Fiber Musings

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

Month: March 2012

Silver Lining

By

On 7 Mar, 2012

In Life, Weave

It’s been a hell of a week. Each day presented new challenges. This morning’s challenge was backed up sewer lines through the toilets. Both toilets.

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So, while waiting for the plumber, and while he did his thing *, I pulled out the big drill (pre-drill the holes) and the materials for the new raddle that I have been meaning to make for the Gilmore Gem II. It will have 1/2 spacers. I am using screw eyes for my spacers so I can slide a rod through the eyes to keep all my threads in place. I’ve even sanded down the piece of wood, rounded out all the sharp edges and put a boat of orange oil wax on it.

It’ll take me a while to put all 45 screw eyes in. So, for now, I think a margarita lunch is called for. No?

* It was a giant root ball in the main line to the street.

Even Steven

By

On 4 Mar, 2012

In Spin

Or as close as one can get while plying 2 bobbins.

I spun from a large bag of Polwarth Luxury Blend (Polwarth blended with cashmere, baby camel, yak and baby alpaca) from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. I didn’t split the fiber into piles. I didn’t weigh the fiber nor the bobbins. I just spun until I thought I was about half way through and switched bobbins.

What you see on the left is what was left on one of the bobbins after I finished plying — about 30″.

I can’t get this close when I try to split the fiber evenly into 2 batches. Perhaps I should just stop trying so hard, eh?

Plying Ball

By

On 3 Mar, 2012

In Spin, Technique

Here’s my bit of fluff, ready to ply.

I’ve wound off both ends from the Kuchulu onto a small ball before plying from it. As you can see, the ball is too big. I will have to find something smaller.

Just for scale, here is my plying ball sitting next to a regular sized tennis ball that I use in the dryer to fluff things up with. (Excuse the fuzz that is stuck to tennis ball.)

What is that thing? It’s a little catnip infused “tennis” ball I picked up at the pet store. I was desperate while traveling at one point and went into a grocery store and picked these up. They were so cheap that my catnip addicted cats weren’t even interested in them. It’s a good thing since I don’t want them to play with my fiber tools.

I think I will have to use some of the same fluff and make a small felted ball for this.

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