Another score!!

So I went to the same place I found my Reeves in January - I keep checking it out hoping to find some more Reeves stuff - and lo and behold my sister saw this:

A vintage skeinwinder!  It's not in perfect shape - one of the arms had broken off and been repaired, and a lot of the thicker pieces having a lot of checking from poor storage and not being cared for, but perfectly functional and very cute. :-D  I have an excessive amount of Howard's Feed & Wax on it right as it is really dry.  I can't wait to use it, though I don't know what the slat that is screwed to the side is for, and also the short dowel that is under the axle.

 I tried googling for photos and descriptions and though I found a (very) few photos of vintage winders like this, there weren't any descriptions as to what these parts were for.  There was also a staple on the face of one of the arms.

So now I need to get some singles & plying done so I can use it! :-D

I did a tiny bit of spinning over the weekend, this is just an evening's worth which is really fast for me:

I started spinning this fiber ("Enterprise", from A Dyeing Wish) on my Tiny Tibetan, but have been distracted by other things (mostly making spindles :-D) so decided to take this project with me on my Thanksgiving trip.  The spindle is a little long to be considered really portable, but I think it's my favorite spindle right now. :-D


And now, some pics for my sister:

And:

Ha!

I can still weave!

I'm a little clumsy with the shuttles after being away from it for so long, but it didn't take long to get back into the groove.

I also made another Baatara spindle (named after the Baatara Falls :-D) this weekend.  Here it is with the first version:

I used a different wood that wasn't so great for turning but has a beautiful grain.  It wobbles a bit so I may need to work on the point area a bit more, but I'm not sure the point is the problem.  But it spins just as nice as the first. :-)

The piece was a bit thicker so I could get larger whorls, but I thinned them quite a bit (perhaps too much for durability) to keep the spindle relatively light.  It does weigh 10 more grams than the original, but both of them had fiber on them when I weighed them so the weight is not quite accurate.

And for your weekly puppy pic:

As you can see, he's fitting in quite well. :-D

The Girls

My sister asked for the promised doggy pics, and since the girls are underrepresented I took (not very good because it's nighttime) pics of them.

First the three-toed wonder. :-D

She's healing well, her stitches came out yesterday, but she needs to wear the cone when we can't watch her. 

The Lazy Girl:

In her favorite spot - right by the patio door so she can see what's what. :-D

As usual...

I haven't been doing much this week.  Though I did make another spindle - this one is from tamboti wood and the wood is beautiful:



Unfortunately I don't get to keep it, but I'll be ordering more of this - I didn't even put a finish on it and it feels sooo silky-smooth.

Oh I did make a bunch of bead spindles:


This one spins super-fast!


I started spinning the 'kitchen sink' fiber on the Polonaise again:

(pic from earlier in the blog)

And tonight I'm going to spin with the Nepalese spindle


and maybe the phang from my friend. :-D

I'm afraid I don't have any doggy pics tonight though - will have to take one tomorrow. :-D

Even more spindles!

The spindles that I sent off to my Rav friend arrived, and she really likes them. :-)  I sent her this pine Tibetan and a lignum vitae phang:

I also made a Nepalese-type spindle, a type of phang, from another piece of lignum vitae that is much browner - the other lignum vitae spindles are quite green.  It's a very interesting wood, and this piece has a beautiful grain you can't see in a photo:

And a bead spindle for someone, which turned out nice:

Boy she twirls fast!

I also designed a new supported spindle with a lot of help from my Rav friend, based on a Balkan two-whorl drop spindle:

Though we had hoped it would work as a sort-of all-in-spindle - being able to ply two singles still on the spindle onto the bottom section - it didn't work out in that respect.  However, you can comfortably spin two or three singles onto this spindle and keep them well-separated.  I find it quite comfortable to spin on, even though it's much taller than my usual spindles!  And it seems I can get more spun in the same amount of time on this spindle.  Or I'm getting better at supported-spindle-spinning.

I need to not do a pyramid cop on it though, as it creates problems when you are winding off both sections onto a plying ball. :-)  It's definitely one of my favorite spindles. :-D

And today I made a phang out of bloodwood - isn't the wood pretty?

It looks much better in person - I don't seem to be able to take photos at night (in that they are worse than my lousy daylight photos). :-/

As you can see, I've been spending more time making spindles than using them, but with it getting colder here I probably won't be in the woodshop quite so often.


In doggy news, the Boss Dog had surgery on Monday to remove a growth on her foot which ended up costing her a toe.  But she seems to be recovering pretty well:

The only problem being she's supposed to stay off her foot since the bandage is already off.  And she's feeling rather frisky, so she's pulling on the stitches. :-(  So I'm sitting on the bedroom floor with her making sure she stays mostly off of it - she's less than pleased with me (especially since she is also wearing the Cone of Shame)!