2007 Craft summary, and a challenge for 2008.
This year I knit my first sock in under a month. I crocheted a Roman helmet baby hat, a handful of scarves, a dishcloth or two, and crocheted a baby diaper soaker that was too small by the time I finished it. I knit baby legwarmers that… didn’t work out. And my fair share of hats. None of which I documented, alas.
I also made sure to complete my first sewn objects last night – started and finished in 2007 – curtains for our front windows. I cannot say much for the craftsmanship. Sewing washed, dried and hopelessly wrinkled muslin is beyond my beginner’s skill set, I think. Next project I’ll be sure to make something that will never need to be washed, and I’ll do it with crisp, flat, virgin fabric.
Nonetheless, they are DONE. Next up, get curtain rods and hang them. But that will be short work, I believe, and then on to the next project.
My spinning wheel, whom I have dubbed the Cantankerous Ol’ Dude, is as the name would suggest a crotchety fellow. The flyer and bobbin are made of some rough, dry wood, and the sheave along the bobbin that determines the ratio of the bobbin’s spin to the drive wheel’s spin is chipped. There is only one sheave, meaning that the wheel and bobbin can essentially have only one spin ratio, making it not a very versatile machine, and the bobbin is actually quite small. (I’d be surprised if it holds much more than a spun ounce of fiber.)
I only have one bobbin, and no lazy kate, so no plying together of my singles, though if I found something suitable onto which I could wind off, I could Navajo ply them (chaining a la crochet base chain, then twisted in a second spinning process.)
The two legs from which the treadle levers slide apart every now and then, allowing the whole treadle pedal to fall off. The footman is held on to the wheel by a binder clip at the moment, as I don’t have the appropriately sized nut. I am using cotton yarn for a drive band, and the wheel itself is coming apart slightly where the separate pieces of wood that compose it meet.
Oh! And the part that should keep the bobbin/flyer from popping right out, broken and/or missing, replaced with, you guessed it, cotton cord for a barely functional solution.
It is functional, but frankly a complete pain in the ass to spin on.
That said, there are fixes for some things. I’ve tied cord around the legs supporting the treadle to stop them from sliding apart. I’m sure I could have someone make new bobbins, hopefully at least a little higher capacity. I could even possibly replace the entire mother of all, and if I chose a major manufacturer, then I’d have my pick of replacement bobbins. I don’t know what’s to be done about the legs releasing the treadle pedal, or the wheel joints, and frankly just thinking about all this gives me a headache.
But this post isn’t about complaining about the things my wheel wants and needs. I’ve set myself a goal. I’ll retire the Cantankerous Ol’ Dude when I have spun a mile of yarn. That’s 1,760 yards.
Tonight, I’ve spun about 146 wraps around my Macbook screen, otherwise known as 113 yards of an approximately fingering weight yarn (laceweight in some places). I’ve previously spun some yardage, but I haven’t counted it up yet. This may be slow going, but I think it’s a worthy challenge and will probably make a better spinner out of me.
1,647 yards to go, and counting.
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I haven’t managed or tried to do it yet, but perhaps some day.
Anyway, I have a very old wheel with 2 bobbins, 1 chipped and 1 ratio. You can navajo ply (one of my favs!) however you can also skein the yarn off the bobbin (you would probubly need 2 swifts or skein makers) and spin from the two or more skeins. You can also do a center pull ball. You wind the yarn around something (or else have a lovely ball maker) and using both ends (1 from the middle and the other from the outside) you can ply that way.
And I have recently read about someone who makes felted balls (I think any type of ball would work, golf ball size)for herself and her cats. She winds the singles aroudn the ball, creating a ball of yarn with a felted ball center. Then she gets one of those pots. You know the kind, people plant flowers in them. They have a hole in the botton for water to drain out. Anyway, she threads the singles through the hole, places the pot upside down on the floor with the balls of yarn underneath and plys that way. As she pulls on the singles as she plys the ball unwind and go throug hthe hole. I would assume it would keep the singles from tangeling too badly, and as long as the pot was heavy (clay) and stayed in place it would work well. I beleive the article I read with this kind of plying was about a woman who did a drop spingle, but it would most certainly work for a wheel with 1 bobbin.
I hope that helps a little.
Perspnally I love navajo plying and would do it all the time. However it really eats up the yarn and sometimes you want the barber pole effect (affect?) of a two or more ply.
Guin
That is a really interesting idea. I doubt I’m going to ply on the ol’ dude, though, because his bobbin so SO SMALL. I think I’m going to keep on with the challenge just for the sake of doing so, but I am on the verge of calling it a day and chucking the wheel (or offering it up for sale to a spinner who might have experience refurbishing and restoring wheels, or who knows a woodworker who does.) I don’t know.
I really like the flower pot/ball idea. I don’t have a tensioned lazy kate either, so that is certainly one solution.