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

Playing with my two new toys.........to make Apple Snow!

After all the excitement of getting the new wheel last week life has been a little tame, except for Andy Murray and Peter Norfolk getting through to their finals in Australian Grand Slam, that is.

Over the weekend I ordered a new sliding hook flyer kit and a drum carder 'Packer Brush' from the HandSPinner which was a good move as I heard this week that Ashford are putting up their prices again, and this after quite a big increase back in November!! The cost of wheels are going up around £40 and even a bobbin is going up £1.....




I digress, the new toys arrived Tuesday afternoon and both were soon in action.

First I had been inspired by Peahen's Wheatfield colourway. She had blended cheesecake and white merino with silk and it looked gorgeous. I am not that keen on yellow, so I dug around in my stash and found a pale green which I thought would make a nice blend.



I managed to get 78grams of well blended merino and silk (it is really harder to get the silk to blend in invisibly)which I have called Apple Snow as it reminds me of a pudding my grandmother used to make from cooking apples and meringue



This I spun on the Trad with the new flyer. Pleased with the result, although I am finding it hard to move the squeeze and slide stainless steel yarn guides. Not sure whether this because it is new, or that I am not squeezing right - or what? No doubt practice will improve the technique over time.

Anyway here is the result.


166 yards of yarn from just under 80 grams of fibre (the 88 grams in the pic is due to the ties) although it isn't as even as I would have liked. Two reasons:
1) Carding the fibres produced quite a lot of little blobs (a bit like when knitting is roughed up) which I should taken a picture of. This meant that I had to keep stopping and removing said blobs from the twisted yarn - tedious to say the least!
2) I am not sure whether I had then tension right on the Trad for the new flyer. There appeared to be too little twist once the yarn was on the bobbin and in some places the yarn was very loose, so when I plied I had to make quite a few joins although you can't see them in the pic, but you can see the untwisted yarn...

I think that I shall take the Trad down to the Spinning evening next Monday and see what Sarah has to say - there are so many variables to consider.

Next week I am going to take the Trad to pieces so that it can be sanded down ready for its new coat.....