New Tools

I finished washing the Finn/Dorset/Targhee wool. It has a lovely soft luster. See?

Yesterday I combed (wheee - combing is fun!) some bunches of locks and spun up a single. Lovely wool, I really like it. Especially the soft shine. Today I two plied the yarn, intending to make a woven sample. Plying the yarn gave me a chance to play with some new tools.

Meet the Jennie Plyer, made by Andrew Forsythe of Forsythe Wool Combs.

This is a serious kate, with room for 6 bobbins. It can hold full size spinning wheel bobbins, and comes with 6 weaving bobbins for winding on singles before plying. It has a little tilt up bit that fits underneath, to add tension on the bobbins, and all the sticking up parts can be removed, so it can be packed flat for travel. Nice touch. And, it comes with a sidekick, the Pod.

The Pod is awesomely clever. One end is made to fit into the spinning wheel orifice, and the other end fits into the mini bobbins. It doesn't work for my Pocket Wheel, which has a delta orifice but works just fine with my Ashford Traveler. And as I sit here and think about it, I bet I can adapt the Pocket Wheel to wind mini bobbins as well. We'll see.

Here is the Pod in action.

I found I needed to support the free end to get the best results. Normally my right hand is guiding the yarn, but not when I'm taking a picture. It was super fast to wind the bobbins.

I only plied the 2 singles together, but it went very fast and easy. A big improvement over the plastic basket with the bamboo skewers. Yeah Baby, I'm all about the efficiency now.