the blog. I'm hoping it will eventually be a place to find real-life information about Babe wheels - get advice, talk about what we spin, post photographs, likes and dislikes of particular models.

I realized there could be a need for this when I was looking for 'in the wild' pictures and information regarding the Babe Bulky Delta Production DT Delta Flyer, and then the Bulky Delta NW Flyer Double Treadle Pinkie. I've been wanting to try a delta orifice, and I thought I might want to do some bulky yarn someday. But except for contacting Nels, there wasn't very much out there on the Bulky Production, and NO information on the Bulky Pinkie (and surprisingly little on the regular Pinkie, for that matter).

So I had my Babe dealer order a Bulky Pinkie for me, and like every other Babe I love it (except for the way the treadles attach, they have a tendency to pop off if you don't have your feet just right). I chose the Pinkie instead of the big Bulky as I'm sure I won't be doing that much bulky, so the Pinkie is a better fit for me.

Though I can't get over that The Hound is bigger than the Pinkie! LOL

click to biggify

It also fits under my desk at work. :-D


It's a fully-functional wheel - I spun my usual probably-light-fingering weight (really ought to check that someday!) and what was likely a close-to-worsted weight with no problem. You should be able to spin laceweight pretty easily on it as well. I had absolutely no trouble with the delta orifice (didn't have to change my spinning style at all), and it also of course fits in the car really well.

Wow - this turned out to be longer than I meant it to be! I hope if you are interested in or have Babes you'll come join the new group! (where there is a more detailed review of the Bulky Pinkie) :-)

Another crafty weekend...

And we actually have weaving content!!


I finally started weaving on the RH group's weave-along - doesn't it look great so far? I hated to stop, but I need to do a couple of things (like laundry) today.

Of course there was spinning - I got the Babe Production out and resumed working on the red colonial wool from The Fold; not much to see there that you haven't seen before.

I also washed the plied wool from last weekend - I'm pretty sure I over-plyed the gray stuff; hopefully it will be better after I re-wind it. (fingers crossed)

But my-oh-my look at this:

Looks pretty awesome in a skein! I liked it so much I started something else on the Tenor Spindolyn - black alpaca roving:

And I'm planning to spin a little bit on the Polonaise today, if I don't forget. If this keeps up, I might just make a dent in the spinning stash!

I also did a little knitting. This is the Turtleneck Capelet from SweaterBabe:

Least-helpful-photo EVER - but my cable is a bit too short to spread it out safely. I'll be switching cables soon. I'm expecting this will be done pretty quickly since I'm using super-bulky yarn, even though I may make it longer than the pattern calls for.

I made this a couple of weeks ago. It's a fast project (crocheted), but it turned out a bit large and it used far more yarn than I expected. It's a Lid Grabber Hat (found on Ravelry). I'll make it again, but I'll use sport-weight yarn instead next time.


I liked the colors (Gumdrop) of that yarn so much though (and I needed a cone of Baby Blue for the WAL above) that I ordered a cone from Elmore-Pisgah - where I also found this:

Interesting colors in the colorway (Sunflower), in a cabled sport-weight perle cotton. Neat-looking yarn, and I can't wait to try something with it (though I need to get a couple of other hundred projects done first! :-/) I also got a couple of cones of 'regular' sport-weight cotton. The colors weren't quite what I expected, but they may make an interesting combination when woven together.

I have no nature shots for you today; the hanging tomato still looks pretty sickly but it has (cherry) tomatoes on it. We're having some weird weather this summer so it will be interesting to see how the plants do.

Till next time!

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!

The gray stuff is FINALLY finished!!!

(Except for washing - the weather hasn't been cooperative.) I'm getting pretty fast at Navajo-plying. :-D


And... I've also finished the Spunky Eclectic roving! Here it is on the Tenor Spindolyns ready for plying:

That is just shy of 4 oz. of roving.

And here is my Spindy plying set-up - it works great! (Sorry about the fuzzy picture, they were still swinging a bit.)

I didn't ply with them that close together - they were hanging probably 2.5 feet apart when I plied.

Here's a close-up of the swivel I used - I picked these up at WalMart (fishing section). It was the biggest size they had, since we're not anywhere close to the ocean, but they were just big enough. (Click to biggify.)

The only 'problem' I had with the setup was once the spindles were almost empty, they were no longer heavy enough to stay vertical. But it was a minor inconvenience right at the end of plying.


Plied on the Pedal Pusher, now that it's FINALLY free:


And on the niddy noddy - isn't that just the coolist yarn??

I couldn't decide which side I liked better, so I posted both! :-D

I'll have to skein it eventually, but for now I'm going to admire it on the niddy noddy. :-)

I did a bit of cotton-spinning on the Production too, but decided to experiment with it (some other time) and spin some on the Spindolyn and some on the Liten Spindel and then compare the three and see how much difference there is.


No tomato pics today; it still looks sad but has quite a few almost-ripe cherry tomatoes on it. And the Hound tried to pick one yesterday - he's very fond of tomatoes (weird dog!).