Goodbye and Hello

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster for me having come to the end of my wheel rationalization program agreed with Mr S!

Last week saw the arrival of my new Matchless, the previous week my re-furbed Traddie and old Matchless went to new homes and this week I waved goodbye to three more old friends - my bent-wood Herring - Francis, my not sure who made it wheel, Nellie because I thought she look like a baby elephant and my Country Spinner Hiawatha.  The house is looking quite bereft in my opinion, although Mr S is very happy to have some spare space that isn't occupied by a spinning wheel!

Tuesday morning saw all three safely strapped into my car as I headed to Sheffield to hand them over - and I was feeling very righteous indeed.  But I noticed an advert on Revelry - someone in Wakefield was selling a Journey Wheel, well Wakefield is only 21 miles from Meadowhall in Sheffield!

Can't turned down a Challenge

This week has been pretty busy - coffee with friends old (Ann) and new (Sarah) on Wednesday, Guild on Thursday and on Friday my new Matchless arrived.............

This is Demelza Two - so named because my previous Matchless (who is going to live on the Isle of Islay) was called Molly by her previous owners - but my beautiful cat is called Molly and you can't have two Mollies!  My Molly being a pedigree Persian has a proper name which is Demelza Ivory, so my Matchless became Demelza and the new one Demelza Two!

Wednesday was a meeting of like minds, and more of yarn, knit and show with coffee and cake on the side.  Ann like me is fond of pink and had recently been bemoaning the fact that there just wasn't enough pink in the shop updates of late.  Sarah had recently acquired some Madtosh in Pop Rocks, a very in your face hot pink, which she brought alone for us to drool over!  For those who thinks pink is pink think again!  I had taken along some Magenta dyed yarn - and it was so not Pop Rocks

Pop Rocks

Lampre

Now I know that monitors can vary but I hope that the difference is obvious - Pop Rocks is a hot pink and Lampre is a cool pink - or Pop Rocks is leans towards the hot reds and Lampre to the cool blues on the colour wheel.  So naturally I had to try dyeing some hot pinks!

Top left is a Salmon Pink and nothing like I wanted, but the right hand two are definitely hot pinks, whilst bottom left is a little too red! In real life they are much closer to the hot pink I was after than perhaps this photo shows.....

Another challenge was, again pink, to produce shades of, in a similar way to these dinky balls of yarn

These are a BFL/Silk yarn, each ball is approx 130 metres and the colour/shade/hue gets lighter with each ball.  Of course this would be much easier if I had six 100gram skeins that I could use.  But I really don't want six sets of the same colour!  So I had to base my calculations on one sixth of 100 - 16.6666grams which gives very nearly 130 metres when using a 800 metre of lace weight yarn.

Here are the first nine using a 1:10 solution of Aubergine.

Gradient Aubergine

This is getting quite addictive - here's the next batch this time just three in Bubblegum Pink!

Sun came out and so did the dye pots

After the miserable weather of the last two months March is definitely not coming in as a ram, rather more of a lamb! The sun and a gentle breeze encouraged me to get the dyes and pots for session replenishing my yarn stash.

For this I have been concentrating on repeatable colours - the single skeins are all very well but I have loads of one skein colourways, but not enough for a sweater/cardi type project - and there are lots and lots of super patterns on Ravelry.  I need sweater quantities not sock skeins - hence the need for repeatable colours.

Sanquinea, Grasshopper and Damson Jam

These three are just that

Blue Dungarees

And this

But for a sweater I should really dye all the skeins at the same time, that is going to require a larger container!

I have calculated that one skein needs between 3 and 4 litres of water so to dye 5 skeins I am going to need a container that holds at least 20 litres to allow for free movement of the yarn.  What I need is a Baby Burco like the one I had years ago and no longer have!  Why did I get rid of such a useful item - this is where hindsight is a wonderful thing - if I had known all those years ago that I would be dyeing yarn in quantities I would have kept it!

I was looking at tea urns - they come in a variety of sizes, have a simmer feature and seem to be cheaper than the Baby Burco, but will they stand up to dyeing yarn! Need to look into the various options....

Then there were the pinks

Lampre, Sweet Dogwood and Almandine

The one on the right was supposed to be more a raspberry jam colour, but turned out more red than pink - need to adjust the quantities in that one, but other two were just what I expected and wanted!

And this one in a sparkle yarn

Any Old Iron?

Recently I went along to the Gwent Guild's Solar Dyeing Workshop - not to take part (too late for that) but just to sit in!  There I bought some Birch Bark - which according to my books should give a pink colour - really disappointed over this one - not a hint of pink, more a honey colour!

Birch Bark

Mr S says I should stick to what I do best, but I am forever the optimist, one day I will get the colour it says in the book, I will..............

The Time has come!

Much as I love all my wheels, some just aren't getting the attention they deserve, so much as it grieves me I have done a deal with Mr S and am going to find new homes for some, just some!

Well the deal does included the purchase, for our 25th Wedding Anniversay - yes 25 years he has put up with me and me him - a new Schacht Matchless.

I heard on Sunday that she is currently at Manchester Customs waiting for clearance - so excited, but sad! I don't want to spin on the old one now, did the last lot of plying on Sunday evening, some spectacular Rambouillet from Juliespins, but now I am just like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for the call to say she on her way!

Queen of Darkness from Juliespins

But then to the pact/deal with Mr S!!  Here I have had to make some hard decisions - which to sell and which are keepers!  The Herring Alpha and my Haldane Orkney are stayers - no way will I part with those two, and of course my Joy - everyone needs a travel wheel don't they? My Hansen stays - this one is my insurance against total loss of movement. Miss Bliss stays and the Haldane Shetland is going to stay with a lot of other Haldane wheels in Edinburgh to learn some manners! 

So that leaves me with the other Herring (the bent wood one), Nellie, the Easy Spin with its new flyer, Hiawathia the country spinner, and the Louet lookalike, and two home made wheels and two SWSO which may or may not spin one day.

Mr S wants Louet to copy, so she stays for a while at least!  Which means I shall only have eight wheels left, which according to most people is seven too many!  Well that's a matter of opinion -  the Matchless is my sitting room wheel, and Miss Bliss my window wheel, both very necessary, the Joy goes out and about, the others just are stayers.

Never need to warp again....

Last night as Mr S was out with his model railway buddies I watch Norman Kennedy's 'From Wool to Waulking' DVD from Interweave.

What a revelation!  I had been put off by the reference to waulking (the Gaelic for fulling) the cloth on which subject I have nearly been bored to tears by the articles in Yarnmaker.  But the waulking comes right at the end, the rest is focused on the real stuff - choosing your fleece, preparation, spinning and weaving and it was at the weaving the eureka moment occurred.

Warping a loom is, to my mind, the most time consuming and tedious processes, very necessary but back breaking stuff.  Also the process for which the old weavers didn't get paid for directly.  Here I can only speak for the Wiltshire weavers, particularly those in working in the mills in Bradford-on-Avon.  The account books show that the men were not paid for the actual warping, which on complicated warps could take a whole day sometimes more!

Enough of the history lesson!  Bearing in mind that this shortcut only works if you are weaving a similar warp and width - instead of removing the whole piece from the loom, Norman cut the warp in front of the woven cloth and before the warp enter heddle.  These threads he tied off ready for the next warp to be attached and pulled through! Pure Genius......................    

Floundering under a sea of wips..

Not as Mr S thought a bit of S&M with whips, but works in progress..........

As I sat knitting yesterday afternoon watching both GB Curling teams lose to Sweden I realised that despite a not too rigidly self-imposed rule that something must come off the needles before casting on again, once more I have far too many wips!

There are three sweaters, one sock that needs a second, five shawls, one I think will be frogged despite it being a Winter Ravelympics challenge, because I have decided that I really don't like lace in a sport-weight yarn!!  Then there are the two strings of bunting, one for Fibre East and the other for our caravan pitch during the Tour de France - that's the all the knitting I think!

When it comes to spinning, there are the bobbins of spun singles waiting to be plied - eight in total! In my defence two are waiting for a second suitable single (possibly silk) to be plied with. 

Now when I say bobbins what I really mean, in some cases, is the insides of toilet rolls, practical but not pretty!

Just some of the 'bobbins'!

Here again Mr S is coming to the rescue!  The 'bobbin' on the right is the first of many bobbins in softwood that Mr S is making for me - very simple, no bushes just a a wooden tube with ends, very practical - I just need more!

In fact he is, as I write, in the process of making me a bobbin winder which will free up the proper bobbins, but he is waiting on the bearings which were 'out of stock' and are now on back order!  More on the winder at a later date!!!

But for today I reveal his latest creation...............

The KleverKate with four Schacht Bobbins

............. the KleverKate!  This is the second KleverKate he has made, the first, based on a picture she found on the web was made for a friend.  It was far more complicated and included a tensioning device, which the recipient found to be unnecessary and an extra that just cluttered up the base.  By removing that bit, there is plenty of room for the fourth bobbin and threading the singles through the eyes creates enough tension for plying!  This one is in Sweet Chestnut and Heated Ash!

Good news - five of my wips found new homes on Saturday and they were the five Blending Boards made for the members of the SpinDyeWeavers...

Rough Cut Boards ready for sanding!

Boards on Parade!

Ready for the cloth to be stapled

 

Packed in the box and ready to go!

I was really pleased that I managed to find the perfect box for the boards, at a Model Railway Exhibition of all places!  These are made for Laurie Griffin who sells his brass etched loco kits in them and he was kind enough to sell, at cost, five boxes!  As each board was identical I offered an etching service,and the girls happily played with my pyrography pen to create their own individual designs - cats, frogs, sheep and hares now adorn the boards!

 

 

 

Picture from Fibrefrog on Rav.

Would you believe that when I was sorting through my stash in search of an elusive ball of yarn I discovered that I have a warp ready to go on the loom! 

Which way is the right way?

This January I have been giving some much needed tlc to some unloved wheels

Back before Christmas I nabbed this Haldane Shetland on Ebay

The poor wheel had at some time been kept in a damp place, because there were water marks on the treadle and the maidens protruded out of the mother-of-all far too much!  So I let her sit in a corner away from the heat for a few weeks.  This seemed to work as the maidens could be settled further into the MOA, so time for some tlc.

From the brochure shown here the Haldane Shetland came either stained and polished for £78.90 or plain and sanded for £71.50! Mine was the cheaper plain and sanded!!

It was pretty obvious that very little polish had been applied to this poor wheel the wood look dead and felt rough to the touch, but a clean, a light sand and a re-wax has made all the difference - the wood shines.

Before

After

All the rough bits are now as smooth as a baby's bottom and the uprights are now sitting flush with the MOA

So to spin, well it was like treadling treacle - a Shetland owning friend had a go, and she couldn't spin on her either, so I took my Shetland to meet her little cousin.

Left: Mark 1 Flyer - Right: Mark 2 Flyer

When I put her flyer and whorl on my wheel there was no problem and we were spinning effortlessly clockwise!  All very strange indeed!  Then it was suggested by an Haldane owner on Ravelry that she might be a left-hand or plying wheel and low and behold she spins anti-clockwise like a dream.

So what makes a wheel a lefty?  I was given to understand that if I put a flyer with the hooks on the right - like this one from my Orkney all would be normal.

Not so, which is really strange because the other Shetland flyer work clockwise - now it seems that my little Shetland only wants to spin anti-clockwise!

The other wheel that needed a lot of attention was - this poor Traditional which had been liberally covered in what appeared to be a yacht varnish - over every screw, hook and even the con rod leather!

  Much later and after many hours of stripping and waxing she looks like this

Now with a new tension knob, and scotch tension she is like new and ready for a new home!

A final thought on which way is the right way? 

Top down or bottom up - that is the question when it comes to sweaters - why are nearly all American patterns written for top down and UK ones for bottom up?  Top down you can try as you knit and there is little or no sewing to do afterwards, but which gives the best fit?  February's challenge to myself knit a top down sweater, but do I buy a pattern or design my own - time will tell!!