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

Danish Oil, the hidden allergen

Back in December I introduced Hiawatha the Indian Spinner that I am restoring.  Well I wasn't very happy with the finish!  I had only given it a light sand and then used a wood balsam which I had imagined would be enough, but it wasn't the finish that I had envisaged.  If you looked hard you could still see where the varnish had been - so back to basics.

Wax and varnish remover and several hours of sanding and I am now getting back to the bare wood (which is pine) which isn't too bad considering that the previous owner had liberally covered the wheel in several coats of the retched varnish which unfortunately hadn't prevented water damage to the legs.....

It does look worse than it is, and a good sanding has removed a lot of the surface damage and I am determined to take my time and do a good job this time!

But what to use - most of the knowledgeable spinners on Ravelry use Danish Oil, mainly I think because it contains some wax, so giving a deep shine while also nourishing the wood.  But, and here's the rub, it contains Tung Oil which comes from the Tung Tree (Vernicia fordii ) or the China Wood Oil Tree.  The oil is made by pressing the seed from the nut and is a drying oil, that is one that hardens on exposure to air.  Note this - it comes from a nut!  I had an allergic reaction to this oil, a serious asthma attack not just a bit of a wheeze but a full blown gasping to breath type attack - not good.

So what else - a bit of research into the subject of drying oils reveals that most of the propriety brands of oil contain tung oil - gun oil is red root oil, but I can't find out what red root oil is exactly - it is used on the stock of guns and seems to give a red finish - so not really what I want for my spinning wheel.

At the moment I am trying Lemon Oil, which comes Lemon Grass, not the Lemon Tree!

One of the methods recommended was to use a very fine steel wool 0000 grade or more and apply wax three times wiping with white spirit in between each wax - thought that this sounded a good method, so this morning I decided to clean and polish the new to me Haldane bobbins for my Orkney(a recent Ebay purchase) and although the results are pretty good I need to wait for the very fine wool and remember to let the wax dry - between applications which should eliminate the need to buff!

The one on the left is the cleaned and waxed one - hope it shows!