UFO Resurrection: January 2007 ... down to the wire

Here it is! All the spinning is done ... ok, I said that 2 years ago ... but you see the knit basket at the bottom, and the wound ball at the top? I realized I simply would not have enough yarn! So the project got "bagged". Finally got it unbagged just a few weeks ago!

I have now spun all of the short-staple Jacob I had. I have 3 small bumps (12 ounces?) of good quality Jacob I could spin if I still need more. But the skeins in the photo are about 300-350 more yards (a bit more if I use the novelty yarn I spun up last year, too ... that's mohair locks).

Now, on to February ... shall I knit this, or resurrect another UFO? Hmmmm....

Why does my center-pull ball get all plied behind my hand?

When you ply from both ends of a center-pull ball, the outer yarn is coming off around the outside, in "circles" roughly. The center-pull yarn is coming straight up. So, what's happening behind your hand? the outer yarn is going around and around that center yarn ... effectively, plying it behind your hand.

That's why sticking it back on the nostepinne or sticking your thumb in the middle helps -- if there's nothing behind the point at which the yarn is being controlled, it won't wrap back there (there being no back there to wrap ... oh man, too much "The End of the Beginning" (Avi) at bedtime again!).

Though wrapping the two together into one ball would be a much more secure way of avoiding the whole mess altogether. I have to remember that one next time I'm plying ...

(posted by me this day on livejournal\spinningfiber)

How can I preserve the color in my space-dyed roving when I spin it?

Two ideas: first, split the roving down the middle lengthwise and fill one bobbin with one half, and another bobbin with the other half. With this method, It's actually fairly unlikely you'd get the same lengths of color both times, but you will get close if your spinning thickness stays similar, and the overlap of different colors between color changes gives an interesting heathered effect that softens the color shifts nicely.

The second idea is to Navajo ply, which is a 3 ply that you can manipulate to keep the color groupings together. Spin-Off recently re-dubbed this "Chain-plying" to describe the action used to do it -- you make large/long crochet chains and then let the twist enter the three strands until close to the top of the loop. Bring a new chain through the top of the loop, and repeat. If you squeeze with your fingers at the top of each loop, the extra bit of yarn there flattens down into the ply to be almost unnoticeable.

(modified from a posting by me to spindlers on 11/7/2001)

Sock Machines: What's the difference between a Legare 400 and a Legare 47?

if I am remembering right, in their day, the Legare 47 was a less expensive model than the Legare 400. Like a Honda Civic and a Honda Accord, maybe? I had a 47 for a while, I'd say it's a nice machine but the 400's a bit sturdier, so given the choice I'd go with a 400.

The most popular model is a fully restored CSM by one of the professional restorers; at least in my camp, that is -- I had the good fortune to get a Legare 400 restored by Pat Fly (www.angoravalley.com) when I "discovered" CSMs.

My Pat Fly Legare 400 remains my best running and favorite CSM.

A professionally restored machine runs just beautifully. Pat's not the only restorer, just my "local" one :-) but she's great! Several others are on this list and the other sock lists, too. There are also new manufacture machines now (just started last year), the NZAK -- www.autoknitter.com. Those are discussed alot on another yahoo sock list, sockknittingmachinefriends.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachines)

Sock Machines: can I use handspun on the sock machine?

Sure, no reason why not!

The best would be a fingering weight worsted spun with a fairly tight twist and tight plying twist. If you are spinning thicker and looser than that, try large eye needles in a 54 or 60 needle cylinder.

Pat Fly has large eye needles available (www.angoravalley.com); I find they help alot with the more fluffy yarns. The thickest yarns I put in my 54 are probably about DK weight or at best a light worsted weight in thickness. And lots of oil to ensure it cranks around okay.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachines)

UFO's and other sightings ...

In wandering through blog-land, I came across a great blog-driven ring, the 2007 UFO Resurrection Challenge! Now, given that I joined the UFO Knit Blog too this seemed serendipitous. And there are 2 days left in January, to boot, so surely I can get something done.

It won't be the arm warmers pictured here from Crosspatch Creations(sigh) -- those will likely be March! But at least their spinning is done.

January's UFO-to-finish is the spinning for the Jacob fleece tote bag (the Oregon Tote). I've been working hard on it all month -- i.e., messing with the Woolee Winder and praying the next oil works better than the last one. Only part of a bobbin left to spin, wash the skeins, and wa-la! it will be done. Photo of the lovely skeins to follow ... I sure hope they end up being enough to finish the knitting!!

Sock Machines: Why will my thin yarn knit but not my sock yarn?

When my thin waste yarn is working and my sock yarn is not, the usual cause on my machine is that the tension is set too tight for the sock yarn. Thinner yarn seems to be able to take a higher tension setting (tighter stitches, the V cam is physically higher so the needles don't pull down as far to make a longer stitch).

So I'd recommend, as a tip, trying to loosen tension on the cylinder. Keep the yarn tensioner on, just make the stitch tension looser.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachines)

Retro: How much twist do you put in singles?

For spinning a singles yarn (sometimes called "one ply", but with only one, it isn't, technically, plied at all!), make sure to put less twist in than you would for a plied yarn, on the order of it only plying back on itself 'gently', more loosely than you would want if it were to be 2-plied.

See recent posts on this blog for information on how to perform the "ply back" test.

Then it should knit fairly straight. With loosely spun singles, each individual stitch may have one half straight up and down and the other more bent than normal, but the knitted piece should be straight.

(posted by me on spindlers, 6/14/2001)

Can the Natalie spindle spin flax?

The Natalie Silk Spindle was designed based on historic Victorian silk spindles in the book Handspindles by Betty Hocheberg. It is a very fast spinning spindle, designed to spin silk and other very smooth, slipper fibers that need twist added quickly. The fast twist helps when spinning silk because of the fiber's slipperiness -- the faster you can get twist into your fibers, the less it will slip apart in the spinning.

Flax would be difficult to spin on the Natalie, in my opinion. That said, it could be done. I mostly pick a spindle with a big whorl to spin flax, so I can get it spinning for a long time -- my preference is not such a fast spin for flax, since I need to wet it as a long spin. A Kundert spindle would be a good spindle for flax, or a Tabachek Deluxe or Plying spindle -- those all have wide whorls, so they have longer spins. And for a long, fast spin, a thigh-roll will really get these spindles going!

(an IM response to an internet inquiry, 26Jan07)

Sock Machines: Can you use a 36-slot ribber with a 54-slot cylinder?

I learned on a 54/36 setup! The thing of it is, with a "normal" setup, you do a 2/1 ribbing down the whole leg. Set the ribber's pitch so that every other ribber needle matches up to a slot on the 54, and replace every third cylinder needle with one of those matched up ribber slot's needle.

There's a great selvedge for this too, documented here: http://www.angoravalley.com/patterns/easylegare54.html

Only just recently I learned another trick, called "half pitch", which lets you knit a 72-needle sock on a 54/36 setup. You set up the ribber so that one needle hits on a 54's slot and the ribber needle next to it hits in the space between two cylinder needles (that's the "half pitch". So, you have it set up like this:

* Cyl-Rib.5-Cyl-Rib(Cyl under it empty) , repeat from *

(Rib.5 means the Ribber slot is 1/2 way (0.5, get it) between the two Cylinder slots)

I personally haven't tried this setup other than to set my machine up that way to show myself it _would_ work, since I have a 72 slot cylinder I can use. But for folks with just a 54/36 setup, it's a possibility.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachinefriends)

How do I make sure my singles aren't underspun?

One help for underspun singles ... before you let it wind onto the bobbin (or wind it onto the spindle), hold the length of new yarn loosely so it can ply back on itself. This shows you what the balanced 2-ply would look like. If you are shooting for a 2-ply, then use the "ply back" test to ensure your singles have the twist you want for a nice 2-ply in the "ply back" test.

If you are shooting for a 3-ply, the singles need a little less twist -- a 3-ply at the same twists-per-inch as a 2-ply takes less twist out of each single (since it's taking it out of 3 singles, and the 2-ply's taking it out of 2 singles). So you can go for a "looser" looking result in the "ply back" test and still get a nicely spun/plied 3-ply.

Now me, I always forget that the 3-ply needs less twist in the singles, so my 3-plies usually have a fairly high twist (since the singles do, too). Someday I'll remember to put less twist in my singles-for-3-ply.

But you may find they all balance out in the wash. The water bath lets the twist in the singles and in the ply revert to stable (or try to), which often makes what appears to be an over-plied skein be a balanced skein -- and what appears to be a balanced skein to be underplied.

Luckily both over and underplying are relatively quick to fix -- just run it through the wheel again, either taking out plying twist or adding more, as needed.

(posted by me this day on livejournal\spinningfiber)

How do I stop my yarn from being overspun?

As far as being overspun, do you mean the singles are too tight for the ply, or the ply is too tight for the singles? Are you aiming for a balanced yarn?

The best way I've found to make a balanced yarn is to save a fresh sample of the freshly spun single self-plied into whatever ply I plan for it; that is, if I want to Navajo ply (a method for making 3-ply), I'd take a freshly spun length, about a foot long, and fold it back on itself into thirds and let it twist up as it wants to. This freshly spun "self-plied" 3-ply shows me how much twist to put in when I'm Navajo plying. Really. (I keep telling myself "really!" as I ply ... it helps!)

Then once it's all plied up and I'm feeling like I've overplied it yet again, I wash it in a sink of warm water, rinse it, wring out the water, and hang it to dry. Amazing! the warm bath lets the single twist work with the ply twist and Ta-Da! a balanced skein. Works like a champ. Really!

(posted by me this day on livejournal\spinningfiber)

What's the longest time you've gone without spinning?

Let's see ... the longest I went without spinning? the first 35 years of my life! what a loss! Well ha ha anyway. There was a huge time when there just wasn't time or a place to spin or an easy way to get to my spinning stuff while we were building our new house and then moving into it -- probably about 6 months without much spinning, at least 4 months with absolutely no spinning whatsoever, and hardly any knitting as well! It was such a relief the evening I set up my wheel, pulled out my spindles, and picked some projects to return to.

(posted by me this day on spinningfiber/livejournal)

Thank goodness that time is now past and fading from my memory!

What do you think of the book Spin-It and an eBay learn to spin kit?

The book (Spin It! by Lee Raven) covers top whorl spindling and also the use of hand cards (which is kind of cool!). She starts you with a bent metal stick (think, repurposed wire hanger) and moves on from there. It's a subset of her original work, "Hands on Spinning", which also covered wheel spinning, updated and with alot more pictures.

The handouts in the ebay spindle kit are available free from Spin-Off here.

Most on-line instruction covers top whorl spinning, so if you make your own spindles with toy wheels, dowels, and eye hooks, you can make both/either and go from there.
(posted by me this day on spinningfiber/livejournal)

Sock Machines: Do you weight the heel once it is complete?

I leave one heel-fork weight on the "point" of the heel until I have enough foot knit to move the buckle and main weights up to the foot. Sometimes that means I leave the weight there until I start the toe. Then, it gets re-purposed to weigh down the toe along with its compatriot heel forks.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachines)

What is your favorite spindle weight?

My favorite spindle weight is 0.9 ounces -- not so heavy I can't spin fine on it relatively easily, and not so light I can't get it to spin chunky (which will pile on quickly enough to make it heavier and thus make the spinning easier).

(posted by me on spindlitis, this day)

So, what's your favorite spindle weight? Post it in a comment here, or link back from your own blog.

How do you preserve the brightness of colors in pencil roving?

I got some superwash merino pencil roving, "Hang on Sloopy", bright-bright orange and white, at Madrona Fiber Arts' Market this weekend. I noticed the dye on mine doesn't strike all the way through the roving, and the white/orange edges tend to "bleed" together in the drafting. But the orange is so intense, it's hanging in there on the singles.

Does your dye sections go right the way through the roving, or is there white in the core of the pencil roving? That would tend to mute the color somewhat. Given that it's pencil roving, if you can split it even once, that should help preserve some of the brightness.

I don't know how Teyani at Crown Mountain Farms dyes her roving, the one dyer I've seen at work was a lady here that was dyeing used immersion dyeing and so there was some variation from the inside of a ball to the outside. She was quite good, though, so the colors near the center often were as intense as the colors on the outside.

One "trick" I've seen successfully done is to spin the pencil roving close to as thick as you want the final yarn and to ply it with a black thread. The black tends to intensify the colors without adding much thickness to the yarn, and the thread plying stabilizes the yarn. You can use the same trick with white thread to pastel-out the colors a little bit.

(posted by me on livejournal/spinningfiber this day)

Sock Machines: How do you ensure no open stitches on the edge of the heel?

When doing heels I do two things to help keep the holes minimal (ok, three ...)

1) do the heel with the yarn tensioner in use, and make sure there isn't slack in the yarn when you start each row

2) on the very first time across (and back), wrap the outermost out of work needle from the top of the foot before starting across (and then before starting back). This extra wrap helps close the "O" that tends to form right at the start of the heel

3) lower the last needle knit (first needle to be knit) and ensure that the yarn wraps the latch on its needle as it knits that first needle coming into play

With these techniques, the only time I get gaps are when I knit at too loose a tension (and the overall sock tends to be filmy then too) or when I put down/lift up too many needles at once (i.e.,a mistake). ok, a third way -- when stitches in the heel drop and I don't recover them correctly!

(posted by me on sockknittingmachines this day)

Sock Machines: How do you know which stitch will rib?

I watched my Legare 400 ribber and figured out that "four needles under" was how to know where to switch it in or out -- the fifth needle under the working part of the ribber gets put into work (or taken out of work) when I reverse the switch. Yours may be different. So I just make sure to place it where I want it on that "fifth needle" counting from the leading edge of the ribber, where it covers the needles as it moves around.

(posted by me this day on sockknittingmachinefriends)

How do you set the twist in singles yarn?

Set the twist in your singles as you would for a plied yarn:

Wind the yarn around a niddy-noddy (or your arm, or the back of a chair -- whatever's handy) and put 4 figure-8 ties evenly spaced around it; more if you are worried about it getting messed up, such as with a very fine, high-twist yarn. (A figure 8 tie is just that -- make a figure eight with your tie-yarn around and through the width of the spun yarn -- effectively this makes it into two joined bundles at the figure 8.) Remove the skein from the niddy, arm, or chair.

Fill a sink with warm water and a little wool wash (or dish liquid or shampoo). Put the skein in -- don't agitate. Let it sit 20 minutes.

Take out the skein, squeeze the soapy water out of it, empty the sink. Refill the sink with the same temp water and _no_ soap. Put the skein in that for 20 minutes (to rinse-soak). If needed, repeat the rinse.

I roll my skeins in a towel when I'm all done and squeeze them well, to get out as much water as I can. There's also "wuzzing" ... where you whir the skein around in a circle while holding tight to it.

Then hang the skein to dry. If you don't want it to curl (for singles), you might need to weight it -- I usually just put a handtowel through the lower part unless it's very high twist, then I resort to soup cans.

Whew. All that said, I did that with a very high twist single recently and still found it was twisty. So I steamed it -- in the steam from a boiling tea kettle -- it still didn't settle down completely, so now I have it wound tight onto a niddy noddy to set the twist that way. May take a month or so, but it should calm down eventually. Since it's part of a year-long study group, I don't mind waiting!

(posted by me this day on spindlers)

What is kemp?

Kemp refers to the coarser hairs in the fiber. Down hairs are fine, Kemp is very very coarse. They usually take up dye differently from the down fibers as well.

(posted by me this day on spin-list)

Usually kemp is removed from the fiber in processing. If it is in raw fleece, you can remove it with combing. In cashmere, it is usually hand-plucked from the down so as not to lose any of the down. In medium wools such as Jacob and coarse wools such as Navajo Churro, it may be left in.

How do you felt wool onto soap?

See general instructions here: http://www.mielkesfarm.com/felt_soap.htm)

One thing that can be helpful when felting soap -- wrap the soap in wool, and stuff the whole thing into a pantyhose leg. It holds the wool on when you are starting out the felting process. Be sure to pull the pantyhose off the felting soap/wool before it gets felted onto it, itself.

And if you have a pantyhose free zone at home, the local goodwill/salvation army probably has buckets of them.

Oh -- and if you don't have a washing board or felting board -- take your colander, turn it upside down, and use the underside of it. That helps, too!

(posted by me on spindlers, this day)

Retro: What can I do with tiny little skeins?

Sample skeins are good for small things. I like to use them for adornments/embellishments on things I make (knit, primarily). They could also be used in patchwork knitting, which calls for a meter of each color or thereabouts.

Nicky Epstein's book Knitted Embellishments would likely give you alot of ideas in that area.

Mine also like to sit in my yarn basket and say "aren't I cute??"

(posted by me on spindlers, 11/1/2001)

What sort of spindle would you spin angora on?

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 scale to make sure it was about 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.

(posted by me on spindlers, 6/1/2001)

Admin: new postings ... retro!

OK, so if you've been visiting this blog, hitting it in searches, or even bloglined it, you have gotten used to the fact that my postings are my own musings on questions I pick up from customers, website inquiries, and folks who don't even know me on various online discussion groups. Well, in point of fact, I've been doing that for a while! I thought about revamping my original FAQ with some of my old postings, but hit upon using the blog idea instead; and after plowing through a few months of postings (these date back to 2001, mind you!) I lost my drive and decided to just post new answers, instead. However, there's nothing wrong with mining them from time to time. So that you know they are older answers, I'll tag them with "Retro:", okay? Just like I usually put "Sock machine:" on the sock machine ones, but assume you know the rest are about spinning, or obvious from the question. See you in the comments!

How do you pull roving off a drum carder?

Yes, you can pull roving off the drumcarder! Just use a diz, even an impromptu one with a hole punch and a yogurt container lid to pull roving off the drumcarder oncs it is full. The hole size will dictate the roving width (mostly -- also how much you start with).

You start at the right edge (standing at the front of the machine where you feed fiber in) and where you would usually break the batt, you lift about 1/4" of fiber up from that edge, feed it through the diz and start rotating the drum carder so you can continue to pull the fiber up, feed it through the diz as you go. The trick to continuing past the first rotation is to ensure you have enough fiber presenting itself on the right edge as you come around to the starting point each time.

One thing I found trying this technique on carders -- if the carding cloth is not laid on at an angle, it's a bit trickier getting the roving to be continuous around the drum. When it's \\\\\\ rows of teeth like on the supercarder, the next round usually presents itself at the end of the first round, starting at the right edge as you look at the front of the machine. When it's ||||| rows of teeth around the drum, you reach the end of round one at the start of round one -- so you have to try to diz up roving a bit more from the left side, assuming you are dizzing right-to-left as you look across the top of the drum, as you approach the starting point, to be able to get to the next round as you complete the first trip around.

(posted by me on spindlers this day)

Tofutsies, redux

Look! The Tofutsie socks! The full-size pair are 11" length from top of sock to bottom of heel. The mini I-cord sock was also done on my sock machine! how cute is that. And the left-over ball. I really want to be braver and make longer-legged socks -- there was a ton left over here, easily another 1-2 inches on each sock.

The sock on the left has been washed once; its mate has not yet been washed. It was a cold wash, but I noticed a slight color loss compared to "fresh" yarn. I like the way the colors pile on top of each other -- pink/purple and blue/green. If you had fewer stitches than the sock machine (72) then they might wave back and forth too.

I saw a tutorial on this type of sock yarn patterning once -- wind a 30 inch skein and do 4 colors evenly, alternately around the skein like so: ABCDABCD. Then when you knit, the AC's stack and the BD's stack -- well, mostly. Thus the fun effects that can occur around the edges. On the short row heels and toes, you get a bit of a "bull's eye" effect as well -- also fun, and a nice variation from the color stacking.

Posted in response to a comment on the Tofutsies! posting January 11th, 2007.

To drumcard, to handcard, or to comb? which, when, why?

On hand carders -- the finer carding cloth has teeth closer together, and on some of the cotton cards the teeth are finer than on the wool/coarser cards. Given that the teeth are closer together, it takes more effort to card the fibers. I'm not sure how much this would affect you, but it's something I personally stay aware of due to recurring tendonitis in my wrists. 50 cotton punis in one sitting -- That put me in icepacks for two days!

As examples, merino, shetland, and angora are fine fibers; corriedale tends to be fairly fine, mohair varies but is nice and slick so wouldn't tend to get hung up on the cards, and angelina is likely to be an accent, so would not get too hung up on fine carders. So looking for cards that are for finer wools would actually probably be the route I'd take if those were the fibers I was carding.

If the cotton cards have finer teeth, they'd be a bit easier to mangle than thicker teeth. But that varies from maker to maker, I imagine; my cotton cards are old clemes & clemes ones.

The main things I use my cards for are cotton and for small projects; it's the drum carder if I want to get through a pound of washed fleece or do major blending. A drum carder really isn't big enough (how's this for justification!!) for a cottage industry carding person unless they've found some way to be super-efficient with it, or have a super value-add in dyeing and blending. I could just about churn out 12 ounces in an hour on my PG Supercarder, if I had a nice medium wool that didn't need a second pass.

On combing -- you are right, it's the longest fibers in your carding that you pull from comb to comb. So you can card the longest stuff out first, then recard the left-behind stuff separately and get a second run of shorter fibers, too. I like the ones you clamp down and then run the second comb past myself -- that way both hands can hold the working comb if I'm having a bad wrist day.

Generally speaking, double-row combs are what I recommend, since you can trap VM and short bits between the rows. Again, it's a tradeoff-- the more rows, the more stuff you might trap between rows ("English" combs are often "5-pitch" -- 5 rows of tines!), but also the heavier the combs. Single pitch traps the least, since stuff only gets stuck behind the one row. A finer comb works best on the fine fibers; with a "regular" comb, the fine fibers aren't as likely to be fully opened. They ought to work for coarser fibers as well, though you'd be doing more work than you needed to, perhaps, at the expense of more effort.

That said, I wouldn't comb raw fleece -- if it's lanoliny/greasy it'll get all tangled up and stuck, won't it? A friend carded raw llama once, which was okay since her llama fiber had no grease, but it sure made a mess of the combs! I'll usually wash the fiber first, then comb it.

Sooo, if I had it to do over, what carding equipment would I have?
a drumcarder, fine cloth, motorized
cotton hand cards
2-row mini combs

oh wait a sec, I have all those (wink). But I could "do without" my wool cards, except there's a project already started on them that I might just get back to one day ...

and in my retirement, I hope to get a 12" hackle to experiment with color blending while dizzing ... maybe I can just borrow one from the local guild for that, though.

Now, if we compare combing to carding -- everyone has their own reasons for each, and it sounds like you have your reasons too. I personally choose to comb llama because I love llama top to spin, to maximize the luster of the fiber. Wool I throw on the drum carder, and cotton I put on the cotton cards. Angora -- now, I buy it prepared (grin!) but I've played around with carding it and combing it. If I were to try again from raw, I'd probably card it into wool, or if I really wanted it 100% angora, I'd use the cotton cards and try making angora punis.

(posted by me on spindlers, this day)

What can I do besides darning to cover a worn-through knit elbow in a sweater?

A local lady covered the working area of a pair of knit gloves for her husband with piece of flannel that she cut from an old flannel shirt. She did such a cute job -- one big circle in the palm and 4 smaller circles just under the fingers. It looked like a pawprint :-) I believe she used a blanket stitch edging around it to hold it in place.

Perhaps something similar might work on your husband's sweater's elbows. Starting with a lightweight fabric, you can cut the piece to suit the size needed, to add a stylish look.

(posted by me this day on spindlers)

Where can I find manuals and help restoring a sock machine?

There are at least two great sock machine lists on yahoo: sockknittingmachines and sockknittingmachinefriends. There are some great informational sites out there, www.sockmachine.com, www.yrstation.com, and others if you google "antique sock machine" you'll probably find more. But those two have complete manuals and instructions both.

I'd really recommend you lobby the museum to set up their autoknitter with some "sample" knitted socks on it -- nothing like keeping a machine in use to ensure it looks lovely and glows with oil and the love of use!

Re the rust, I recently cleaned a machine with just "mystery" (the brand name, I guess) oil, not all the rust came off so I'm going to try a mild rust removing oil next (with the wire scrubbers) -- or when it warms up enough outside to go at it with the metal brushes too. But enough came off for me to get it all together and use it, hoo-ray!

(posted by me to sockknittingmachinesswapshop this day)

What spindle do you recommend for a beginner looking to spin thicker yarn?

The most inexpensive starter spindle would be a toy wheel spindle kit (http://www.thebellwether.com/spindlekits.html), in the large whorl this weighs 1.6 ounces.

For thicker wool, you want a spindle that is at least 1.5 ounces, on up to 2 ounces or possibly even a little over 2 ounces. Since you put the kit together yourself, you can pick to make it top or bottom whorl as you prefer.

If you would like a nicely turned spindle, the least expensive of those is the Cascade Little Si (http://www.thebellwether.com/cascade.html) or the Kundert solid wood whorl (http://www.thebellwether.com/kunspin.html), both top whorl spindles.

Again, you'd want to check the weight is 1.5 ounces or more; the Little Si ranges from 1.0 to 1.5 ounces, the Kunderts from about 1.1 to about 1.6 ounces in solid wood whorls.

The all-around best spinning spindles are the Tabacheks and the Bosworths; they cost more, but they are the type of spindle that you will return to over and over, as a really wonderful spinner.

To have a thicker yarn, you would want a Tabachek Deluxe or Plying spindle (http://www.thebellwether.com/tatosp.html), as those sizes are usually over 1.5 ounces.

Bosworth Spindles (http://www.thebellwether.com/bosworth.html) also come in a variety of sizes; the Midi or the Large both can run to over 1.5 ounces (over 42 grams).

If your interest runs to a bottom whorl spindle, the all-around best one I've run across is the Jenkins Turkish (http://www.thebellwether.com/jetusp.html). They tend to run fairly heavy, so they are great for thicker spinning.

And I also have one remaining Halla Spindle (http://www.thebellwether
.com/hallaspindles.html) that is a bottom whorl. Hers are polymer clay, molded and hand-painted, and are lovely spinners. They weigh in at about 1.5 ounces, making them good beginner spindles and also good spinning for thicker wool.

(reply to an email inquiry by me this day)

Fiber Geeks -- The Quiz

1. Do you raise fiber, animals or plant, or are a fiber user only? If you raise animals/plants...what do you raise?

I have two llamas (Garland and Mahogany) and three soay sheep -- Rigel, Meteor, and Deneb.

2. What's your favorite fiber & why? Which fiber do you like the least & why?

I love fine, bouncy wools -- CVM is a particular favorite since it is a rare breed on top of that. Most of my least-liked are color choices that aren't a current favorite -- so I stuff it in the back of the stash and expect to like it in a few years.

3. What's your worst habit relating to your fiber?

Procrastinating -- doing all the legwork to prepare, study, purchase, and arrange fiber but not carrying through -- scouring that fleece, spinning that roving, knitting that project, learning to weave! The saddest part of this is that I have not yet spun _my_ Soay fiber -- I've washed and carded two of Rigel's fleeces, but have only spun other Soay, not mine. And only about 4 ounces of Garland's llama fleece has been combed, a few yards spun (and that was to repair a moth-attacked alpaca sweater, LOL).

4. In what ways does your fiber habit make you a better person?

Fiber makes me calmer, gives me a sense of perspective on getting things done. It also makes me more willing to do things right -- anything, from cooking to talking to someone.

5. How would your life be different if you had to give up fiber?

Aaaaahhghhgggg. It would be alot more dull; there'd be less people in it -- a room full of spinners I can handle, but a room full of foodies? or football maniacs? eeek.

6. What tools, yarns, books or gadgets can't you live without?

Anything by Mabel Ross -- she's my professor-in-a-book! My spindles, my one-yard cedar niddy-noddy, my sock machine. I shudder to think about "retirement" life when we start travelling -- what will I take with me? Maybe I can layer 3 outfits so I can put more fibery things in my suitcase!

7. What was your first fiber project?

Spinning -- grey sticky romney roving and white slippery mohair roving, spun each one, plied them together, and knit up a felted hat. It has a terrific halo and is wonderful for deep winter wear.

But when I was a child I did alot of fibery things, knitting, embroidery, cross-stitch, sewing, you name it. I remember (and stil have!) latch-hooking a rose pillow cover. As an adult, I dug it up and knit an entrelac other-side for it, now it's on my hall settee, much loved by the cats, and me.

8. Do you have any fiber mentors? Who are they and why?

My local guild! they are awesome -- Susan and Cathy really "got me over the hump" when I was learning to spin. Connie models every day what a successful fiber artist looks like. Dixie and Kym are superb spinners. And more folks, too!

9. Are you a member of any guilds? If so, which one(s)?

My locals are Northwest Regional Spinner's Guild, Area 2005; and North Olympic Shuttle and Spindle Guild. Then there are the virtual guilds of email -- those are terrific; I especially love spindlers, splindlitis, TechSpin, spinning_camp, and others.

10. What's the most exciting fiber project you've undertaken?

My planned-not-really-progressed one to weave a twill scarf with a Shetland (from my own Shetland sheep) warp and Cashmere (from my own Cashmere whether) weft. Gotta get further than washing the fleece on that one -- maybe I will start the "practice scarf" this year, in alpaca commercial yarn.

11. How many people have you mentored? In which fiber arts?

I've helped alot of people at shows, from my booth. Lots of drop spindle lessons! I know I was/am a mentor to my now-best-friend, we met at the NwRSA meeting and it all went from there! She's a terrific crocheter, so it goes both ways.

12. Do you consider fiber crafts to be functional or artistic?

Yes. It depends how you use them. My work is mostly functional with beauty.

13. What, mainly, do you make? Do you keep, or give away, most of your projects?

Small things -- hats, mittens, gloves, small shawls. There's a sweater in my future, and I knit sweaters as a child. Most are for me and my family, immediate and distant, and my spinning friends. Sometimes I sell items, but not often; more often things like that are barter, with other artisans (soaps, candles that sort of thing).

14. Are fiber crafts an avocation or vocation for you?

Both. I love it so much, I am living my joy. It is also my occupation, in the supplier frame, at The Bellwether. People don't seem to realize that The Bellwether is "just me" -- one person! It's a blast, though, and I love when they learn that and seem amazed by it. It's so much fun!

15. How many people are you committed to being a mentor for in 2007?

As many as will have me! I'm teaching a spinning class in February, so this may be a "big" year for me. And I started and am keeping going a study group using the book PluckyFluff. It's terrific fun!

How can I spin "hairy" yarn?

There's a type of yarn/spinning called lock spinning or
tail spinning; the idea is to start with washed locks,
and that you end up with yarn with "curls" coming out all
over it.

I've done this two ways: with short-staple kid mohair locks,
I took a fine yarn singles and while plying the fine yarn,
"inserted" the mohair locks as I went. The plying yarn grabbed
them and held them, and since my hands were busy with the
plying, the tendency to want to smooth them was stifled -- mostly.

Or with just locks, take the locks at the cut end, hit that end
with a flicker to open it up, then draft from there; you keep
adding locks, and you have to _let_go_ of each lock when there's
1/2 to 1 inch left of curl -- let it run free of the singles you are spinning.
You can either ply this on itself (for a fairly bulky yarn) or ply it
with thread. Usually mine is pretty highly twisted, so I don't want
to leave it as singles.

(posted without picture by me on Spindlers this day)

Over The Edge Spinning Group

My local spinning study group is making steady progress -- we're working through "Pluckyfluff", trying to think outside the box or at least stretch our own horizons with Lexi Boeger's great little book.

The "nub" yarn went fairly well -- we all got something, we all scratched our heads a bit, and we all learned about how big to make little bits of roving to get suitably sized nubs. Our most intrepid spinner is already knitting and her comment on the nub yarn was that it sure felt different to knit, since it was so fine on the background yarn and a large lump on the nub. Mine is still sitting looking pretty in a basket ...

(Hey, I did it -- that photo shows everyone's first skein, and Lexi's book -- on my funky sofa!)

Candy stripe was a challenge due to weather and it was our first high-twist single. I dried mine with weights (2 soup cans) but put it back under tension on a niddy noddy since it's still curly-whirly. This one taught us "the grass is greener" -- we all like our neighbor's candy stripe better than our own! I must say, adding metallic thread to your spinning sure spices things up! That's one trick I plan to keep in my toolbox!

And now we've started Loop yarn -- just the singles, though. I'm going for unifying-ness and using fiber from my first two yarns. If I can keep that thread going, then maybe I can knit a funky throw or something from all these yarns. This one has its cleverness in the ply -- you make loops in the single and wrap thread around the base of each loop to ply. So we plan on converting our Ashfords to Quill wheels (maybe) since 3/8" dowel fits in the orifice. If not, well, my charkha collection can stand a dust-off and use ... and one lady did point out my great wheel would work for this too (now _how_ could I overlook that!)

Well, someday I will figure out how to put pictures on my blog to go along with all this "news of spinning" but until then, let your imaginations run wild!

(posted by me this day on spinning_on_the_edge)

What's in a Totally Tubular Spinning Kit?

The Totally Tubular Spinning Kits are 4 ounces of an assortment of Crosspatch Creations and Three Bags Full blends and wools from their flocks -- that's right, sometimes the tubes contain blends and fibers that "never hit the shelves" as regular Crosspatch Creations or Three Bags Full colors.

These come out of the tube as short lengths of roving (the Crosspatch batts are "torn" into roving-width strips for the tubes, when they are used in them). You can spin them as they happen in the tube, resort them, separate them into lights-and-darks for fair-isle, break them into yet-smaller-pieces for more color variegation, you name it.

And Nannette is right, spinning them is a blast! I kept saying "well, I need to spin a green one now, haven't got a booth sample of that yet..." But then I spun one (I'm knitting it now!) so now I'm thinking the red-and-black ones need a booth sample. Grin!

With the green one, I broken them into lengths that spun into about 2 yards of worsted weight singles and "created" my own Noro-style yarn. I ended up with two balls of dark greens and one ball of light greens, for fair-isle arm/hand warmers (Joan's Touche' pattern).

Since they were all spindle-spun, it was a super-blast -- I got to try out (and fall in love with) a Carob Jenkins Turkish spindle in the process!

Which whorl wood should I choose? (elm or cocobolo)

If you are looking at Mongolian Elm or Cocobolo as a whorl wood for an Akha spindle, or even in general, then this describes their differences. Cocobolo is a denser wood, if this and the Elm had the same diameter, the cocobolo would weigh a bit more given its density. That means it will spin a bit faster, putting more weight near the shaft (as well as out along the whorl too).

To compare Spindlewood and Forrester Akha Spindles, the Forresters generally have a wider whorl and are a bit heavier -- so they stand up to use as "semi top whorl" style spindles, which is the way many people use their Akha Spindles. In rough comparison, I'd say the Spindlewoods are more likely to spin faster (small whorl diameters) and teh Forresters are more likely to spin longer (larger whorl diameters, and the one with holes which maximizes weight out near the rim for a longer spin).

Re spinning Camel and Cashmere on these -- either the smaller Spindlewood Akha or the larger Forrester Akha would work. I'd probably use a Forrester on those fibers since it is hooked, so you wouldn't have to use a half-hitch. But I avoid giving myself the occasion to mess up my cashmere in the spinning, so I do what I can to avoid half-hitching it.

(this was a reply sent to a customer inquiry, yesterday)

How do you prepare wool to card?

By Amelia

First, wash the wool. See the FAQ on Washing Fleece for help with that. Then, once it's dry ...

Before carding I'll either use a picker to open up the fleece or sit with two bags and a towel in front of me -- take fiber from bag 1, open it up over the towel (to catch chaf, etc), put it into bag two. Repeat until bag 1 empty.

I find the fiber cards more smoothly if I pick it open, with a picker or by hand, before I card it.
~~
posted 14 January 2007 at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

How can I spin fluffy yarn?

What sort of fluffy do you want? open, bouncy yarn is fun; for this I spin the singles without a whole lot of twist in it (enough twist so that it holds together when I tug, plus a little bit) -- I use a "ply" test where I let a length fold back on itself. If your singles are fairly low twist, then the ply test will be _very_ poufy indeed, as the singles open up again with the reverse-twist of the ply (which is the desired result!)

Also starting with a wool with alot of crimp helps add bounce to yarn -- CVM/Romeldale, Cormo, Targhee are among my favorites for bounce. I'm sure others can list more!

Another sort of fun fluffy yarn is to spin from washed locks of some curly-hair style wool -- kid Mohair or adult Mohair, English Leicester, Wensleydale, Cotswold all have this trait, of looking like ringlets in the washed locks. I open up the locks a bit at the base, but as I'm spinning let the tip-end run "free" of the yarn itself. This gives a yarn full of loose curls as a result. I like to ply this yarn with thread or with itself -- the thread doesn't tend to grab at the curls too much, but gives the single a chance to open up a little bit itself. Plying with itself usually gives a fairly bulky yarn (since I spin singles for this fairly "big" to begin with -- about DK or worsted weight, if you ignored the curly bits).

(posted by me this day on spindlers)

How do I get oil out of my handspun soy silk yarn?

If the soy silk isn't dyed, washing in warm water shouldn't harm it at all. I'd use something like dawn dishwashing liquid or a wool scour, to help ensure the oil will come out.

The only related cold-water-and-oil washing I do is laundry -- and unless I heavily pretreat the oil spots on clothes, the cold water just doesn't take the oil out.

(posted by me on spinningfiber/livejournal this day)

Can I re-scour carded wool?

You can wash it again. To get lanolin out, really out, you need the water over 165 F. Really muddy tips even in at that temp will still hold onto some of the lanolin, though, so I usually pre-soak at about 140 if I'm in a rush, rub the muddy tips while it's all under water to get them to open up, then wash over 165 (we usually tried to start at 180 so we could get a full 30 minutes above 165 ... when I ran the mill, that is).

Also a way-past spin-off article said adding denatured alcohol helps cut through some of the lanolin; but if you do that, don't let it soak too long, as it can (if i remember advice I've heard right) weaken the wool.

Now, whether you might have to card the wool again or not is another question ... that would depend on how much they disintegrate back to masses of wool in the wash. Lingerie bags might help prevent that, perhaps.

(posted by me on spindlers, this day)

How do you fit the really large leg with sock machine socks?

For wider legs, I usually still put an inch of 1/1 ribbing at the top, with lycra or elastic for grippability, at a fairly loose tension (looser than normal), and then go to 3/1 ribber with even looser tension. This gives a sock that stretches to a fairly wide diameter.

On the opposite end, when I'm trying to fit a narrow foot, I might use 2/1 ribbing on the leg (54/36) and then use 2/1 _mock_ ribbing on the foot -- the lack of stitch for the mock rib draws in a little more than if the purl stitch was present. That worked out really well!

(posted by me to sockmachinefriends this day)

How do you spin on an Akha spindle?

By Amelia

Traditional Akha style spindling is done in two steps. First, hold the spindle horizontally, spin it with your right hand while drafting (horizontally) with your left hand. Then, once there is enough twist in the length of new yarn to hold it together, rotate the spindle to the vertical and give it a twist with your right hand to set it spinning and add the final twist to your yarn, before winding it on. Wind on above the whorl, so that the length below the whorl is free to be twirled and spun.

The first step is a horizontal style of supported spindling -- you can support spindle while you walk, with the Akha spindling method; and the second step is traditional drop spindling.

When winding on, it is best to keep the yarn under tension using the Peruvian Wind-On.

For a great resource on Akha spindling, see Connie Delaney's booklet Akha Spindling.

Akha style spindling is terrific for long-draw fine fibers such as cotton (its historic use), cashmere, camel, and yak. Akhas are nice generally for all fine spinning.

For a snippet more, see yesterday's post What spindle do I spin cotton on?
~~
Edited 26 Feb 09: added photo and opener/trailer.

posted 12 January 2007 at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

What spindle do I spin cotton on?

Besides tahklis, other support spindles, super-light top-whorls (or bottom whorls for that matter), wheels (there's a local lady here who spins cotton on her Majacraft Rose -- amazing to watch!), and charkhas, there's the Akha spindle.

This is a *really cool* spindle to spin on. I love learning techniques, which is possibly why this appeals to me. You can simply use an Akha as a "drop" spindle if you want. But, the way it is traditionally used is to add twist as a horizontally-held support spindle (so your right hand is the "support" part), giving it a spin and letting it rotate there in your hand while you draw out fiber with your other hand, and _then_, step two, once there's enough twist for it all to hold together, letting the Akha drop and twirling it in the traditional top-whorl manner to add the extra twist cotton wants.

Fun stuff!
(posted by me to spindlitis, this day)

Why is my llama yarn harsh feeling?

Two thoughts --

I've heard, and experienced, that washing the skein with a little hair conditioner can soften llama yarn up considerably.

That said, llama comes in a wide range of thickness, from finer-than-alpaca to quite coarse. How did the fiber feel? if you still have some unspun, put it next to your neck for a while, walk around -- can you feel it, is it irritating? Then perhaps this was a coarser llama fiber.

I'm lucky in that Mahogany, my brown llama, tests out at 18.something microns as an adult - yumm-ee :-) and his cousin Garland (field-mate) is only slightly thicker, 20.something, and very lustrous. Happy dance! I even used some of Garland's fiber to repair DH's alpaca sweater recently, and you can't tell the difference.

(posted to spindlers, this day)

Sock Machines: How do you make sure you have enough yarn to close the toe?

How do you make sure you have enough yarn at the end of your sock, to close the toe?

Here's what I do; I'd be interested to hear other solutions too.

Once I'm on the last return trip (cylinder moving counter-clockwise) of the toe, I stop with the yarn carrier in front, lower all the back needles making sure their latches are open, and cut the sock yarn at the base of my table -- it comes out of the sock machine, up through the yarn tensioner, and back down to the ball on the floor; I cut it at the table height, the remaining foot or so attached to the ball on the floor falls back to the floor; so I must have about 2-3 feet of yarn not knitted hanging there from the yarn tensioner still attached to the sock on the machine. To that now cut end I attach my waste yarn with a square knot.

Then I continue knitting until the sock yarn is under the last needle before the hash mark, but that needle hasn't done much (if any) of its downward trip yet. I take my "dental tool"/pick and pull the rest of the sock yarn in, up to and including the knot tieing it to the waste yarn, and use a wooden clothes peg to "weight" this yarn inside the cylinder. OK. So, the next stitch after the hash mark will now be knit with the waste yarn. Then I knit 10 rounds with the waste yarn and start the next sock (ok, so usually I take the sock off, close the toe, evaluate it, _then_ knit the next sock...)

Let's see ... yes, usually I knit the toe without the ribber in place; not sure how I'd pull the yarn through easily with it in place, but it could be done.

The square knot is so that it is easy to separate the sock and waste yarn later -- if you pull on both ends of one string in the knot, the knot turns into a reverse-half-hitch-half-hitch knot combination, which easily slides off the pulled yarn.

(posted by me to sockmachinefriends, this day)

Spinning Silk -- should I go for a heavy spindle or a light one?

Silk is pretty forgiving of a heavy spindle, given its long staple length, so the 1.6 oz might work; but it depends also on how thick you want to spin, how slip-y the silk is -- it might draft its self right out of your hands with a heavier spindle. I learned to spin silk on a 1 oz. Lollipop spindle (small toy wheel spindle, basically, though _very_ pretty!). I've spun laceweight silk on 1.5 ounce spindles, but personally tend to stick to closer to an ounce since my wrists tend to ache with heavier spindles (RSI -- recurring tendonitis).

On the other end of the spectrum, the 0.4 ounce spindle will probably only spin cobweb and laceweight -- I tend to reach for nothing under a 0.9 ounce for plying, even for my laceweights; a sub-half ounce spindle tends to stop too quickly with thicker yarns (singles or plying).

What thickness are you looking to spin, or are you simply looking for a good all-around silk spindle? If it's the latter, I'd recommend looking for a spindle with mass near the shaft -- a dense wood shaft helps concentrate mass there too (purpleheart, ebony, cocobolo as shaft woods all help here). This gives you a
fast spin, which helps get the twist quickly into the silk before its own lack-of-scales-and-crimp helps it slip apart.

The micro-second lesson on spindle physics this is hinting at, is, rim-weight (outer edge of whorl) == long spinning time; shaft-weight (inner edge of whorl/dense wood shaft) == fast spinning time. For a great combination of both of these, a Bosworth spindle has both bulk in the whorl at the shaft and at the outer edge of the rim (AD since I do carry these :-) )

How do you reach the spindle when plying?

(see a great video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76AlaqmEXRE)

Wow! I love the way Abby flicks the spindle between her hands to start the spin; gotta try that!

The wind-up onto her fingers is a "Peruvian Butterfly" or "Peruvian Wind-on" You're basically winding a figure-eight around whichever two fingers of your hand you like -- thumb and pinkie, index finger and pinkie, whatever. It's a great way to (a) keep the new yarn under control before the wind-on and (b) get the spindle where you can reach it!


I use the butterfly wind-on even with my singles, since I love-love-love long-spinning spindles and will reach up as high as I can if the spindle's still twirling!

(originally posted in reply to an inquiry about the video on spindlers, this day)

Tofutsies!

Has any one else tried the new yarn Tofutsies with Chitin (crab/shrimp shells) in it? I called my LYS and had them call me when it arrived, went for a crank-in (all by myself, but maybe next time!!) this last weekend.

The yarn comes in 100gram balls, plenty for a pair of socks for almost any size foot, as it is a fine yarn! Possibly finer than, definitely at least as fine as, Opal sock yarn. It's 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% chitin. Not as elastic as wool/nylon, but definitely some spring to it.

I first tried a sock on the 54 cylinder -- nope, much too fine for that, unless I really wanted to crank the tension right down and try for a child's sock. So I frogged (unknit -- ribbit, i.e. rip it out) the sock and did another on the 72 cylinder. This is a 72 I'm still "tuning", as I just cleaned up my "spare" Legare cam this last weekend too and found a "like new" 72 cylinder in my stash along with two clearly used ones (each one had a chip out of one slot near the top). Something's rubbing funny, I think it's a burr on the V cam edge, as I've swapped around the cam screws so it's not them (any more!).

So, to make a short story long, I didn't have the 72 tied town to an extremely tight tension, though I did have it above the 1/2 way mark (my usual starting point with most yarns). It knit along nicely; the final sock had a very nice 1/1 rib, a good 3/1 rib, but the stockinette on the heel and bottom of the foot is still a bit looser than I'd like (even with the tension spring on). I'm thinking a few more turns of the tension nut. I also made one of Roxanna's I-cord socks, for the LYS -- that worked like a charm, and turned out quite cute!

I haven't washed my sock yet as I want to knit its mate; washing the mini I-cord sock does show some promise, that the yarn might fluff a bit upon washing, which would be a _good_ thing!

Anyway, word is still out on whether those with shell-fish allergies should avoid this yarn (please note, chitin is the shell of crabs and shrimps), but it has a nice feel to it, I'm thinking it'll be great in summer socks. It's space-dyed, tends to knit up in a spiral type of pattern. I'll try (no promises!) to get a photo of my sock into the album for folks to see (and the mini!). Though I may wait until
the mate is knit, so I can wash up the new pair to see if I get the fluffing I want (or if the second pair needs to be knit on a tighter tension, as I am currently thinking).

Sooo, have you tried Tofutsies? what do you think?

(posted by me on sockmachinefriends this day)

What do you do with 50 grams of laceweight yarn?

My current favorite thing to do with 2 oz or less of laceweight is this:
http://www.carylldesigns.com/patterns/CA_triangular_lace_scarf.jpg

though lately I've been substituting my own lace pattern in -- which works great!

For a list of nifty ideas, check out the cashmere america kit list, almost all of which use not-very-much fiber and many of which are for sockweight or laceweight yarns ...
http://www.carylldesigns.com/cashmere_america.htm#Cashmere%20America%20Pattern%20Kits

(I'm not affiliated with Caryll Designs, and haven't purchased from them -- got my CA patterns from a local area Cashmere farmer.)

Do you have any tips for Navajo plying on a spindle?

I first learned Navajo plying on a spindle, it did take a bit of practice -- and alot of returning to "park and draft", or the rough equivalent, while plying. But eventually I "got" it.

One of my local friends had her "aha" with spindle Navajo plying when she realized the chains didn't need to be an arm's-reach long -- a foot or two is sufficient. This helped her manage to Navajo ply on a spindle, and now that's practically all she does (since, like me, she loves 3-ply yarn!)

Sock Machines: which yarn for which cylinder?

There isn't a chart to say which yarn thickness to use in which cylinder in the sock machine. Gearheart put a list together but it was "yarn weights" like 12/2 and 16/3 and they didn't say which scale to use (woolen, worsted, ?cotton?) which would effect the end result a fair bit.

(For those who don't know sock machines -- each cylinder has the same diameter, about 4.5", but a different number of slots for the needles.)

On the 100 needle cylinder, I use baby yarns (very fine, sub-fingering to fingering) or Opal. Regia's a bit too "thick". Cranking around 100 stitches is alot of work, too, LOL! But when you want a bigger diameter ankle, it really can fill the bill.

On an 80, I usually use Opal, though Regia's nice and cushy too. Occasionally I'll use a finer wool (the ones on my feet now, for example) -- I got a very nice wool I dyed in a class once, it was a brown ashland bay trading wool (maybe a wensleydale?) and wears like iron, though comfy and warm! Nice because it's thin enough to fit in my tighter shoes.

On a 72, I'll use Regia or some of the all-wool fingering weights (which are slightly poufier than Regia)

On a 60, Opal's a bit "thin", Regia is okay but a poufier wool or a sportweight is nice. I can use a DK weight, but usually reach for the large-eye needles then or suffer alot of yarn-splitting issues, especially on the closer to worsted weight yarns.

On a 54, I'm definitely looking at DK weights or better, and usually making mittens to felt into a more solid yarn once I'm done. So, I'm usually reaching for my large-eye needles (dunno if they still have them, but a few years back I think Pat Fly, Barry Travis, and maybe John Loeffelholtz (sp?) carried them)

I tried to figure out WPI's once for cylinder size but have since given it up. I'd love to hear others' recommendations on this topic too.

What's a tahkli?

A tahkli is a little support spindle. They have the whorl down low; the shaft is steel (usually), sharp point on the bottom and flattened and shaped into a hook on top. The whorl is a metal disk, sometimes a coin or just a metal disk -- mine look bronze-ish.

I found a good photo of one (not mine) here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katdee/169308992/

What books do you recommend to learn spindling?

Spindle Spinning books in print ....

Spindle Spinning: From Novice to Expert (Connie Delaney) -- covers many kinds of spindles, in good detail, focus on how to spin on them
Spin It! (Lee Raven) -- taken from her earlier work Hands On Spinning, focus on spindles; also covers hand carding. Great update on the photographs within
Spinning In The Old Way (Priscilla Gibson-Roberts) -- I think this replaces her earlier High Whorling; covers top whorl spindle spinning
Spindling: The Basics (Amelia Garripoli) -- top whorl spindling and a FAQ on a variety of topics including fiber preparation and fiber tools (that's me!)
A Handspindle Treasury (Spin-off Magazine) -- collection of spindle articles from the magazine
Handspindles (Betty Hochberg) -- covers spindle types more than techniques

And there's a great video, Spindling Around the World (Barbara Clorite), which covers a wide variety of spindle types and how to spin them.

There are also websites with complete instructions:
http://www.interweave.com/
http://www.icanspin.com/
http://www.mielkesfiberarts.com/spndl_inst.htm
http://fibervilleusa.com/mall/lollipops/spininst.htm

It's possible there are more books still in print, that's my "core" set. Most of the (wheel) spinning books will also discuss spindle spinning, too.

How should I spin baby camel fiber?

I've spun camel from laceweight to worsted weight, so it's mostly a matter of how you want to use it. Light fingering may be a good "use" of it -- I admit when I spun the worsted, it was mostly to prove it could be done; though the hat I used it in certainly also benefitted from it!

What do you think of Cormo, Romeldale, or Shetland?

(see the earlier post about blending Alpaca...)

Cormo is so very soft, and very high crimp, it's delightful stuff; and Romeldale is also a soft wool with high crimp and alot of bounce. I tend to think of cotton when I'm spinning Cormo, and of Tigger (bounce!) when I'm spinning Romeldale, so I have high hopes for this cross-breed fleece

Shetland's a fine wool too, but it tends to have a looser crimp, be more silky. I find it fairly unique in that among the fine wools; that said, an individual Shetland fleece has alot of variability in it; the neck wool can have high crimp -- that's the softest part, the part the Shetlanders kept to make their wedding ring shawls with.

How would you spin Cormo?

Ooooh, Cormo. Lovely stuff. 8 oz -- how about a scrunchy warm long scarf, the kind with pockets on the ends for your hands. Mmmm.

I'd spin it fairly low-twist but still enough to ply it, 2 or 3 ply, into a worsted weight. So that the plyed yarn was fairly bouncy-open. Cormo's usually pretty high crimp and so will give you a nice bouncy yarn to knit with.

It should also felt really well, if you want to go that route. And it will take dye nicely, if you want to add color to it.

Cormo's soft enough to be next-to-skin for a large number of people, but if you are sensitive, test it out first if you want to make something that may be next to the skin, like a scarf. My son, for example, finds almost everything wool bothersome so Cormo would be out for him. Me, I can take even medium wools in a hat, scarf, or gloves -- Romney or whatever.

What kind of stand do you put your sock machine on?

My favorite simple stand is to get a bar stool from your local Wal-Mart equivalent with a round wood top. Regular chair height works too, it depends how high you want the machine. My favorite one even folds up for storage. Remove the wood top (usually it's screwed on to the metal legs) and cut a hemisphere out of the top (best to mark it before you remove it, so you can be sure the legs won't hit the open spot when you put it back on). Re-attach the top. The sock machine will slot into the half-moon you cut out and be near the center of the stool for balance.

On my more cranky machines (haha) I keep a foot on the stool's cross-bar if they try to walk away with the stool when I'm cranking.

Holiday Sock Machine Notes ...

My mom and dad are enjoying their AK socks from their Christmas package. Dad even thought his "rainbow toes" were a feature, when, LOL, they were because the "first knit" of the socks made the foot an inch too short, and I didn't have more yarn to make them longer! Definitely adds cheer to the socks, so perhaps I need to consider doing something like that more often.

I'm taking my Legare to the local yarn shop Saturday to do a demo -- the new tofutsies yarn is here! (there, anyway!) I sure hope they still have some left Saturday, LOL.

I spent my vacation in NJ showing my handknitting to everyone and they _did_ check out my socks each day -- 2 pairs handknit, 2 pairs sock machined, and 1 pair from socklady.com (a "coordinated" pair). So they all want socks next year -- now I wonder why I married into such a BIG family, hehehe. Well, I guess I better start earlier, like maybe NOW, haha. Or just plan on cranking them out irregularly for birthdays rather than all at once at Christmas.

What do I do with silk noil?

You can spin silk noil as "fluff" -- take a handful, open it up, and spin away -- for a textured 100% silk yarn.

My favorite thing to do with silk noil, though, is to rainbow dye it (small bits in each of the leftover easter-egg dye pots, usually) and then card a mix of colors into a wool base to "pop" the wool. I got this idea from admiring all the Crosspatch blends -- she puts silk noil in almost all of her blends, and the pops of color really do take the wool up a notch!

How much wool should I blend with alpaca?

If you are finding the alpaca slippery on its own, blending with any amount of the wool will help. Border Leicester's a medium wool so it will affect (effect? no English teacher in sight ...) the softnessof the alpaca. One of my "presents to myself" is sitting out in the garage -- a Cormo/Romeldale fleece in a soft brown, and an auburn alpaca fleece -- the present is to SHIP IT to a fiber mill and let them wash, blend, and card it. I'm dyeing to see how it turns out, but time is a precious commodity around here, so if I do it, it might be done by next Christmas -- the mill may have a 3 month backlog, but that's still before this summer!

I'd say how much wool to blend in depends on the crimp in the wool --you could get away with less wool in the blend with a high crimp wool (like my Cormo/Romeldale cross, I could go 10% wool, but in truth I love this wool too so mine will be probably 60/40) but with a lower crimps-per-inch you might want more. In almost any case, 50/50 would do it. If you can sample, you might try a few combinations from 10/90 to 50/50 and see which one you like. Or, if you want to preserve the hand of the alpaca, go for a finer wool like the Shetland.