Problem solving

A while back, I showed you an Indian Book Charkha that was given to me. At the time, I did not realize I was missing some essential bits.  I did play with it, learned how to use it, but then put it away as I could not actually create much with it. 

here is where the problem lies. I could spin, but I kept running into issues with the yarn working its way up the spindle shaft and eventually getting caught up in the mechanism which just chewed up the yarn I had spun.

Why? well because there is supposed to be a little disc that works as a stopper of sorts, I did not have those so I needed to work that out, and that was only one of the problems, I also had to figure out how I was going to get the yarn off the spindle smoothly to be able to ply it....I worked that out too!

lets start with the spindle.....here is how one should look... notice the little metal disc.....(this is a screen grab from The Woolery)

and here is what my spindles look like.....can you see what is missing?

I should point out that I did not get it quite right the first time....my solution evolved so I thought I would show you the whole thing (not just the end result)

I looked around the house for disc like things.....metal washers had too large a hole, were too heavy....cardboard degrades too quickly, I needed something lightweight, rigid, super smooth and the right size to still allow room for the spindle to spin. I grabbed some fridge magnets that looked about right....I popped out the magnet itself, made a small hole with and awl in the plastic and inserted the spindle.....YES! that worked, and worked fairly well.....trouble is that these things have a very rounded edge and so I would not be able to put a lot of fibre onto each spindle before the yarn I was spinning would fall off the edge.

So, I again combed through various drawers and boxes and came across some plastic that I used to use when I made costumes.....this stuff is what I used when I needed to build rigid elements into pieces.

I cut some discs from this plastic and began using with the plastic disc from the magnets.....I now had a better, flatter surface to build the cop.......I think it took a day or so for the light bulb to come on.....I no longer needed that thick fridge magnet plastic......I could use the spindles with that cut plastic only. the image below shows the end result, it works even better than I had hoped.

my next problem was how to get the yarn to pull off smoothly so that I could ply it. I needed something to hold the spindles in the right position for this.....and that was an easy fix. I grabbed my lazy Kate that I use with the bobbins for my spinning wheel. On the side I placed some screw eyes that would allow the spindles to sit in and spin easily.  This ultra simple little modification works amazingly well.

 you still see those thicker plastic discs here because this is the yarn I spun before the light bulb came on.

I am now using the spindles modified with the white plastic which is wonderful because everything still packs nicely inside the book Charkha, and finally, here is my test mini skein...it was spun using the book Charkha and then chain plied using my spinning wheel...the fibre is merino and silk.

I should note that traditionally these Indian Book Charkhas are made for spinning cotton....I currently don't have any cotton but I was not about to let that stop me from using it

Dyeing Fibre

Over the years I have experimented quite a bit with dyeing and painting fabrics and threads as well as a variety of surface design techniques but up until now I had not tried to dye wool fibre. Since I have become interested in spinning yarn, it naturally follows that I might want to dye the fibre I spin.

To get started, I took a couple of excellent classes offered on BluPrint, and watched a great many You Tube tutorials. Wool ( a protein fibre ) needs both acid and heat to activate and set (exhaust) the dye.  I began gathering the supplies I would need. I did not want to be doing this in my kitchen so I purchased a single burner unit expressly for the task. I already had an enamel kettle from our camping days but it did not have a lid....no worries, found one at the thrift store ( a glass lid which is perfect as I can monitor the process without removing the lid.) I was also able to find a large stainless steel colander. I found the small glass measuring cups and steamer basket at the dollar store.....along with a few other little things that will be dedicated to working with dyes.

here is the set up, dyes have been mixed, fibre has been soaking the citric acid solution ready to accept the dye and have the heat turned on.

I began adding different dye colours allowing them to move and mix.....it was looking pretty good in the pot

I wanted to leave some white bits but as it turned out that I had apparently left too much white, I guess it was hiding on the underside so when it was fully dried I was disappointed with the result......but hey, that simply turned into an opportunity to use another technique to resolve the problem.

I once again soaked the fibre, the same fibre...I was basically going to overdye it now.... but this time I placed the fibre on plastic wrap and carefully applied dye to the spots that were calling for it. The next step was to wrap up the plastic encapsulating the fibre and put it on the steamer basket back in the pot (there was a few inches of water in there) and turned on the heat bringing it to a simmer.

that worked like a charm

I spun this on my drop spindle and wound it onto bobbins to make it easy to ply them together.
I found this lazy Kate at an antique/vintage/junk store, took a little digging to unearth it but it will come in very handy....the bobbins that came on it are quite small but the vintage bobbins I already have fit on it nicely  (gotta admit it is kinda fun searching for these things)

I wrapped strips of wool fabric around the rod to help keep the bobbins from spinning quicker than I could ply.

The trick with spinning on spindles and then creating a two ply yarn is to not end up with too much waste. I don't think I could have gotten much closer than this.....there was probably not much more that a yard difference on the spools.

and here is my finished hand dyed, hand spun yarn

I see a LOT more experimenting in my future.

Knitting and Math

I recently ordered a sweater kit from Craftsy, I have in the past, purchased several classes and was curious about the physical products they offer. There was a promotion that gave 50% off some of the kits so it was an excellent time to give it a try.

Part of that promotion provided a 1 month free trial of Bluprint..... now I must admit that having the month long access to all classes with Bluprint I am taking advantage by checking out classes I may have not done otherwise.

In one of the classes, Wear What You Knit, Perfect Sweater Fit & Style with instructor Sally Melville, I learned a nifty trick for re-gauging a knitting pattern. If you are like me, you often see a sweater pattern that you would like to knit but either don't have ( or don't like) the size of yarn called for. A simple math formula can be used to "regauge" the pattern so that you can knit it using the yarn you want..... how excellent is that?!!....I mean....Whoa! you can do this? I could not wait to test this out, I needed  to see if the math would actually work for me.

I chose to use the math from the Sally Melville class to try knitting a sweater from the class Choose Your Own Sweater Adventure with Eunny Jang. The sweaters in this class called for a chunky yarn with a gauge of 12 stitches over 4". Personally, I do not like to wear or work with heavier yarns, I much prefer to knit with finer yarns.  The yarn I wanted to use is giving me 22 stitches over 4" and even with a lace pattern the math is working and the sweater is coming along great. I love that in this class you can knit so many variations of the pattern(s) provided

trouble is I now have 2 sweaters on the go  :-)

in addition to those classes I have also taken a number of classes about spinning and dyeing yarn and while I do not have a wheel, I find that I am able to apply much of what I am learning to the spinning I am doing on my drop spindles....as for the dyeing, well I am wanting to venture into dyeing my own fibre so you will likely see future posts on those experiments.

Here is a look at the fibre I have been spinning, the spindle on the left holds my spun singles, the spindle on the right contains the yarn as it has been chained plied (also referred to as Navajo plying)

and finally the finished yarn

here is a quick clip of me using my drop spindle

I have a few other things on the go as well so I hope to be back before too, too, long with another post

10 years

Yes, it was 10 years ago today that I began this blog. I had no idea what I would be posting when I started, what I did know was that at the time I was finding that there were many generous people who were happily sharing ideas and inspiring others through blogs and I wanted to become a part of that.
For a great many of those years I posted on a regular basis ( usually at least once a week) but lately I seem to have drifted away from here and have not posted with much frequency. Perhaps I will regain my enthusiasm soon, or perhaps it has run its course. I guess only time will tell.

It is not that I have been idle, I have simply been lax in documenting the things that have taken up my creative time. But, while I am here I may as well show you what I have been up to lately. I seem to be drawn more to spinning and knitting these days.  I recently finished this sweater, it is cotton. I did not have a "sweater's worth" of the grey so I used some reclaimed yarn I had (in a post some time ago I showed how I had taken apart a sweater and dyed the resulting yarn) the blue denim-ish looking colour you see is that yarn....I kinda made it work, so the sleeves are a little different. I am actually quite happy with the way it turned out and more importantly it fits great.

I am still in the process of learning about spinning, while I have spun some fibre and am gaining confidence, my goal is to begin spinning yarns that I can actually knit with and like in the days when I began quilting, I am experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn't.

So far I have found that many of the tools associated with spinning can be rather expensive. A case in point is a Hackle. I wanted to experiment with blending fibre and creating the combed top I would spin into yarn, but soon discovered that a Hackle would run me $200 or more. What is a hackle? it is essentially a piece of wood with strong metal tines that you can use to separate and blend fibre. how hard could it be to make? I decided to give it a try.

I started with a discarded piece of wood (looks to be from a frame maybe) I went to the hardware store and bought the longest finishing nails I could get. ( 4" ) In order to get my spacing fairly even, I  first marked the increments on a piece of masking tape. I laid the tape in place and began drilling smalls holes at each point.
note the block of wood, it was there to prevent me from drilling into my desk

then it was just a matter of hammering the nails through each drilled hole

I will likely try making another, this time placing the "tines" a little closer and see if I can find a thinner nail, BUT this actually works pretty good. (oh...and it cost me $1.43 to make) I tried blending some white and red merino.

I did not have a proper "Diz" to pull the fibre through, but that plastic knitting gauge worked just fine

now to give it a test spin.

Building a Drop Spindle.....some assembly required

This past summer I spent some time learning to "spin". Not only did I want to spin my own yarn, but I also wanted to make my own spindles. I stuck with the k.i.s.s principle and kept it simple.

What I did not already have on hand only took a trip to the hardware store, where I was able to pick up some wooden wheels, beads and dowels.
Now, they don't need to be pretty to function.....but heck, why not make them nice to look at too! I decided to try colouring them, wanting the beauty of the wood grain show through, but not wanting to go buy several cans of wood stain (would have been expensive and wasteful) I found that my transparent textile paint worked just fine. I used Seta-Colour transparent paints thinned with water.

Once the parts were dry, the spindles were assembled and a couple of coats of varnish were applied. I pre drilled a tiny hole to make it easy to screw the cup hook in the center of the dowel. In order to get a nice tapered end, I just used a pencil sharpener.  Told ya I kept it simple.

Not only do my spindles work great, they are a little less boring to look at now.

I find it interesting that a few bits of wood and a cup hook can transform a pretty pile of fluffy fibres (this is a Merino and Tencel 50/50 mixture) to a beautiful finished yarn ready for my needles.