4.08.2011

efforts

well, no news in the indigo front (the experiment bombed for various reasons). but, there's still some dyeing taking place in the laboratory. i've been dyeing wool roving as an experiment to see what colors i may obtain from the different extracts i have. hopefully i will end up with a good spectrum of colors to card together and spin. so far i've created bubblegum pink, deep magenta, daffodil yellow, and a ruby purple by using madder and kamala. currently resting in the dye pot is hopefully a teal and a pale green, so their final color is awaiting verification. i know i should make orange, but it's my least favorite color, so i may settle on peach. when i have them all together i'll post photos.

i was happy to receive extra bobbins in the mail from doc for my new old spinning wheel, so i tested them out and was able to spin a fine grey alpaca two ply yarn; it's especially fuzzy, so i'm not quite sure what to do with it.

on monday during the spinning meet-up, i spun a lovely silk merino i've had forever, and plied it with a cinnamon alpaca. it took a little extra work to ply as i had to reply it on my drop spindle after the initial plying was too loose. drop spindle plying is especially nice as i feel that i have more control over the end result, at this point i prefer it over spinning singles on the drop spindle (i quite like using the spinning wheel for that part).

i'm racking up quite a collection of spun yarns, perhaps i should put some of them in my etsy storefront?

4 comments:

  1. oh, it's wonderful that you have more bobbins. hope you're learning to love your new/old wheel. super spinning. Jean

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  2. i was grateful to be able to find a wood turner to craft new ones; it's difficult to do a lot of spinning with one bobbin (especially one which is sometimes sticky from years of lanolin and water and refuses to spin properly). it's definitely allowing me to enjoy the wheel and get use of it.

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  3. I just recently bid on a wheel identical to the one you are using here, except that it is now missing the flyer wheel and bobbin. As this is such a tragic loss of a piece of history, do you have any knowledge of where the missing parts are now?

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  4. sometimes in the history of spinning wheels, they are broken, lose parts during travels, or just wear out. as a result, our ancestors would salvage parts from different wheels so that they could have at least one working wheel which was frankensteined together. times were hard, you made do and mended. there are several woodworkers which i know of who could craft a new flyer wheel and bobbins for you:

    http://www.fullchisel.com/
    http://www.ztwist.com/Reproduction_Flyers.htm

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