Still spinnin' away...

I've really been into spinning lately. Maybe next weekend I'll get back to weaving. :-)

Here is a picture of the Bulky Pinkie with the spindle attachment installed:

Nice-to-spin Coopworth:
Though the setup worked pretty well, I didn't like having the spindle that low so I've put it back on the Pedal Pusher. Here's a better picture of it on the PP (sorry it's a bit out-of-focus again):


I put the delta flyer back on the Pinkie and started spinning this Romney batt:
Since the batt is in layers, I thought I'd try rolling them up and trying to draft like rolags, but it didn't work well at all. I'm probably going to have to strip it instead. This batt is very harsh-feeling, and there seems to be quite a few nepps in it. :-( I'm going to do a 4-ply with it and count it as practice, unless it ends up a lot better finished than it is now.


I also finished the black super-sooooft alpaca on the Spindolyn, and started the gray to ply with it - YUCK.

The gray is 'hairy'! Though the hairs aren't stiff, there are a LOT of them and they stick out all over the spun yarn, and not in a good way. I'm hating spinning it. Not sure what I'll end up doing with it, but thankfully there is not much there so I don't feel too bad about giving it to the birds next spring (unless I think of something else to do with it).

I sat down at the Polonaise to spend an half-hour spinning on her - I was going to rotate amongst all the wheels today - and the next thing I knew "The Mummy Returns" was over and 2 hours had gone by! I was really hoping to get to the Pedal Pusher too - I really need the spindle practice. But... we just discovered DH's computer has been infected by a trojan/virus so I'm helping him with that (always always ALWAYS update your anti-virus program daily; and check that your firewall is running and run at least two trojan/virus checkers every so often - weekly is usually good enough).


The big news is - I bought my first fleece!!



It's Navajo-churro lamb. If how much I was able to get done yesterday just picking out locks (it's hard to see the locks in a lot of it), shaking out the v-m, putting them in netting to soak (no soap) is any indication, it's going to take me YEARS to get it ready to spin - if I'm only spinning from the locks (current plan). Luckily I was smart enough to split the fleece with a friend, so I don't have to do it all. But it does remind me why I buy my spinning fiber mostly-ready-to-spin. This will be a good learning experience, but not something I will do very often.

$3.62 later...

But first... the painted Pinkie!

Even with my not-very-good spray-painting skills, it looks pretty cool. :-D The only problem I've run across is that after staining the treadles was the left treadle was squeaking badly. It appears that the guide screws on the frame were rubbing too much on the bottom of the treadle (oddly it doesn't bother the right treadle at all). I think I've solved the problem by screwing them all the way down, but I haven't spun on it much yet because I've been a bit distracted by....


The $3.62 project - my first Navajo spindle!

I bought the parts at Hobby Lobby - a dowel, a round-ish blank (we found it wasn't completely round when trying to center the hole :-/), and the glass beads with the flat bottoms (in the stained glass section, and in the wedding section).

Drilled a hole in the blank, super-glued the beads on the outside of the whorl, whittled rounded points on both ends, and put the whorl where I thought it should be and put a rubber band underneath it to keep it in place.

I found my favorite turned bowl (turned by DH :-D) to use to keep the tip in one spot:

And spun wool on it all day at the demo yesterday:

Even though I was spinning from around 9:30 til around 2:30-ish, I didn't get tired (from the spinning), and still have no discomfort from spinning for so long (granted, a lot of time was spent talking to passers-by). It was quite the attention-getter, which really surprised me as there were 5 spinners with wheels - one has a Kromski Minstrel which is quite lovely. But in thinking about it more, perhaps it was because with the big Navajo spindle, it's easier to follow the 'action'.

If someone has never seen spinning on a wheel before, it looks like magic (at least it did to me!) - the hands are moving quickly and the flyer is spinning and the drive wheel is spinning and the feet are treadling - everything is moving and it all goes so fast you can't tell what's happening. Even on a drop spindle it can be difficult to see what's going on if the spindler is even halfway proficient. Not so with a Navajo spindle. With the long draw they can easily see the twist go up the fiber, and there is very little distracting movement going on. I wasn't spinning in the traditional Navajo way; I used it like it's smaller supported-spindle cousins but with the long draw, as it's pretty difficult to do short-draw on the Navajo. It was fun, and my long draw is a tiny bit better now. :-)

And I've include this picture just because it turned out so cool. :-D

I have mostly nuthin'

Same old, same old - always big plans and not much gets done.

I was going to do some Pinkie-spinning this weekend, but got a wild hair (and a sunburn - ow!) and decided I just had to paint it this weekend:

It needs another coat and the stain says I have to wait 48 hours, so it still looks pretty much like that. I also stained the treadles while I was at it. I'll be staining the flyer when I decide if I like the stain I used. :-) It has been quite a time suck for me, so I'm really glad I never got around to painting the Production. (And I still need to figure out how I'm going to paint the Pinkie's upright part that is behind the wheel without painting the wheel itself - wrap the wheel in newspaper strips I guess.)

I did some more spinning on the Production - I have a demo next Sunday and I want to get that bobbin filled and off so I can spin something I will actually be able to see (it won't be very bright in there). But the red stuff is spinning so fine that it is taking me a long time to spin just a little bit.



I did accomplish a little bit of weaving, but most of my time was spent trying out whip-stitching the edges while the work is in progress (a la "Weaving Made Easy"). I am a crappy whip-stitcher, I'm afraid. :-(


Oh well, since I still haven't decided what I'm going to use this for, I decided I could experiment with it some.


Oh I almost forgot - my first attempt at a orifice hook. :-D



And that's all I've got. The hanging tomato looks very scrawny, and I've caught birds pecking the cherry tomatoes. I also caught The Hound picking the cherry tomatoes off the plant - he loooves tomatoes! Strange (but lovable) dog! :-D

Another new toy!

And another quickie post. :-)

When I had my Babe dealer order the Bulky Pinkie for me, I also had her order a spindle for the Production wheel. Since my Pedal Pusher has been relegated to plying, it's not my favorite wheel, it doesn't have the front support like the newer ones do, and you have to drill holes in the maiden upright - I decided to put the new spindle on the PP, just in case.

(Click on pictures to biggify.)

(And sorry about the lousy picture - I'll take a better one for the next post.)

I tried some alpaca that isn't very high quality; I think it's a carded batt:


Like BUTTAH.

Since there is very little left of this alpaca, I figured it would be good to practice on and give me time to do some stash-diving. :-) I might be able to use the spindle on the Bulky Pinkie too, but I haven't looked closely enough yet to be sure.

I posted quick instructions on how to install it on the new Babe Wheels group. :-D


And now for your almost-regular nature shot. I saw these from my bedroom window last Monday morning:

A hen turkey and her poults. :-D Boy was I surprised; and they stuck around for several pics (but then one of the dogs made a little too much noise).