Holiday Travels

Wow! it's been a crazy week and I sure lost track of emails with the kids getting antsier as Christmas approached. They are off to their Dad's for Christmas, which means DH and I are off to the east coast for me to meet (for the first time FTF) his parents. I'm _definitely_ taking spinning and knitting with me to keep me calm!

Found the whorls n' whimsies spindle with its fine wool sample, I figure at the laceweight singles I'm spinning on it, it should last for as much spinning I care to do, LOL; and remembered that I usually take my drawer-pull support spindle and the pill-bottle cotton and dryer lint project on plane trips, so that's there too.

I remember someone asked about spinning dryer lint -- a while back, I had new purple-red towels, and saved the dryer lint for about the first 4 months of their washings. Lovely shade of purple! Just to be "out there", I carded it with pill-bottle cotton into punis. The dryer lint adds nice texture and color to the white cotton, and it all spins quite nicely. I don't think I'd want to spin the dryer lint on its own -- staple length isn't even in its vocabulary, LOL, it's very, very short stuff. And what a variety of pill-bottle substances there is -- I think I threw away half of it as "that just can't be cotton!"

The knitting is handspun too :-) a lovely purple wool-shot-with-bronze silk combination. I'm hoping to knit up a lacy shawllette with it while we're on the plane -- packed the plastic needles in the carry on, metal ones in the same size in the checked baggage.

And I guess a crochet project and some writing projects snuck intomy bag too -- well, I'm trying to minimize how much clothes I bring, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! The only sad part is putting myself on digest on spindlers (just couldn't go no-mail) and hoping to keep up with at least my lurking while I'm away. But I'll be back next year, and happy to see all the new projects we do. Breedswap spinning, here I come!

Happy holidays all, and as always,
Happy spins,
Amelia, spinning happily on Upland Lane

How fast can you spindle-spin 4 ounces of fiber?

A few years back I spun 4 oz on spindles, taking it everywhere with me, in about a month. That was for a spinde challenge, so I was fairly persistent about always having it with me, as it was fairly finely spun, too -- about 18 wpi 2-ply.

This last summer I spun 4 oz and 3-plied it into a worsted weight, all on spindles, in about 2-3 weeks of evening spinning -- I get an hour each evening to sit and do something quietly, so it's mostly spinning! That, too, was focused -- my mother was coming for a visit and it was to be a gift to her. Turned out great! (the yarn and the visit)

What's your favorite thing to make with handspun?

My favorite thing to do with handspun? ... hmmm. To have a project in mind, really. It's "okay" to just spin, but I like to know where I'm going with it. LOL, I have a large enough commercial yarn stash, don't need more of that. I've knit alot of hats... enough socks tofill my own drawer and to have been repeat gifts to a variety of people; mittens for the kids in a variety of sizes (they do keep growing!) So I think I may soon be willing to tackle a sweater. Heck, it might be nice to have a project that takes a looooong time to finish.

Mostly, I knit with my handspun -- hands down more enjoyable than knitting with commercial yarn; it just seems to have more bounce to it. My mom, not a spinner, agrees with me -- so her favorite "gift from me" is handspun yarn, LOL. Even then, I like to picture what she might do with it as I spin it.

Do you spin worsted weight, or only lace yarn?

I often spin worsted weight! Great for hats and other little bits. I had the fine spinning kick a few years back, but I can't knit very well with laceweight yarns, so mostly now when I spin fine, it's to 3-ply into a fingering or sport weight yarn, for socks. Still have my little ball of froghair though, and still have some spindles and fibers I like to "just spin fine" on. Kind of meditative.

How do you do heels and toes on a circular knitter?

I don't know about the Mary Maxim circular knitters, but the Addi Express talks about using short rows for heels and toes -- when you reach a heel, you go back-and-forth decreasing rows on 1/2 the stitches down to about 1/6 the circle, then increase back up to 1/2, then continue cranking right the way around for the foot, then do the same for the toes ... that leaves you with a toe-top to kitchener shut on to the top of the foot.

Which isn't as bad as it sounds, since you can knit a "chimney" (term borrowed from Lucy Neatby) easily out of waste yarn on the machine to show you where to kitchener next. That's basically the same as how you do one on the antique sock machine with its 80 or 72 or 60 or 54 needle cylinder (72s and 60s are most common, 80s and 54s are harder to find,but they are out there -- heck, I have a 100, those are like hen's teeth)

44 stitches on the mary maxim one, eh? hmmm ... if the needles are big enough, that might do an adult sock in worsted -- boot socks, great this time of year!

Who said Sock Machine?

Ummm, raising hand, that was me. They are "antique sock machines" or "circular sock machines". There are a few restorers out there who restore them (Pat Fly is near me, and very good -- www.angoravalley.com -- usually she has a waiting list, so it's best to contact her _before_ they are listed on her website).

I do (AD) have two of my machines for sale (one professionally restored, one restored by me) -- deciding to downsize, maybe thinking of an NZAK to "replace" those two. If you're interested, email me and I'll send you the details.

The other reply to your note listed the email groups, which are great (sockmachine, sockmachines, sockmachinefriends). There's also CSMSA (CSM society of america), www.csmsa.org which has a great newsletter (you can get just the newsletter and not join for $8/year) (NAJAHC), and googling "circular sock machine" turns up some other interesting websites from time to time too.

The kids just gave their teachers their Christmas socks, which were:
1) Louet Merino white fingering weight (I know, it'll wear out fast, but it's lovely!)
2) hand-space-dyed to be self patterning in watermelon colors (coral, white, aquagreen)
3) cranked on my 70-needle cylinder into two pairs of socks (1 pair per teacher!)
4) hand-colored in black seeds with a permanent black sharpie pen
5) washed to "set the knitting" and make sure they were clean
6) wrapped by the kids with hand-made Christmas cards attached -- DS made the cutest card with a cutout of an Arctic Fox and on the outside "Do you know what this Arctic Fox is thinking?" and Inside it said "Merry Christmas!" -- how cute is that?

Ok, enough of a list. Both teachers _raved_ about the socks (wow, they must be hand-knit starved, LOL) and the aid to the teacher in the room next to DD's room sent home a note wanting to hear more about these "sock machine thingies", LOL, talking to a 6 yo about how her mother made them must have been interesting. DD knows her stuff, but the aid probably is picturing something quite different from the reality. _And_ there was no school today, so she'll have to wait until after the holidays to get my reply -- inviting her over to play with them, of course!!

And I am thrilled because I just finished my mom's Christmas socks, from my own handspun, a bright orange called "Great Balls of Fire"! Very warm indeed.

Do You Have Sheep?

My flock now seems stable (at least, this is all our land can support) at 3 Soay whethers and 2 llamas. The Soays are great -- everyone thinks they are goats, but luckily they aren't as fence-challenging as my Cashmere goat was.

She was a hoot -- in the end, she thought she was an alpaca, so when my alpacas moved away, she was quite distraught for a while, but decided being a llama wasn't all bad. Funnily enough, she ended up joining the alpacas in the end, and the stories that came back to me about her "homecoming" -- well, it was the right thing. She's an alpaca at heart, LOL.

If I were a breeder of sheep, I'd raise Soays. Maybe with Babydoll Southdowns -- that breed is so friendly, almost dog-like in their willingness to follow you around (at least, my two were, and are now they are with my best friend, as the start of her flock).

There's plenty of Soay info our there; mine came from www.soaysheep.com a great local breeder -- so rather than breed them myself, I can support her efforts.

And it's great to look out in the field and see the "bunny rabbit"ears one of my llamas has. What a hoot!

What do you do with all the silk?

I love to spindle-spin silk, and I have a silk project "in the works", to embroider with some handspun silk, but I saw a loooong list of silk-on-spindles from a reply to the "What's on your spindle" thread, and soI'm tempted to ask -- what do you make with your handspun silk?

If I had more ideas, I could spin more silk ;-)

How thickly should I spin a given breed of wool?

Anne Field's Spinning Wool: Beyond the Basics (currently out of print) discusses spinning to the "crimp" of the fiber -- that your yarn's twists per inch would match the crimps-per-inch of the fiber. The basic idea is, the higher the crimp, the more twist you'd put in it. She also ties this into wraps per inch.

Her basic formula is: You want the final twists per inch (TPI) to equal the crimps-per-inch of the wool, and the final wraps per inch (WPI) to be twice the twists per inch (WPI = 2*TPI). Anne Field is mainly discussing doing this for a balanced 2-ply yarn. The single would have a higher TPI and WPI than the plied yarn, in a 2-ply -- that's why I say "final".

_However_ ... I believe Anne Field is aiming at spinning for knitting yarns, i.e., open, bouncy, most elastic yarn you can get from a given fiber. She is also careful to point out that this isn't a hard-and-fast rule; there are times when you want higher twist, want to not "match" TPI and WPI, and just want to make the fiber do what you want.

For example, most needlepoint wools are coarse wools (Wensleydale makes lovely needlepoint wool, for example) -- given its crimps per inch, you'd "want" to spin it loosely and very thick. But for needlepoint, you need to spin it fairly tight and fine. And, the wool will let you do that, and give you a great result besides.

Setting down the spindle...

If you have some singles already spun, and they are still attached to the unspun roving, and you want to put it aside (say there's a fire alarm or something, so you _have_ to stop spindling!) -- what do you do to store the singles and fiber and not have the yarn untwist?

If you want to stop spindling, what you do might be a function of how much roving is attached to the end of the single. If it isn't much (or if you are willing to break off the roving), you can just wind the yarn around the spindle up to and including wrapping the roving around. I usually wrap the unspun part below the cop, though I think that's just a personal preference. If there's a big ball of roving and you don't want to break it off, you could wrap the single around the hook a few times near the end of the spun part, and then tuck the spindle into the big ball of roving. If your spindle is hookless, or you want to make really sure the yarn isn't going to go anywhere, you could use a half-hitch instead.

Love and the Top Whorl ... and on Making Spindles

I have to say up front that I do sell these. The spindle I reach for again and again for projects with a medium wool with silk or something blended in -- is a Tabachek, usually a Compact Deluxe. Folding in with the "whats on your spindle" thread, I have a really cute Bocote/Yellowheart CD Tabachek in a workbasket here in my office with a medium wool/silk/silk noil/faux angora blend called Spinning Shepherdess (so it's pinks and browns, reasonably enough, LOL) that I'm spinning into worsted weight singles, with a goal (oh, probably 3 years off, but it's a goal!) of making a nalbound hat out of it.

And sure, I've made _lots_ of spindles -- CD spindles, toy wheel spindles,polymer clay whorl spindles, bead spindles, donut bead spindles. These are fun to make! Of all the ones I've made, I think it's the bead spindles I enjoy the most. Possibly because the beads are so lovely, or because they make great support spindles. (No, I typically don't sell the spindles I make!)

Current projects ...

One nice thing about Spindlers is that the conversation is occasionally sparked by one of those "everyone answer" kinds of questions. And one of my favorites, because it prompts a mental review of my work, is of the style: what is currently on your spindle(s)? It came up again today, so here's my response:

It seems I've been spending too much time knitting and cranking(my circular sock machine) lately for gifts, not much spinning. Next year my mother gets handspun, that way I can spin rightup until Christmas. I gave her some this summer when she camefor a visit, and she really liked it. So, yarn goes over well, LOL, Idon't have to make something.

But, that aside, I am planningto take a spindle with me on my Christmas journey east to meet my husband's family. I have a project on a little turkish spindle that I really want to get back to, and since it's fine spinning, it won't take up much room. Nothing planned with the wool, I just want to play with the spindle! This is one from Whorl'n Whimsies (http://whorlnwhimsies.deastrega.com/index.html) (NAJAHC).

I also really want to get back to my silk spinning -- I put _all_ of my silk spindles in a workbasket with my dyed-blue silk so they will all get a spin. Let's see, I know there's a Natalie, a LadyAnn, a mini Tabachek in Black Palm/Ebony, a Lollipop, a small Forrester top whorl, a purpleheart mini Bosworth ... This is to make some embroidery floss for the edging on myshawl -- the shawl's been done for at least 2 years now exceptfor this, so it ought to get some attention. The addition of the embroidered detail should re-spruce-up the shawl, give it asecond wind!

Then there is DD's spinning lesson; she really wants one, soI need to sit down with her soon. Luckily school's out tomorrow, so maybe next week we'll have enough of the day free to get some mom-daughter time in.

Getting more out of Motorized Drum Carders...

Wow! Someone pointed me to the elsacard, here: http://www.patgreencarders.com/elsa.htm . That's a neat machine; I heard about it, but I think this photo is new.

The Elsa-Card looks like a simplified version of the Rover, another heavy table-top machine (it weighs in at 350 lbs ...how do I know? I have one [vbg]). The Rover does produce roving, onto a "bump" (wound around a paper core) or loose. I thought about getting a Duncan to bridge the gap between my Supercarder and my Rover (for larger batts), but decided not to only because the Duncan (though wide enough!) doesn't have as many drums as the Supercarder. With 3 drums, I'm getting enough carding in one pass that a second pass is often superfluous. But I'd really love to be able to get bigger batts.

How Can I Hand-Blend Merino and Silk?

In her handspinning video, Mabel Ross took two rolags of wool from her hand-cards, laid one on top of the other and co-drafted them into a longer piece of the same diameter of the initial rolag. This would be one way to combine fibers without handcards as well, working from roving or top of the fibers.

Something like this would work with merino and silk. They may draft a bit differently, but with some practice it should even out.

Another thing to do would be to hold them together and draft them as you spin. Then, you can choose how much of each to draft as you go, varying the ratio of Merino to silk for more variability in the yarn. It can be interesting to have spots that are just Merino, just silk, and more of one than the other, as well as more even spots.

(Editor's note ... in case you are wondering ... I am not directly quoting the questions, but am writing them in my own words after re-reading my answer. And I just may re-edit my answer to better explain myself, too (grin).)

...And I notice that I just can't wait to post ... this was my very most recent that I can find posting on Spindlers, edited a bit. Just haven't gotten through the recent postings there to have a newer one to post. Tomorrow. Now, it is time for the evening rooibos (African red-bush tea).

What sort of spindle would you spin angora on?

(ed. note: This answer is from 6/2001, when Spindlers was a new list and I was exploring spindling quite a bit. A bit of history :-) )

I was hunting around for a good spindle or technique for angora, and on someone's advice tried making my own from sculpey. I measured it on a bad scale to make sure it was ~10 grams, and it turned out fine. I didn't do anything special, just eyeballed it to see if it was 'round', and made it fairly flat, maybe 3-4mm thick. I poked a hole in the center with a bamboo skewer, and it fit tightly after it was cooked due to the minimal (but enough!) shrinkage on cooking.

I just used a half-hitch to keep the yarn on when spinning top whorl, though I plan to drill a hole in the top of a skewer for a paperclip-bent hook.

Welcome!

This is hopefully "the third time's the charm" ... I've tried, unpersistently, to blog twice before "Carlson Woolies" (no longer my last name) and a side-line one, "Poet Read" for my innermost love, poetry (writing since there's so much out there, there just isn't time to search for the good stuff ... though I love the poems my husband reads to me!)

In any case, once this introduction is out of the way, I plan to use this blog to discuss fibery things: answers I've given to spinners, knitters, & others about fibery things; my ongoing projects -- thank goodness I'm not as "bad" as the Yarn Harlot; and anything else that piques my interest enough to share it with you.

I can't promise many photos, but the Digital Camera will try to contribute every once in a while.

Enough said. Blog on ...