Yesterday, when I went to purchase drive band for my wheel I walked into the store to find everyone spinning and, they were all wearing aprons. I looked at the aprons and noticed they were all of a dark colour.
This serves 2 purposes. Keeping the broken fibres or nubs in one place in your lap, not all over the couch, chair or floor and, to provide a dark contrast background for any pale fibre being spun. I noticed this mostly last night when I changed into other pants and they were patterned. Then I remembered I have a black apron which I dug and has now been promoted from being an apron taking up space in the linen cupboard, to actually being used for something useful.
My apron also has pockets in it where I can put my flick carder rather than leaving it laying on the couch. I spin while sitting on the couch as sitting on our dining room chairs is not an option due to physical inability to sit on them for long periods as I have a total left hip replacement.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Tips and tricks
Well I never thought that I would be writing tips and tricks for spinning on a wheel, but here we are.
Don't you just hate it when you are spinning quite happily and you are suddenly waving bye-bye to the end disappearing into the wheel orifice? I know that I do. Until today, if I couldn't find the end I would have broken a thread and unwound the bobbin.
If you lose the end as I just did into the orifice; start treading in the opposite direction at a very very fast pace for about 30 seconds. Check your bobbin for the end. Repeat until you find it. I learned this today and was a bit dubious when I heard it, however I just tried it and well, it worked!
The things that you learn when you head into your favourite spinning supply store to purchase a drive band.
Don't you just hate it when you are spinning quite happily and you are suddenly waving bye-bye to the end disappearing into the wheel orifice? I know that I do. Until today, if I couldn't find the end I would have broken a thread and unwound the bobbin.
If you lose the end as I just did into the orifice; start treading in the opposite direction at a very very fast pace for about 30 seconds. Check your bobbin for the end. Repeat until you find it. I learned this today and was a bit dubious when I heard it, however I just tried it and well, it worked!
The things that you learn when you head into your favourite spinning supply store to purchase a drive band.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Current Project - Unknown fleece - Stage 1
A few months ago while at an SCA Fibre Guild gathering at Tina's house, she handed me a large plastic bag of fleece. Not sure what I was going to do with it, it was unceremoniously put aside and kept on getting moved around until I decided it was in my way and that I had to do something with it.
We don't actually know what breed the sheep is. It is definitely a long wool breed as the locks are just over 25cm (10") long. The closest that I could find in The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook (Robson and Ekarius, 2011) is a Wenseleydale. The description and colour range match the pictures and description in the book.
Now I have only ever processed a couple of fleeces before so I knew that I had to soak and wash it before I could do anything with it, so into the bath tub it went. Warm water, half a bottle of regular hair shampoo and a jolly good soak. With some gentle agitating to break out the dirt, urine and goop; rinse and repeat several times, the fleece came out pretty good.
Once dried, I started pulling locks out and sorting them into length and colour. Sadly, this is not my strong point and I could do with some more practice at this.
I have picked approximately half the fleece into locks and stored them in cardboard boxes. The unpicked fleece is currently living in a large pink plastic box that has no lid. It just makes it easy to move.
Due to the fleece being a long wool, it is perfect for Viking Wool Combs, however as I have been slack and now unemployed, I do not have the funds to purchase either the finished combs, nor the materials to make them. I did try a hair comb but that didn't produce the fibre that I was wanting. So another strategy had to be used to prepare the fibres for spinning. A flick carder was the answer. Now I do have one of these. The flick carder produces a soft fluffy, mostly parallel lock for spinning. This would allow me to create a semi-worsted yarn. Flick carding will not remove all of the really short hairs as a wool comb would, but it does remove some, so the yarn is not as spiky as it could possibly be.
So then the next thing was, how do I spin it? That was answered by my hubby. "On a wheel so that it is done sooner."
Who am I spinning it for? Pretty early in the process I decided to spin it up and give it back to Tina as a finished product. This then had a part in how I was going to spin it. Tina is a stickler for authenticity and required me to crack out the book Textile and Clothing 1150 - 1450 from The Museum of London. Page 26 states that "mixed spinning (Z spun warp / S spun weft) where all the fibres lay in the same direction when woven, produces a firmer cloth suitable for raising a nap and for other types of finishing.
I figured this would be a good process. As I am flick carding, there is a 'waste' amount of fibre that is being put into a container. I will card this with paired cards later and S spin it for the weft threads.
As a consequence, this fleece will not be plied and will remain as singles ready for weaving.
We don't actually know what breed the sheep is. It is definitely a long wool breed as the locks are just over 25cm (10") long. The closest that I could find in The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook (Robson and Ekarius, 2011) is a Wenseleydale. The description and colour range match the pictures and description in the book.
Now I have only ever processed a couple of fleeces before so I knew that I had to soak and wash it before I could do anything with it, so into the bath tub it went. Warm water, half a bottle of regular hair shampoo and a jolly good soak. With some gentle agitating to break out the dirt, urine and goop; rinse and repeat several times, the fleece came out pretty good.
 |
| Half of the washed fleece |
Once dried, I started pulling locks out and sorting them into length and colour. Sadly, this is not my strong point and I could do with some more practice at this.
I have picked approximately half the fleece into locks and stored them in cardboard boxes. The unpicked fleece is currently living in a large pink plastic box that has no lid. It just makes it easy to move.
Due to the fleece being a long wool, it is perfect for Viking Wool Combs, however as I have been slack and now unemployed, I do not have the funds to purchase either the finished combs, nor the materials to make them. I did try a hair comb but that didn't produce the fibre that I was wanting. So another strategy had to be used to prepare the fibres for spinning. A flick carder was the answer. Now I do have one of these. The flick carder produces a soft fluffy, mostly parallel lock for spinning. This would allow me to create a semi-worsted yarn. Flick carding will not remove all of the really short hairs as a wool comb would, but it does remove some, so the yarn is not as spiky as it could possibly be.
 |
| Flick carded lock with cut end to the right. |
Who am I spinning it for? Pretty early in the process I decided to spin it up and give it back to Tina as a finished product. This then had a part in how I was going to spin it. Tina is a stickler for authenticity and required me to crack out the book Textile and Clothing 1150 - 1450 from The Museum of London. Page 26 states that "mixed spinning (Z spun warp / S spun weft) where all the fibres lay in the same direction when woven, produces a firmer cloth suitable for raising a nap and for other types of finishing.
I figured this would be a good process. As I am flick carding, there is a 'waste' amount of fibre that is being put into a container. I will card this with paired cards later and S spin it for the weft threads.
As a consequence, this fleece will not be plied and will remain as singles ready for weaving.
My introduction to spinning
My husband asked me to start this blog as a way of documenting the stuff that I do regarding fibre arts. I am a member of the SCA is Australia. Within the society I am Juliana de Northwood, a mid-rank fencer, I spin and I am known to be outspoken and tell people when they are being dumb or stupid.
Mundanely I am Alonya Cullinan, unemployed administrator and scuba instructor, support person and friend. I am a kiwi who migrated (awesome for a flightless bird) to Australia for a boy and I am loving it here.
I have been spinning on my own for roughly 14 years. I went to a group event in Wellington, New Zealand and I saw my friend Catherine Wellington with her homemade drop spindle. I had wanted to learn to spin since I was a kid when I was given a beautiful Ashford Traditional wheel. Sadly, I didn't have the brain space for it and the person who tried in vain to teach me gave up. I think I ended up giving that first wheel away. Stupid of me.
So Catherine and all her patience taught me how to spin on her homemade spindle. We were sitting in the little hall on a bench and she showed me how to 'dress' the spindle and, the basic mechanics of spinning. She lent me a spare spindle and gave me a good length of commercially prepared fibres and off I went. The rest is history.
My journey didn't stop there. I knew that I would have to give the spindle back to her so I set out trying to find one as I didn't have the skills or knowledge to make one. A trip to Golding's Handcrafts in Wellington turned up an Ashford Classic Spindle (90gm), a commercially prepared Romney fleece and a niddy-noddy for about $65.
I didn't know what the best yarn was to use for a 'leader' so I looked through all my knitting yarn and found a length of pure wool, 8 ply. What a disaster. It slipped all over the place, I kept dropping the spindle and nothing I did worked. So I split the yarn and used only 2 strands of it. I was hooked. It took me quite a while to get through that fleece. Probably a couple of years, as I was so bad at it, I couldn't get more than a 25 meters yarn on the spindle. Hence why it took me a while.
In early 2000, I found an Ashford Traditional wheel in a second hand store for $30. So I bought it, and took it home. I had no idea how a wheel worked. A phone call to Catherine to organise a lesson and a few days later hey presto, I was off and running. I loved my wheel and was using it at every available opportunity. I even took it to jousting tourneys, events and to people's houses when we were doing arts and sciences gatherings.
I have loved spinning ever since that first day spinning with Catherine. I am grateful to her for her patience and knowledge. She lent me books, gave me pointers, showed me fun stuff and shared her passion. She has introduced me to this whole new world and I have been stuck here ever since.
Loni
Mundanely I am Alonya Cullinan, unemployed administrator and scuba instructor, support person and friend. I am a kiwi who migrated (awesome for a flightless bird) to Australia for a boy and I am loving it here.
I have been spinning on my own for roughly 14 years. I went to a group event in Wellington, New Zealand and I saw my friend Catherine Wellington with her homemade drop spindle. I had wanted to learn to spin since I was a kid when I was given a beautiful Ashford Traditional wheel. Sadly, I didn't have the brain space for it and the person who tried in vain to teach me gave up. I think I ended up giving that first wheel away. Stupid of me.
So Catherine and all her patience taught me how to spin on her homemade spindle. We were sitting in the little hall on a bench and she showed me how to 'dress' the spindle and, the basic mechanics of spinning. She lent me a spare spindle and gave me a good length of commercially prepared fibres and off I went. The rest is history.
 |
| My original Ashford Classic Spindle |
I didn't know what the best yarn was to use for a 'leader' so I looked through all my knitting yarn and found a length of pure wool, 8 ply. What a disaster. It slipped all over the place, I kept dropping the spindle and nothing I did worked. So I split the yarn and used only 2 strands of it. I was hooked. It took me quite a while to get through that fleece. Probably a couple of years, as I was so bad at it, I couldn't get more than a 25 meters yarn on the spindle. Hence why it took me a while.
In early 2000, I found an Ashford Traditional wheel in a second hand store for $30. So I bought it, and took it home. I had no idea how a wheel worked. A phone call to Catherine to organise a lesson and a few days later hey presto, I was off and running. I loved my wheel and was using it at every available opportunity. I even took it to jousting tourneys, events and to people's houses when we were doing arts and sciences gatherings.
I have loved spinning ever since that first day spinning with Catherine. I am grateful to her for her patience and knowledge. She lent me books, gave me pointers, showed me fun stuff and shared her passion. She has introduced me to this whole new world and I have been stuck here ever since.
Loni
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