Spinner

The Other Spinner

Spinning Legs, not Wool

My other spinning wheel is a nice little chrome number that doesn't produce anything but sweat. Which is why I have to put a fan in front of me.

I must have gone around the world a few times on this machine so far. In fact it's the third one I've owned. If you're wondering what's stuck to the pedals, those are cycling shoes.

Nicest thing about this machine is that you can read for your hour of exercise. I get a lot of study and/or recreation in that way. And then it's time to make yarn.

M. McGrorty

Dog Yarn Spinning

Spinning yarn from dogs

If you have never done this, it is not difficult. First you have to find a couple of dogs. I like to use bad dogs, the sort who won't obey orders to quit barking when I'm trying to nap. Here are a couple of candidates: Tulip and Rosie, who until recently lived within the glow of my generosity. Tulip is the Cairn in brown; Rosie the Westie in white. I thought they would make a nice yarn for an outer garment or perhaps to warp a loom. Tulip is wearing my shirt here (on my bed); Rosie has been "belled" for my amusement because she insisted on licking my ankles at the computer. She didn't like playing the cow.

Technique

The technique is as you see in the picture. Simply take a hank of dog and lead this into the orifice of your spinning wheel. I've found that the tails work best.

In a future post I will let you know how this particular project worked out. M. McGrorty

Home Made Diz/Hook

Make your own diz/orifice hook in less than a minute

Why you need this: because it costs nothing; because you can use a spare; because you can make a hundred to give away; because you don't want to leave that one made of turquoise and silver out on your stash when you're at a spinner gathering somewhere.

Required tools and materials

1. Wire coat hanger
2. Common pliers
3. Wire cutters
4. Broomstick

Procedure

Clip the coat hanger in two places just below where the twist joins the loop below the hanging hook. Discard the hook section. Straighten the wire with your fingers and/or the pliers. When you have a straight section, wrap the middle of it around the broomstick once to make a circle loop as shown below. Take one length of the remaining wire and twist this around the other as you see here. Clip off the remainder of that wire. Determine how much length you want for your hook and clip off that much plus about half an inch. Turn the end into a hook. You may wish to file away the roughness where the wire has been clipped.

 

 

Alternative use: Make a longer one of these and you can pull hair from the bathroom sink drain that your daughter has clogged up with her beautiful long tresses.

In future postings I will show more designs. Michael McGrorty

GLASG Meeting Pictures

Here are some candid shots from the GLASG monthly meeting. 

Download Glasgmtg

From the GLASG Meeting

At the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild meeting today, a nice lady showed her latest work.  See second picture for detail. 

 

And she also spun a nice bit of "wool" from Australian Shepherd hair.  Here it is:

Heracles spins for Omphale

This piece is too long to cut and paste, but you can download the document and pictures. 

Heracles spins

Spinning potato vines

A nice place in the garden where lately a potato vine grew.  Now the vine is gone.

Give a tug to the vine's fallen stem; what comes up?

That's right-- a nice load of purple spuds.  Time for dinner.  Where's that lamb neck? 

Direct from the flock

I live in an interesting part of Pasadena.  There are many Armenian immigrants here.  These folks appreciate lamb and mutton.  Today I went to the local meat market and picked out a lamb neck for the slow cooker.  Total weight is about three pounds. 

This has been put in the pot along with a crumbled Knorr chipotle cube, salt, pepper and a quarter cup of American lager.  I'll post pictures of the result soon.  The dogs are going to love these bones.

Source:  Garni Meat Market, 1715 E. Washington Bl, Pasadena Ca 626.798.2676. 

Hard Going

Here is a sample of my latest spun stuff.  This is Decadent Fibers' roving "Gourmet Spun Sugar" in Red Delicious Apple.  The stuff is advertised as "prime Merino wool" that "spins like a dream."  I must have received a bad sample.  Read on:

The roving does not separate easily; rather than splitting it simply tears raggedly and in fact is quite difficult to part.  Where normally I could get eight separations from a Merino roving this one will give me perhaps four with hackled edges, and these will only tear into short pieces.  The wool is not so much a roving as a tangle yanked into a somewhat linear form.  If you have ever carded wool once, roughly, and then spun it you know how this is.  The material is full of noils, coils, blebs and the occasional sample of vegetable material.  Let me tell you what we have here:  an inexpensive Merino preparation that wasn't even blended very well.  Go on:

I read at least two and maybe three distinct types of wool here.  If all of this is Merino it comes from very different animals or from an unsorted lot.  The hand is relatively coarse in one section, smoother in another and then one encounters a very smooth silky glide that comes and goes.  I would almost like to see this stuff undyed (as it seems also to be sold) in order to get a better idea of what I've got in hand.  This wool is not blended well; it isn't advertised as Top and it isn't really a carded roving, either.  As spun the wool bunches, flats out and dies in noils--actually it looks like this is a lot of Merino stuff roughly blended.  To be sure it spins like no Merino I've ever encountered.  I had planned to spin a worsted out of this but the chunkiness of the wool leaves me no choice but to accept something like a woolen outcome.   Chalk this one up to experience. 

This is a home made yarn gauge. You wrap this little plastic card top to bottom for wrap measure, and the other way for twist. If you drill a hole into this you have a roving diz. Why this is a good thing: because you can place this on your yarn to show people the actual gauge rather than using something imprecise like a coin.