Is Spin-Off Worth Getting? (Contest!!)

Ah Spin-Off. Despite the fact that there are now two on-line spinning 'zines and a spinning section in Knitty.com, I still get excited when I see it in my mailbox, and read it front-to-back and then back-to-front. I get almost as much fun out of reading the ads as the articles, LOL. Always fun to find new stuff for my spindles.

Thanks for all the entries, readers! The Spin-Off winner was selected (see the comments) and she's enjoying her issue now!

The magazine typically has articles on a fiber-bearing animal or plant, projects with handspun, galleries of readers' work, and technique articles on all things spinning. There's not an issue I haven't enjoyed, including the back-issues I bought once I fell in love with it. The indexes are great, I've used these as a reference many times.

For Spindlers, they've collected 20 years of handspindle articles in A Handspindle Treasury, a terrific resource on spindle types and spindling methods. I'm hoping they consider doing a new edition with all the great spindling articles since this came out (grin).

The Interweave Spin-off website is also fast becoming a favorite resource of mine, as they post projects and tips straight from the magazine there from time to time as well as expanded projects they couldn't squeeze into the print page.

***

The online Magazines:
knitty.com - click on "knittyspin" in the title bar for the spinning articles
Fiber Femmes Magazine
Spindlicity - new issue coming November 1! I hope!

***

Not sure? Post a comment here, and I just might mail you my spare copy of the Fall 2007 Issue of Spin-Off! (somehow I ended up with two! spread the joy!). Deal is, I only have one spare copy ... so I'll wait until November 2 (that's this Friday) and pick randomly from the comments. Be sure to give me a way to reach you -- link to your blog or website if you don't want to put your email in the comment or don't have it available on your blogger profile. Yes Vicki, I'm feeling generous ... I'll even mail it overseas if the randomizer picks someone over water from me.

Know of another online spinning magazine? Let me know in the comments or contact me. I always love a good read!

How do you take care of your spindles?

The best way to take care of a spindle is to keep it warmly dressed in wool, silk, or cotton ... LOL

But that's probably not what you mean. In terms of waxing or oiling, if the spindle whorl is shiny, it is very likely that it has a light lacquer on it -- if you wax it, the wax can't penetrate the lacquer, typically. I usually test an inconspicuous spot (the underside of the whorl) if I'm not sure -- if it's slippery ("slickery" is more descriptive, but not a real word...) then it's lacquered and all it needs is a good dusting.

Spindle shafts seem to be 50/50 (in my collection anyway) between having some finishing and simply being sanded wood. I used to "treat" my shafts with Wood Beams, but find I like the natural wood surface better for grippability both of the fiber and of my hand when I get the spindle twirling (finger-flick or palm-against-thigh). If you prefer a really smooth finish, Wood Beams does a very nice job on raw-wood shafts like those on the Bosworth spindles.

That said, I've had my fair share of water accidents (mostly with the niddy-noddy...) and find that a nice wood wax helps restore most of the shine and make it smell really nice. I use Wood Beams, Howard's Feed-N-Wax, or Citrus Shield from Howard's, depending on my mood and the scent desired at the end of the process ;-)

I'd say the main care I've taken is in keeping the spindles upright in spindle stands, to help prevent the possibility of the shaft warping. Though for some spindles (my Russians come to mind immediately...) that just isn't feasible. I did "score" a really nice skinny rectangular vase last Valentine's Day (ok, it had roses in it at the time!) that is terrific since its skinniest part is about as wide as the widest part of the Russians; so they are more upright than they've been in the past.

**

Do you have spindle care tips? Post your ideas in a comment on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

Meme: Nice Matters: Nice Tips!

Leigh recently gifted me with this lovely award!

The Nice Matters Award

"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded, please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award."

Wow! I am very glad to be reaching blog-folk with the things I have to say, and very impressed that Leigh felt it worthy of this. I got to pat myself on the back recently for a milestone at The Bellwether, too -- Spindling: The Basics has now sold 600 copies! WOOT!

For my "seven", I'd like to point you to the seven most recent entires in my SpinTips feed - the list has seven more, times ten! These are blog entries or websites that taught me something fiber-licious, inspired me, or made me smile!

• stoneleafmoon's Tutorial on spinning "dirt yarn" possibly the most thorough post I've seen on making an art yarn. I aspire to be so thorough on the blog!
  
• Connie Delaney's Anasazi spinning: a great small Navajo-style spindle, the Hohokum, on which cotton is spun, and the "real" Navajo plying. It's great that Ms. Delaney shares her spindling knowledge here!
  
• Fiber Fool's Color and Design thread -- yep, I joined her meme too!
  
• Twosheep on Production Spinning: how to oomph your spinning speed!
  
• Crafty Diversion's Homemade Yarn Swift ... I love DIY tools for spinning!
  
• Jacquie Grant's NZAK sock machine how-tos on YouTube ... this is terrific! makes me want another one :-) Jacquie runs sockknittingmachinefriends, and has always been quick to respond to emails and given me great advice!
  
• The making of modern Mali spindle whorls ... it's terrific that this website shares the process. Goes to show that this company really gets its product. Cool!
  

Now, not all of these are blogs, so they can't all carry the meme forward; but I hope you enjoy them as much as I do -- if so, subscribe to SpinTips to keep up with my findings, and let me know if you find a great website for me to add!

Meme: How do You Use Color?

Kristi, the Fiber Fool has a terrific color series ... starting with a Meme to get you thinking about how you use colors.

So, here's me thinking about how I use colors ...

1. What is your current favorite color? Purple. Or Green. Definitely one of those...


2. Had your favorite color changed over the years? Just flips between those two, mainly. Though I've had seasons/urges toward flame colors, marine colors... those have been temporary flings.

3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? Hmmm. I can usually find a purple or a green in most clothes, though I've noticed lately that Burgundy, Black, and Cream are popular -- leaving me without a purple or a green to pick from!

4. What is your favorite color combination? You guess ;-) yep! purple and green together. Irises do it, so I can too!

5. Is that combination a popular one? ummm ... no.

6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? multicolor yarn to start with -- I'll dye self-patterning yarns for socks, hats, etc. Or spin space-dyed roving for color effects. I am not hugely comfortable with fair isle knitting, and not a fan of intarsia, so I tend to look for slip-stitch patterns for color work.

7. What colors look good on you? Black. Green. A hint of purple. Peach.

8. What colors look bad on you? Red. Brown (it washes me out). White -- because it gets dirt on it, like, immediately!.

9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them? Well, I wear Brown -- but when I want to blend into the background. Camoflauge can be useful ;-)

10. What is your favorite neutral color? A soft caramel tan -- Shetland's mioget is always a favorite

11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published? I often change the colors used in a pattern -- autumn hues to purples, for example. There is, actually, a sweater I'd love to make -- the Bohus Large Lace Collar Jacket (fourth from the bottom). But not with the black main color! A nice forest green, maybe. It's just that I'm not comfortable picking the replacement colors myself. I know, it's fair isle -- but for Bohus, I'd do it!

Kristi's color series starts with her Introduction, her own answers to the Meme, and then gets into the meat of color:
Part I: Hue and the Color Wheel
Part II: Color Descriptors I
Part III: Color Descriptors II

So, join the Meme, post your answers, read the color study, and ponder ... as my friend and color artist Renne says, What Hue are You?

**

See the Color tag for a list of Ask The Bellwether posts on Color. See EyeCandy for posts with pretty pictures, and even more on my Flickr account!

www.flickr.com askthebellwether's photos

What changes from spindle to wheel spinning?

When you're spinning with a spindle, you basically set the spindle twirling and draft fiber out. Once it's at arm's length, you stop, wind the new length of yarn on, and repeat. On your standard modern/flyer spinning wheel, your feet pedal to put the twist into the fibers, and the wheel takes the yarn onto the bobbin as you spin, so you don't stop to wind the yarn on - the wheel takes care of that for you.

If you are moving from spinning on a spindle to spinning on a wheel, there are some wheel skills you'll develop -- treadling at just the right speed to keep the wheel going, but not so fast that you spin supercoils; learning to adjust the take-in on the wheel (be it scotch tension, double drive, bobbin brake ...) so that the yarn will come onto the flyer at the speed you want it to, not get ripped out of your hand or just flop around in front of the orifice without winding on.

It's helpful to just treadle the wheel without any fiber on it, for a fair bit of time; grownups are impatient, so they seldom do this for more than 2 minutes; but my kids each did it patiently for hours, and really got their "wheel feet" down before they touched fiber. Figure out how slowly you can treadle and keep the wheel going in the same direction. Master keeping it going clockwise and then master keeping it going counterclockwise. Determine where to stop the treadling so that you can start again without using your hands -- both for the clockwise direction and the counterclockwise direction.

Then play with a really long leader on the bobbin, feeling the tension on the wheel; you should be able to pull the leader back off the bobbin without pulling too hard (unless you're using a woolee winder) and yet also have it wind on if you let it/loosen up your tug a bit.

While we're on the topic of automatic take-up: Sleeping Beauty did not have a modern spinning wheel -- there's nothing on it to prick your finger. She had the pre-flyer wheel, usually called a Great Wheel, with a spindle being driven by the wheel. The spindle can be quite sharp at the end and is ultimately prickable. My great wheel's spindle is protected with a cork when not in use.

Take a look at where your wheel might want oiling; typically the bar the bobbin is on benefits from a bit of oil between bobbin changes. Other parts of the wheel may also want oiling once in a while -- don't forget the hinges on the foot pedals!

One final difference of note ... you won't be able to walk around and wheel spin ;-) so you'll need to master the art of sitting still ... LOL. Movies help. "Ghandi" is a nice, peaceful, loooong movie, I love spinning to that one.

What is that wheel?

Several of you noticed the wheel in my Learning to Spin class description ... this wheel.

It's a Betty Roberts wheel. Pretty, right? Right! It's Aspen wood, an upright "economy" model, with an accelerating wheel built in. Betty always puts resin in, in a variety of colors (mine's purple, of course!), and embeds flowers, grains, and a bumblebee (her trademark) in the wheel. This wheel is double drive only, I'm not sure if that's always the case but I think so.

Others have blogged photos of lovely Betty Roberts wheels:
A day in the life of Sachi
Yarn Girls, they do get Wooly (yes, the green accelerator wheel is the same as the one in Sachi's page! and better yet, I've seen that wheel in person - wowzer)
Another post by the Yarn Girls, more detailed views

There is a Yahoo group for her wheels with a lovely photograph section: SpinningWheels_by_BettyRoberts.

Oh yeah -- it's not for sale, LOL. Just so we're clear on that!

What do you teach in Creative Spinning?

This is my take on "what comes next" after you've learned to spin, handle fiber, and the basics of twist and yarn. Each class is independent of the others, so folks can pick and choose as they like, need, or want.

Taught: October/November 2007 at my LYS (A Dropped Stitch, 360-683-1410)
Teaching again: ply & color, February 2008 at A Dropped Stitch.

This intermediate spinning series covers plying, color, dyeing, technique tips, art yarn and whatever else its students are interested in that we can squeeze in. 4 sessions, 1.5-2.5 hours each, $20 per class includes materials. Students will need to bring: wheel, 2 empty bobbins, niddy-noddy, lazy kate, scissors, pencil/pen, 3x5 cards to save samples on, and items noted for each class; contact me if you’re missing items so I can arrange to have extras on hand.

This is geared to wheel spinners, but could be handled by the avid spindler just fine too.

Session 1: Plying Techniques

• Wraps Per Inch singles -> plied
  
• Cable 4-ply
  
• Navajo 3-ply (aka chain ply)
  
• Thread and commercial eyelash yarn plying
  
• Boucle
  
• Diamond ply
  
• Mixed twist (Z and soft S plied S)
  

Session 2: Color

• Color and texture ‘nub’ yarn
  
• Candystripe and faux cable
  
• Self-striping singles and 2-plies (rolags, cattails, splitting roving)
  
• Novelty methods for color play: coil, ch’oro/snarl, knop/beehive
  
• Fractal plying (color changes playing on one another)
  
• Neutral effects for space-dyed roving
  
• Space dyeing roving
  

Session 3: Technical Details

• bring yarns you want to dissect/copy; and fibers you want advice on
  
• Crimp, WPI, TPI, Twist Angle, grist…
  
• Spinning soft singles
  
• Spinning from the fold
  
• Worsted and woolen
  
• Repeatable yarn, consistent yarn
  
• Dissecting commercial yarn
  
• Correcting yarn
  

Session 4: Art Yarn

• bring handcards if you have them
  
• Garneting for effect
  
• Curly yarn
  
• Fuzzing
  
• Beaded yarn
  
• Spiral bead yarn
  
• Tornado yarn
  
• Fiber sandwich
  
• Felt yarn
  

There are many additional topics we could touch on, such as: skirting, evaluating, and washing fleece; other dye types and dye methods; carding for color; drop spindling; and even more novelty yarns. Advanced spinning would go into spinning more types of fiber than wool – silk, mohair, cotton, camelid (alpaca etc), cashmere, rare sheep breeds. Other advanced topics – long draw, advanced drop spindling, support spindles, charkhas ... the list is endless!

Do you teach a beyond-beginner spinning class? What are the next steps you teach to intermediate spinners? Leave a comment or post suggestions about the classes listed above -- your input is welcome!

How do I know what sheep breed to look for?

By Amelia

There's a great book on the topic of sheep breeds and the uses of their fibers -- In Sheep's Clothing: A Handspinner's Guide to Wool. This book is very useful for spinners and felters, since it shows the fiber, discusses its uses, and also discusses facts such as fleece weight and fiber softness.

The OK State Breeds of Livestock website covers many sheep breeds, but each entry may or may not discuss fiber use.

I noticed under Finnsheep, for example, they mention the micron count (diameter of an individual fiber) but not the use. Here's a table of micron counts and the softness of the fiber that you can use to apply the OK State information to the feel of the fiber.

What I really like about In Sheep's Clothing is that it shows you a picture of the lock -- so you can visually get a feel for crimp and staple length for each breed. But, it doesn't have pictures of the sheep, so I go to OK State if I want to see the actual sheep.

If felting's your thing, see Pat Spark's Favorite Wools for Felting.

There is a German website (in English) of many of the European
sheep breeds at the EAAP Animal Genetic Databank.

Rare Sheep Breeds

If your focus is rare breeds of sheep, The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has a very good website on rare breeds in the USA.

There are many farms working to preserve historical breeds; some on the web that are working to preserve the extremely rare Hog Island Sheep breed are Accokeek, Gunston Hall, and Mt. Vernon.

Interweave Press, publishers of Spin-Off magazine, did project
Save the Sheep, featuring finished projects made from rare breeds from all over the world.

The United Kingdom's Rare Breeds Survival Trust lists the
breeds that are rare in the U.K.
Rare Breeds Canada lists the breeds that are rare or of interest in Canada.

~~

For related topics on this blog, see the Fiber topic.
Also see the entry, Do Soay Sheep really shed their wool?

~~


posted 14 October 2007 at http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/

How do you spin on a notchless spindle?

When a top-whorl spindle doesn't have a notch, it can be tough to control -- as the spindle fills, the yarn that comes around the whorl tends to slip along the edge. Enough that many spindlers have taken triangle files to carve a groove in their spindle. But, that isn't always desirable. Luckily, I know of two other solutions.

Velcro -- put a velcro dot on the edge of the whorl, or somewhere the yarn will go over. You want the toothy side of the velcro, so the yarn will stick to it. This can rough up the yarn a bit, but it does give you a "velcro-notch".

Starter-notch -- there's no formal name for this. But, it's a combination of techniques -- first, you get to see how to start a spindle without a leader; then, you use that "starter" as a notch, albeit a sticking-out notch. This needs pictures, so please see the diagrams in my flickr set, Spinning on a Notchless Spindle:



(click any item for details)
1. fluff out end of fiber supply
2. catch hook in fluffed out end and start twirling
3. keep yarn on hook, wrap new yarn around whorl
4. then around shaft going down shaft
5. then back up making X's
6. then come back through the hook
7. and start to spin again
8. after a few spinnings, the Xs pile up on themselves in a cop.

Click on the picture to be taken to my flickr set -- there is more information in each individual caption, I've only abbreviated things in the list above.

In particular, this style of spinning is terrific for the Victorian silk spindles: the Natalie, the Lady Ann, the Will Taylor Victorian, and the Asciano Lady; those and more of my own silk spindles shown in this picture (for details click on the picture).

To see this tutorial shown on a Natalie silk spindle, see my flickr set, Spinning on the Natalie Spindle.

*

For more Ask The Bellwether posts about spindles, see the Spindles category.

*

Comments or questions on spinning on a notchless spindle? Feel free to comment here, on flickr, or contact me.

Why does my yarn curl up before I wind it on my spindle?

When you take your new length of yarn out from under the spindle's hook, keep a medium tension on the yarn. I usually hold onto the end of the yarn just before the roving with one hand, while the other hand holds the spindle.

If you relax this hold, the yarn will want to wrap around itself along its length, curling up. That is because the fibers want to be in a relaxed state, not holding all the twist you've just put in them. This is a "good thing" -- when you ply, you'll take advantage of this desire of the fibers to twist around each other, to create a strong, balanced yarn.

But when you are winding on, you need to maintain an even tension so ensure that the snarls and curlies don't get into the wound-on yarn ("cop") already on your spindle and make your cop uneven.

If your length of yarn makes this arm's length's hold impossible or even just difficult, use the Peruvian butterfly wind-on to keep your yarn under control while you wind it onto the spindle.

What you will learn to evaluate as you progress in spinning, is whether you have a good amount of twist in your singles based on how you want to use the yarn. The trick is to fold a 4" length back on itself and let it curl naturally -- this shows you what your balanced 2-ply would look like (this is the ply-back test). Do you like it? then you have a good amount of twist in there. Is it really poufy and has an open loop at the bottom? then you could add more twist. Is it really tight, so the twist on itself seems almost cork-screwy? then you might want to take some twist out.

If the fiber is corkscrewing on itself even as singles as you are spinning, then it's extremely high twist -- typically this level of twist is used only in specific circumstances, art yarns, crepe yarns that sort of thing. If you can't put less twist in (that spindle moves awfully darn fast at first!), then take some twist out until the corkscrews disappear. Nothing says you can't unspin your yarn a bit before you wind it on.

*

For other posts about spindles, see the Spindles category (hosted by del.icio.us).

*

Are you just learning to spin on a spindle or wheel? Have a question about what you are seeing or doing? Feel free to post a question in a comment on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

How can I match up color blocks when spinning space-dyed roving?

If your goal is to two-ply the roving, there are several things you can try to bring out the color blocks:

Split the roving lengthwise down the middle, keeping the halves the same thickness. Then, spin both halves the same thickness. Okay, I know, it's hard to split the roving and it's hard to spin consistent singles, but, you can come close this way. Sample cards help alot!

If one color change is taking a while to happen on one bobbin, edit it out -- break off that single and move up to where you want the color to be. I like a little unevenness for heathering/marling between the color changes, but more than a few yards and I'm breaking my single, editing out a bit, and spit-joining the two ends of that single (or actually really joining them, if you can manage it) back together again.

In the picture, the right glove (with the heathered color changes) was spun this way -- with editing! -- and the other was Navajo plied to keep colors separate.

Fractal plying! This technique is described by Janel Laidman in the Summer 2007 Spin-Off; I've done it twice now, and love it. Split your roving in half lengthwise, spin one half onto one bobbin as-is, drafting-drafting, drafting. Take the other half and split it more -- I try to split it into at least 4 pieces lengthwise, then spin those lengths onto a second bobbin. When you ply the two bobbins, you get pleasing color changes where one ply changes more slowly than the other, leading to dominance of the color in the "slower" single -- it looks really cool, like subtle background striping, knit up.

Spin a single. hehe. then you're done. Well, if you want high twist and don't want a single, you could ply with thread. Pick a neutral (white, black, grey), a color from the space-dye that you like, or the transparent quilter's thread. (That last is on my to-do list -- the "invisible ply"!)

The picture shows handspun singles.

I recently watched Patsy Zawitowski's video, "Spinning Textured Yarns". In it, she plies a space-dyed roving with its "perfect neutral". To do this, you take half the roving and blend together all the colors in the roving on your carder until they are all muddied up. Spin half as dyed, spin the other half from this "perfect neutral". It was cool - she showed how that looked, versus plying with other neutrals. I have also plied a space-dyed roving with white, which pales out the colors; black, which darkens them (and can brighten them); and brown, which adds a nice heathery/earthy tone. The picture shows a scarf from yarn where the colors were plied against a dark brown.

Another thing you can do is break the space-dyed roving up into its separate colors, and spin and ply each color separately. Then, you can pick your color changes when you knit. The hat shown here shows what this could look like.

Well, I bet there are more ideas than this even. A Navajo 3-ply is the best way to keep the color changes "clean", or to at least choose how clean you want them to be

*

See earlier posts on this topic and material mentioned here:
How can I preserve color in a 2-ply?
How can I preserve the color in my space-dyed roving when I spin it?
How do you organize your spinning?
Do you want to play with thread?
posts on spinning singles

*

Do you have suggestions on color handling in space-dyed roving, links to interesting samples of this, or questions on the topic? Please post a comment here or contact me. Thanks!

What do you teach in Learning to Spin?

Learning to Spin is a "wheel spinning" class -- I purposely don't touch spindles, because so many people think spindles are those terrible things you're forced to use before the teacher lets you touch your wheels. I'd rather entice people with spindles' portability, after they learn on their wheel (grin!)

Taught: several times in 2007 and 2008 at my LYS (A Dropped Stitch).
Teaching again: Feb/Mar 2008 at A Dropped Stitch.

Session 1: Spin!

In which we learn about fiber, wheels, and spinning singles.

Supplies: 2 oz. medium wool, wheels if needed, Spin-Off handouts.

Topics:

• fiber choice
• staple length
  
• pre-drafting
  
• sample rolled on leg and folded
  
• splitting
  
• oil wheel
  
• get bobbin on wheel
  
• treadling
  
• attaching a leader
  
• draw-in adjustment
  
• attach pre-drafted fiber to leader
  
• hand placement
  
• and go! (spin singles)
  
• joins
  
• thick/thin
  
• removing thick spots
  
• hand placement (check)
  
• sampling for 2-ply
  

Homework: practice singles, spin the remainder of the 2 oz. (leave on bobbin)

Session 2: Real Yarn!

In which we learn about nostepinnes, plying, niddy-noddies and finishing skeins.

Supplies: 2 oz fiber, singles from Session 1, WPI chart, wheels

Topics:

• center pull ball - nostepinne, ball-winder
  
• tensioning a lazy kate
  
• stale singles
  
• balanced 2-ply
  
• skein - niddy-noddy
  
• setting the twist
  
• back to singles -- drafting, amount of twist
  
• WPI chart
  

Homework: spin remaining fiber and ply; finish skeins

Session 3: Sheepness!

In which we round out our knowledge from sheep-to-yarn: raw fleece, washed fleece, carding, combing.

Supplies: sample of raw fleece, washed fleece, commercial top, commercial roving/sliver, batt, drum carder, hand cards, dog slickers, hand combs/diz, wheels

Topics:

• raw fleece sniff test (just joking)
  
• hand carding rolags
  
• spin rolags
  
• hand comb and diz top
  
• spin top
  
• hand card worlags
  
• spin worlags
  
• card a batt
  
• spin batt
  
• if time permits
  • navajo plying
  • worsted/woolen
    

Homework: spin, go to a fiber show, explore!

I've taught this class at my Local Yarn Shop -- it's great fun! In "private session" with new spinners we tend to tailor things as we go, without a formal curriculum. But this still works are a great checklist for me, to make sure I've covered everything.

Lee Raven's "Hands on Spinning" or Anne Field's "The Ashford Book of Spinning" are both great books for learning to spin. A mentor, videos, or a class are a great way to round out learning to spin on a wheel.

The Yahoo groups spinning_camp and Spin-List are helpful places to get your questions answered when learning to spin on a wheel, as is the LiveJournal forum SpinningFiber.

See What do you teach in Beginning Spindling? for information on learning to spindle-spin.

Do you teach wheel spinning? Or have you recently learned? What advice would you offer? Post it in the comments here or contact me. Thanks!