Woolfest 2007 - haul

I've been spending a lovely Wimbledon weekend (it has *finally* stopped raining. Today for the first time this 'summer' I was able to actually empty the water butt onto the garden, rather than just emptying it down a drain in a desperate attempt to stop it overflowing) spinning up and plying the rest of the Forest Sun batt. I've just finished plying and haven't taken it off the bobbin yet, so no photos.

I thought instead I'd go through my Woolfest haul, before I start digging into it [any further] (anyone baulking at the amount of text, scroll down for the cute sheep picture ;) ):



13 & 14 - my first Woolfest purchases. I'd been walking round and writing down any fibres and yarns that I was interested in, but these were on my shopping list, so I had to nab them. Interweave Knits Winter 2006 and Summer 2007. A bargain at £4 each.

11 - first fibre purchase: 100g 'English' wool (56s), dyed in lovely shades of black and pink by Freyalyn (£3.50). Beautiful, a bargain, and Freyalyn's stall was at the end of the hall, so I knew I didn't need to write it down and go back later! She called this colourway 'Blackberry', and there was another packet of 'Blackberry', but it was more lilac'n'grey than pink'n'black, and I liked the black. I'm thinking now that I might email her to ask if she has any more in similar colours to my packet, since 100g isn't that much!

5 - also from Freyalyn: 53g alpaca, dyed with blues and greys and blacks. I've never tried alpaca before, and these colours were lovely (£4).

9 - then it was right back to the other end of the hall for my first yarn purchase: one skein of 'Scrumptious' from Fyberspates (100g; 220m; £11.99). This is the 'moss' colourway, and I utterly love it. I was tempted by a vibrant pink colourway, but I don't have anything in that shade of greens and bronzes. It's a mix of blue faced leicester and silk, and I had emailed Jeni previously to ask if it is veggie silk or not... it isn't. That was a couple of weeks back, and I've been doing some thinking and decided that provided it was little and infrequent, I would allow myself to buy non-veggie silk (in the same way I wear leather shoes really). Besides Fypberspates has a really good environmental policy, so I was happy supporting the business.

8 - and this was why I over-ruled by morals on the Scrumptious - a pattern for a mini-shawl to be knit in it. I actually met the designer on a train about a year ago - she was knitting, I was in a knitting slump due to injuries, so I made her talk to me! It was Elly who gave me the Fyberspates weblink originally.

7 - my other Fyberspates purchase - cobweb weight BFL in gorgeous sea colours (the photo is actually pretty accurate for all colours). c. 1200m, £7.50

10 - my next yarn purchase. There are actually 2 skeins here, because they have a relatively short yardage (100g; 140m; £7 each). These are skeins of banana fibre! How fun is that! It feels a lot like the sari-silk yarn, a very heavy, dense, singles, in dark blue, purple and silver. From Knitting4Fun, who also had the funky stripey bags.

12 - this was the fibre I had my heart set on, it was from P&M Woolcraft (I think Mr Bee was more impressed by the newspaper bag). You can't quite make it out, but it's loads of different shades of merino, teals and greens and maroons and reds and purples, shot through with white silk (I know I know; I didn't ask. I shall ignorantly assume it to be tussah). This was sold in giant bags, and you had to wind out the weight you wanted - it was £4.50/100g, but the bag was actually labelled £4.50/kilo. Luckily I noticed that the other bags were £4.50/100g and checked before I tried to buy it all for peanuts! I got 200g, but am wondering now if I should've bought a lot more, since it's so gorgeous.

3 - other things on my shopping list were spindles. I got this Turkish spindle from Hedgehog Equipment for £4.50. They also had some Majacraft wheels out - a Little Gem and a Susie (which I lust after). I was offered a chance to try the Susie, which I gladly took. My first spinning on a different wheel! Luckily I didn't cak it up, and I even matched the weight of yarn that was being spun before. One of those on the stalls was the director of Majacraft! It was great to chat to her (and to not cak up in front of her). She gave me a go on the Little Gem too - I wasn't overly fond of it. The Susie is much nicer. It was really nice to spend time on their stall, and I think Mr Bee enjoyed it too.

6 - then it was on to find another spindle - a bee-youtiful one. The prettiest spindles at Woolfest were Bosworth spindles, and a number of stalls had them. P&M Woolcraft had them, but their stall was utterly packed and jammed, and it had been hard enough buying the fibre (12) from them. So we headed to the end of the room, where I'd noticed some on a slightly quieter stall - the one where Freyalyn was selling her wares. I noticed that this stall also had some Spindolyns for £20. I'm tempted by this, as I think a supported spindle might be better on my arms - a bit more like a wheel, perhaps. I was able to give it a try and I totally sucked! I was getting enough twist in, but drafted was awkward - it's a totally different angle to a normal spindle or a wheel. So I went back to the Bosworths, and chose this gorgeous purpleheart mini (I think; can't remember! It was £30). I was able to give it a try and it just spun beautifully! I can understand why they get such rave reviews! I was also pleased that I didn't suck at the spindle spinning, because I later realised that the people from whom I bought it were those teaching the 'how to use a drop spindle' workshop (Spindlers 2)!

1 - the fibre I'd used to try out the spindles was really nice, so I asked what it was: Falkland, but they didn't have any. By this time Mr Bee was getting a bit bored, so I sent him back to look at the sheep and bunnies, whilst I ran round the stalls trying to find some Falkland! I headed to Wingham Woolwork, but they didn't have any. They did have some BFL (100g for £1.80), and since I've heard such great things about BFL I decided to try that. This is what I've been using to spin with my Bosworth, and it really is lovely and soft.

4 - time was pressing on, and this was the closest I could find to Falkland - 'Falkland/Merino'. It's not clear whether it's a crossbreed, or a blend - 100g, £2, Scottish Fibres.

2 - also from Scottish Fibres, I couldn't resist this mix of blues, greys and whites, 100g, merino, £3.30.

And no fibre show report would be complete without the obligatory cute sheep shot:



And finally, a shot of where we spent the weekend. This is the back, which overlooked a river (=raging torrent; this shot was taken in one of the few interludes from the downpours) - hence the fishing imagery inside (see the cushion cover in the big shot above):



And from the front. Staying here took the edge off all the 'wool stuff' for Mr Bee, I can tell you!

Toes crossed

I've just spent the evening spinning and my foot hurts - doh! For future reference (that I really hope I do *not* need) it's the front of the right ankle, on the left side. I switched to my left foot about halfway through and that's fine - probably should've switched sooner... Oh well.

I've got my new bobbins! And my whorl!

So tonight I did some spinning with one of my new bobbins, and the new whorl. I've been saving my last lot of dyed fibre for my new bobbins, as I wanted to spin the singles onto two new bobbins, so that they were equal.

I am attempting to spin as fine as I can, for a lace project. I think I got thicker the more tired I got (spun from about 7pm til 11pm). The main problem was that I changed the drive band. My usual drive band was great for spinning fine and having a good take-up, but kept falling off. It used to do this all the time, but has stopped recently, so I assume that this was due to the new bobbin & whorl groves being a little too shallow. So I switched the drive band to being some crochet cotton, and I've just totally lost all take-up. I managed to get into the swing of barely holding the fibre and letting it be gently pulled on by the end, but there is a LOT of overtwist and kinks stuck in the bobbin. I usually add quite a lot of twist anyway, but there are huge kinks going on here which I hope won't make plying too nightmarish.

Anyway, I've done half of my fibre. Not sure when I'll do the second half - better make sure my foot is better first!

Camera Obscura

Sadly no photos, since Mr Bee took the camera away with him this weekend, and has left it at a friend's house. We won't get it back until next Friday - and that's only if he remembers. Frustratingly I took some good photos of my present, but didn't have a chance to take them off the camera. Oh well.

In other news I dyed the remaining undyed fibre I have - less than 2 ounces of grey Jacob top. I used 3 sachets of blue Kool Aid, in the hope of getting a dark blue shade. It hasn't quite worked - it's more a mix of light-grey-dyed-bluey/green and dark grey, but I'll have to see how it spins up.

Oh, and I asked for information the other day on SpinList about Haldane Lewis wheels. No one else appears to have the same wheel as me (although others know others with one), but there are people with other Haldane wheels, and one woman with an earlier version of the Lewis, which has lots of exciting twiddly bits.

I also decided to contact Haldanes themselves to see if they had any bobbins. When I first got my wheel (in Feb 2006) the Haldanes website listed spare bobbins and whorls for the Lewis. I decided to buy 3 more bobbins and all other whorls when I finished my thesis. By the time I'd finished they'd sold out of both (they're discontinued)! Doh! But Haldanes have been very nice, and are selling me 3 'modified Ashford' bobbins, which should be fine, plus another whorl which they managed to find.

Because I'm in the middle of moving I'm having them shipped to my parents' address, so it will be March before I can pick them up...

I've had to move my blog over to 'new blogger'. There don't appear to be any changes except it's added 'GB' under my name. If it wishes to list my location, I'd much prefer 'UK'*, since GB is rarely used nowadays, except on car stickers. I can't actually see where it got 'GB' from either; probably my time zone.

I do want to try the labels/tags thing though. I may wait until I have a other-types-of-hand-movement free day to spend going through my old posts and adding them.

* 'Great Britain' is England, Wales and Scotland (i.e., the name of the actual island on which I live); the 'United Kingdom' is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland (full title is the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'); the 'British Isles' is the geographical term for everything, including the Republic of Ireland.

Spinning Wheel - technical issues

I contacted Haldanes about my spinning wheel - which is why there are loads of random photos of the wheel in the previous post (I sent them the link).

I was told that my wheel is a 'Lewis'! It's good to know what it actually is. Lewis wheels were started in about 1980 and stopped production in 1994, so I have a vague date to my wheel.

A Lewis has a plastic connector from the footman to treadle, and also runs in ball bearings. That threw me a little, which is why I took all the photos of the wheel axle. After seeing the photos the Haldanes man also said I was missing a 'spring pin', so I ordered one from them, and also a drive band. They were really lovely to order from!

I think I'll stick to string for the time being as my drive band, as I'm still ironing out issues with it, but it's good to have a 'proper' one to hand. Although the instructions are for a single drive wheel (not a problem as I know how to thread up a double drive) and make reference to some 'grooved wooden block' which I don't have (but can improvise). As for the spring pin... I have no idea what to do with it!



This is what the email said:
"The crank (which goes through the wheel hub) should have a pin through it which goes through the hub and through the drilled hole in the crank. They are called spring pins."

Now to me that suggests that this pin is going to go through the hub of the wheel AND through the hole in the crank. Obviously with a straight pin that is impossible. There is no gap in the hub, and the hole in the crank is too small:



I'm stumped! However, the wheel is running well (other than the occasional slipping drive band) - I've spun about 100yds of the blue merino. I've got a small safety pin through the hole in the crank holding the footman on instead. I guess this spring pin is to go in place of the safety pin, but it's a good 2inches long, and I don't want that sticking out of the crank ready to get caught on things - a small safety pin is much better.

But if anyone has any better ideas please do let me know!

Pictures of the spinning wheel

A full-length shot of the wheel (before I attached a drive band):



A picture of the logo from the underneath:



A picture from the front:



A close-up shot of the connector between the footman and the pedal:



A close-up shot of the wheel axle. I had to take one of the wheel-shafts off as the wheel kept slipping out of its socket. In the end, once I removed the wheel shaft I was able to push the axle (the cam-shaft) through a bit more so that it caught into the socket better.


Because a picture paints a thousand words, here's a pic as I was pushing the axle through the wheel. This shows me pushing more of the axle through the wheel-shaft. After I took this picture I pushed the wheel back on the axle so that more protruded through the other side. I was then able to refit the other wheel-shaft and the wheel fit into both sockets:

My first spinnings!

Well, I had my Latin reading class yesterday, and my Latin Latin class today, and then... Free to look at the spinning wheel :D

I apparently have a 'Saxony' style double drive wheel. A very nice forumite sent me this link about how to put a drive band on a double drive wheel, and it was pretty straightforward! I've used a length of thin string as it's all I had.

However, the main problem has been that the wheel axle isn't quite long enough to fit properly into the shaft. Once it really got spinning it would come out of its socket on one side.

Eventually - after taking it apart! - I appear to have got it going :)

And. And! My fibre came! So I got to try it out :D

It took it a while to get the wheel going round smoothly, and then it took ages to get to the point where I could make the fibre wind onto the bobbin rather than just twisting up. However, once it clicked it all just seemed so simple! I can't believe how quick it is as well. Unfortunately, though the wheel was staying in place, the drive band (OK, string) kept coming off. This meant I had to keep stopping and starting again.

So here we go...

This is my first try. For this I cut about 6-8 inches off the end of the roving, and separated it out into thin sections. I then spliced all these together, but the splicing joins are very dodgy. This one has spun rather thickly (yeah, and lumpily!)



My second try. For this one I used the whole roving length, thinned out. This meant there were hardly any joins to deal with (only the ones where it thinned out so much it broke in two ;) ). This one has spun much more evenly and thinly - but maybe that's an optical illusion as it's still on the bobbin ;)



These pictures just don't show the actual colour of the fibre - it's a much more royal blue. Here's one without a flash, but it still doesn't do the colour justice:



I need to get a better drive band, and I need to practise (especially my splicing)! I still have a lot of roving left, but it would take less than an hour to spin it all. Need to find a cheap fleece source. I wonder what I could use to practise with? Maybe multiple strands of cheapy acrylic yarn?

And I also need to find something to knit with 100g of lumpily, unevenly spun merino ;)

Squeeeeee Squeeeeeee Squeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Look what I just bought:


On Monday I walked into town. On my way back I walked past 'The Edinburgh Woollen Mill', which - despite its name - doesn't sell wool at all, but rather old lady clothes (presumably made out of wool). And in the window was a spinning wheel... A spinning wheel with 'Props sale: £50' on it!!! £50 for a spinning wheel?! Obviously I must buy it! I've always wanted a spinning wheel, and even looked into drop spinning with a spindle a couple of years back.

But alas, the shop had just closed :( The lights were on and there were staff inside, but the doors wouldn't open. I was sad :(

However, on the walk home I convinced myself that I don't need another excuse to further my RSI, and it was probably just a prop and didn't work, and it was probably a miniature, and £50 is a lot, etc etc etc. Besides, if it were fate for me to buy it, the shop would've been open, right?

Then we get to today when I cycle to town for my chiropractic appointment. On the way back I decided to see if it was still there, expecting it to have gone since it was nearly 2 days ago I last saw it.

Again, fate appeared to intervene: I totally missed the shop and had to double back. But when I did... the wheel was still there! I went in, asked if it worked: the staff said they thought it did, and it was bigger than I remembered. So I decided to just go for it, £50 is an amazing bargain!

I had a slightly hairy moment walking to the bus stop where one of the legs fell off, as did part of the treadle. However, I gathered it up, checked there were no other bits, and got it home. I've now put it back together and it appears to work fine! (Well, it spins: I have no idea how it actually works). I checked the underneath and it was made by 'Haldane' in Scotland. Haldanes' website doesn't have any of their own brand wheels on it, but I might contact them about it.

Anyway! I need to go back to town to pick up my poor old bike!