Monday, January 16, 2012

First conceptual project

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The start of the first conceptual project:  A Jersey The yarn is 6-ply sport weight. The construction is cabled 3 X 2-ply.  Two plies are ...
2 comments:
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Thunder and lighting

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Alden Amos has "FIXED" my wheel.  Now it is 10 to 15% faster, with measured flier speed in the range of 2,500 rpm, the disagreeabl...
Monday, January 09, 2012

Another video of spinning

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Spinning a thicker, thread that can be seen more easily by the camera: This is a Merdian Jacob fiber from a fleece I got in 2010.  I did a...
Wednesday, January 04, 2012

How I spin; A video

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Here is a better video of how I spin. From over my left shoulder: And from over my right shoulder: The fiber is an indifferent prep of ...
8 comments:

First new tools of 2012

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I started off the year by making some new bobbins: The one in the flier is for singles in the range of 11,000 ypp (20s) and the one on to...
Sunday, January 01, 2012

Favorite tools of 2011

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We went to Yellowstone last summer and saw everything.  There was a lot of walking to the geyser basins and waiting, waiting, and waiting fo...
2 comments:
Saturday, December 31, 2011

How Fast Can Someone Comb Wool?

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These  days, I comb Jacob at around a half a pound per hour. It is slower than Cotswold, but is similar to Shetland that many people comb th...

Sampling Cable plied yarn

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This post is so important to me that I am going to Shout! If you are spinning fine singles, it is worth doing a  series of exercises in p...
1 comment:
Sunday, December 04, 2011

A Milestone: Competence in Spinning

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In the early going, I read that "spin count" was the fineness that a competent spinner could spin a particular wool.  I then set m...
5 comments:
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: