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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.

 

 

 

 

Glengarry Pioneer Museum, Blacksmiths, Moose Toungs and a bit of Spinning

Glengarry Pioneer Museum, Blacksmiths, Moose Toungs and a bit of Spinning

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First let me wish all of you Happy Solstice, with the excessive heat today I can tell the sun is working extra hard to celebrate! I hope you can take advantage of the extra Daylight to get in a bit more felting or fleece washing!

Today I want to take you back to last weekend (Father’s Day) and invite you to join me as we visit the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. I know the sign looks a bit less fibre-ry than you had hoped but just think about those muscular arms and have hope that I will eventually get to something relevant. It has been mentioned, I can be a bit verbose and have an obscure vocabulary to make up for the lack of spelling.

blacksmithing sign with shirtless blacksmith drawing1) Sign for the smith in with a muscle-y drawing of a blacksmith, there is something odd about the shoulder rotation, and thumb and wrist rotation but it does get the idea across. (Although this depiction will have you disappointed when you get there  by the lack of shirtless working smiths.)

Glengarry Pioneer Museum is having their annual Father’s Day blacksmithing Smith-in or Hammer-in (like a spin-in except differently aromatic and louder) on Saturday there are vendors, including one that had alpaca roving and one that had a support spindle and a couple of hand beaters. There will be just the blacksmiths on Sunday.

Spontoon project in various stages of production2) stages of this year’s project, a spontoon. Parts and various stages of the project are displayed on a wooden pick-nick table, there are two spring swages just out of the picture (you can see the handles).

This year the Workshop was to make a type of spear used for military parades (spacing people in columns and rows), but it can also be used as a spear. This is based on a historical piece and figuring out how it was constructed. It requires forge welding of very thin pieces of mettle.   I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the steps and the use of Borax to assist in the forge welding. Let me show you a few shots and then we will move on to a more on-topic, topic.

If you are really interested in the history of this weapon please check this or enjoy a browse through Google. (https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/halberds-and-spontoons/)

a series of picrures showing the curling up of the fan shape to creeat the coller, also using borax to forge weld it.3.1) montage of making the collar for the Spontoon, Borax is used to forge weld, since the area being welded is so thin we don’t want to see the magic Cross shaped sparks. The last image is one of the spring swages that will be used in this project.

2 samples of a Spontoon being held by visitors to the museum3.2 These are two of the samples being admired by other museum visitors

 (you can find more information on the museum at: https://glengarrypioneermuseum.ca/about-us-2/ )

I wandered over to the main office building, they have a washroom that fits a walker. While there I discovered they have a new to them CPW (Canadian Production Wheel. This is a fast-spinning wheel, popular in Quebec,)  it is waiting for the local Twistle guild to assess its spin-ability. A new great wheel is also waiting to see Gord, who is an expert on one of the local great wheel manufacturers. I unfortunately did not get a peek at the great wheel. This CPW has a Tilt Tension, it is missing its Footman and needs to have its treadle attached. It also is missing its drive band but that is an easy fix!

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4.1 –4.4)CPW new to the Museum it needs a new footman and to have the treadle attached

As I wandered back to the open sided area the blacksmiths were set up in, I spotted some of the local wildlife (yes I did see the deer running in the field across the road but this time I was looking up. the field behind the museum had been mowed recently and the turkey vultures kept circling the field eventually coming in to land in a little group. I am not sure what their impromptu meeting was about. Maybe who was going to order dinner? and did they want Chinese or pizza tonight?

These are truly odd birds, you can see them wheeling around enjoying the thermals. When they get closer you will recognise them by their red heads.

3 photos of tureky vultures, top flying in blue sky, middle 2 about to land, bottom 3 on the ground red heads are noticible on 25) turkey Vultures circling, coming in for a landing and then in conference, possibly discussing dinner?

I had brought my latest moose with me. But I could not find my reference photos when I got there. Oh, they must have been in the other moose bag…. So I focused on the lower jaw and inner mouth since I can work on both without checking the photos. (I had spent quite a while looking at Moose’s tongues when I was collecting reference photos. Google image search can be very helpful.)

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6.1-6.3) I was distracted by photographing the blacksmiths and forgot to photograph the moose tongue!!

I spend most of the day working on the mouth and taking (217 –day 1) photos of the blacksmithing workshop. Then it was time to drive about an hour to get home.

Sunday!!! 6 am wake up to get ready to get on the road for day 2 at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. Today I had my felting but also brought my Lendrum Rook spinning wheel. She is such a sweet wheel but still needs a bit of repair. One of the blacksmiths made some suggestions. I will investigate that after the guild anniversary is done.

first a few shots of the Smith-in and then on to fibre.

 7.1-7.2) Glenn getting answers to some of his questions

I took a stroll to the red building, with the textile and fibre display. There is equipment for weaving spinning and flax production. The great wheel on the floor has an interesting tensioning system with a garden tap-like nob. It also has a miner’s head or accelerator that increases the speed at which the spindle turns.

Red building top pictue also 2 vews of great wheel with tilt tention and odd nob to set the angle. looks like a bit like a garden tap.8) great wheel with interesting tilt tension.

 The flax tools are in a glass cabinet. The glass seems particularly thick and is very light reflective so hard to get a good shot.

tools of flax production hackles Skutching knife and flax with teasales9) Flax Tools, Hackles, Scutching knife, Flax and teasles

small saxony flax wheel with distaf infront of coverlet and blanket10.1) Small Saxony style flax wheel with distaff. Note the coverlet in red black and white behind the wheel.

close of of coverlet, looks like an overshot pattern in read black gray and white (the Gray may be the mid tone)10.2) Close-up of the coverlet 

There are also gardens, the roses, and peonies were particularly photogenic. I hope they will inspire you.

a few of the flowers in the museum garden, roses, peonies and a small purple flower i dont recognize11)Roses on top, unknown Purple flowers and Pink Peony

Lendrum Rook, small castle wheel made in the 1980's has an intersting tentioning for the flyer. this is a Canadian made wheel near Kingston ontario. 12) My Lendrum Rook spinning wheel from the mid-1980s. there is Cashmere on the bobbin, I will have to ply it to empty the bobbin

I had oddly only one bobbin with me, I wonder where I put the other 2, I will have to search later.  Since I had brought a braid of Bluefaced Lester (BFL) with me I had to remove the cashmere blend I had on the bobbin and ply it. I could not find Glenn’s book so tried my phone as something to wind a double ended ball around. It worked but was a bit larger than I would have liked. (it gave the yarn the opportunity to tangle if I wasn’t paying attention.) I took the inside and outside strands and spun them the opposite direction to ply a nice relaxed skein of yarn.  It was a bit fussy but it did eventually work out.

Now I can start the BFL braid, I split it into a thin section so it would be easy to draft.   I quite enjoyed spinning this braid and wish I had bought a second!

Combed top of Bluefaced lester my hand holding the fiber and my lendrum Rook wheel with some of the fiber on the bobin.13) Starting to spin the BFL

Through the plying and spinning my wheel had been unusually quiet…. Then the Blacksmiths started to pack up and stopped hitting mettle….. my wheel is a lot noisier than I remember the last time I spun with her. I think it may be coming from the footman. I guess I should start to pack up too.

Oh before you head out I just wanted to show you a display in the main building. You probably want to use the washroom before driving home (some of you will have a very long drive!)  there was a display of figures of rural life that I thot you might like to see. They are quite cute.

a figure with a knitty knotty and a man holding a skain figures Read Coat and lady winding a ball from her spinning wheel14.1 14.2) A display of figures, I have taken pictures of the fibre-related people

At the end of day 2 the blacksmith students brought their vehicles to load up their equipment.  Now I am sure this will make you feel that your wool horde is so much lighter than you did a few minutes ago.  You can have a lot of wool for just the weight of the anvil! Think how much more fibre you could get to equal a leg vice and forge!!!!

Packing up blacksmithing equipment, top photo blacksmith uses moving hand truck to move equipment. lower picture this blacksmith is takeing her forge home on the roof of her hatchback car. she is getting help from anther blacksmith to get te forge on the top of the car.15.1-15.2) Students packing up their equipment.  There were pickups, transit vans, a trailer, a cube van and a little hatchback car.

  At the end of day 2, I had taken 148 more blacksmithing photos (365 total)! As I mentioned that sign was very misleading, after watching, all weekend, none of the blacksmiths were shirtless.  I hope you enjoyed the weekend and will have a lovely Solstice today!

on far left small hand beater and suport spindle16) Oh I almost forgot to show you my perches from Saturday! a support spindle and a small beater for weaving

Demo at the Log Farm.

Demo at the Log Farm.

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As some of you know the farmers market I go to is at the Log Farm in Ottawa. https://thelogfarm.com/ Along with the farmers market on Saturdays, there is also a working small farm with the original log house and barns where you can visit and see some animals and enjoy a break from the city without leaving the city.   Last weekend was shearing day for the sheep they have at the farm. They asked my guild to do a demonstration, and of course we said yes.

Here we are setting up under the tents. You can see in the first shot that the styrofoam head and hat had already taken the first of several tumbles with the wind. in the second shot, you can see the container of goodies I brought as a treat. A little bonus for coming out to demo on an iffy weather day.

This is Josee demoing on her table loom.

This is Paula spinning on her electric spinning wheel. She also has her incle loom set up and was demonstrating that too.

This is Maureen Spinning on her wheel, an Ashford Traveler. You can see it in Paula’s picture too. I think Maureen was chatting with someone when I took this.

And to be fair here is a picture of me teaching some girls how to make felted beads using some pencils. I know I am blurry but it was the best shot of the girl’s hands.

 

As I said we were there for shearing day. here are the sheep staying dry while they wait for the shearer.

Here is one getting shorn. They had their own tent so the shearer could also stay dry.  All the wool was donated to the guild and Jan and some others bagged it all to give to fellow members.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings. Some barns were renovated last year. after a few years, they will weather and not look so brand new.

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We had a great time despite the ominous clouds and several downpours. I was surprised at the number of people who attended with the forecast we had but they all seemed happy and I think we gained a couple of guild members.

Eleanor Shadow vending booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. There's a table in the middle with fibre and yarns in wire cubes, plus one yarn rack on either side and a large basket on the ground
Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

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For those who read this blog but aren’t familiar with what I do, I sell fibre and hand dyed yarns under the brand Eleanor Shadow. For a while, I was happy simply doing my thing of selling online only, until I moved to Edinburgh and started receiving emails via my site from people asking to come to my shop and buy in person.

I can’t allow customers to come into my studio for contractual and insurance reasons and so had to turn people down, which made me really sad. I hate disappointing fellow fibre lovers! This turned out to be a great thing because it lit a fire in me to start vending again in person. Enter Tangled Galashiels, a new fibre festival that two lovely ladies named Naomi and Samira decided to create near the Scottish Borders.

I had been to Tangled last year for their debut and had a lovely time, accidentally buying two fleeces in the process. When I found out they were taking applications for this year, I decided to apply.

 

Instagram post by Tangled Galashiels where I am seen with three friends at the door, just having bought two fleeces and smiling broadly
From left to right: my friends Si, Liz, me and Lisa. Just look at our smiles!

 

Having not done any in-person vending in years, I was slightly apprehensive about the whole endeavour. My friend Liz was super supportive and offered to help me out in any way possible, which included the most important step in this whole thing: transportation. I can’t sell if I can’t get there with my wares, right?

Well, my application was unsuccessful! I was obviously sad, but also very relieved; this meant I wouldn’t have to do any prep and overthink things. I was off the hook for potentially feeling stressed for 6 months as I got ready for the occasion! Life went on.

Six weeks before the event, I receive an email from Samira – one of the vendors had to cancel, would I like to take their place? Panic. Mode. ON! What to do? If I was already convinced I’d be stressed having to get ready 6 months ahead of time, how would I feel with having only 6 weeks? They gave me a few days to decide, so obviously I agonised over it, asking my friends what they thought, asked Liz if the offer of help still stood, asked my husband if he was willing to put up with a frazzled wife and fibre in the flat everywhere (ok, more than usual)… Everyone was super supportive, so I had no excuse to say no.

After replying positively to Samira and questioning my sanity, I got to work. I ordered more yarn and fibre, planned my dyeing schedule and colourways, prepped my marketing and watched videos on festival vending for booth ideas. If this sounds like a well organised me, trust me, this was done with a lot of sighing, swearing and wanting to dig a hole and disappear.

After six weeks, I was ready! Things just slotted into place: the stuff I had just about fit Liz’s car, my husband was my trusty sidekick, my ideas for the booth worked out almost exactly as I had envisioned, and I still had time to do last-minute adjustments on the first day.

Eleanor Shadow vendor booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. Leonor is standing in front of it, smiling, waiting for the festival to start

Luckily I didn’t have time to feel nervous, I just went into meeting-and-greeting mode, talked to people and was grateful when they bought something from me. Some of the things I thought would fly off the shelves weren’t too popular, and some I didn’t think would garner much attention sold out!

Most of all though, I was so happy to hear people say nice things about my fibre. Being a one-woman band hidden in my studio means I don’t often get feedback on my work, so having fibre-loving strangers telling me they loved my sense of colour or my yarn bases was just soul-lifting.

The event was only two days, perfect for me to get my feet wet and not get too overstimulated. By the end I was exhausted but oh so happy! I loved the whole experience and couldn’t have asked for lovelier people to have met, talked, or sold to.

Now I’m looking into refresher driving lessons (I’ve never driven in the UK and am unaccustomed to driving on the left) and car rentals. I might just start applying left, right and centre to all the fibre festivals!

Tell me all about your experience at yarn festivals, be it as a vendor or buyer – I’d love to hear it! Thanks for reading.

May and June and the Moose Bag

May and June and the Moose Bag

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The last time I showed you my May page, I just had a little to go.  Once I finished the stitching I cut away most of the stabilizer so I wouldn’t have to rinse it as much to get it all out of the felt.

colourful felt with stitching and wash away stabilizer

And this is it all done. It’s a bit sparse but I like it well enough.

Hand made felt with stitching. tulips, MOM, maple leaf and crown for Queen Victoria's birthday.

 

The tulips are for the tulip festival we have every year. Many are sent as a gift of thanks from the Netherlands.  The Dutch Royal family was in exile in Canada during WWII. We designated part of our hospital as part of the Netherlands so Princess Margriet would be born on home soil.

The maple leaf and crown are for Queen Victoria’s Birthday. She gave us self-governance so we have a holiday.

And of course Mother’s Day, at least here in North America.

 

I picked out a new piece of felt for my June page. I have some ideas for June. I was thinking I may do some more needle felting this month along with the stitching but I am not sure yet. I like the way the fiber goes across leaving lots of the white background showing.  I did this a long time ago but I am pretty sure the fibres are silk. The other thing I am not sure of is which way is up. the difference is more pronounced in person

 

The other thing I did was add some yarn to the antlers of my moose bag. I think it is all I will do. I like him the way he is. Not very ambitious but there you go.  I may add something to the other side of the bag. The yarn is handspun silk. I am not sure how well it will stand up to being on the bag.

 

 

April 2024 New Wheel (cleaning and starting the sanding)

April 2024 New Wheel (cleaning and starting the sanding)

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Pre-scrips – sorry in my face-planting-the-keyboard-tiredness last night, as i put this up (it was a long day of shopping then spellchecking!!) i forgot that some of you may not have discovered felting through spinning so my post may sound like arcane language of mystic origins (not very clear on the parts i am talking about). so i made you a map!!! i hope this will help alleviate confusion.

list of parts of this castle wheel

*18)Parts of the Tumbalena Castle style Spinning wheel

Aw yes, some of you caught the mention of a new wheel near the end of the post about the Peterborough Fiber Festival 2024.  Recently, there have been a number of wheels listed for sale on the local guild Facebook Group. We had a local professional weaver and spinner who had to retire due to her health and had a huge studio sale with fibre, looms, wheels, books and other equipment.  it was a huge sale and I should show you the pictures, but not today. I did not get the wheels that were there. (Books, yarn and some small course carders followed me home.)

In early April, I spotted a post on the OVWSG (local guild) Facebook group. It was a listing with a number of other spinning items for sale. The equipment had belonged to the poster’s Mother. (I think she had been active with the Richmond guild, which is a small guild just south of the west end of Ottawa.) Amongst her Mom’s equipment, she had listed 3 wheels. Two were older Saxony wheels, smaller than a CPW (Canadian production wheels usually from Quebec).  They looked interesting but the third wheel was a little castle wheel, which drew my eye. It is quite similar in size and style to my Lendrum Rook (also a small castle wheel), which I love.

These are the photos of the wheel from the post, I am sure you can see why I was intrigued.

3 vews of thumbalena spinning wheel for sellers add 1) Pictures in the post from the seller of the wheel.

I contacted the seller and arranged to meet her at 3 pm on Tuesday. Grate all set. Then early Tuesday morning I got a call from my car’s Doctor, her replacement parts were in and he would be there shortly. Oh no Car spa day and wheel shopping day are on the same day! Drat! Ok, Hameed is pretty amazing and said he may have her finished by 3 pm. I let the seller know. Sure enough, she had her new footwear(Tires), ball joint replacement ( shoulder surgery) and minor repertory issue (part of the muffler pipe replaced) fixed in time and I was off to look at a wheel!!

All the wheels had been stored for a while, not in a house.  That is to say, a farm-out building that was dry but unheated; all needed a good cleaning.  They also looked like they would be good wheels once cleaned. The little upright castle had this odd configuration of the footman (the shaft that connects the crank at the wheel hub to the treadle) that went through the table!!!  She also had a built in lazy Kate (to hold 2 bobbins for plying). The wheel showed 3 bobbins in the pictures since there was one on the flyer too.

Oh yes, she is cute! Her joints are a bit loose, but that should be fixable. There are previous brakes in the flyer, which have been repaired with glue, which is very unfortunate but the price was good so if I need to replace the flyer I could beg help from Judy Kavanagh. (She has good prices for reconstructed flyers and bobbins.) There was also a bobbin rack (it was probably a huge lazy kate with more bobbins on it. A couple of the extra bobbins look like they will fit this wheel.)

I selected the little castle wheel, and the bobbin rack, I checked the books, magazines and knitting patterns for anything the guild would be interested in and found a bit that should be helpful. She sent me home with a bag of mystery fibre as well.

8 bobbin rack or lazy kate sitting in the back of my car 2) Bobbin Rack or very big lazy Kate, also needs cleaning.

Once home, I grabbed a spare tarp and set her up with the mystery fibre in front of the front door bench. It was time to give her a good spin.  The maidens are loose, and the orifice hook is missing but a paper clip will work for now. Let’s see how she spins.

Ah, this is not some strangely fine short type of merino, it looks like cotton, cool!  Possibly pema, Nice!!!

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3.1-3.2) The test spinning of the Wheel and unknown fibre

When I first was taught to spin, it was on a drop spindle. I was still allergic to wool, so was handed a handful of cotton and told to “use this”. Not knowing that cotton is quite different to spin than wool I developed an enthusiasm with twist, which I have taken years to try to unlearn. Now that I have been spinning with wool for quite a while, it took me a moment to remember spinning with clumps from a bump of cotton.  She is a nice little comfortable wheel and was quite happy to spin cotton.

creemy white fiber short staple, looks like cotton probubly pema sitting on tarp with a corner of the remains of the cloth bag that it was in. 4) Unknown fibre seems very similar to Pema Cotton.

Carlene posted that she thought the wheel was likely a Thumbelina wheel by Sleeping Beauty Spinning Wheels of New Zealand. Approx. 1978 I was able to find assembly instructions, online, and have printed them out.

Now what to do about that needed cleaning? It’s getting late so let’s find the cleaning supplies tomorrow.

I gathered Murphy’s oil soap, soft scrubby pad, and paper towels, and suggested Glenn’s morning walk should be in the direction of Lee Valley tools (yes I live within walking distance of both Ikea and Lee Valley!! Please do not die of location envy, it’s a very small house, and quite a busy road.) Glenn returned with a multi-pack of fine sandpaper “18-Pc. Sample Pack of Mirka Fine Wet/Dry Sandpaper” The pack contained 2 sheets of 320x, 400x, 600x, 800x, 1000x, 1200x, 1500x, 2000x and 2500x grit sheets (www.leevalley.com). Am I missing anything?

I took a workshop with Alison James (the care of spinning wheels) and watched carefully last year for tips as Deborah gave each of the guild wheels that went up for sale a spa day. I have a wheel that looks like a mud river spinner (like an Indian head spinner) but it has the wrong drive wheel. Its original was likely replaced at some point. I took that one to Alison’s class to see if we could improve its spinning, it likely just needs a new drive wheel which is a big repair, but in the meantime I had sanded that one to a butter soft finish. So even if it doesn’t spin well it feels fabulous and looks good.

BC wheel, partly disasembled for cleening and sanding.5) BC Spinning Wheel, it seems to be called either a Mud River spinner or a Cowichan spinning wheel.

fine files originaly used to sharpen chainsaws 6) For her workshop Alison also used files, originally they were used to sharpen chain saws. Alison used them to clean out the centre of bobbins. (It was amazing how much gunge was in there).

During one of the socials, I was gifted a piece of “Round Abrasive Cord”, which I am trying to track down more of this magical cordage. It looks like Amazon and Lee Valley both have some in various diameters and grists. I have to figure out what size and grist I should use,  I will have to investigate this further. It helps get into some of the groves in the spindle turnings. (Remember, don’t use it on the spots the drive band will sit)

This time I had a foam nail file with a medium course unlabeled grit to it. It smoothed out a couple of little dings and removed a bit of white paint drip. It was also coarser than the 320gr sandpaper and worked very well on the underside of the table and mother of all (neither felt like it had been sanded before). It was also helpful in smoothing the glue or epoxies used to repair the brakes in the flyer.

very close up of former brakes in flyer7) Previous brakes in both arms of the flyer (before cleaning or sanding)

I started the cleaning by giving the wheel a good wipe with Murphy’s oil soap.

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8.1- 8.2) I elevated the wheel on the salt box and used either the paper towels or the scrubby to loosen and then remove the dirt.

To give better access to the mother of all (the part that holds the maddens, which hold the flyer and bobbin) I took off the front madden. I am tempted to try to find the right tool to take off the build in lazy Kate too, but at the moment, I am still working around the support posts.

wheel parts taken off the wheel ready to clean9.1 Bobbins, flyer, lazy Kate support rods, the front maiden, whirl and orifice hook without the hook sitting in front of the rest of the wheel.

clsoe up of the mother of all with the front maiden removed 9.2 ) Close-up of the mother of all and the back maiden.

Back of table with fly specks (small black spots_ half has already been cleened10.1) Close up, of the back of the table with flyspeck. The part closed is partly cleaned, the far side is still dirty.

more scrubing has improved the look of the wheel 10.2) A bit more scrubbing (I think it’s still called elbow grease) and I had removed the fly spots, (little black dots).

pots on the drive way are being added to 11) As I continued to work, the great plant migration continued.

I got most of the wheel wiped down and called it a day.

Next trip into the guild studio I took the wheel and its parts.  After getting a section of the guild library database work done, I started with the foam nail file and the 300 grit sandpaper.

front maden sitting with sandpaper at guild social 12) The front maiden, cleaning and beginning the sanding.

I have torn the sandpaper into thin strips. I have strips going up to 2500grit. I had spent most of the day working on the database so did not get as much sanding done as I has hoped.

The next week I was back in at the guild and I did the same thing, worked on the library most of the day then switched to working on the wheel for part of the social. This time I worked on the mother of all.  I was working slowly towards 1200 or 1500 grit. It is now feeling buttery smooth and makes other parts of the wheel feel really rough!

continuing to work on Mother of all13) Working on the mother of all

Moving on to the next week, Library first, then I can work on the wheel and I added the knitty-knoty I bought in Peterborough. It was very cute but not as smooth as I would have liked, I can fix that! More Sandpaper!

Knitty Nkotty sitting beside stips of sandpaper and extra nail files14) the new Knitty-knotty in pieces and I got replacement foam and cardboard nail files.

I kept working on accessories and got a couple of the bobbins up to about 1500 grit smooth…… butter!!!  Note I am not sanding the centre core of the bobbin where the yarn winds on till it’s super smooth. I did spend time cleaning it.  The leader on a super smooth surface, even properly tied, will want to slip, which is not helpful at all to spinning.

arrows indicate not to sand in the grove where the drive band sits and the center shaft of the bobin where the leader will go.15) Sanding is great but not in all spots.

The drive band has to be able to grip the bobbin, whirl and drive wheel. The bobbin core has to be grippy enough to hold the leader without slipping. So don’t get too gungho and sand every surface!!!

mounten due pop and wood cleaner in seperate bottles16) A brief FYI, I am fueling all this sanding with the help of “Green”.

Which is a well-caffeinated and sugar-laden beverage! I probably should not have the drink so close to the cleaner. I am sure the flavour would not be as tasty with one, and the cleaning properties would be disappointing, with the other.

close up of stips of various fine grit sandpapers17) working my way to finer and finer sandpaper

And the sanding continues!  It will likely be a couple more weeks of intermittent sanding before I have the wheel ready to add the finish.  It is now time to visit garden centers, get ready for the May Guild meeting and today I did a quick drive down to another fibre festival. There was a bit of shopping (Ann was advocating for even more shopping!!!), and a fleece followed me home so there will be washing to be done soon too!

Once the sanding is completely done, to a grit fineness that feels fabulous, I will post again and show you how I am going to finish her.

Have fun enjoy spring and keep felting!

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

Not for Hélène’s eyes – Christmas “card” swap

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This year, our merry (see what I did there?) group of crafters/blog writers decided to do a card swap among us. It didn’t really have to be Christmassy, it just needed to somewhat resemble a card.

The idea is to overthrow the ephemeral notion of a Seasons Greetings card on its head and make something with your own hands that a fellow crafter will appreciate and want to keep.

I was partnered with Hélène, felter extraordinaire, so I was naturally stressed out. I knew my card wouldn’t begin to compare with anything she created, but I put those pesky defeating voices aside and got to work.

It took me a few days to come up with a jolly (ha, again!, I crack myself up) theme for the time of year, and decided to join two strengths of mine: pattern search and knitting. Off to Ravelry I went browsing, and settled on Stay Cool  by Drops Yarn.

Ravelry first page results for patterns with the term "snowflake"
First page results on Ravelry for the term “Snowflake.” Pretty, but not very card-like…

Stay Cool is meant to be a pot holder but I adapted it to be slightly longer on two sides and kept the back plain so I could attach it to cardboard. In hindsight, I could have knitted both sides in pattern, but at this point I was still a little fuzzy on my end goal. (Sorry, Hélène!)

I used my own hand spun yarn because I wanted the “card” to be as handmade and personal as I could possibly make it. If you want to get geeky with me with specs, I used white Shetland spun woollen from pencil roving for one yarn, and an Alpaca/Polwarth blend spun worsted for the brown.

A printed version of the pattern on top and the finished knitted snowflake "card" on the bottom

Not unsurprisingly, the back came out “longer” than the front, despite having the same number of stitches. I should’ve predicted this because fair isle knitting constricts patterns a bit, but alas, I didn’t remember.

Now came the daunting part for me: wet felting. I wanted the end result to be a fuzzy and smaller version of the knit, so off I went to the kitchen sink armed with bubble wrap, soap and very hot water.

If you think this felted right away, you’d be wrong. Nothing happened for the longest time! In fact, I nearly despaired because my idea was to fuse the back to the front, and that never happened. Apparently, knitted jumpers accidentally machine washed only become tiny versions of themselves if you never intended for them to shrink – Sod’s law!

After what seemed like four years of wet felting, here’s what my snowflake looked like:

Knitted snowflake after wet felting, on cardstock background with "Merry Xmas" written on top with iridescent ink

Hopefully it still looks like a snowflake to the untrained eye. I punched holes onto the thickest paper I could find and attached the wool to it with string, because I want Hélène to be able to take it out and use it as a coaster (or something else functional of her choice). This way she can always have a laugh every time she reaches for a hot drink and sees my meagre wet felting technique.

Detail of "Merry Xmas" wording on card showcasing the ink's shimmer qualities

The ink I chose has gold shimmer in it, which I found quite Christmassy. I hope Hélène can forgive the “Xmas” instead of the word proper – I ran out of space.

(Aaand, a little confession: I cheated and sent my card swap partner something extra… ‘Tis the season, after all!)

A very cute needle felted Christmas tree with baubles and a star on top, made by Eleanor Shadow

That’s it from me. I have a newfound respect for anyone who takes the never-ending task of wet felting. What advice would you give me for future soapy endeavours?

I’ve been spinning too

I’ve been spinning too

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Like Leonor, I have been spinning. Unlike Leonor, all I ever make are small skeins. I like to use my drop spindles and make little bits for in my felting.

I’ve been spinning some of World of Wool’s peacock fibre.  It is in the process of being played. I think the sparkle shows. It is 87.5% Corriedale Wool and 12.5% rainbow trilobal  Nylon.

 

It has a lovely sparkle and I really like it. Which is a good thing because I have 500 grams of it. I split a kg with Jan but she doesn’t like it, so may have to buy it back from her. Or maybe she will sell it at the upcoming Guild sale. Then she could use the money to buy different wool.

I do most of my spinning these days at guild socials. As long as Jan doesn’t have a giant pile of books for me to put away.  This is one I finished plying last Monday. I used the ball winder at the guild and then plyed it and made it into a ball again. It is much faster than doing it by hand but not as zen. Jan made a video of me using the ball winder. I don’t like this one it made a lopsided ball.

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wn80S3SQWRY?si=JjtJzoTOoPDmfWc1″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I can’t remember what fibre this is,  merino and silk I think but I am not sure.

 

I have a zip lock freezer bag I keep in my basket that I put the finished balls in. This is what else was already in there. You may have seen them before but I can’t remember.

This is one I got at a festival. I think I showed you the fibre but not the spinning. It has lots of bits and bobs in it and some sparkle.

This one is from a World of Wool Bambino sample pack. It is 85% Merino Wool and 15% Bamboo. I think it is called Hickory Dickory  It spins very nicely.

Now I have to decide what to spin next. Maybe I will card myself some rolags.

Six hand spun mini skeins in different shades of pink and in different fibre combinations
I’ve been spinning a little in the past month

I’ve been spinning a little in the past month

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You know how when you get excited about one hobby, the other ones get left behind? Well, for some reason I’ve been bitten by the spinning bug in the last month, and I’ve a few skeins to show for.

Let’s start with the green-blues.

Four skeins of hand spun yarns by Eleanor Shadow

The big green skein was spun using some Leicester Longwool locks I dyed for this purpose, since I wanted to make a super Halloween-y textured art yarn; I plied it with some commercial yarn (also dyed by me) that I had to over twist in my wheel so it would un-twist as I paired it with the textured ply.

The smallest skein is baby llama, my very first time spinning such a fibre. I’m a fan! I’d love to spin more of this in the future. It’s very soft and warm.

To the right there’s a fun Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) and bio-nylon yarn that I tested for my own shop (got to know what I’m selling, right?) and I can say I love this fibre combination. The BFL is very soft and lofty, and the bio-nylon increases the strength of the wool without harming the environment since it’s as fully compostable as the natural animal fibre. I’d have no problems knitting some socks using this yarn.

At the bottom, a rather fun jewel tones Shetland and Tussah silk combo (70/30) that just glided off my hands effortlessly.

But wait, there’s more!

I was perusing World of Wool’s website a while back and came across their taster package in shades of pink, and was tempted. Each resulting mini skein is 25g and very squishy.

Six hand spun mini skeins in different shades of pink and in different fibre combinations

From left to right: merino and nylon sparkle; merino and silk; merino; wool and viscose; merino, alpaca and mohair; merino and bamboo.

My favourite to spin was the (mysterious) wool and viscose. Those tweedy bits kept me very engaged and wanting to keep treadling! The merino/alpaca/mohair blend to its right was also rather lovely. Although these all came from the same pack, I don’t feel the shades complement each other too well, so I might not try to add them to the same project in the future.

You’d think I’d be done by now, but… there’s more.

Three hand spun yarns by Eleanor Shadow

If my goth self in my 20s would’ve guessed I’d be spinning this much pink, I’d be appalled! But yes, those colours were all my choice. The pink of the left was a particularly bouncy merino and soy fibre combo, the middle one is a merino/alpaca/camel/silk blend (40/20/20/20) and the right skein is anyone’s guess (it’s a mix and match of several different wool nests a friend gave me to spin that I decided to merge together. I wish I had a jumper quantity of this!)

Lastly…

A merino hand spun skein in jewel tones by Eleanor Shadow

I dug into my own shop’s stash for this one. The colours were super well defined in the fibre braid, but I decided to spin them in a way that would blend everything and I don’t regret it one bit. This would knit up rather nicely, I’d say. If my knitting mojo comes back anytime soon I might give it a try…

There’s actually one more skein, but it’s a white one and it didn’t photograph well…

So, do you think my wheel was busy, or do any of you spin more in any given month? Let me know below.

Closed cane picnic basket in garden with stone image of cat behind plus plants
Craft Basket Makeovers – part 1

Craft Basket Makeovers – part 1

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A good few years ago now, after I had acquired and learned how to use my spinning wheel, I was casting around for some means of storing the associated equipment in a reasonably respectable way.  The wheel and associated bits lived with us in our living room and needed to be tidy.

Quite by chance I came across a shop selling off cheaply a large deep cane laundry (I think) basket.  It was only going cheap because one of the handles was broken and it had no lid.  The much reduced price compensated for something which was no problem as far as I was concerned.

I used to work in Maidstone (Kent) and nearby there was a lovely shop called C&H Fabrics (sadly no more) which sold both dressmaking and curtain fabrics and haberdashery.  I could never bypass their remnant section – they almost always had something good and large enough to be really useful.  I managed to purchase several large pieces of curtain fabric of a design which was really “with it” at the time (most rarely  for me, I am usually following several years behind fashion fads).  This was during the time when Macramé made it’s first appearance and I was very “into” this.  So I removed the remaining cane handle and instead added two twisted cord macramé handles.

laundry basket without lid, with macramé handles, filled with spinning equipment

 

Then I set to and lined the whole of the basket using the curtain material, making sure that there were pockets around the sides of sufficient size to take threading hook, spare bobbins; flyer; carders; ball winder and my Neatsfoot oil – my wheel had a leather connection between the treadle and the footman – the bits that actually drive the wheel, and the neatsfoot oil is a good natural conditioner for leather and ok for oiling the metal parts.  The rest of the associated bits – fleece, box of carded rolags, tea towel used as a lap cover, cord for tying skeins and niddy noddy would just sit in the middle.

Now I needed a lid for the basket to keep the dust out (our bungalow was very dusty because part of it was still a building site).  So I cut two circles of the fabric and a circle of wadding.  I attached the wadding to the wrong side of one of the circles, by machine quilting around the pattern/motifs printed on the fabric. On the other circle, which would be the underside of the lid, I added a zipped pocket.  I then finished the lid by stitching the circles right sides together with another length of macraméd cord attached to one side.  Then, after turning the circles the right side out, and hand stitching the turning gap, I attached the other end of the cord to the basket. The lid sat on top of the basket with everything safely inside; well except for the niddy noddy which was too tall and had to stick out of the side, so it made do with a length of cord to attach it to the basket.  My brother in law had made the niddy noddy for me, having already made one for my sister.  It is purposely on the large side because each circle of a skein wound on it would be 1 yard long.  This made it easy to calculate the skein’s length.

Lined spinning basket with lid folded open to shop equipment in pockets
Finished basket open

Finished basket with closed lid to show quilting, with niddy noddy poking out of top.
Finished basket, closed.

The fitted out basket sat comfortably by my chair and spinning wheel while I was working at home, but was a bit big to take with me when I went to my spinning group each week. Luckily my sister, having visited the Willows and Wetland Centre on the Somerset Levels, gave me a large basket which she had bought there.  The Levels is a large flat low lying area where Withy Willows have been commercially grown for basket making for at least the last 200 years.  In fact willow baskets and other items have been made there since pre-Roman times.  If you are interested there is more information on the area here: Somerset Levels (As an aside, Glastonbury Abbey, also referred to in the link, used to own much of Sturminster Newton where I now live, despite Shaftesbury Abbey being much nearer to us and owning most of the rest of the surrounding land.)

But I digress.  The basket which my sister gave me was intended as a picnic basket.  It was short and wide and it’s carrying handles positioned so that it was carried flat.

picnic basket on lawn with handles up
See how the handles work to carry the basket flat?

It was just what I needed to carry tops (roving?) and spinning equipment when I was away from home.  Of course it needed to be fitted out with pockets to keep everything tidy and safe.  I had sufficient fabric left of the remnants used for the large basket to make them match.  I lined the base of the basket adding pockets at one end for flyer and bobbin, lap cover and oil.  I didn’t want to spoil the look by using the plastic box for my rolags and by then I had learned basket making courtesy of the WI.  So I made a basket to fit, lined it and made a lid with more of the fabric.  The lid of this little basket was quilted in the same way as the lid of the large basket, and also attached with macramé cords made from fine crochet cotton, with a wooden toggle closure.

small handmade cane basket with fabric lid attached by macramé cord with macramé and wooden bead closure
Rolag basket in the sun

By this time I was also “into” Tunisian Crochet. I had been making ordinary crochet items for as long as I could remember but fell for this new (to me) technique. So in addition to storage for threading hook, personal bits, glasses etc., I needed storage for at least one Tunisian crochet hook – this looks like a knitting needle, but instead of a point it has a hook. I also needed somewhere safe to put large sheets of paper patterns, as I tend to use diagram type patterns and they take up a lot of room. So I set-to to line the lid of the basket with just one layer of the fabric, but with pockets, short & fat and long & thin attached. I sewed this onto the inside of the lid but left one of the shorter ends unattached so that I could tuck paperwork etc., inside.

Open lined picnic basket showing lid lined and with pockets, and with rolag basket and other equipment in the basket.
All my equipment (almost) in the basket.

Incidentally, the sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed that odd bit of hooked wire tucked away in the longer tube/pocket and be wondering what it is.  It’s a do-it-yourself lazy kate – a device for assisting with plying yarns from one, two or more separate bobbins.  An old shoe box (or a basket) and this bit of wire are all you need, poke the wire through one end of the box, slot the bobbin(s) on and poke the wire through the other end of the box.  It’s not the best way to do it, but if you put some tension on the yarn by passing it from the bobbin around the wire once before taking it to the wheel for plying, it works.

Oh and a quick boast – can you see the handle of the threading hook poking out of one of the lid pockets?  The handle was actually a light pull which I had made while having a go at wood turning some years earlier, and the hook is only an unbent paperclip – but it works ok too.

So that was my basket set up and ready for journeys.  Oh yes, the niddy noddy.  That was too big again, so it had to sit on top.

Closed picnic basket with niddy noddy on top attached by cords but with handles down.
Basket with niddy noddy (but the handles are down so I’ll have to remove the niddy noddy, put the handles up and replace it because the right handle won’t go over the end of the niddy noddy – then I can pick up the basket.)

Eventually the cane hinges of the lid, and the cane closure wore out so they were replaced with macramé cords.

Some time before I moved from Kent to Dorset in 1999, I wrote an article about these baskets and submitted it, with photographs, to the Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers as I thought it might be of interest to them.  Apparently not though; I eventually received a letter returning the photos (but not the article, so I’ve had to rewrite it!) and saying “… the Editorial Committee … felt that the article was rather too indirectly concerned with weaving, spinning and dyeing ….”   Oh well!