Monday, November 22, 2010

I got it wrong on spindles

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I looked at videos of Peruvian spinners, and thought they were using the Berber spiral groove on their bottom whorl spinners. They were not...
1 comment:
Sunday, November 07, 2010

The state of yarn

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Knitters talk about how warm a lace shawl is -- that is silly.  Lace shawls are only "warm" in the context of a very mild environ...
8 comments:
Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Drop spindles do gansey yarn

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Spindles for testing A friend, who is a very experienced spinner with a large collection of good spinning equipment, "demanded"...
7 comments:

Why 5-ply?

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Alden Amos says in his, Big Book of Handspinning, that there is no reason to spin 5-ply yarns. In fact, 5-ply yarns are more supple for th...
2 comments:
Thursday, July 22, 2010

Handspun gansey yarn

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I have not posted for a bit, because I was learning to spin my own gansey yarn. I had been told that NOBODY ever spun gansey yarn by hand ...
2 comments:
Sunday, July 11, 2010

An apology about waterproofing wool

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A couple of years ago, a yarn supplier told me that a drop of baby oil would oil ,and waterproof wool. I tried it, and it has worked very we...
2 comments:
Saturday, July 10, 2010

hand spun gansey yarn

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I just passed a milestone and had something of an epiphany. I am working with Cotswold, spinning and swatching for a gansey. I had been wor...
6 comments:

Two Ply, Three Ply, More Ply

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I have been hand spinning classic gansey yarn from traditional British long wool fleece. The extreme fineness of the singles that I had to s...
Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Adapters

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There were places I had to go, and things I had to say (in other places). Then, I had to learn to use my new spinning wheel. Then, I had to ...
4 comments:
Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Nothing in the mud?!

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How many knitted seaman’s frocks would YOU expect to find from the medieval period? We will not know that there were medieval ganseys unless...
6 comments:
Saturday, February 27, 2010

New technology needles

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I have been admiring and praising the Hya-Hya DPN for knitting softer spun yarns on the basis of some hand knitting at a show. These are ver...
3 comments:
Sunday, February 21, 2010

Citations

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I do not give many citations. Suppose I cite British customs taxes from the 14 th century? The few folks that would go to London and check t...
4 comments:
Friday, February 19, 2010

My View of Knitting History

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I am highly amused by the reaction that I get when I talk about knitting sheaths in history groups. Knitting sheaths are tools, like rocks a...
8 comments:
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

An approach to using different sized needles with the same knitting sheath

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Many Victorian knitting sheaths have adapters that allow several different sized needles to be used with the same knitting sheath.   Many of...
6 comments:
Monday, February 01, 2010

Wood for knitting sheaths

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The traditional wood for for making knitting sheaths was "sycamore".  I had been looking for sycamore, and the American sycamore t...
2 comments:
Sunday, December 06, 2009

Heat of sorption in wool

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Years ago, I got out my “Handbook of Chemical Property Estimation Methods” and calculated the heat of sorption for wool. Then, I looked at B...
7 comments:
Saturday, November 14, 2009

Yorkshire Goose Wings

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The first time I made and tried knitting with a Yorkshire "goose wing" knitting sheath, I was just amazed at the perfection of the...
10 comments:
Sunday, November 08, 2009

A Path Foreward - Lace!

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I started this reseach because I wanted to know how seamen of old stayed warm. Now, I know, they knit tighly to produce a warm fabric. They ...
4 comments:
Saturday, August 08, 2009

Recantation about sheaths holding needles tighly

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Several times I have said that the knitting sheath should hold the needle firmly. Yet, just now I caught myself using a US00 needles in a kn...
8 comments:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

UK knit circa 1800?

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How did folks in the UK knit circa 1800? 1) Certainly, hand-held DPN (or needles held, supported, or controlled in the arm pit) with the yar...
8 comments: