Friday, November 28, 2014

Gold and Silver in Tapestries

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The best argument for the timing of the spread and use of DRS spinning technology is the use of gold and silver in tapestry yarns. Spinni...
3 comments:
Thursday, November 27, 2014

Stating the obvious and elucidating the trivial.

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Everyone knows the two dowel technique for rolling rolags off of a drum carder. However, when one is spinning finer, one needs thinner ro...
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Speed

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I like cooking breakfast for my wife, but I do not spend all day cooking breakfast because breakfast must be done in time for work and play...
Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Cross check

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When I make a change to my wheel, I go back and check how it performs Scotch Tension and Irish Tension (single drive, bobbin lead). Thus,...
2 comments:
Monday, November 24, 2014

The Balloon

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If the yarn being spun is not under tension, it will "blow" out of the hecks on the flyer. This is a matter of centripetal forc...
13 comments:
Saturday, November 22, 2014

Distance from drafting triangle to bobbin.

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I am going to blandly assert that it takes some time for a drafted stream of fibers to "level" and "settle" into a comp...
4 comments:
Thursday, November 20, 2014

Under Spun ?

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Naw!! It is soft, fluffy, carded Rambouillet woolen spun at 5,600 ypp @ 12 tpi. It is soft and lofty. The current batts were scoured wi...
2 comments:
Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Drive Belt Tension

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Before I bought a spinning wheel, I wanted a nice wooden screw tension on the drive band.  The wheel that I bought had a steel screw, so I ...

Revised Geometry

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Last spring, as I started using accelerator wheels, the advances came fast and furious.  And then things stabilized for months.  It was a t...
6 comments:
Friday, November 14, 2014

Grist quality assurance and quality control

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I have been spinning weft from Rambouillet. The goal is a woolen single at about 5,600 ypp (11/gram) I spin, and wind off into cakes.  A...
7 comments:
Wednesday, November 12, 2014

SIP, KIP, lanolin, and baby oil

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Lots of folk get all riled up about baby oil, and they call me names. However, do you notice how few of them offer to meet me a public pl...
10 comments:

Boiling Fleece

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If you just toss a bit of fleece in a pot, you do not know how much potassium salts there are to react with the lanolin and potentially the...

Baby OIl III

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I wash wool objects with soap.  So does Alden Amos.  He said so in his Big, Blue Book.  It works. I tried a lot of other things, but soap ...
7 comments:
Saturday, November 08, 2014

More on Lanolin III

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Yes, Virginia, there is a "soap-like" suint in sheep fleece.  It can be removed with cold water, including rain, so there is less...
9 comments:
Friday, November 07, 2014

More on Lanolin II

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Sheep produce lanolin and suint, and together they keep the sheep's fleece oiled without the grooming required by animals like beaver. ...
3 comments:
Thursday, November 06, 2014

More on Lanolin

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I was doing forestry research for the American Chestnut project back in the days when it was run by Lou Ismay.  We went out in all weather,...
4 comments:
Wednesday, November 05, 2014

My Favorite Yarn (11/2014)

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Some of you know that I always seek as much warmth as possible from a minimum amount of wool.  This is a result of too much hiking with hea...

Fashion

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I was recently told that I should go back to school to learn something about fashion. I understand fashion as a status display.  I know t...
7 comments:
Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Indigo and woad or Isatis tinctoria

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Lustrous wool fibers mostly present a hydrophobic surface.   In a few places, there are polar bonds where water droplets can attach or dye ...
3 comments:
Monday, November 03, 2014

lanolin

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Many, many modern knitters attribute the warmth of the old knit woolens to lanolin.  However, lanolin oxidizes, and then when it gets wet i...
37 comments: