Wednesday, October 29, 2014

More DRS Twist and Grist

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It would seem that one would require a whole drawer full of whorls to spin all the yarns that a spinner needs to spin.  However, I find tha...
Saturday, October 25, 2014

True woolen from a drun carder

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Recently, I mentioned Henry Clemes neat diz for using a drum carder to make roving to spin semi-woolen. It occurs to me that I see lots o...

Rabett Run: Confident Idiots

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Rabett Run: Confident Idiots
5 comments:
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Why 5,600 ypp?

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The old knitting yarns were constructed of many fine plies.  Lace was 2 or 3-ply. Sport weight was 5-ply.  Worsted weight was 6-ply.  Aran ...
2 comments:

Good ideas and better ideas

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Good ideas tend to crowd out better ideas.  If one has a good solution to a problem, then better solutions to the problem tend to be reject...

5-ply revisited

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I came to spinning as a knitter seeking better "gansey" yarn.  Everyone said that gansey yarn was worsted spun, so I spun worsted...
2 comments:
Sunday, October 19, 2014

A heavy heart

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Some say that one cannot spin very high quality fine yarns when one has " a heavy heart". Rubbish!! If one is trained so that...
Friday, October 17, 2014

the evolution of a yarn

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I started spinning because I wanted better gansey yarn.  Worsted spun 5-ply sport weight was my very first goal and my first spinning proje...
6 comments:
Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Luster in fine wool

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A couple of years ago, our guild had THE expert on wool come in for a lesson on how to buy a fleece. At one point she said that the ...
1 comment:
Monday, October 13, 2014

Better accelerator bearings

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Spinning has been a series of sacrifices to the gods of speed. I settled into double drive and differential rotation speed (DRS) controll...
Tuesday, October 07, 2014

More on Diz your roving

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You can use a length of dowel to wind the roving/pull the fiber off the drum carder through the diz.  Now the roving is wound around a nice...
Monday, October 06, 2014

Using a diz to strip roving off the drum carder

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Folks are using a diz to take a strip of batt off the drum carder as continuous roving. It is fast and easy, and it works very well -- to...
Thursday, October 02, 2014

Pix of 20 fiber bundles

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You have seen them. Every serious spinner drafted out super fine as they added lots of twist and the result is a few inches or a few feet ...
15 comments:
Wednesday, October 01, 2014

How to use a twisty stick

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It is simple.  It takes a fair amount of skill, but it is simple. First learn to spin worsted singles that are a bundle of only 20 fiber...
3 comments:
Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Truth About Spinning Finer

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There is a story in the spinning world that the very fine threads are spun by assembling bundles of only 5 fibers.  I know you have heard ...
Saturday, September 27, 2014

Size the day

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When I bought the loom, they proudly told me that they (RAC) had just replaced the harness springs. I thought, "Good" (a set of...
8 comments:
Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Spinzilla II

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I did not enter Spinzilla. The way to win Spinzilla is to spin a low twist, low grist yarn. In the last year, I have spun over 120,000 ...

The ultimate fiber stash

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I got to thinking, what is the ultimate fiber stash? For me it is 5 lb of each of the following: Long wool/40 count (Cotswold or Romne...

knitting belts, knitting sheaths and stainless steel needles

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A year ago, I switched to knitting needles made of hollow stainless steel for much of my knitting. Mostly, I bought inexpensive needles fro...
3 comments:
Monday, September 22, 2014

Hand Woolcombing and Spinning

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Peter Teal did some very good work, but he makes a number of serious errors.  He holds opinions that I strongly agree with, and then someti...