Persistent Knitter

I thought up this idea to use weaving bobbins and my bobbin winder to store singles off a drop spindle. You can wind the singles into a center pull ball with a ball winder - which isn’t great because the center will collapse when you take it off the winder; and the singles can get tangled.

It’s best to keep the singles under tension the whole time. I learned from Amelia (http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/) about felted balls to wrap the singles around; but that’s pretty slow and I haven’t managed to make any felted balls yet. Gee, I wonder if I have any fiber around here to do that with…

So I pulled out my bobbin winder, and some empty bobbins, and setup this contraption. The bobbin the spindle sits in is held in place by a tinkertoy stick that comes out of the little orange thing. It’s short so there’s plenty of room for end of the spindle to stay in the bobbin and spin freely as the yarn winds off of it. It also keeps it at just the right height to go straight across onto the bobbin. The bobbin winder is an accelerated deal so as you turn the handle around once, the bobbin goes around a bunch of times.

I did have a problem with the tinker toy contraption tended to slide towards the bobbin winder when I got going too fast with winding off the spindle. A little more weight on the bottom of it would have been great.

Special note: These are tinkertoys that I used to play with when I was a kid. My kids play with them now; and I think that’s so cool. We even still have the book that came with them that shows you a 101 things you can make with tinkertoys. Every household should have a tin of tinkertoys in it.

(Don’t forget you have until this friday to enter the contest to win the Peter Teal book!  See previous blog entry for details)

I ended up with two copies of this book:

So I feel obliged to give away the second copy. All you need to do to enter is send email to:

contest AT persistentknitter DOT com

by Friday May 23rd, midnight Pacific time. I’ll draw the winner out using a random selection process.

About the book

This book covers a lot of information on preparing wool to spin using combs and all the prior and post processes involved (washing wool; combing, spinning. etc) It covers blending for color changes & how to spin worsted. It even has some pictures that are quite decent despite being only in black and white. I think this is an essential book for any spinner’s library.

For another contest; head over to http://martaschmarta.blogspot.com

Saturday I took a fabulous class on “advanced drop spindling” with Amelia from the Bellwether (http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/) and learned a lot on how to speed up the process with drop spindling, get more confident with it; and of course what the right drop spindle is for the yarn you’re trying to make in addition to a 1000 other details I don’t remember right now. She’s a great teacher; I really recommend taking a class from her if you can.

I decided to wind off the yarn I had been spinning since 1) the spindle was really too heavy for what I wanted to spin, and 2) I wanted to try out one of my newer spindles.

I rigged up this lazy kate, and it worked like a charm. I used a hair clip swiped from my daughter’s pile to keep it from nose diving back into the crate as I was winding off.  (You can see that on the left side, it’s pink) I had tried to see if I could put the cop of yarn onto a straw; but the straw was bigger than the spindle’s shaft so it wouldn’t work. Hmph! I could have tried to find a smaller straw; but thought I’d try this instead.

A few changes I want to make:
1) Add tension somehow, I had to be very careful during the winding off to not get ahead of the yarn coming off the spindle

2) Put some foam or something in the squares where the spindle rested. I feel like after winding off this way a few times, I might put an indentation or marking in the wood on the spindle. I know there is some foam downstairs in the Husband’s realm; but it’s all in use. I don’t need much; maybe he won’t notice. If this works, it might fix #1 enough.

The fiber I’m spinning? Superwash merino. The yarn it’ll be? Fingering weight three ply sock yarn. Yeah. I’m a bit nuts.

I don’t know why, but after a hiatus where I knit NO socks at all; suddenly I’m sock crazy! The sock yarn in this picture was purchased so I could work on some new sock designs. I needed solid yarns to show off the patterning. Yes, there’s a multicolor yarn in there too (I just couldn’t resist those pretty colors). Keep an eye out for new patterns coming! (or maybe I’ll submit to knitty.. hmmmmm. heh).

Ooh! I was tagged!

The rules are:

*Link to the person that tagged you. (Janell )
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Share six weird things/habits/quirks about yourself.
*Tag six others. And let them know they’ve been tagged!

1) I have written a book that’s been translated/published into German, Chinese & French.

2) I’m terrible about keeping plants alive, but I love Orchids. Luckily these work well with the “forget to water” methodology that I have.

3) I love Pringles chips dipped in Applesauce & Fries dipped in choc shake. My son loves chicken nuggets dipped in caramel - takes after his mama, yes he does :)

4) I was never a cheerleader like Janell was; but I tried out once, and was a bit sad when I didn’t get picked. Turns out it’s probably for the best.

5) I was a member of the “Hardware And Computer Knowledge Society” (aka H.A.C.K.S.) in college

6) I love getting packages in the mail (but who doesn’t; so that isn’t really weird; but I was out of ideas).

Tagging: martaschmarta and anyone else who wants to have some fun :)

The only knitting I’ve been doing lately is on these socks. I finished the first one tonite. (Except for weaving in the ends). The sock weighs 1.6 oz; and I enough handspun left to make three more socks; so I’ll get two pair total. I’ll want a different pattern for the 2nd pair - any suggestions?

This is what I’ve been knitting lately. Of course this is a sock made out of my fabulous and wonderful handspun. It’s so fun to knit with my handspun! I have been spinning a ton of yarn lately; I’m falling behind on washing the skeins.

Straight from my wheel! It’s a sheep to shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, colorway Puck’s Mischief. This picture makes it look more pink than it is. I would say it’s primarily purple with a lot of other colors thrown in. I spun the singles on my Ashford Joy at the 15:1 ratio, filling two bobbins. I Navajo plied it on my Schacht Matchless at an unknown ratio (whatever was available; although I was using a high speed bobbin and whorl to go with it) using my Woolee Winder. One full bobbin of singles on the Joy (3.8 ounces) basically filled one woolee winder bobbin on the matchless.

That’s how much you can cram on an Ashford Joy bobbin. More would have fit; but that just seemed silly. I’m spinning it pretty fine. it’ll be a three ply yarn and somewhere between fingering weight and sport (hopefully more towards fingering weight; but it tends to bloom when washed because I’m drafting it woolen style with a long draw).

Oh, and no this isn’t the stuff that I dyed. This is roving from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, colorway “Puck’s Mischief”. I love it.

I just ordered a bazillion rolls of highlighter tape for resale on The Knit Foundry. The price has gone up too; so once I receive those (a week or so) the price will be going up on my website as well. Until then (and until stock sells out) you can buy it at the current price, $3.20 a roll. New price will be $3.40 when the new stock arrives.

Buy them here: http://www.knitfoundry.com/prod_highlightertape.html

(note - I’m out of Standard Purple. If you want to order quite a few, please select Color - no proference and I will send you a good assortment. Colors will be substituted if necessary automatically).