The Girls Get A Garage

Don't misunderstand, I love my spinning wheels. But I did worry about them, sitting all exposed out on the floor. Sometimes the cat would decide to try and play with the yarn on the bobbin, or some human would decide to move the wheel and (gasp) pick it up by the flyer. And the pet hair dust bunnies loved to hide amongst the treadles. So one morning I had a brilliant idea about re-purposing a piece of furniture that once housed an old, tube style TV.

What if the spinning wheels fit inside the TV space? And then the little drawers could hold bobbins and shuttles, and maybe the shelves could hold fiber tools? And I could get rid of the functional but unattractive plastic drawers (that used to hold Legos and such when the boys were little) and just make everything look nicer? What a great idea!

So, with the help of DH and Son, the old (very heavy) tube TV was taken to recycling, and the (also very heavy) armoire was cleaned out and moved from the office/man cave to its new location, my fiber hall. If all the fiber was stored here, then it would be my fiber Haul. By the way, this cabinet is solid cherry, and so well made. And it must weigh over 300 lbs. We had quite an adventure, navigating this thing through a narrow hall, up 2 steps, down 2 steps, almost from one end of the house to the other.

But now it is in place, and the girls are safely tucked away in the new garage. Now, I just need to finish moving the other tools, and hang the warping board. There's room right next to the armoire.

I've Been Meaning to Tell You...

There is a new wheel at my house. Not brand new, but new to me new. She's a Majacraft Susie Pro.

My friend Mags was looking to find the Susie Pro a new home, and brought the wheel along to our spin meeting last April so I could have a test drive. Susie Pro and I bonded instantly, and this terrific wheel lives at my house now. We've a great future ahead of us.

Two more pics from BSG

Did I mention I didn't take very many pictures? Part of the time I'm so enthralled I forget I have a camera with me, 2 actually. And sometimes I get lazy and think, "well, in some ways fiber festivals look much the same."
Here are 2 pictures I thought to share; a shot of several Columbine spinning wheels in multiple colors, and an awesome felted art piece that might also be a bedspread. I really hope its a bedspread, I'd to snuggle under something like that.
The Columbine spinning wheels are made of metal and so won't warp or crack like wood. I'm told the bobbins hold a whopping 12 oz. of fiber. I can't speak to how they spin, I didn't try one out. They make great eye candy though.

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.

The WOW Factor

I wish I could see this in person. I wish I could have this in my house. Or at least see someone else spin on it. Or at least get a better picture.  Here is the flyer;

The photos were uploaded back in 2003, but that was long before I was spinning. So this is new to me. Maybe to you too. The wheel was built by Bill Fox, up in the Pacific Northwest, and is made of myrtlewood. That's pretty much all I know.

 
Yesterday was spin group day. That's where I heard about the myrtlewood wheel. (thanks for the link Juli) Spin group is always a treat, but as everyone set up their wheels, there was something very different about our circle. All of a sudden, being close to an electric outlet was a concern. Care to take a guess? Its the e-spinner invasion. (Cue the scary music.)

In our little group of 5, three spinners were using e-spinners. And the 2 'real' wheels were Pocket Wheels. Bravely soldiering on, doing their part to uphold the old-fashioned foot powered tradition of hand spinning. Maybe in the future when we say 'hand'- spinning, we'll be talking about powered spinning, and we'll say 'hand and foot' spinning to mean using a wheel with treadles.

The day before yesterday was wash-and-dye day. I'm still washing up the great grey fleece, and I'd been thinking that some of it would look cool dyed shades of blue and or purple. Dyeing as part of the washing process sounds sensible. The wool is still wet and recently soaked in a water/vinegar rinse. And I have some blue dye and some red dye. Plus, recent rains mean I've turned off the irrigation system, so I don't feel so guilty about washing fleece. This bit just soaked outside in cold water for a couple of days. I think I let it set out in the (predicted) rain today for a rinse. It is sort of stinky. Maybe I'll try spinning some of it just so I can say I've tried spinning in the grease. Its not a really greasy fleece to start with.

Here are some of the dyed bits.

The light blue wool near the middle isn't merino, but something else I grabbed and tossed into the dye pot just to use up the rest of the dye. See that blue squarish bit nearby? That's a little pile of silk hankies I made from cocoons given to me by my friend, Fluffy's Garden. I sort of got the hang of hanky making, after a bit. Sort of.

Once all the dyed bits are dry, I'll weigh everything so I know how much I have, and then decide, uh, how to use it.

Working It Too Hard?

A few weeks ago, as I was sitting at Blondie the Pocket Wheel, something didn't feel quite right about how the jarn  yarn (that was weird, how the J popped in there) was feeding onto the bobbin. Sometimes a bit of fiber wll catch on one of the hooks or guides, but that wasn't it. Taking a closer look at the hook, I saw this.

A notch. Worn into the metal. From wool? Honestly, I don't think I keep such a tight tension on my bobbin when I spin. I usually keep just enough tension to get the yarn feeding on, and no more. But, a few months back I was spinning for sock yarn, and I jused (odd, there is "j" popping up where it doesn't belong again!) used some mohair, and I definitely, but not on purpose, over spun the single. So, yes, I'm blaming the mohair. And maybe the hook is made from copper, a rather soft metal.

I thought about going to the hardware store to get some replacements, but sort of kept putting it off. The other day it finally dawned on me; I have an unused flyer, full of hooks, just sitting in a drawer. The flyer came off my Ashford Traveler, which now sports a jumbo flyer with sliding hooks, which aren't really hooks at all but more like loops. Here is the donor flyer, minus donated hook.

The replacement hook threaded right into the existing hole. Its a bit bigger, but seems to work just fine. Meanwhile, the jumbo flyer on the Traveler needs some tuning up. The place where the yarn exits the orifice and heads for the bobbin seems to have a burr, and keeps catching at the yarn as I'm plying. I need to get everything moving along, as I've given myself a deadline for finishing my Iced cardigan; November 3. Right now, the cardigan is knit down to 2 inches below the sleeves, I've got a fresh skein of yarn washed and drying outside and its time to put my nose back to the spinning wheel.

Early Summer Plans

Last Tuesday was Go Pick Up Evan Day. His finals finished on Monday, and the school has a policy that students vacate their dorm rooms within 24 hours of their final final. Never mind that the official end of quarter was actually Thursday. I guess it makes sense from the school's point of view, as I can imagine several ways that stressed students might decide to blow off steam once they don't need to study anymore. And I bet the students are more creative than I am. After we left Davis Wednesday morning, Evan heard from one of his friends still at school that a cow was found inside one of the residence halls. Well, the dairy cow facility is right across the street.

Here are a 2 pictures from the road trip part of the trip; this first one is the gloom I met heading north into Gorman.

It wasn't so bad, but a bit farther north the gloom turned to heavy, heavy fog. Visibility seemed like 150-200 yards. It was scary, heading down a steep grade, knowing there were tractor-trailer rigs nearby yet invisible in the mist.  It was a great relief to drop into the valley and below the cloud cover.

On the return south we stopped to stretch our legs at the Pyramid Lake Visitor Center. Well, stretch and waste some time, as our exit at the south end of The Grapevine was going to coincide with the L.A. evening rush hour.  My plan failed, the visitor center really didn't hold our attention that long (I'd never stopped there before). But I did take a picture of the lake, because I can't remember the last time I've seen it full. It seems like 7 years out of 10 Southern California suffers from "drought conditions", which strikes me as an odd label, seeing how the area is already classified as semi-arid.

It feels very good to have Evan home for a bit, and I'm enjoying it while I can. I love him, admit to feeling frustrated at times over his actions, and I think it's just plain twisted that about the time he started turning into a reasonable being (out-growing those teen years), we sent him off to college.

This weekend we head back to Davis, Evan is taking a chemistry class over summer session. After dropping him off, the dog and I are continuing north. We will visit with friends, and I'll console myself whilst attending the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. Fiber, fiber, and more fiber. Plus I can stop in and visit Evan on the way south again.

Currently, the Pocket Wheel and I are sampling some of the Shetland roving that arrived last week, and so far it looks like this;

and doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. That tends to be a problem around here.

The Latest

I started work on the great ottoman Re-covery project. I'm throwing together bits of a pair of stranded color-work sweaters that I felted on purpose, (no, not hand knit) and some Berroco Foliage from stash. I'm thinking it will look ok, maybe even better than ok. But, it could also look like puke.

Here is the damaged ottoman, the fabric just started rotting away.

Scipio thinks felted sweater bits will make a dandy cover, and wants to know, what's taking to long?

Here's the Berroco.

Next project; sprucing up the Pocket Wheel. Why? Because I'm going to the Black Sheep Gathering this year! yippeee!  I love the sanded in oil finish I put on the little pocket wheel but, it turns out an oil finish on the treadles isn't durable enough to withstand my feet. The treadles were getting footprints. Since I was going to work on the treadles, I decided to work on the drive side of the drive wheel too, to make it easier to clean off the marks left by the o-ring.

Some people will say that you can't put another finish over an oil finish, but you can, if you know what to do. I started by cleaning the surface with a Murphys Oil Soap solution. This is safe on pretty much any finished wood. Then, I wiped the surfaces with low odor mineral spirits to remove any wax. Then I lightly sanded the surfaces with 220 grit sandpaper and wiped again with mineral spirits to remove any dust or remaining wax. Its important to get the wax off.

Once the parts were dry, I applied Zinsser SealCoat, which is basically a 1 lb. cut of wax free shellac. The shellac is the secret, it seals the oil away from the next finish. Once the shellac was cured, I sanded, removed dust, and applied a wipe-on polyurethane finish. I use a wipe-on finish because I'm lame at applying brush on finishes. About 6 coats, with sanding in-between. The final step is a coat of wax. I've also applied a rust inhibitor to the metal parts. I don't live really close to the ocean, but I've found the metal rods will start to rust. The Pocket Wheel is all spruced up and ready to play.

Other Distractions

Can't blame it all on the snake, even though I do believe the snake bit my dog. Really. The day after I moved the snake, I noticed Shae licking her left front paw, the way she does when she's been bit, stung or otherwise reproached by some creature she's insulted during her 'hunting' activities in the yard. So I asked Shae for her paw, and spotted a pretty good sized puncture down into the top of one of her toes. A puncture through the top is... unusual.  Pretty easy for me to imagine Shae pouncing down on what she thought was a lizard or mouse in the brush, only to be paid back by a quick strike to the foot. Do not worry! If it was indeed a snake bite, apparently no venom was released. Shae is fine and her toe is pretty much healed up. I can only hope the snake found the entire experience of being pounced on and then later captured and relocated distasteful, and plans on avoiding the backyard for a while. In the meantime, I need to figure out a (better) way to keep the rabbits out of the yard. I think they are what the snake is after.

I'll probably make a trip to the hardware store today, anyway, on account of one of the other distractions. Last academic year, I took some woodworking classes that are offered through the most excellent Cabinet and Furniture Technology program at Palomar College, a local community college. I just went looking for old posts to reference, and found that I had several drafts, but not many actual posts about what I did. Oh well.
Quick retrospective. First semester I made a clock. Here is a picture.

Second semester was making a side table. It still isn't complete. And I took a furniture finishing class. What ever type of person I am, I definitely enjoy the prospect and process of transforming something into something else. But I don't think I'll be taking any more woodworking classes. Because you can't really rip back to fix a mistake. And because I found that sometimes, no matter how much care I took in laying out and cutting pieces, no matter that they fit together perfectly on the pre-glue up fitting, sometimes things were still wrong once put together. Its like making gauge and then knitting up all the pieces of a sweater and having the pieces block out perfectly, and then the pieces won't line up for seaming. Except the already cut wood can't be un un-cut for starting over. In short, I'm not that good at it. And I'm not entirely comfortable with working around sharp cutting things rotating at high speed.

This semester I enrolled in the Advanced Finishing class. But it's really more of a faux finishing and decorative painting class. Don't have to use any rapidly rotating sharp blades for this class. In fact, it is sort of an odd class in the program, but I really like it. I like it so much I'm wandering around the house looking for things to put faux finishes on.  But the end of the class fast approaches and I have to complete my sample boards (5 different techniques) and my final project. I don't have many pictures of what I've been working on, but I can show you how my final project it coming along.

Here is what I started with. A horribly, ugly, battleship grey access door in the midst of all the lovely brown marble.

I lightly sanded the grey, then taped off the edges and painted on a coat of primer, in this case Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 water-base primer. So this;

Then I taped off where the grout lines would be, if there were any. I had a left over piece of tile I took to the hardware store to have 2 quarts of custom color mixed up; one to match the darkest brown on the marble, and one to match the lightest shade. Using a paint brush, I placed heavy, random dabs of each color paint onto the primer surface, leaving areas with no paint. I didn't take any pictures at this point. I was a little nervous so I forged ahead. I took a woolie pad (a bit of sheep skin with short wool, attached to a flat pad with a handle.) and dabbed the paint around, being careful to keep some areas of distinct color, and ended
up with this.

I'm so happy, I could almost stop here. But then my final project wouldn't be final. The hardest part of this, to me anyway, is adding in some of those lines. It is very hard to get them nice and random looking. I have 4 practice boards I used to figure out how to get this far, and 3 of them are now covered in ugly lines looking nothing like the tile. But I think I have it almost figured out. By the way, practice boards are the best tool ever for figuring out stuff like this. Some of you might be saying "Of course, you silly goose!", but I truly didn't know about this before taking the class. I also didn't know that a practice board is merely poster-board, covered with paint of choice. Nice. The instructor also recommends using a practice board for deciding whether or not to use a particular paint color in a room, rather than actually painting a portion of the wall, saying that if there is any texture on the wall, adding a layer of paint changes the texture in that spot, and it will always look different from the rest of the wall. Makes sense to me.

I will take pictures of some of my sample pieces to share with you later, promise.

And, as if this post weren't already long enough, I'm not done yet.  Before the Pocket wheel arrived, there was the Ashford Traveler. Since then, the Ashford has just been sitting in the corner, waiting. I feel kind of bad about this. Its a wheel that should get used! After some thought, I decided that perhaps it would make a good plying wheel. (I used to find plying on the Pocket Wheel fiddly, but I don't anymore.) I ordered a jumbo flyer and bobbin set up from my local fiber pusher and Ashford dealer. I got the parts a month or so ago, and I have to say, the conversion kit is pretty clever, and complete as well. The orifice on the flyer is very large, for making novelty yarn and such, but the kit also includes adapters that fit into the orifice to make it smaller yarn friendly. But, other than a test spin, I haven't really used it yet. Because I ordered the parts unfinished, and I wanted to finish them first. (Mini-rant here; many of my favorite wood finishes are no longer available in California, for environmental reasons. sigh. I get it, but still...) I have TADA finally put the finish on. Once I have the singles for the next round of sock yarn complete, I shall use the Ashford for plying. And maybe I'll even try some novelty spinning.


And finally, I have some spinning to show (off). Here is the sock yarn for Evan's socks, all washed and ready to wind. I think I over plied the mohair, at least compared to the merino. So the ply isn't as even as I'd like.

And here is my latest, more, yes more sock yarn beginnings. I may move on to spinning something else for awhile. Natural black alpaca from a fleece in my stash. This was carded and spun, unwashed. I could see the vm, but not the dirt. This stuff made my finger tips black!. The rest has had a good soaking now, and hopefully will be nicer to spin.

And this is more of the BFL roving I'd used in some earlier sock yarn. After the dirty alpaca and the reluctant mohair (it was a little felted), this stuff is spinning like a dream.

Once this lot of singles are done, the Pocket Wheel gets a freshened up finish. Must look nice for going to Black Sheep Gathering! Wheeeeeeee........

Can always become tomorrow's to-do list

I did spend much time looking at heel types and turns. And, made no decision whatsoever, other than I have an idea of what I'm going to try. There. Hows that. Then, because I don't think I've done any spinning since I cast on the sisterly socks, I decided I need a spinning project.  On account of I got this new jumbo sliding hook flyer and bobbin for the neglected Ashford Traveler. I'm thinking she might make a good plying machine, and wanted to have bigger bobbins to ply onto.

The Ashford kit for converting from regular flyer to jumbo is very clever, I think. Attached to the maiden (the upright in the foreground of the picture) is a plastic piece called the flyer bearing. The orifice of the flyer fits into the bearing, supporting the front of the flyer and bobbin assembly. The jumbo flyer has, TA-DA!, a jumbo orifice. So the kit includes a jumbo flyer bearing, plus orifice reducers (that just sounds funny to me) that snug fit into the jumbo orifice so one can spin smaller yarns without them flopping all over the orifice. Plus, the original bobbins will fit this flyer, so I need never change it out to use the smaller bobbins. I do need to finish the wood bits though. My friend Jeri, who is now an Ashford dealer, helped me set it up.

From left to right, alpaca batt, brown Shetland single, alpaca roving

Above are the fibers for the new sock yarn project (oh! how I wish Ravelry had a project page for spinning!). Some time ago, between when I got the Pocket Wheel and now, I spun the Shetland just to see if I could make a skinny single. Guess so. I don't know how much is there for sure, close to 50g so I think enough to be 1 ply of a 3 ply sock yarn. The creamy white alpaca is something from a random encounter during the Vista Farmers Market a few months ago and the brown alpaca I purchased more than a while ago.

Actually, while the jumbo flyer is really cool, it has nothing to do with starting a new spinning project. I just really wanted to spin. Immediately. But I didn't want to just randomly grab something, I wanted a project. The brown Shetland has been sitting around, winking at me. I'm slow sometimes, but I finally figured there was enough there for more sock yarn. When I first started spinning that wool, I thought it might be lace yarn. Seriously, if you were to check, you'll see I don't knit much lace. Nor do I really wear shawls. I try once in a while, but even in the most beautiful shawl, I look like someone's babushka.

Can I Have Mine

With the Crazy Sauce on the side?

Son #2 is home from school. My dad thinks I'm crazy to drive all the way up to Davis, and has let me know about these wonderful inventions called "planes" that can make the trip with much less time and effort on my part. I know he's just worried about my safety, and he totally doesn't understand how much I enjoy having a few hours to talk to my son. As long as I can work around all the text messages he's getting from all his friends. I can't remember the last time I heard him talk so much; even if about 2 hours of it was one side of his conversation with his girlfriend. :-) I did set a new personal record during that trip; 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. (Wow, that was just last Friday/Saturday! It already feels like a long time ago.) Now that I know I can, I think I'll try not to.

Speaking of Dad, he had a longish  procedure scheduled yesterday and I decided to take along the Pocket Wheel to work on the second project below while waiting. Right off the bat(t), 2 people knew it was a spinning wheel, and I had a chance to show off. If you're interested in updates about my Dad, I've decided that I'll put any posts regarding him over here. Unless its fiber related, of course.

Here is a nearly finished spinning project to show off, a 2 ply skein made from the "Price above rubies" Crosspatch creations batts that I won in a raffle at the Torrance fiber festival. I don't think I got enough funky in my spinning, but it was still fun. Doubly fun, since I seldom win things. Gee, maybe that's not true anymore, I won some wonderful Shetland roving from this blog earlier this year.

Once again influenced by watching the spinning DVDs, I'm trying something new. Project driven spinning. I really think my fine spinning is actually fine now, and so I'm going to make a 3 ply sock yarn to show off my new found prowess. The materials are alpaca top and some hand painted BFL top that I picked up last Saturday at a holiday spin-along and destash. One alpaca single and 2 of the BFL. 

Oh, and an amazing thing happened today. This morning I went into Son #2's room to wake him up and generally harass him, and once he was actually awake (we've has some interesting, albeit short conversations in the past when I thought he was awake. He always has no memory of those.) he said "that's a cool scarf." I was wearing a clapotis. I knew I was pressing my luck, but I asked anyway, "What do you like about it, the color or the pattern?" He said, "Both, I like the way they work together." Wow, I think my son just complemented my one of my knitting projects.

Non-Fat Chocolate, and other Delights (pic heavy)

Along back towards the beginning of May, a box was delivered to my house. Inside the box was pounds of wonderful chocolate, but not the type that would make my jeans too tight. Nope, this was a box of chocolate (I'm sure there is a proper Shetland name for this color, but as far as I'm concerned, its chocolate) fleece from Boulderneigh Shetland Sheep. I met Michelle last June at Black Sheep Gathering and purchased a fleece from her then, so when I ordered this fleece I knew it would be good. I fell in love as soon as I opened the box. This fleece came from a sheep named Browning.

Such a lovely color, crimp and length! (also very well skirted) I couldn't wait to try spinning some and started scouring just a soon a possible. Part of me wanted to leave the lanolin in, it just looked so pretty.

 But it scoured so easily that I ended up washing everything. I'm still a little sad about that because this is the kind of fleece I could see using to try out spinning "in the grease".


As soon as I had some dry, clean fleece I started spinning. Its been a busy month but I squeezed in time when ever I could. I spun from the lock, and I ran some through the drum carder once and spun that. This stuff cards like a dream. Then I spun some more from the lock and found parts to the fleece spin just as easily as if they'd been carded first.

I filled nearly an entire bobbin, but now I'm anxious to knit something with it, so its time to ply! I'm hoping to have something to enter into one of the contests at Black Sheep Gathering this year.

I also worked like crazy on my wood working class project, but still didn't get it finished. The frame is complete, the top is complete, but not connected, the drawer needs a front and the door pieces are made and assembled, but I might do those over. I'll get a picture up soon. If you live in the San Diego area, my clock from the fall semester is entered in the Student Showcase at the Del Mar Fair. I think my name card got lost, so look for the cherry Shaker style clock with sea shells for the dial face. 


I squeezed in some knitting time, cause while the Pocket Wheel is very portable, knitting is more portable. I developed a hankering to knit something with some of my early hand spun yarn. At first I thought of afghan squares, but wasn't thrilled with the idea. Then I remembered (or found it in my Ravelry queue, I don't remember) Buttonhead.  This patterned turned out to be perfect. It was a fun and quick knit, and my early hand spun looked better than I remembered. I love the results.

I wanted to do another hat and chose Morgan, a pattern for an English driving cap. I have it mostly complete, but the crown seems huge to me. So tonight is knit night (yeah, I can go again, no more class!) and I'll take the hat and ask the ladies for opinions. BTW, I did check the stitch gauge, but not the row. :-(

Other news around the home; Older Son has voted in his first election, mail-in ballot and Younger Son attended his Senior Prom last Saturday. I still don't have a picture of him in a tux. But trust me on this, he rocks a tux.

The Plan for the Day

Yeah, there's the plan I have for the day, and then there is what really happens.

The Plan, was to spend a few hours working on my woodworking project design and to spend a few hours cleaning up old woodworking hand tools that belonged to my grandfather. Along with all the normal stuff that needs to be done around here.

Instead, I spent the morning re-caulking around one of the upstairs bathtubs, because there is a teeny-tiny amount of water leaking from somewhere upstairs and I'm trying to eliminate possible culprits. So I spent my morning rocking the caulking.

I did spend an hour this afternoon working at removing rust from the handtools, with limited success. It involved sandpaper, and I'm still really tired of sanding things. I've read some articles on using electrolysis for rust removal, and that's what I'll try next.

Speaking of sanding, here is a picture of the oil finished Pocket Wheel; I really like how the oil warmed up the wood color.

Now, I'm blogging instead of fixing dinner, so it is time to go.

Please... no more sandpaper

Friday I disassembled Blondie, the little Pocket Wheel, and started her finishing. (snort! that just sounds ridiculous, eh?)  It wasn't easy, taking her apart and knowing we won't be spinning together for a week or so.  Very nearly convinced myself that we didn't need no stinking finishing, we could spin on just fine the way we were. But then I waxed the bobbins I started finishing first. Liked the results so much I found the strength to begin the entire wheel.



 Blondie isn't very big, but sometimes it takes longer to work on small parts plus I really wanted to get the sanding part done this weekend. And for some reason the maple seemed to take more work than the cherry wood of my clock (my only other experience wet sanding in an oil finish.) That's the back to the clock behind the PW parts; oil finishing cherry produces incredible results, with nearly instant gratification. Anyway, I sanded on Friday, and I sanded on Saturday and I sanded some more today and my fingernails are shot and my fingers and shoulders and arms are sore and I really don't want to touch another piece of sandpaper for a few days, at least. 'Til Wednesday, when I have to prep wood samples for the finishing class. 

The final step, (for now anyway) before reassembly is waxing the finish, and that can't be done until the oil is completely cured, which could take between 2 days and a week, depending on the weather. In the meantime I need to draw up my side table plans for this semester's woodworking class, and do all the other stuff that just generally needs doing around here.

BTW, the plied Navajo plied Shetland wool from the Ashford bobbin didn't get near filling the PW bobbin.

No pictures yet?

Yes, I've been spinning away on the little Pocket Wheel, (her name is Blondie, she told me so.) but I don't have any proof (pictures) to share yet. I finished off the Ashford bobbin of Shetland, and now Navajo plying the same onto one of the PW bobbins. I'm hoping that since the PW bobbins are bigger, all of the plied yarn will actually fit onto one bobbin. For some reason I can never get that to happen with my Ashford bobbins. I expect 2 bobbins of singles to equal 2 bobbins of 2 ply, but that never seems to work.

I'm waiting until the clock project is finished, in the woodworking sense, before I begin finishing Blondie. But I realized I could start finishing bobbins, they don't take up much space and I can, uh, experiment with techniques. Right off the bat I noticed that finishing maple isn't nearly as dramatic as finishing cherry. In fact, I admit to feeling somewhat disappointed at the lack of "WOW" compared to finishing the cherry.  But now I see that the transformation in the maple is just as nice, but far more subtle.

By the way (I actually had to think about how to spell that out, after using texting shorthand so often), I am ridiculously pleased with the process of finishing my cherry clock. Today I started the final oiling and sanding step, and I am oh so fond of the results. The wood feels silky smooth, and I am captivated by the play of light over the finish. Elbow grease is a large component of the process, but at least the results are apparent pretty much immediately.  I enjoy the effort and results, but I also like knowing that there is an end to these projects, 'cause I don't think I could work on it every day for a long time. Knitting and spinning yes, wood finishing no. On the other hand, I'm sure wood finishing burns far more calories.

Oh, back to finishing the maple bobbins; now that the oil finish is on they have a lovely sheen that catches the light just so. Since these are items that will see some use, I'm thinking of using some sort of hard finish, otherwise I'd just wax. I've got to do some research and check my notes to decide on what to use. I've just started a semester long wood finishing class, but I know I can't wait that long to finish Blondie. And I started another woodworking class, the project for this class is a small side or end table, to include a drawer and a door, of my own design. I'd like to make something the drum carder will fit into, but I'm not a very fast woodworker, so I may need to scale back.

Its Here, its here its heeere!

Yipee! On Saturday the mail carrier drove down our driveway to deliver a box and it was addressed to me! (I love getting packages!) I checked the shipping label, and sure enough, this package came from Washington. My long awaited and anticipated Pocket Wheel has arrived. 


To my additional delight, the bobbins were wrapped in flannel, which I can use during the wood finishing process, and wool fiber, perfect for a test run after assembling the wheel.

I think the design is very clever, and I had the whole thing assembled in about 15 minutes. Of course, once assembled an immediate test drive was in order.

 Spinner's view (that gallon size plastic bag contains the fiber that was wrapped around the bobbins for shipping. I love that some test drive material was included)













Size comparison; While the PW is much smaller, the bobbins are bigger!

This wheel is made of maple, and its very light right now because it is unfinished. I'm still working on finishing (doh!) my wall clock and once that project is complete I'll finish the PW. I think I'll finish a little test section first, because just maybe I'll want to darken the finish a bit more. In the meantime I'm going to spin on a bare naked wood wheel. Oo-la-la!

Of course I've aready taken a test spin; at first it the treadle motion felt curious, it really does feel different than the Ashford treadles. But in a few minutes I'd gotten the hang of the directness of the treadling and adjusting the tension and drive ratio. Having the orifice down below my knees was different too, everything felt so close! But again, after a few more minutes I could relax and actually lean back into the sofa cushions while spinning. In this picture I'm test driving and Ashford bobbin on the PW, btw, the fiber on the bobbin is that lovely Shetland I mentioned earlier. Here's another difference; on my Traveler, I remove the bobbin from the flyer, but on the PW, I remove the flyer from the bobbin.

The PW is small and light weight, but it doesn't fold for travel. Instead, the axle fits through the treadles, body and rear foot piece. Remove the axle (no tools required) and those pieces come apart, making it easy to pack the PW flat. Unless I need to pack it into a suitcase, most of the time I'm sure I'll just carry it by the built in handle.

Here in normally parched Southern California we are bracing for nearly a week of wet weather, starting sometime tonight. What a perfect time to spend indoors, playing with my new toy.

Just a few more pictures;