Loomy Thoughts

Sunday, March 18, 2012

That was a fun weekend!

I was going to visit my mom this weekend, and heard about a 19" Reeves available for a decent price but a bit of a detour.  So of course I detoured - it turned out she had two!  Both walnut, neither quite 18".  My sister bought one, and I bought the other. :-)

Neither one appeared to have been used, but the grandkids had played with them so they aren't quite pristine.  Once we got them to Mom's and oiled and treadled a few times they broke in fast and are spinning like champs.

Oddly, on mine neither the bobbin nor the whorl are finished.  It's smaller than my 19" oak Reeves - 'only' 17.5"; my sister's is 17".  What a difference!


The walnut wheel is much much lighter in weight as well - it could make a nice travel wheel.  In fact I may take it to Spin Club this week. :-D


The seller also had an antique Finnish wheel that was in surprisingly good condition considering she was made in 1844!


Isn't she lovely?  I need to fix a small problem with the flyer, but the drive wheel spins well and once the flyer is fixed she will spin again. :-D  She still has a lot of her original paint, and I can't wait to get her cleaned up!

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

It was an experimental week...

I did a bit of spinning, but it was just more of the same that I've been working on.  I did however play in the woodshop. 

I wanted to try a wool finger on the great wheel, and since mine didn't have one I turned one from the very few photos I found on the internet:

Wool finger

I tried it, and though it was ok I can't really get far enough away from the wheel to make it useful (it is supposed to extend your reach).  If I ever get enough room in the great wheel room I may be able to give it a better try.


I also turned a wrist distaff, out of curiosity.

Wrist distaff

I found it more useful with the great wheel than the wool finger, though I do need to work on my wrapping technique. :-)

Wrist distaff loaded


And we were talking about spinning spoons on Rav's Suppported Spindling group, so I decided to make a test version.  I'm only using scraps and it's not made very well, but it really does work and I can even walk while spinning with it!

Spinning spoon

It works seated as well, though I need to figure out how to make it 'hang' lower or use a shorter spindle while seated.  I'm going to try to make a nicer one as time permits, especially after I've used this one more to figure out what modifications are needed.


I also turned a Russian spindle out of brown ebony, which is lovely wood, but it's not finished yet so you'll have to wait to see it. :-D


And now I'm off to spin some cotton on a bead spindle, and try out the spinning spoon some more. :-D

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Thursday, March 08, 2012

For my sister....




sw ed1




I can see a thin crack on this edge, but it's nothing - it's common to have these cracks in not-new wheels and it's nowhere big enough to affect function nor appearance IMO.





Sunday, March 04, 2012

Snow!

After the thunderstorms we had this past week, this afternoon it started snowing!
What a weird winter!

In spinning news, I bought a drop spindle. :-)  I love that the Chinese coin replica has a dragon and phoenix on one side:
And I actually had pretty good luck spinning the bit o'fluff that came with it:
Though one drawback is that the 'coin' is rather... 'flimsy'.  I think I bent it the first time I dropped it, as I hadn't noticed that it wasn't flat before then. :-/  Still spins like a champ though, and I've even learned to do the thigh roll (I had to - the shaft is so slick I couldn't hardly flick it!).

This is a very lightweight spindle and spins very fast, and I was thinking of spinning this lovely batt from Blushingewe
Turquoise Dream  merino wool, bamboo, alpaca, soysilk
 as laceweight - this spindle would be perfect for this if I can take spinning 3.5 ounces on a drop spindle.  Though I'm in no rush, so I should be able to do it if I pace myself.

This also came in the mail:
Northern Lights alpaca/silk
I kind of went on a shopping spree last week.  Anyway, it's sooo sooooft, and from a new to me vendor, KnittyandColor.  I'm going to need to do some experimenting with this, as I don't want to the separate colors to get muddied. 

I've also done a bit more on the great wheel:
What a fun spin!

Today I was out in the woodshop for a brief time, and fiddled with turning a spinning 'puck' out of a leftover piece from turning. 


I twirled one of my Baataras in it, and it seemed to like it. :-)  I definitely need practice in turning these though.  I think I'll work on my Baatara project tonight and give the puck a good test-drive.  Next up on the lathe are experiments: a wool finger for my great wheel as I'm curious about them, and a wrist distaff, as I'm going to need some kind of wrist distaff if I end up spinning that lovely turquoise fiber on a spindle and I'm curious how the wooden distaves work.
 


And for my sister:

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