Expanding on an Idea

Or, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?"
Some posts ago, I mentioned receiving a Jennie Plyer, and talking about the "pod" that ships with it. The pod is intended for use as a bobbin winder, to transfer spun singles to mini bobbins for plying. In the first go round of using the pod, things went along pretty well, especially once I supported the free end of the bobbin. But a few days ago, when I tried again, nothing seemed to cooperate. The pod kept jumping out of the spinning wheel orifice, or the bobbin wouldn't hold fast to the pod and it seemed like I spent more time chasing pod and bobbin around the floor (with 'help' from the cat) than actually winding the bobbin. So I decided to test an idea.

Can I use the Pocket Wheel to wind mini bobbins?  I already knew the mini bobbins (Le Clerc shuttle bobbins, 4" in this case) would fit the flyer shaft of the Pocket Wheel. I took the flyer assembly off the flyer shaft and slipped the mini bobbin on. Then I pushed a piece of latex tubing over the shaft until it butted up against the bobbin. TaDa! Treadling equals bobbin rotation, and yarn winding. I used my hand to guide the yarn onto the bobbin evenly.

Now, that's more like it.

To be honest, it wasn't perfect. After a bit of winding, the latex tubing would wiggle away from the bobbin and then the bobbin would spin freely, not winding on the yarn. But I could just push it back into place. Later I tried a little rubber collet thingy that came with the Jennie Plyer pod, and that worked really well, but it was such a tight fit on the shaft that I was worried it wouldn't come off later. It did come off, but I'm considering trying other ideas that won't get stuck, and won't scar the flyer surface.

Happy Results

I've 2 plied all the samples shown here, and I'm ridiculously happy with how this part looks. Another thing that tickles me is how much fun I had spinning up the batts that had sparkly bits mixed in. What a twit I've been!  I've sort of avoided glittery things in my fiber, wrongly assuming it would some how spoil the lovely feel of the animal fiber. Another baseless bias broken. Lucky me!

The original plan called for spinning the fiber into singles, making a 2 ply yarn and then  cabling the 2 ply together, as sort of a color in spinning experiment.  I like this part so much, I might think of something else to do. Can you hear it, this 2 ply saying "weave me".  Perhaps a loom is in my future...

Look! I Made a 3 Ply!

Emboldened and encouraged after watching The Gentle Art of Plying with Judith MacKenzie, I decided to try spinning a real 3 ply yarn. My technique can still use some improvement, but overall I'm pretty pleased with myself. I think I'll try it again sometime soon. This was spun from a blended batt of merino, cashmere and possum.

Other Projects, working on the Crosspatch Creations batts, but I think those will end up as a 2 ply.

Minor gripe; it never seems to matter how carefully I weigh out the fiber to ensure I'm spinning even amounts onto each bobbin, once I'm plying the singles they hardly ever come out close to even.  The 3 ply above was the worst. I think my scale is dishonest. But, I'll give it another chance.

This is my favorite lazy kate, at least so far.

A plastic basket, and some hefty bamboo skewers. Plus the basket doubles as storage when not in use as a kate.

Time Slips

Time. What an unusual thing. If I use it well, I seem to have more of it. If I give myself plenty of time to get somewhere, not only do I have time left over when I arrive (good for knitting a few stitches), but I have so much I can very easily afford to give some to others. I have time to let the other driver go first when we both arrive at the intersection at the same time. I have time to let a person take a place in front of me in line at the grocery store. I have plenty of time for offering a smile to a stranger, and lending an ear to someone who needs to be heard. I have time to be polite.

I like to imagine that when I give myself the time to be on time, the time to be polite, ripples are created, and maybe other people will find just a bit more time in their day as well, and can pass the gift along. I don't know if it works that way, but I do like to imagine it does.

I've let time slip away as far a blogging is concerned, and it seems like the longer the delay, the easier time slips away. What a curious thing.

I haven't been blogging, but knitting and spinning go on. We had some cold weather here, by Southern California standards anyway, and I decided I needed some mittens. Really! I'm one of those people whose hands feel like icicles when it's 60 degrees F outside. The mittens are almost done now, and I might just name them the Seriously Overkill for S.Cal. Dog Hair Mittens. Some where along the way, I decided they should be flap mittens, so I could uncover my fingers if I wanted to use them for something. It made sense at the time, but we've had at least of week of 70 F+ daytime temps here, and any kind of mitten seems ludicrous right now. Except for maybe cute little fingerless ones. But I 'm almost done, and I'm sure that eventually it will get cold enough that I will absolutely need such warm mittens. If not, I'll just plan a visit to my sister in Minnesota. Construction details; cuff is one strand each natural white and natural brown 2 ply wool held together, 1x1 ribbing. Hand and thumb is one strand each natural white and natural color dog hair 2 ply yarns held together.

As I'm using up some hand spun yarn, I'm just as busy making more. I spun some merino roving that I dyed, and plied it with another hand spun merino dyed by someone else. I don't have any pictures of what the "by someone else" roving looked like before I spun or plied it - I can't figure out how that happened. But at least there is a picture of the finished item. I haven't weighed it yet, but it should be about 8 oz. Pretty blues.

 Some time before Christmas I finally figured out who made the drum carder that lives at my house. It's made by Duncan Fiber Enterprises. That bit of info meant I could finally get a replacement drive belt and handle and boy-howdy! Does that ever make a difference in using the drum carder! Its much more fun (and productive) now. I carded up some brown merino cross wool and spun a single, the thinnest stuff I've ever spun on purpose. I'm not really sure what to do with it now, maybe 2 ply or even Navajo ply, I'll figure it out eventually. Then I finally gave myself permission to start playing with this lovely Shetland fleece I got last June. So far I've tried spinning from the lock and spinning from a batt, both turn out very nice. (no pictures yet) I'm in love with this stuff. I need to ply it and get a little swatch knit up so I can decide what to make.

During all this knitting and spinning, it occurred to me that while a knitted project can be frogged and returned to the state of 'yarn', spun wool cannot be returned to the state of 'fleece'. At least I don't think it can. And I love the fleece part. So much raw possibility. Sigh. So much responsibility in deciding what kind of yarn. :-)

It seems to me like I've been so much busier that it reads. I'm a medium speed knitter, I'd guess, a slowish spinner, and an even slower drum carder operator. And I enjoy it all. I'm sure once I'm done with this post I remember other things I meant to mention. OH-Oh! I remembered one already. My new Pocket Wheel is complete and ready for shipping. Just a few more days and I'll finally see it in person!

Curbing Bag - Finished

I like it when I finish things, it feels like at least something is getting done around here. Last week I looked at the Curbing Bag project and all of a sudden realized it was just 3 color rows from being done. Wow! I started this project over a year ago without a concrete endpoint, other than waiting for the bag to tell me it was done. It was a nice, low demand project; easy to work on, not mentally taxing and it didn't mind hibernating for months at a time while I worked on other stuff. Here is how it turned out;


Maybe I'll add a one button closure across the top. I like the inside as much as the outside, and might do another one inside out, just for fun.


Sunday morning I needed a new, 'don't need to pay much attention' project to work on while I watched the Formula 1 race, so I cast on for a camera sock for the new camera. (While I've been known to rise in the predawn hours to watch these races, this time I recorded the race so I could watch during a more civilized hour.) Why not? Hopefully, the sock will offer some protection against scratches to the camera body while its in my purse. Since a sock is more fitted than, say a bag, I decided to add some shaping to customize the fit. A combination of short rows, increases and decreases and ribbing. I was having so much fun, I also watched the Indy 500, just so I could keep working on the sock. I really don't care much for oval track racing, but at least there were some lady drivers to root for. Danica Patrick came in 3rd!


I added a hemmed cuff for the sock, but here the sock turns into a bag, as I plan on a drawstring running through the hem. Every thing but the drawstring is done. Here, old camera has graciously agreed to take a picture of new camera, in sock. Oddly enough, I had just enough left over sock yarn to finish this project.


Odds n Ends;
I'm swatching different stitch patterns for my summer waistcoat, but at the rate I'm going, it could be next summer before it's done.

I finally finished spinning the Redfish fiber, and started 2 plying. The plying is taking way longer than I thought it would, although I can see how it might go faster if the singles were more consistent. ;-) Most of the color combos look pretty good, I was worried about things looking muddy, and there is some muddy stuff at the very beginning. Maybe I'll have the plying done by this weekend...