Spinning Wheels I’ve owned

Four spinning wheels in front of the fireplace at my old apartment.

• Front row: my old Ashford traditional, Ariel’s Kromski
• Back row: Unidentified spinning wheel I got off Craigslist, Babe fiber starter.

The Babe was my first wheel- I got it in 2006. I wish I had a batter picture of this wheel. It was painted purple and green with silver accents and it was gorgeous. The unidentified one was a non-working antique castle wheel that I wanted to fix up but never did. I sold them both and got the Ashford Traditional. This was a great wheel to spin on but it was ergonomically bad for my knees, so I sold it. I was wheel-less for about 2 years before I got my Ashford Joy.

Spindle Spinning

I haven’t used a spindle in years- resisted buying a spindle if I couldn’t have a wheel. Now that I have a wheel, I’ve been wanting a spindle. I found this beauty in a Ravelry destash.

3gwoodworks cedar burl spindle. I’ve been spinning up some Pigeonroof Studios grab bag fiber.

An ideal yarn shop

After the yarn crawl, I’ve been thinking about what makes a good yarn shop.

A good yarn shop should carry the following yarns in a range of colors:

• Nylon-blended sock yarn
• Fingering weight wool yarn
• DK weight regular & superwash wool yarn
• Sport weight regular & superwash wool yarn
• Worsted weight regular & superwash wool yarn
• Cotton yarn in DK, sport & worsted
• A selection of lace and bulky yarns
• A selection of novelty (fringe, beaded, sequined) yarns
• A selection of high-end yarn (MCN, cashmere, silk)
• Spinning fiber
• Stock from at least one indie dyer

I’m a sock knitter, so I judge a knitting store by their sock yarn selection, just like I judge sub shops based on their chicken parm, and Thai places on their pad thai.  If the cheapest yarn you have is $30/hank MCN hand-dyed, you’re not getting my business. On the other hand, if the best sock yarn you have is the 50g balls of Regia, you’re also not getting my business.

In addition to basic workhorse yarns, a good shop should showcase some of the amazing indie dyers. Have something at your shop that I can’t (easily) get elsewhere. Either dye stuff in-house, or collaborate with a dyer.

What would you stock in your ideal yarn shop?

Adventures in pre-drafting

I’m spinning my way through my stash now that I have a wheel again.

I think this is my oldest fiber: The Woolen Rabbit Silk Braids Merino/Tussah Silk , 2 oz in the Black Velvet color way. I got this at the SPA retreat back in 2008.

I started spinning it but it was so compacted. Not felted, but hard and crunchy, which are not adjectives normally associated with merino wool and silk. After a trying to spin from the fold, I gave up on that technique. I took the rest of the fiber, separated it into strips and pre-drafted it.

Even with the pre-drafting, this wasn’t a smooth spin. There are lots of slubs in this yarn. This wasn’t an easy spin.

I’m wondering if it’s chunky because of the dye process, or because it sat it my stash too long. Maybe I don’t like blended fibers? Hmmmm.

I ended up with one skein of 75yds, at 10wpi, spun at 8:1.

Still, it’s pretty.

Yarn snob, not snobby yarn

The North Shore Yarn Crawl was last weekend. It was fun to hang out with Jen and go to a bunch of knitting stores. 12 shops participated in the crawl. Of these 12, I only made two purchases because I was so disappointed in the selection. Most of the stores were selling luxury/novelty yarn or were catering to the tourist knitter on vacation. Two of the shops didn’t carry basic worsted wool yarn (think Cascade 220 or Ella Rae Classic). I was up to my eyeballs in merino/silk/cashmere blends, beaded yarns, eyelash fringe, ribbons, feathers and lace.

This crawl had me wondering: where does one go to buy workhorse yarns? Luckily, I can get every color of Ella Rae at Coveted Yarn (and they sell roving!) and Cranberry Fiber Arts carries Jamieson’s Shetland yarns. These are my two favorite LYSes, and the two where I made purchases.

One store in particular stood out to me, in terms of overpriced luxury selection. This shop shared a parking lot with a dry cleaner, a bagel place, and a liquor store. They carried so much cashmere and silk it was hard to find the wool. A sweater’s worth of yarn there would be 1/2 my paycheck. Also, they had the most parsimonious sale selection Coincidence?

This makes me wonder why does a store stock what it does? Does it stock yarns based on the customers it has or the customers it wants? Or some other reason? If the stock is only high-end luxury, the store will alienate the poorer shoppers. Maybe that’s what the store wants, though. In the overpriced luxury yarn store, I felt like I wasn’t good enough to shop there. I kept hoping they wouldn’t ask me if I knit my own hat, not because I was ashamed of it, but because it was made with Jamieson’s, a workhorse wool with not a scrap of silk, cashmere, mohair or merino. I’ve never been in a store that made me feel unwelcome for liking wool.

I won’t be going back to that store, or most of the yarn crawl stores. I’ll continue to shop at stores that carry a selection I like and that make me feel welcome.

Ashford Joy

Ever since I sold my Ashford Traditional two years ago, I’ve been missing spinning. Selling the traddy was the right decision-my knee problems were exacerbated by the position the wheel required.  Since then I’ve had PT for my knee, and have studied spinning wheel design, to find the ones with the best treadle/orifice placement for me.  I knew that I wanted a single treadle castle wheel, with the treadle and orifice centered. A folding/travel wheel would be the best because of its compact footprint, and the ease of packing if/when I move again (not that I’m planning on moving any time soon, it’s just that after that one year with 3 moves, I never want to be without an exit plan).

I scoured Ravelry, Craigslist and ebay, and finally I found a used Joy on Ravelry for a good price (always try to buy used first. Unfortunately it was damaged in shipping. The plywood of the handle shattered, but everything else was in fine working order.  The handle is what makes it a travel wheel, and its one of it’s best features.  Rather than send it back, I decided to fix it.

I started by using a hacksaw to remove the ragged plywood and then sanded it smooth. I attached a drawer pull with StrongStik adhesive and let it cure for 48 hours. Then I smoothed everything out with sugru (20g of white) so that there are no jagged edges, and let that cure for another 24 hours. The bond with the StrongStik and the sugru is great- there’s no cracking, and I can easily lift and carry the wheel.

An added bonus of the fix is it makes my wheel unique. I’ll never misplace it at a fiber festival or spinner’s gathering.

As for the actual spinning, well, that’s taken some getting used to. This little wheel has more ratios than either of my previous wheels. The Babe had one ratio, and the traddy technically had 3, but only 2 worked. Now that I have 4 working ratios, I’m not sure what to do with myself.

I spun up a bunch of fiber from my stash, just to get used to the wheel. No real plan or technique, just “spin it and see what happens.” These are all worsted-ish weight yarns, spun semi-worsted-ish, on the 8:1 ratio.

Brimstone Hollow Farm Romney/Border Leicester :

Spunky Eclectic BFL Roving in Thermograph (August 2008 club):

Liberty’s Yarn Roving It – Sheltland

Recent knitting

I did a lot of knitting this past month.

 

• Pattern: Branching Socks by Sarah Whitehill
• Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted in Make Believe
• Needles: 2mm/US0

Cute, happy socks that remind me of spring: crocuses, hyacinths, irises. I made these for the SKA February Sockdown challenge.

 

 

 

Somehow I lost my favorite hat: the grey beret I knit in 2009.  So I knit up a replacement in green. I love the pattern and the way it fits, so it was a joy to knit a second one.  The only modification I made was to knit the brim very tightly.

• Pattern: Druidess Beret by Anna Bright
• Yarn: Jamieson’s Shetland Double Knitting in Moss/147
• Needles: US5/3.75mm and US3/3.25mm