Thursday, November 17, 2011

Seduced by the Soft Side

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Now that I can spin finer and faster, softer wools are more attractive.  I acquired a couple of Rambouillet fleece.  Spun semi-worsted at j...
1 comment:
Friday, November 11, 2011

WPI

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There is a long standing convention in the textile industry on wraps per inch (wpi). Pack to refusal!  They wind the thread into a slot or ...
2 comments:
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Oil it!

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Few people,(including myself), oil their spinning wheel often enough. It does not have to be much - a fraction of a drop is enough, but it...
Monday, November 07, 2011

Better or Authentic??!

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I look to history to find ways to make better textiles. In the days when hand knitting was a profession, there were a great many talented ...
2 comments:
Friday, November 04, 2011

apology

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It would seem that I owe everybody an apology. When I am doing a lot of knitting, I use hand lotion.  My favorite kinds are Udderly SMOOTH...
2 comments:
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Connecting the Dots

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The Yorkshire textile industry went from local for local consumption to industrial scale for export in the period circa 1350 to 1370.  This ...
6 comments:
Friday, October 28, 2011

Fifth grade physics

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Let us consider the world of Peter Teal - Hand Woolcombing and Spinning.  PT puts a lot of effort into combing, planking, and drawing off a ...
4 comments:
Thursday, October 27, 2011

Double Flier Spinning Wheels

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The Han Chinese  (2,000 years ago) had treadle powered, double spindle spinning wheels so that a cotton spinner could spin with both hands. ...
2 comments:
Monday, October 24, 2011

Handspun 10-ply Aran yarn

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It can be done. 10-ply,. 700 yards per pound. 16 wpi.    That right! If you take the singles that were hand spun worsted for weaving at ...
4 comments:
Thursday, October 20, 2011

Anything that can be done, can be done better

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The spindle with removable whorl got shown to a Portuguese historian. She will be starting extensive travels in the near future. We playe...
1 comment:
Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Sum of All

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It is possible to hand spin worsted yarn using a "long-draw" technique.  ( Not what you have been told before, now is it? ) It r...
3 comments:

Spindles and spindle whorls

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A while back, I thought about spindles.  I went around and played with a bunch of  them.  I went into the shop and made a few.  My conclusio...
2 comments:
Thursday, October 13, 2011

Distaff

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 I did not learn to use a distaff when spinning wool. Then, I read a post in the blog, A stitch in time, and she pointed out that all the ol...
3 comments:
Sunday, October 09, 2011

Spinning in Public

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I like the idea, but I cannot do it. When I spin in public, I slow down and my grist goes all over the place. At Lambtown, I spun for HOUR...
3 comments:
Friday, September 30, 2011

quick kniddy noddy

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Not a love token  but it works, it fits in the spinning bag, and it was not much effort. Note that the ends are different.  If I ever nee...
Wednesday, September 28, 2011

DRS, fineness, and vibration

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Vibration in a DD system raises the effective DRS, making it more difficult to spin at the fineness expected from the calculated DRS. Surp...
Saturday, September 24, 2011

Plying from a center-pull cake

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With improvised cake holders, the singles twist.  Better is:
1 comment:
Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lambtown

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I will be at Lambtown in Dixon, Ca this year.  I will be helping around the Merdian Jacob booth. I am in the wood shop this week, so the T...
1 comment:
Wednesday, September 21, 2011

DRS Revisited

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I have been plying yarn for my Shetland gansey.  Some of the singles were spun last winter before I built the Hot Rod and some after.  Ru...
4 comments:
Thursday, September 15, 2011

The hot rod spinning wheel revisited

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In May, I wrote about how I had upgraded my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. Since then I have spun a lot of singles in the 5,600 to 9,0...