Persistent Knitter

Just to show I’m still working on the new version. Font insanity between Tiger, Leopard and Windows is driving me nuts, so I had to create this little tool that lets you replace all instances of one stitch in your chart with another.

Knit Visualizer update: Quickly, before I get into the sock yarn, I’ll give you an update on Knit Visualizer 2.0. I’ve run into a problem with the new version of Mac OS X, aka Leopard. It doesn’t play nice with the fonts I use to build the Knit Visualizer symbols. ARGH! After some testing and trying, I went last night and bought a mac mini that has Leopard on it so I can figure out what the @#%#@@()$& is going on. I am hoping to fix it up this weekend, get it working, and get it released!

Now, on to the sock yarn!

Remember we had this?

The Sheep to Shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the Carbon colorway.

Then it became this:

The bobbin on the left is different than the other two because I spun that one on my new Rose spinning wheel; and didn’t have a woolee winder yet. I was originally planning on doing a traditional three ply, which is why it’s split into three. I did a test of a few yards and it was way too busy for me. You can see how much space is left on the Rose bobbin compared to the Schacht bobbins. I decided on navajo ply to keep a three ply and to keep the colors together.

Bobbin one quickly became this:

And now looks like this after washing and drying:

Closeup:

It’s still a bit thicker than I was trying for, but that’s Ok.  It plumped up a lot when it was washed. It’s probably a sport weight maybe a really thick fingering weight. I’m going to do toe up socks with it, probably in plain stockinette. I hope the yellow isn’t too overpowering once it’s knit up. It’s my least favorite of the whole colorway.

What can you do with one skein of Koigu? Not much.

One sock? Nah.

A pair of socks with a different color for cuff, heel and toe? Maybe, but I originally bought this yarn to make a baby sweater.

So, after some digging - I found a dale of norway pattern that said it only takes one skein. I love how the colors look knit up as the 2nd color in the fair isle. I’ve started the major patterning on the top of the body of the sweater, and still have quite a bit left. I’ll measure the ball before I start the sleeves to make sure I use less than half for the first sleeve.

KV 2.0 update (but not really)

My house has been a bed of sickness for forever it seems.  First my Dad was sick while he was visiting at Christmas, Mom got sick right after they got home from visiting; and I got sick last week (starting with a three day migraine), and it’s this lingering horribleness that makes you tired all the time but without enough concrete symptoms to really make you feel like you can call in sick and halt attempting to be a part of day to day life.  If you can get a nap mid-day it’s not so bad.  Today we spent with everyone trying to get a nap when they could. I got mine in late afternoon.  The husband was sick today so he was a complete slug and slept all afternoon.  The poor kids didn’t get a trip to the park on the only sunny day we’ve had in forever.  Also, as a result of all this sick I haven’t spent any time on Knit Visualizer stuff - and if I have, I’ve stared at my computer without much useful happening.  I really really want to be done with it.

So I haven’t spun a whole lot on the new wheel yet, but I thought I would record my initial impressions; and maybe it’d be fun to come back later and see what I thought later down the line.

Treadling:

Both the rose and matchless have smooth treadling. The matchless seems to keep it’s momentum going longer though. The rose has you treadling more from the ankle, where the matchless I think I’m using more of my whole leg to do the work. The rose I have to work to keep the wheel going. Also if I tend to push with one foot more than the other I notice the flyer slow down a bit on the slow foot with the rose. I’m sure this will get somewhat better with time and practice. Winner: matchless only because I’m more familiar with it :)

Orifice height

They are both about the same. The rose can be shifted left to right and really adjusted and tweaked. The schact is stationary. Winner: Rose, although only by a hair, because it’s never bothered me on the Schacht.

Flyer/Bobbin types
The schacht has one type. A round orifice. You can’t change the size of it , or type. The Rose has a delta orifice. I’m totally not used to spinning with this one yet. you have to keep your yarn centered in it, and that takes a bit of work. The Rose comes with a fine fiber flyer, which is a more traditional round hole. That’s cool, but it’s a pain to thread your yarn through it without a hook. You can also get a plying flyer, and a novelty yarn flyer (called a wild flyer) and a high speed lace bobbin flyer setup. Both have Woolee winders for them; the one for the rose is on it’s way to me soon I think. Rose bobbins are huge compared to schacht. You can get even bigger ones.

Winner: Rose for the versatility and endless possibilities

Ratios

No winner. They both can go up to approx 19:1 with standard whorls which is pretty damned fast.

Looks

This one is totally subjective. The matchless is not a small wheel. Neither is the Rose. The Rose looks smaller because there is less material overall. I love the look of the wood grain on the rose, but I do not like how the drive wheel looks with the MDF grooves cut in it. Maybe it’s something I’ll learn to love. The engraved rose on the Rose is very pretty, and the overall styling is very nice. The Schacht just seems more polished because of the drive wheel. This one is a toss up. No clear winner.

Portability

Neither wheel is a travel wheel; but I take my Schacht with me to spinning group twice a month (sometimes more) so I do travel with it. The rose is lighter, has a handle. The schacht is really awkward to carry. I even bought those wheels that go on it, but it was really lame and I hate having to put them on/off because I have to move my tension knob on the top to do it really the right way and I hate having to reset everything. I just carry it with the strap. I’m anticipating the Rose to be slightly easier to carry; but time will tell. Winner (by a hair): Rose.

Noise level

One of the reasons I wanted to get and try another wheel was to get one that is quieter than the schacht. So far, the rose is not quieter. It has a gentle hissing that the bobbin makes when spinning on it. I’ve read that this will go away after a while; time will tell. The schacht is currently squeaky and clacky. I’m hoping to take care of the squeak, and clacking to get it back to it’s super quiet self. No winner; both have their issues right now.

Accessories, Maintenance and misc

Both wheels come with a lazy kate. Schacht has a better one because it’s tensioned. I can make the Rose one tensioned; but have to do a bit of work. The Schacht one is also easier to use. Schacht came with a orafice hook and oil bottle. The rose doesn’t need hardly any oil according to the manual. The Schacht drinks oil for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Rose is supposed to be a lot less maintenance. Schacht recommends changing your drive band ever 8 hours. Ha! Hard to declare a winner on this one. I’ll call it a tie.

Conclusion? 

I didn’t add up the winners/losers in the comparisons; right now if I was given the choice to spin on only one, I would probably choose the Schacht since I’m more familiar with it and can make it do what I want it to without thinking about it. I’m going to spend some time to get acquainted with the Rose though; because I can tell she’ll be a great wheel too.  It’s hard for a new wheel to come along and compete with my very first wheel, when I started out with such a great wheel to begin with.

I received a new package in the mail today:

A new spinning wheel - the Majacraft Rose.

I already have a Schacht Matchless. It’s been a bit cranky lately though. The whorls are rattling quite excessively; and I’ve got a squeaky treadle. There is a possible fix for the whorls, but it necessitates a trip back to the Schacht mother-land; and in the meantime I will be completely without a spinning wheel. So, crazy me I decide to go buy a whole ‘nother spinning wheel.

I used to own a Lendrum as my second wheel. But I ended up loaning it out more than I used it myself; and I decided I just didn’t like spinning on it enough to keep it. I bought it because it was more of a travel wheel than the Schacht, but I ended up wanting to spin on the Schacht anyway. So I sold it about a year after I got it.

The rose was a bit of a impulse purchase, I’ll admit. However, I am signed up for Madrona (a fabulous fiber conference where I’m taking 4 days of spinning classes) in February and I do not want to risk being without a wheel that I am familiar with for that. I am going to send back my flyer and whorls to Schacht for hopeful fixing; so I needed another wheel in case it took forever to get the parts back. I’d been doing some casual research, and I stepped it up a bit. Everything I had read pointed to Majacraft being a great wheel! I have used a gem briefly (their true travel wheel) and it treadled fine; and I seemed to be able to spin on it; so I jumped and ordered the Rose.

I took lots of pictures while doing the setup:

Here it is compared to the Schacht:

Tomorrow I’ll post my first impressions of using the Rose and how it compares to the Schacht.

Did I tell you? I finished something! This was one of two Christmas projects I knit this year. It was actually finished before Christmas, but I didn’t put it under the tree because there were already SO many gifts and toys I didn’t want to drive the kids crazy :)

I spent a good portion of my new year’s eve writing documentation for Knit Visualizer 2.0. Yes, I am a party animal, aren’t I?

Here’s a sneak preview:

I’m working on explaining all of these modes and how they work.

Already explained in the manual is how you can do this:

It’s 59 pages and counting!