Thursday is the new Wednesday......

Bank Holidays and clock changes have completely disrupted my sense of time!  I thought today was Wednesday until I realised that I was taking Thursday's pills - thank goodness that the manufacturers of medication considered it beneficial to mark the days of the week on the reverse side of their packaging - otherwise some weeks I really wouldn't know what day of the week I was currently in.....

So Woolly Thursday - the last month has been particularly productive and in Mr S's opinion rather expensive...

I acquired my much longed for Schacht Matchless, traded in my basic drum carder for a Ashford wide carder and discovered the joy if spinning woollen from faux rolags (or punis) from the results of my colour blending on the drum carder - that's quite a lot of experiences for one month IMHO....

First the Matchless - I had been lusting, for more that a year, for what many consider to be the Rolls Royce of spinning wheels and I haven't been disappointed it really does to what it says on the tin - super smooth easy to treadle (obviously mine is a single treadle) and I have producing some really super yarn on her

These tweedy yarns, inspired by Jared Flood's Loft, were blended and carded on my new wide carder, then rolled into punis and spun woollen, I call them my Mossy Wood Tweed Collection............... delusions of grandeur?

I also spun some of my finest yarn on her - a silk and camel blend dyed in a aubergine colour which I have called Brinjal.

I have also discovered that this particular silk and camel blend is much better paint dyed rather than kettle dyed - I think it must be something to do with the way the silk snatches the dye before the camel. Brinjal was kettle dyed and this one Peacock I spaced dyed, but I do love the way the silk gives such a lovely sheen to the yarn........

Finally for this blend I tried adding nupps - this time rather than the commercial ones I cut up some tweedy yarn and added that to the mix of Mocha and Blaze from the WOW.  In fact the nupps are so well blended you have trouble seeing where they are - the test now is to see if they pop out when I spin the punis.

There's a hole in my yarn pot Dear 'Liza a Hole!

Picture the scene I am sat happily carding on my new wide carder, Mr S is contently watching cycling on the TV and on the stove my yarn pot is gently coming up to a simmer.  The cat is gently snoring on the arm of my chair (her preferred place is my wheelchair is occupied) and the log burner is keeping the room at a ambient temperature.  Afternoon tea has just been served so all is harmony and in nearly every way everything is generally perfect, and fairly productive (well Mr S isn't actually doing anything!)

Then from the stove comes a very loud hissing noise as water vapourises - immediate thought is that the pot has boiled over - tragedy, but no - not not even near to boiling!  Investigation finds that there is a hole in the side of my pot, the size of a pin prick but enough for water to be pouring out - gaffer tape doesn't seal the hole and the water is too hot for me to safely remove the fibre without risking some felting!  Nightmare - I can't be certain that the dye has set on the fibre, although the water gradually seeping into the hob is almost clear.... 

Now this wasn't the most expensive of stock pots, possibly around £20 at a well known Swedish store.... but not heavily used and certainly not thrown around and dented in any way.  Immediate reaction is 'how much is a new one going to cost?'  Then whilst looking in another well known DIY store for something to dissolve super glue I came upon some epoxy putty for metal.

I have mixed, and applied and am now waiting to see whether I have achieved a repair - fingers crossed. Quick update - it worked! !

But why was I looking for something to dissolve super glue?  Well some bright spark has super-glued a distaff into a spinning wheel as well as nailing the Mother of All!!

This is a lovely little wheel that I am doing a bit of restoration work on for a friend - its probably a flax wheel, but I am not 100% sure on that!

It does spin despite all that the previous owners have put it through.  The wheel has been well covered in varnish, both the uprights that form the Mother of All have been nailed and the leather orifice support split as it was completely dried out.  But we did managed to spin a little - with me holding the leather together. New leather and a bit of TLC will probably see this sweetie spinning very fine......

The observant will have noticed my passing mention of a new wide carder - brownie points for those who did!  Well truth be told I haven't been a great user of my drum carder, as I never, until now, enjoyed spinning woollen.  But all has changed thanks to Fibrefrog - who patiently took me through the process of producing a fibre puni or a faux rolag - I prefer puni................

Punis are usually made for cotton spinning, but it is possible to make wool fibre punis using a puni stick made from a wooden dowel by. who else but Mr S.

These are my puni sticks the smaller one is 15mm and the other larger one is 25mm, I also have a 12mm one (well if you have a wood turner for a husband you might as well make good use of his skills).

Preparing punis for woollen spinning - first card some fibre - I have been blending to get a tweed effect

This are the colours for Bramble Wood Tweed, which I carded 4 times making sure that I had some little silk nupps as I went

Then I made punis you need a grippy surface, this is D-C-Fix which you put in drawers and the like to stop things slipping around

First roll the fibre around the puni stick one and half to two times then holding the fibre down with the right hand gently pull the fibre apart 

and then roll the fibre around the stick making sure that all the ends are well rolled in

like this....

some finished punis

And here are lots punis waiting to be spun

The finished yarn