Saturday, July 28, 2012

Why Cables?

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Like a Socratic question or a question used to teach Shaolin monks, this question has many layers. First, why gansey knit? (i.e., knit wi...
17 comments:
Sunday, July 22, 2012

Snow is coming!

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Every cell phone needs a gansey! Also fits my little camera.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A Skeiner

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I should have done this sooner.  Way sooner. The royal profile of  Casimir the Great The back side of  Casimi...
2 comments:
Monday, July 09, 2012

Shaker Rockets

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There is the age old problem of winding off. The Shakers had a neat kind of bobbin.  See for example "silk reel" at  http://pwe...
Sunday, July 08, 2012

The Glory of Skeins

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As a knitter, I put up with skeins as one puts up with cold rain on a camping trip.  They were something that had to be endured while one ...
2 comments:
Thursday, July 05, 2012

80s from 80s

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This summer's project is to spin a pound of combed fiber into 80 hanks of 560 yards each. In total, it means spinning about 26 miles of...

A Fast Squirrel Cage Swift

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Fine (lace) yarns in a skein want a squirrel cage swift because there is less rotational momentum, and the yarns are less likely to be stre...
Saturday, June 30, 2012

New Knitting Sheath Adapter System

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I have been looking for a better system for connecting the needle adapters to the knitting sheaths.  I now have the solution.  To be frank,...
3 comments:
Sunday, May 13, 2012

Winding off of a precise DRS bobbin assembly

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For high grist singles, I use a precise DRS bobbin to flier ratio without slippage.  This means that the twist inserted in to the yarn chan...
5 comments:
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The new spinning workstation

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A few months ago, Stephenie Gaustad told me that if I really wanted to spin fast, I should go to an e-spinner or motor spinner.  I had a bu...
Friday, April 27, 2012

Understand the Spindle! Part IV

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I seem to have made a mistake in my calculations. A rim weighted whorl does tend to slow the copp/ spindle system after the copp has gott...
2 comments:

A drop spindle for travel

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Rim weighted whorls do have their uses.  This compact spindle was make for producing 6,000 ypp singles while out and about.  The shaf...
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

High Whorl vs. Low Whorl Spindles

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The choice between high whorl and low whorl drop spindles in usually presented as purely personal choice.  However, there are rational fact...
Thursday, April 19, 2012

The sum of what I know about spindles

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I have often said that I do not really understand spindles.  It turns out that part of  the problem was that I did not like modern spindle ...
1 comment:
Sunday, April 08, 2012

Understand the Spindle! Part III

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The next set of questions has to do with how the spindle is spun-up, and how much energy is in the "flick". There are several ...
2 comments:
Thursday, April 05, 2012

Understand the Spindle! part 2

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In Part I, I mentioned mass that is farther from the center of rotation slows the rotation of the spindle.  This is a dramatic effect.  Supp...
2 comments:
Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Understand the Spindle!

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What could there be to understanding a simple spindle??? What could I say, that other spinning teachers have not already said?  This post is...
2 comments:
Monday, March 05, 2012

Spinning Stash

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Spinners brag about how big their fiber stash is.  Sometimes, they will even say that their fiber stash is so big that they have raw fleece ...
2 comments:
Sunday, March 04, 2012

More on how I spin

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Fiber gets combed, and then I diz off using a diz with a 3/32" or 1/16" hole.   The sliver goes into a bin, and I wind it tail ...
Thursday, March 01, 2012

A finer flyer

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Last night Stephene Gaustad delivered a new #0 flier from Alden Amos. The bobbin has this morning's play on it.  Note where the sing...
1 comment: