Category: Spin Page 60 of 69

Laces

On 8 Dec, 2006

I started spinning on my new Matchless this past weekend. No more clunking and rattling that I experienced with my old Matchless. Ah…peace and quiet. Except…wait! Why isn’t it drawing in? No matter how I adjust the scotch tension, it sometimes just refused to draw in. It felt as if some fiber was caught somewhere, and the twist doesn’t travel all the way to my drafting triangle. But it doesn’t happen all the time.

More research … I notice that this only happens when I use the hooks on the left side of the flyer, but doesn’t happen when I use the hooks on the right. I don’t see anything specifically, so … I think there is a burr in the orifice that only occurs when the yarn is drawing in from the left side of the orifice. My fingers are too fat to find the burr.

lacing

Then I remembered a tip that Judith showed me — lacing the yarn from side to side. This now has the yarn traveling through the orifice at the correct angle.

Lacing is useful when you are spinning a really fine yarn, and you want to reduce the take up. Why would you want to reduce the lace up? Reducing the take up allows you more time to put the twist that you need for a really fine yarn before the yarn winds on.

Lacing only works for spinning wheels whose hooks are on the same face of the flyer, such as the Majacrafts. This doesn’t work on the Ashford wheels, unless you add some more cup hooks on the flyer.

For now? I don’t need the extra time for the reason stated above. I need the extra time until weekend, when I can dig in the garage for my set of fine metal files and fix that darn burr.

Spinning Batts

By Ann

On 5 Dec, 2006

In Spin, Technique

After pulling out my haul on Sunday, I suddenly couldn’t resist the bright, cheery, fluffy, not to mention Christmas-y, corriedale batts from Grafton Fibers. I had purchased 2 red batts. The observant amongst you will have noticed that the batts are different. They had the same red base, but one had been carded with black, and the other a sunny orange. My plan was to spin each as a single and ply them together.

The question was, how to I approach this vision of loveliness? I unrolled the snail (but not the rolag), and saw that there was a color progression from one end of the rolag to the other. I wanted to preserve the color progression.

rolag stripped batt I started to attenuate the rolag so I can spin off one end. But I wasn’t getting as much control over the fiber as I wished, and I was afraid that I was going to muddy the progression of colors. That I definitely didn’t want.

So, I unrolled the rolag and stripped the batt into a single long strip of roving. (See diagram at right) I carefully tore into the batt along the dotted lines to make a continuous strip.

Not only did this provide me with a long continuous strip of roving that preserved my color progression, but this also kept the fibers mostly aligned for a semi-worsted yarn. The rolag would have resulted in a pure woolen yarn.

I didn’t measure the widths of my strips, but just swagged it. If you want really even roving, you would want to pull it from a diz. For large batts like this, I usually make a really thick roving by pulling it through the hole in a CD. Again, by turning at each edge, you can get a long continuous roving.

I didn’t do that this time. I was too impatient. I wanted to spin RIGHT NOW. So, I spun both batts on my Matchless, and plied them up on Sunday night. Approximately 350 yards of beautiful red dk/worsted weight yarn. I even washed it to set the twist.

All before I went to bed on Sunday night. I paid for it on Monday morning. I was so groggy in the morning that I accidentally washed my hair with body wash instead of shampoo. Then I couldn’t understand why it was taking me so long to rinse the shampoo out. It just kept getting more and more sudsy. Threw my entire day off, I assure you.

But now, I get to figure out a scarf pattern for this lovely red yarn.

SOAR, Sore, and Conspicuous Consumption

By Ann

On 6 Nov, 2006

In Spin

I went…I spent…and I’m sore. Okay. Disclaimer. My left shoulder (my drafting arm) was already in mild pain before I went to SOAR, but it really went into full gear while I was up there. It didn’t help that I forgot to pack the new bottle of Advil. I only had enough Advil to last one day. This afternoon, I cried uncle, or rather Annie…my acupuncturist. I now have the Gwyneth Paltrow look on my back. I have never heard of cupping before this evening, but I have to tell you, I have movement in my shoulder again. It still hurts, but I think it’s going to take several therapy sessions to fully recover from abusing myself and ignoring treatment for so long.

SOAR was marvelous. It’s always marvelous when you get to spend extended time with so many talented people who are passionate about fiber arts. I’ve attended Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat for several years now, so I thought that I’d know what to expect. But, WOW! SOAR is in a much bigger and grander scale. Don’t get me wrong. I still love Madrona’s retreat (and I will definitely be up at the crack of dawn later this week to register). It’s much more intimate, and because it’s primarily a regional retreat, you get to know everyone, at least by sight. But the international talent that was present at SOAR was amazing. Apples and Oranges, but delicious nonetheless.

I arrived at SOAR late on Wednesday evening so that I can be there when the market opened the next morning. As it turns out, it was an excellent idea. Have you ever seen a shark feeding frenzy on the Discovery channel? That’s what it was like. I was surprised that a fisticuff didn’t break out. The vendors were picked clean of the prize bounties by 1000 (the booths opened at 0900). Lines were close to an hour long at Rovings.

So, what did I come home with? I’m too embarrassed to show pictures of the fibers in the back of my staionwagon. Let’s just say that I did my bit to help pay down the national debt.Â So much that I backed my stationwagon into the driveway so that Penny wouldn’t see my haul as I unloaded my car.

I will say that I came home with something that I had planned to get for some months now — a new Lendrum Spinning Wheel. Much as I like my Schacht Matchless, it does weigh a ton, and it can’t go on an airplane. The Lendrum can fit into a large hardsided suitcase and go as checked luggage.

But I didn’t come home with just ONE spinning wheel…no, I came home with TWO. Before y’all worry whether I can afford my Annie’s Mac & Cheese for the rest of the month, the second was free. Sort of. My Matchless was acting up. When I arrived at SOAR and settled in for some relaxing spinning, I felt this clunking thing going on. I took it to Cindy at the Schacht booth. She looked at it, worked on it, but it still wasn’t right. On Saturday, she flagged me down and said that she’d swap her demo wheel with mine — straight across. There was something too strange with my wheel and she was going to take it home and do an autopsy on it. (Cindy — I’m SO going to take you sailing when you come to the Bay Area next!)

So, hardware wise, I came home with 2 spinning wheels, 2 spindles (plus the one I took up with me), 3 nalbinding needles, and a little wood frame loom. There. That doesn’t sound so bad. As long as I don’t list the fiber that I had to buy to pad my spinning wheels in my stationwagon. You know, so they don’t get damaged coming back down the hill.