What do you teach in Exotic Fiber Spindling?

By Amelia © February 5, 2010

Ooooh .... alpaca, cashmere, camel, yak ... luscious fibers! Enjoy these tactile sensations even more on your spindles. In Exotic Fiber Spindling, we'll work on fine spindling, learning which spindles spin fine fibers, ways to control fiber and drafting for spinning the finest we can. Top whorl spindles and Akha spindles will be used in class.

Supplies to bring: (completely optional) if you have them, bring any sub-ounce top whorl or bottom whorl spindles, Akha spindles, and handcards, and any short-staple or fine fibers you'd like advice on spinning.

Level of Experience necessary: Must be a spindle spinner, able to spin and ply on a spindle.

Materials for each class: fiber and handouts. Spindles will be provided in class for students to spin on, and some handcards will be available.

Not able to take the class? I am now preparing complete instructional handouts for most of my classes! So you can "take the class" from Ask The Bellwether, wherever you are. The Exotic Fiber Spindling e-booklet can be purchased at TheBellwether.com. It also includes a lovely shawlette knitting pattern, a terrific use of your spindle-spun fine yarns.

If you'd like a taste of the class itself, here's my YouTube clip on Akha spindling:



Class Synopsis:

Spindle Choice

• Featherweight: 3 grams to under an ounce; 1/2 ounce typical
  
• top whorl, bottom whorl, Akha (mid whorl)

Fiber Preparation

• Cloud, top, puni
  
• Staple length
  
• Drafting Triangle
  
• Amount of fiber =>Yarn thickness

Point of Twist Drafting

• Hand placement
  
• Making it yarn, Akha style
  
• Making it strong, thigh roll

Ply

• Akhan plying balls
  
• Peruvian plying ball
  
• Speed hand roll
  
• Speed kick start

Finishing

• Skein with figure - 8 ties
  
• Wash and whack

Post Class

• Keep spindling
  
• Cotton’s harder than cashmere
  
• Merino/wool may not be easier (it ’ s stickier — sometimes helpful, sometimes not)

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For a list of all classes see this post.


Akha spindle posts:
How do you spin long draw on a spindle?
How do you spin on an Akha spindle?
What's sideways spinning?
What spindle do I spin cotton on?


Fine spinning posts:
How do you spin short Guanaco fiber?
What tips do you have for spinning lace?
How can I spin a fine yarn?
A Yarn Story: Cotton Tales
How do you join cotton when spinning?
Where can I find cotton hand cards?
Why does my yarn drift apart when I'm plying?

~~

© 5 February 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

How much yarn can you wind onto a Turkish spindle?

By Amelia © February 4, 2010

One of the questions that came up in a recent Productive Spindling class was: How full can you fill a Turkish spindle?

The answer is: You can keep winding yarn onto your Turkish spindle (for how, see here) as long as you can reach the shaft and arms to remove them. If you wind on past the bottom of the shaft, you may not be able to push it out of the yarn ball. If you wind on past the ends of the whorl arms, you won't be able to pull them out, either.

Like this little over-full spindle:



Now, all is not lost -- I can barely see the bottom tip of the shaft, so it's likely I can push that out of the yarn-ball. And, once I start unwinding, I'll expose the arms and eventually be able to remove them, as well. Since this is a plied ball of yarn, I'll just be skeining it up to wash it.

The fiber is a yummy cashmere/silk blend, a tasting gifted by a friend at last year's Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. Interestingly enough, I made the spinning an exercise in stubbornness: the singles were spun on a very heavy mid-whorl Maggie, and then the plying was done on the super-light (10 grams, maybe) Turkish shown here (from Knotty by Nature Fiber Arts in Victoria, BC, Canada).

The 2010 Madrona Fiber Arts Festival is currently in the headlights, I've been preparing for the Exotic Fiber Spindling class. Emptying this little spindle will provide a useful example of skeining up finely spun yarn.

~~
Related posts:
How much yarn can I spin on my spindle?
How do you wind on a Turkish spindle?
What Turkish spindles do you like?
Click for a list of all spindle posts on Ask The Bellwether.

And you can see more of my Turkish spindles in my flickr queue.
~~
© 4 February 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

Does roving have a direction?

By Amelia © January 8, 2010

In books that discuss cotton spinning, we're told that one end of cotton sliver will spin more smoothly than the other due to the direction of carding. So if your cotton is not spinning smoothly, flip the cotton sliver over to see if it spins more smoothly from the other end.

Wool roving can also be directional -- not always, but sometimes, depending on the carding equipment. The thing with wool roving is that it usually contains jumbled fibers anyway, so the texture from spinning it can be attributed to the jumble as much as the carding direction – so it’s not usually much of a concern. I learned about direction in roving from a very experienced friend of mine (Joan, the lady behind Crosspatch Creations), who sends much of her wool off to a mill to be carded, and has found that she can get a more even yarn when spinning from the “right” end of the roving. She also told me that directionality in roving is not always present, that it does depend a fair bit on the carding machine.

How can you tell which end might be better to spin from? Without spinning, run your fingers gently along the surface of the roving in each direction; one should feel smoother than the other – start from the end you started the rub, in the smoother direction.

When spinning, if the drafting feels start-and-stoppy, try spinning from the other end, to see if it is smoother.

Not all roving will seem to have a direction – it depends on the machinery it was carded on, some tend to impart more direction than others. The wool/fibers involved may also affect it (what they are, how jumbled they are, how carded they are) So if it feels the same both ways, dive in, and see how it spins.

I have not read anything about commercial top having a smoother direction, but I wouldn't be surprised if it, too, was occasionally directional. If you try it, I'd be interested to hear what you find.

~~
This post inspired by a recent question on the Ravelry group Wannabee Spinners
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For related posts, see: What fiber preparations are there?
~~
© 8 January 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

How do you make an adjustable strap?

By Amelia © January 4, 2010

My daughter's viola case is quite nice -- there's a velour pad to cover the viola with, and the case is nicely padded and lined, and in great condition. But, it came without a strap. Now, she knows her mother well, so the request to make a strap was made knowing it might take a little while (school started in September, as usual).

It was mid-December when I pulled out my inkle loom; a week later when I got Helen Bress's Inkle Weaving from the library; and New Year's Eve when I warped up the loom and wove off a nice 2" wide band in blue 5/2 perle cotton -- navy-blue borders and space-dyed center.

I highly recommend Helen Bress's book -- it covered everything I'd long since forgotten from the last time I'd woven on my loom, warping, color patterns, weaving, advancing the warp, and removing the weaving from the loom. Of course, her books never disappoint, and I'm pleased to know her masterpiece, The Weaving Book, is being republished soon.

I knew I needed D-rings, but I wasn't sure where to put them. A google session later, I realized perhaps a blog post was in order, once I'd sorted it out for myself.

So, once you have woven your inkle strap, here's how you make it into a detachable, adjustable strap to go on your instrument case. First off, the instrument case needs to have D-rings or loops at each end -- most do, my daughter's did.

Joanne Fabrics had the clips for the ends of the band and D-rings for making the strap adjustable. Your own local craft store may have them as well -- they were in the section with the purse handles in mine.

Make sure the clips will fit through the D-rings. If they do not, you'll need to alter the order you put your band together. This picture shows the test-fit and placement of the parts.



I sewed one clip at one end of the band -- folding the band through the clip's loop and sewing the end of the band onto the band on the other side of the clip's loop to hold the clip in place.

I placed the other clip's loop on the band; it's a "floater", as it needs to move when you adjust the band length. It stays in the loop formed when you make the strap adjustable -- more on that in a bit.

Then, I placed both D-rings, one atop the other facing the same direction, at the other end of the band and sewed them in, together, in place at the other end.

The adjustableness is created by taking the fixed-clip end of the band and putting it up through the center of both D-rings, then around the oval end of the top one and back through the center of the lower D-ring. Keep the movable clip in the loop that this creates, moving the clip down to the end of the loop to be at the other end of your strap. Wa-la! adjustable.

Clip your strap onto your instrument case, and adjust the length of the loop to suit your carrying style -- over-shoulder, cross-body, backpack. My daughter is pleased to be starting the new year in orchestra with her stylishly strapped case.

~~
There used to be a great website on inkle weaving -- inkleweaving.com -- but it appears to have lapsed, as now it's a Japanese fashion website. More information on inkle weaving can be found on inkle loom makers' pages such as Schacht, as well as the on-line weaving communities Weavolution.com, Weavezine.com, and others. There's also a fun flickr pool of inkle and card weaving showing looms and woven items. If you have a favorite on-line inkle resource, I'd love to hear about it in the comments - Thanks!
~~
© 4 January 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

How do you wind on a stick shuttle?

By Amelia © December 13, 2009

When you're starting out with rigid heddle weaving, your loom likely came with a simple stick shuttle. The instructions might have told you how to warp the loom and weave, but they have a tendency to gloss over one of the steps: how to wind yarn onto the stick shuttle.

So here's my little guide to help out ...

Start by making a figure-8 shape with your yarn around just one side of the stick shuttle. The pictures here show what it looks like from the winder's side, from the other side, and on the edge. The very end of the yarn is "trapped" under the first complete go-around, and gets further trapped as you wind more figure-8's.

First picture ... the first winding, from the weaver's point of view:


Second picture ... the first winding, seen on the edge of the shuttle:


Third picture ... the first winding, seen on the underside of the shuttle (thus the awkward hand position...):


Okay, got that first winding on? Then you continue winding, repeating the figure-8 on the same side of the shuttle, until it is full. You get to say what full is. A few guidelines: you're going to be filling the other side, too, so keep the yarn on its side in the cut-out ends; you might want to put a set yardage on, so you know what length you'll be weaving from it; or always wrap the same number of times, so you know you'll get a consistent length of fabric from it.

Here is the same shuttle with one side full, the same three views. First, from the weaver's point of view:


Then seen from the edge of the shuttle:

The flash washes out the strands a bit, but you can kind of see how they cross over each other, back and forth, in that figure-8 shaping.

And the final shot of the full side, seen from the underside of the shuttle:


Now, once you have that side done, you might want to stop, if you are using your shuttle to pack your weft as is done in backstrap weaving. But on a rigid heddle loom, you don't have to, since the heddle is used to pack the weft in place after it is placed. So, you can wind figure-8s on the other side of the shuttle too. Once the first side is done, continue on over to the empty side, like so:


Once you have the figure-8s started on that other side, wind more on that side until it, too, is full. Again, you might want to count so you always wind the same amount of yarn on your shuttles.


Once the shuttle is full, you can stop. Or, if your rigid heddle loom gets a decent shed, you might pack some more yarn on, winding straight up and around the middle of the shuttle. Here I've stuffed all three of my shuttles in preparation for weaving:


And here is my Glimakra Emilia Rigid Heddle loom, where I'm weaving a scarf with these shuttles. For more details, see my project named the red scarf on Weavolution. It's warped for plain weave, with pairs of doubled warp yarns evenly spaced across for a little textural interest:


And here is the requestor of the scarf, off to give the llamas their hay in the early morning chill:


If you've more questions about winding on a stick shuttle for your Rigid Heddle weaving, just let me know. Different people wind differently on their shuttles -- there is no one correct way, so feel free to experiment and see what works with your stick shuttles and your looms.

Happy weaving!

~~
If you'd like to see the pictures all in one place, they are up on my flickr set, How to Wind on a Stick Shuttle.

For more Rigid Heddle articles here on Ask The Bellwether, see my Weave topic. For a collection of Rigid Heddle articles across the internet, see The Rigid Heddle, my tumblelog of RH findings.
~~
© 13 December 2009 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

Did you ask for a Natalie spindle?

By Amelia © December 2, 2009

We all have it happen to us -- change email systems, crash a computer, or just, somehow, lose all that archived email. And, it wouldn't have been so bad -- but it turns out, only the last two Natalie requests survived my data loss. This is magnified by the fact that I now have the almost-final batch of Natalie spindles, but don't have the names that go with them.

Thus, my blog-appeal ... did you request a Natalie spindle from me this past year? If so, please let me know which wood it was. If you didn't but are eager to have one, let me know that, too. I'll wait a week (until December 9th) and then open up the unclaimed ones to new requests, or ask the turner to turn a few more as he can.

Thanks to all who contacted me and helped reconstruct the lost list.

Curious to know what a Natalie spindle is? I've posted a few entries about them in the past, see:
How is spinning silk different from wool?
How can I spin fine yarn?
How do you spin on a notchless spindle?
Which spindle spins the best?
Can the Natalie spindle spin flax?

~~
© 2 December 2009 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

About me, the 43rd edition ...

By Amelia © November 26, 2009

I was recently asked to describe a little about my skills and background, as a volunteer reviewer for WeaveZine (haven't seen it? go check it out -- it's the "Knitty" for weavers, and then some, with articles, reviews, blog posts, forums, and podcasts!)

And, this is my birth month. So, time to describe the me-now. Stay tuned, I'm a work in progress!

Where to start?

I teach spinning, spindles and wheels, beginner to advanced; fiber prep of all sorts (carding, combing, flicking, drum carding); and dyeing (fiber or yarn). I will actually teach pretty much anything people want to learn. If I don't know it yet (which is rare, in my field), I'll figure it out and figure out how to teach it -- which usually means my children get to learn it from me.

I've studied a wide variety of spinning types -- from perfectionist 2-plies to crazy wild art yarns; and spindles, from Navajo to Akha as well as the more conventional top and bottom whorls. I love it all!

My wheels and spindles: I have a large variety of both. I have had a great wheel, and a traditional Saxony wheel, but right now all my wheels are pretty much castle style due to space. I'm lucky that spindles don't take up much room, though I do try to keep my collection in check, under the century mark. I don't count the teaching supplies -- who, after all, needs 8 pairs of hand cards? A fiber-loving octopus, maybe ...

I recently self-published Productive Spindling (and got it on Amazon! that felt like a major accomplishment!). There are more books in my future -- I did say I was a work in progress -- right now I'm working on a non-fiber writing project, but after this, I will return to a fiber topic.

I'd call myself a beginner-intermediate weaver with the focus to do seemingly complex projects. My first weaving was a four harness undulating twill, for example. We have a local study group here, so I've dived into complex topics: laces, twills, and sewing with handwovens. My favorite structure to weave is twills; my favorite items to weave are tea towels and scarves.

My looms: 3 rigid heddle (Beka, Emilia, and Cricket), usually with multiple heddles though I play with color & weave in plain weave; 8 harness Baby Wolf; two 4 harness table looms; and an AVL 24" 24 harness compudobby that I'm still setting up (yeah, it's a little intimidating). My favorite shuttles are my end-feed shuttles, so far no one maker stands out for me, I have "one of each" syndrome there; though I also love my Bosworth boat shuttles -- sold all the rest, they are a clear favorite. My preferred warping method: back to front, by far. And I'm a big fan of direct warping on my RH looms.

The craziest part of my fiber arts is likely my circular sock machine; but it's also led me to explore color, dyeing sock yarns to get patterns and designs on socks. I enjoy searching for the perfect sock recipe, and also creating non-socks.

The fiber art I've done the longest is likely knitting, closely followed by crochet; actually, I'm not sure which I learned first, at my mother's knee.

I also search out rarer arts such as nalbinding. I've dabbled in felting, needle and wet, but tend to use those as "pick-up" skills on other projects, rather than as an end in themselves.

I operated a boutique fiber processing mill for a few years -- that was exciting! It taught me a great deal about sheep breeds, the rich varieties out there, and how each has their own characteristics for scouring, processing, and spinning.

What does the future hold?  More teaching and writing about spinning and fiber processing, definitely. Hopefully more experimentation with color in dyeing. Exploring more weaving, and progress on some larger knitting projects. And definitely a few more pairs of socks and fingerless gloves on the sock machine!

~~
© 26 November 2009 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/