Fiber Musings

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Month: March 2009

It just followed me home

By

On 11 Mar, 2009

In Spin

reeves

Rick Reeves Frame Wheel, in walnut.

reeves_treadle

I haven’t seen any like this one before, where in place of dowel joinery, this has knobs.  The knobs can be unscrewed and the wheel can be taken apart.  I’ve taken all the knobs off, not to take the wheel apart, but to clean and oil/wax the parts underneath.

I bought it from someone in my guild, who purchased this wheel from Rick Reeves when she was still living in the midwest back in the 70s.  However, she never actually spun on it.  I’ve been spending the past few days breaking the wheel in.

A New Challenge!

By

On 4 Mar, 2009

In Spin

Have you seen this?  Interweave’s Spin-Off Magazine is having celebrating the International Year of Fibers by offering up a contest.  You need to process the fiber from scratch to a completed scarf of your own design…all by May 20, 2009.  (Thankfully, you don’t need to raise nor sheer the sheep yourself, but I think you should get bonus points if you do!)

That’s TWELVE weeks from now, folks!

If you follow the guidelines set forth by both Spin-Off and Keep the Fleece, you can enter your scarf into both contests.  Two birds, one stone.  Or rather, two contests, one scarf.

So, are you in?

I have a raw lamb’s fleece and a couple of alpaca fleeces in the garage.  I have some silk cocoons in the storage bin.  I have some brand spanking new Forsythe 4 pitch combs (just came in the mail last week).

Okay, it’s time for this project manager to start building a project plan and get this going!  There’s lots to do. Decide on a theme.  Scour the fleece (or degum the silk cocoons?).  Decide on how to process the fleece (comb or card or spin from the lock, a la Stove?).  Create a new scarf design.  Spin some samples (wheel or spindle?)  Do a swatch (knit or weave?)

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Gotta run. Lots of things to do!

P.S. $5 per entry? Who are you kidding here? What over achiever will be able to submit more than one entry in this amount of time?!

Stitches West

By

On 1 Mar, 2009

In General

I braved Stitches Market to look for more Noro Silk Garden Sock to finish the shawl. I made a list with 3 items on it. I hoped that it would keep me on the straight and narrow. Get in. Buy the stuff. Get out with minimal damage to my wallet and psyche.

I was in trouble before I even stepped foot into the market. I bumped into Marguarite, who was wearing a beautiful woven scarf, using a painted skein from Interlacement. So, of course, it was on my list of vendors to visit.

A few hours later, I was only able to check one item off my list, and a large bag of other purchases. And no, I didn’t find the Noro. I’ll have to order it online. I should have done that to start. I could have saved myself a lot of time and money.

On the positive side, I think I finally found the weft yarn for the painted warp I did in Sara Lamb’s class at SOAR.

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