Sunday, February 26, 2012

Bobbin Winder

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I spin on a little spinning bobbin, and then I suck the spun yarn off  (technical term meaning wind off  : ) with a bobbin winder that is a ...
2 comments:
Monday, February 20, 2012

Spindle vs. wheels

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I say, " wheels can be faster than spindles." That is not a value judgment, that is a demonstrable fact. Spinning slowly may be a...
1 comment:
Saturday, February 18, 2012

Science, spinning, and illusion

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For a long time, one of my jobs was to evaluate technologies, first for Bechtel and its clients, and later for the US Department of Energy. ...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Large needles

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I like the fabrics produced by fine needles, and thus I have not been making the needles/adapters for large needles.  I have suggested that ...
6 comments:
Thursday, February 09, 2012

Esty

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I have stopped obsessing over spinning, and am again making knitting sheaths and needles that are listed on Esty. There are some new tools...
2 comments:
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: