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Two skeins of hand spun alpaca fibre side by side, the one on the left hasn't been washed and the one on the right has.
My wheel gets some maintenance and the alpaca gets a bath

My wheel gets some maintenance and the alpaca gets a bath

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How often do you do maintenance on your craft/hobby/fibre/work-related objects? That is, how often do you oil your wheel, change the needle on your sewing machine, clean your carding brushes? I bet this isn’t a type of question that gets asked much outside woolly circles (although “how often do you wash your hairbrush” really should be a thing in my opinion!)

A while ago, my Lendrum spinning wheel started squeaking a bit. Every rotation, I’d get a “squee, squee, squee” sound that annoyed me to no end. It finally dawned on me that it may be time to show it some love and add a few drops of machine oil onto its metal bits. I pretended I knew what I was doing, hummed and harrumphed a few times (like how I imagined a seasoned mechanic would when looking at an old car) and what do you know? The squeak was gone. Hoorah!

Then it dawned on me that other parts of the wheel might also be in need of some TLC. I bought a WooLee Winder a number of years ago and although that, too, had been subjected to some oiling in the past, I had never once disassembled the thing to do a deep cleaning. To put things in better context, I’ve been spinning raw alpaca… If you know your camelids, you’ll know those adorable guys can get very dusty! My winder had started to stutter and stop in one specific place lately, and I could see dirt accumulating on the outside of the shuttle groove, so I really needed to do something about it.

WooLee Winder on a Lendrum wheel
Photo courtesy of the WooLee Winder website. This one looks pristine, mine looked dirtyyyyy.

Being the independent woman that I am, I forged a plan: watch a couple of YouTube videos, dismantle the thing, clean it thoroughly, drink a well-deserved cup of tea afterwards and enjoy my feminist success.

I did Step One very successfully, then immediately changed tact: I delegated the task to Husband (meaning: I chickened out of playing with an expensive piece of equipment and asked him to do it for me, so I could blame him in case it all went awry).

Two hands are shown in the process of taking apart the WooLee Winder
I was offering useful supervision the whole thing (meaning: I was the backseat driver)

Trust me, the photo doesn’t begin to show how terribly dusty the whole thing was. Once it all came apart, I was aghast at how a piece of shiny metal could actually look dull and brownish. See the amount of fibre I removed from the inside!

Closeup of my hand holding some fluff I removed from the WooLee Winder
This was the fluff that was preventing my winder from working properly. Or so I thought.

Now the plot twist: once the WooLee Winder was reassembled, I was happily back at my wheel and ready to gunk it up with more alpaca; I was spinning away, when the thing kept stopping exactly in the same spot as before it was cleaned. Why, ye gods, why?!

The answer? I only thought I’d cleaned it correctly. Turns out, the amount of fluff you see in the pic was just the tip of the iceberg. Husband, I require your services and tools once again! This time we spent time really looking at every nook and cranny, and managed to remove some more debris. It wasn’t actually much more, but it was enough to prevent the mechanism from moving as it should.

It was finally working like a charm. I felt I went from driving a beaten-up Alfa Romeo to a Ferrari – that thing was faster than I remember and I had to adjust my wheel’s settings because as it turns out, I’d been making my Lendrum work harder than it needed to compensate for my inadequate maintenance efforts.

Now, to illustrate how much dust I’d been adding to the WooLee Winder, I present one of my alpaca skein baths. This was the second wash.

A skein of alpaca hand spun yarn is under very dirty brown, soapy water
Ew.

Is it any wonder my equipment needed some TLC? You’ll be surprised to know I am now planning on cleaning the winder again after I am done spinning this fleece…

Finally, a picture of two skeins of hand spun alpaca side by side. The left one is before washing and the right one is after; notice how the fibre has bloomed. I’m never short of amazed at how much fibres transform after a warm soak.

Two skeins of hand spun alpaca fibre side by side, the one on the left hasn't been washed and the one on the right has.

Next on my cleaning list is coming up with a way to clean my (currently very dusty) wool carders without water. Any ideas? How do you maintain yours?

I hope this post has inspired you to look at your precious tools and offering them some love. They help us be better at our crafts, after all. We need to keep them in top condition! Don’t be like me…

 

A lot of yarn, but not really

A lot of yarn, but not really

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I like to spindle spin. I am slow at it, and it is just a fun, relaxing thing to do at a social or demonstration. I don’t knit or crochet. I have what seems to me to be a lot of small balls of 2-ply handspun. I know it’s not a lot really, I don’t suppose there is enough for even one sweater. I do use some in my felting. I never used a lot of it,  but since I don’t really sell anymore, I use even less. I thought about trying some pictures using yarn. I could needlefelt it down a bit and then wet felt it. I have several large freezer bags of yarn. I thought it would be best to see what I have and sort it by colour.

I had 4 bags and some part bags of yarn.

There should be more. I went searching. I think they must still be packed. I did find my bin of short-length mini skiens that I used to sell. More about them later.

I sorted them into colour groups: greens, red/pinks, blue/purple, yellow/orange, grey/brown and mixed. I had no idea I had so much pink.

 

I need to rewind some of the balls. Not sure what happened to them.

 

These are the miniskiens. They are 12.5 yards(11.4m) in each mini skien. That’s enough to do a pretty dense design on an 8-foot (2.4 m)by 1-foot (30cm) silk scarf blank. Enough to add a couple of accent rows to a knit hat or use for a bit of colour in punch needle or rug hooking. I can’t find a picture of them nicely displayed in a basket for sale. I bet Jan has one, but I don’t want to bug her to find it. This is what they looked like when I dumped them out of their box with all the tags on them.

 

I took all the tags off. The are all sorts; thick and thin, and some that are both. I will add the gag of them to my class supplies.  I plan to make some more small skeins from the newer handspun to add to it, so there is more colour choice. I know I saw my 1-yard niddy noddy recently.

 

and all safely back into ziplock bags

 

All in all, not a lot of yarn. I have a commercial yarn stash too, it is a real mix of fibres and styles, and a whole other story. I don’t know if I will try a picture completely out of yarn, but maybe I will make more of an effort to use some of it in pictures and other felt.

And lastly, I have to thank Jan for doing some blog posts for me lately. I have been run off my feet baking to get ready for our 2 Farmes Market Christmas sales. The last one was Saturday. There is a small one that my daughter will go to with my husband. I will be teaching.  Anyway, here is a picture just before opening on the 15th.  No snow this year.

Oh ye, the comment button is at the top of the post.

 

 

finished my fairy tail spinning….almost

finished my fairy tail spinning….almost

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A short spinning post today. We have a social on Mondays at our guild. When I am there, I help Jan with the Library. We are going through our archive book boxes and deciding what to keep and what to sell. A big Job. Once that is done, I spin on my spindle. I am not a production spinner. I like to slowly spin small quantities of fibre; I just enjoy spinning and chatting.

I got a sample bag of fibre from World of Wool. It was called Fairytail, 67% merino; 33% stellina. It is a lovely fibre with sparkle. I know it is almost as bad as glitter for getting everywhere, but I can’t resist sparkle. Sadly, they have discontinued this group or fibre. The Stlina is much more expensive than angelina or trilobal nylon, so I imagine it was not as popular. However, it is soft and spins wonderfully.

There were 8 colours. The yellow disappeared, but I did get a picture of it spun.

The teal red is still a single and I will probably ply it on Monday. The last one is the problem child. I did try to spin this, but it just ends up dull and muddy. There are just too many opposing colours in it. The stripes are too small to let you separate them out, so it will have to be used for something else.

I have managed to do some more work on my workshop. I have discovered a mistake in my instructions. It makes me grateful for my computer and word processing. I can easily go through the document and change it. I am old enough to remember retyping things because of a small mistake.  And not being able to use white-out because it would look bad.

My Wheels Keep Spinning

My Wheels Keep Spinning

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It’s been a minute since you’ve heard from me.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/11/27/learning-to-spin-at-john-c-campbell-folk-art-school-part-2/

Just looking around my crafting space, I realize how many things I’ve started and completed, in these past 6 months. I think it’s a byproduct, of becoming comfortable with my neurodivergence; working with it, rather than fighting it all the time. As I sit here, looking around the room, I’m feeling quite proud! I’ve completed a couple quilt tops that are ready to travel off to be  long-arm quilted. I’ve finally found a pattern for knitted socks, that fit my wide feet and ankles, and made 2 pair in record time. For this article, I plan to follow up on the progression of my spinning, and new acquisitions.

I included the link to my last article above, so I can refresh you on where I was. To recap, I was having issues with twist holding my spin together. I mentioned signing up for a Long Thread Media annual subscription, and how the included access to online spinning courses helped me greatly, and saved me money in the long run. I have learned so much, right from the big screen TV, in my home crafting space. This saved workshop/retreat fees, and the travel expenses that accompany such trips. I am posting a link here for this resource: http://spinoffmagazine.com/subscription

These yarns were spun between November and end of December 2024. Photos shown in date order left to right. The video courses made a difference and gave me confidence to try different things.

My Christmas gift from Brian was all fiber dyed by the incredibly talented nuns at Inglenook Fibers. If you’ve not heard of them, look them up. Their regular work consists of painting frescoes on the walls of Greek Orthodox churches. But, they use their talents of mixing paint colors to create colors in the dye pans. I still feel a little green, to spin their works of fiber art, but I have plunged my hands into a few of those batts. We took my spinning wheel and fiber on vacation with us, and I spent a few days spinning on the balcony overlooking the water. Next year, I will bring double the amount of fiber, and plan fibers that can be plied together. I was enjoying my spinning so much, the fiber was gone in no time. Unfortunately, the bobbins were full of fibers that were never intended to twist together. This encourages the next lessons in spinning: forward thinking = planning ahead.

I was noticing that my spinning was becoming thinner and thinner, which is what happens when your spinning improves. But, I don’t enjoy knitting with thin weights of yarn. What am I supposed to do with all the thin yarns I am spinning? So I began studying YouTube videos, of those spinning thicker Art Yarns. I found, as with most fiber pursuits, it’s related to your tools and preparation of fibers. I started with the easiest one I could fix right away. Rolaggs are the way you can blend fibers, colors, and make texture. I found that if you want to spin thicker yarns, you need to begin with larger diameter rollags. Instead of wrapping rollags around 2 quarter inch (6.3mm) dowels, I started using US-19 (15mm) knitting needles.

I pretty much knew, after watching all the YouTube videos, I wanted an Ashford Super Jumbo e-Spinner. I began checking Facebook Marketplace several times a day. Surely, someone had to have one they didn’t care for, and wanted to get rid of it? Nope: not one available. The US tariffs were looming, and I knew I would kick myself if I didn’t get one now. So, I used Etsy shop funds, to purchase this beautiful giant sized e_Spinner. It’s a lot bigger than I expected. The bobbin holds a kilo (2.5lbs) of spinning! I am not a bit sorry! It’s whisper quiet, and there is a toggle switch to choose S or Z twist. It has a huge 1 inch orifice to accommodate Art Yarn. However, it comes with 2 smaller, nesting orifices’, that make it capable of spinning any weight. The best feature for an Art Yarn spinner, is the ability to start and stop spinning immediately with the included foot pedal. That allows a spinner to stop, adjust fibers, and such: start right back up where you left off. No delay getting back up to speed.  You can’t do that using a wheel you treddle! Brian insisted that I get a couple extra bobbins, as I am always running out of them. Honestly, I don’t feel like I needed them or the extra expense. But I love that toggle switch feature to change spinning direction. Before I used the e-Spinner to spin anything…I used it to ply off 2 of my bobbins from my regular wheel. Gotta love a machine that helps you in ways you never imagined!

A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

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I have finished the first draft of the resist workshop. 6 pages, and I haven’t added any pictures yet. I printed it out, and I am working on the first sample. I will add notes to the draft and add in anything I missed. The first sample is a circle resist.

stack of wool resists
All stacked and ready to go
stack of resists and rubbing tool
Time to start rubbing

That is how far I got, one set of all the surfaces rubbed. I am going to have to find my studio microwave and set it up so I can reheat these when I get back to them.

 

The only other fibery thing I have done lately is spin on my drop spindle. I do this mostly when I go to guild socials. It’s a nice, portable way to work.

Here are some balls I made earlier,

 

The dark pink has some silk in it, I think it came from Louet a long time ago.  The light blue and purple is from a batt I bought at a fiber show. The other three I made on my blending board. They are meino and sari silk. I like the pops of colour and slight slubbiness it gives the yarn.

Now, I am working on a sample pack from World of Wool. I got it last year. I am just getting to it now. They no longer sell this wool. It is Merino and Stelina (metallic-coated nylon). The Stelina is very sparlkely.

                       

 

I did the yellow first, mostly for a change. I don’t do much yellow. It is hard to get the sparkle with the camera but there is lots of it.  As usual, I found it stuck to several things when I pulled my laundry out of the dryer. It really does get everywhere.

That’s it for my fiberiness for the last little while. I hope everyone is coming out of the winter blues and into the joys of spring. I am looking forward to being able to sit in the garden, in the sun and enjoy my felting and fibers among the flowers and bird song.

What Would You Have Done?

What Would You Have Done?

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I have a confession to make…. Actually 2 confessions, if I am totally honest….

The spinners among you will know all too well that spinning wheels are a lot like sheep, if you don’t get the tension just right they can be a little skittish, they need feeding (with fibre) and of course they are always happiest when gathered in a flock. 🙂 I suspect you already see where this post is headed….

My first, beloved wheel is an Ashford Traditional fitted with a jumbo flyer. She is a lovely wheel. I have spent many happy hours learning to spin and making some (prize-winning) art yarns on her but I have been hankering for a e-spinner almost since the first time I plied 2 singles together.

Mr TB likes a good engineering challenge, so he offered to design and 3-D print an e-spinner for me. Three years later we are surrounded by various iterations of e-spinner parts but nothing that could function as an e-spinner.

Sexy eh?

In January a friend posted on FB that she had signed up to the Electric Eel Wheel Kickstarter for his newest e-spinner, the Fold. As the name suggests it is a decent size but folds down to make it much more convenient to travel with. I had to have one! So I signed up but soon realised I would have to wait until March 2026 for it to be shipped! Oh well, I’ve already waited 3 years for my first e-spinner, what’s another year? So I resigned myself to having an only child (wheel) for another year.

Phew! that’s confession #1 revealed, that wasn’t so hard but Mr TB was rather disappointed that I had given up on him producing an e-spinner.

Earlier this month was the annual Pukekohe Spin-in, I was trading at the event, and overheard a conversation about an e-spinner on the pre-loved equipment stand. The other traders were still setting up their stands and the doors weren’t due to open for another 30 min. I was just going to have a look, there’s no harm in looking right?

Ten minutes later I was happily putting the e-spinner through her paces in the hall kitchen, I was in love! I knew I was breaking the first rule of selling at craft fairs – “don’t spend more than you’ve earned”, but I didn’t care, she was coming home with me! 🙂

Next, to “sneak” my new purchase into the house….

Mr TB just rolled his eyes at me.

The first few evenings I had her sitting on the coffee table but it was a little too far away for comfort, so I started looking for a height adjustable trolley and came across various tables that are probably meant for people who are bed-bound. I ordered one and braced myself for the inevitable barrage of jokes from Mr TB, but as yet he’s not made any comment. I suspect he doesn’t realise what the table is…

It’s perfect for spinning with my feet up on the Lazy-boy in front if the TV and the castors make it a doddle to wheel out of the way when not in use.

I’ve only had the spinner for a few days but this was the first skein she has produced for me:

I am delighted with my purchase, she wasn’t cheap but e-spinners seem to keep their value on the second-hand market here. I will probably sell my Ashford e-spinner once the EEW Fold arrives. Mr TB thinks I’m crazy buying 2 e-spinners just a few weeks apart, do you think I made the right call?

A rare view inside Ashford Wheels and Looms, New Zealand

A rare view inside Ashford Wheels and Looms, New Zealand

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As textile folk, many of you are familiar with the New Zealand company Ashford Wheels and Looms. In fact some may own an Ashford product as they also sell hand carders, drum carders and many other tools and accessories.

They sell all around the world.

Me, I am the proud owner of a set of their hand carders and a drum carder, they are invaluable tools when it comes to my felt making.

Here’s a question:  what have Lego and Ashford Wheels and Looms got in common?  I will tell you at the end of the post.

Back to my story.  You probably have experienced one of those rare moments in life where the planets aligned – a real ‘right place right time’ moment.  This happened to me earlier this year.  Last February, we did a once in a lifetime trip to New Zealand.  At this stage I can’t tell you how many time zones we traversed but, travelling from Ireland, but were a long time in the air and we covered over 18,000km.  I loved every minute of the trip and we factored in time to spend at the Ashford store in Ashburton on the South Island.  So for anyone who has or is thinking about purchasing anything from the store, here’s some photos and a story that might fill in the blanks on your lovely pieces.

I was so excited when our hire car pulled into the car park.  I jumped out and started talking to the first person I met.  By sheer stroke of luck I was talking to the company’s owner Richard Ashford.  My second bit of luck was that he and his lovely wife Elizabeth were about to lead a factory tour for an American group.  He introduced me to the group (which I thought was very courteous of him) and off we all headed into the factory.  The couple’s charisma and energy shone through during the tour.  They were both about to retire from the family business making way for a new generation of Ashford’s to take over the business which has been on the go for over 90 years.  I wish them both a happy and healthy retirement and I want to thank them both for making the morning I spent in their company so warm and memorable.

So if you are the proud owner of one of the 900,000 Ashford products which have been made so far in Ashburton, give us a shout and let us know what treasured item you own.  If you are thinking of buying, the slide shows may well whet your appetite.  Enjoy this rare view inside the factory.

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Stockists are all over the globe.

My next stop was a wander around the store.  Think kid in a sweet shop in this regard.  The only issues that held me back were the fact that there’s only so much that would fit into the suitcase and the realisation that I can buy from one of many stockists in Europe – happy days! Here’s a sneak peak of the interior of the shop:

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I hope you enjoyed these special holiday photos. Please feel free to reach out and tell us what Ashford pieces you own (or what is on your wish list)

Answer:  both are highly successful companies who started out making wooden toys.

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder
A bit of this, a bit of that

A bit of this, a bit of that

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Hello! The writing of this blog post comes to you on a day where I am quite sleep-deprived, so you will have to excuse my possibly being a little off my writing game…

Allow me to start by showing you some art batts I created a little ago. I love art batts in general, there’s so much texture and colours to look at. I do so enjoy the batt-making process as well, looking at all my fibre and deciding what goes where, and how much… Anyone else feel this fascination when creating textured fibre sandwiches?

Speaking of textures, I recently spun an art yarn using some Leicester Longwool locks in their natural formation and I swoon every time I look at that texture…

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder

This will become a weaving of some sorts, I am handing over the yarn to a fellow Edinburgh guild member so he can create some magic. I told him I wasn’t sure whether I was handing him treasure or a lemon (I believe textured weaving is new to him and I also have some plying inconsistencies on this skein), and he replied saying he would think of it as a pomegranate instead. I thought that was quite funny.

It is one heavy skein, as you might attest by the silly photo I took of it on my head.

Eleanor holds a massive skein of art yarn on top of her head

Finally, I also have news on my needle felted raven! The photos aren’t the best, forgive me, but this chap is almost complete. Unfortunately my customer didn’t like his blue eyes (a colour only present when they are young) so I have ordered some new ones to replace these. Once I do that I think he is complete. What do you think, is he finished? Would you change anything? Feedback welcome.

That’s it for today, let me know your thoughts and have a lovely week!

Working on my new blending board.

Working on my new blending board.

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I finally bought a blending board. I have wanted one for a while and was hoping for a second-hand one. One finally showed up, Yay! Patience pays off, well, it’s more being frugal(cheap) than being patient. I wanted one because rolags are my preferred preparation for spinning. I took it to the guild one day, along with a big bag of fibre some sari silk and some sparkle.

I started with some purply blue and lilac purple. I added some pink and purple sari silk. I think it’s called royal robes. I think I added some sparkle but not much. Here it is on the blending board. I added more of the blue-purple on top before rolling it off.

purple and pink fibres on a blending board

Here is what the rolag looks like

And here it is spun up as a single. I will wind it off and ply it.

Next was some red with yellow sari silk blend and some pink sparkle

This is the rolag

Next is some dark blue-green. It’s one of my favourites. I have some dye in this colour called mallard green. I don’t think that’s what World of Wool calls it though. I forgot to take a picture of it until I had taken one rolag off. I get 3 from the board per colourway. I was enjoying myself, hence forgetting to take a picture. It looks like I added some yellow and a different green. I am not sure I haven’t spun it yet.

At this point, I was having too much fun and I forgot to take any more pictures until the end. Here are the rolags all together

The light blue and the light purple are pretty close to being opposites. I just switched the base colours.

You saw the blue/purple and light purple above but I have also done the light blue light purple one. I am not very fussy about it when plyed. Partly, I think it is because “baby” shades are not colours I like much. This mix looks muddy to me.  I was trying to go outside my usual colours.

I am currently working on the opposite one. I like it well enough in the single, it is much less even on the colour split so I think it will be nicer when plyed.

I don’t know if I will do the red or green next. First I have to finish this one and do the plying.

 

Spinning some very dirty wool

Spinning some very dirty wool

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Last time I told you about our demo at the Log Farm shearing day. When they seared the first sheep they brought over the fleece and laid it out under the tent so people could see it. I used some dog brushes to make small rolags from the fleece and then used my drop spindle to spin some yarn.

Being me, I didn’t take any pictures of the carding or rolags so when I went to the guild I took a bit from one of the fleeces still waiting for a new owner and made some more and both Jan and I took pictures.

 

a drop spindle and some small carders and some dirty wool

You can see all the debris from carding, so much falls out. Then my sort of rolags. The dog brushes are small so it’s hard to make a real roll.

a drop spindle and small carders and wool rollags for spinning. and a lot os little bits of dirt that fell out of the wool while carding

 

I added the wool to the yarn on my spindle, then I plyed it and wound it off to be washed.

 

a drop spindle with dirty wool spun on it

A nice close-up so you can see how dirty it is.

close up of dirty wool on a spindle drop spindle and dirty skein of wool.

At the demo, people had lots of questions about how to wash it, when to wash it and did we have to wash it. The answer to when is at any stage along the way or not at all. I don’t suppose a fisherman in the North Atlantic is too fussed about his waterproof sweater smelling sheepy.

About how to get it clean.  These fleeces are dirty and full of hay bits and other dirt. Carding them takes out some, spinning it takes out some and washing it takes out more.

I wash in a dishpan with Dawn dish soap. It is a good degreaser and most of the dirt is stuck in the grease ( lanolin).

Here is the water after the first wash

a tub of dirty water will wool soaking in it.

and the second wash

second wash of the wool , less dirty water

Then I rinsed it and let it dry. Once it was dry I shook the skein over the dish pan to see how much more would come out. I was surprised by the amount that just shook out.  There is hardly any debris left in the yarn and what there is would pick out easily as you were knitting or weaving.

Little bits of debis shaken out of the clean dry skein

 

Here is the result, with a small amount of unwashed yarn I kept for comparison.

clean skein of wool with some dirty wool for comparison. close up of some clean and dirty wool.

 

Spinning in the grease is enjoyable on a warm day. The lanolin helps it slide. It’s not so fun on a cold day when the lanolin gets sticky and doesn’t like to slide. Washing fleeces is not one of my favourite things but a little yarn is fun.