Another spinning wheel

I haven't posted anything for ages, too busy with life & work I suppose.

Since I last posted I've bought myself another spinning wheel & acquired an alpaca fleece, neither of which I really needed, but this hobby is starting to really get me drawn in. Firstly the spinning wheel is a second-hand Spinolution Bee , bought from someone who I know through that great medium called Ravelry. I met Kat last year at a spinning workshop & was totally captivated by the little Bee, which folded up into a boxlike structure for carrying, so when she advertised it for sale I was straight in there. I had been looking to buy a new one, but they are very expensive, so didn't bother, but of course buying 2nd hand it worked out cheaper. I got 7 bobbins and a bag with it, which are all very expensive, so did really well I think. It's a totally different spinning concept to my other 2 wheels, on the Bee the treadling is a rocking action rather than a treadle as it is on most wheels. It took me a while to really get into it & I got really frustrated because I couldn't get the tension to work properly, either it wouldn't wind on the bobbin & I got too much twist or if I tightened the tension then it wouldn't get enough twist. It has a very unusual tensioning system, which works on Scotch tension principle, where you tighten the tension on the bobbin separately to the tension on the drive band, but it just kept slipping & I thought that I'd made a really bad mistake with buying it. I did join the Spinolution group on Ravelry & noticed that she'd posted about the problem a few months ago, so I contacted her & she suggested that I try what they also suggest, which is rubbing the little bit of suede on the tension block, which acts as a kind of brake system, to rough it up as it smooths out in time. I did this & it was a little better. But before I went to spin on it last night I decided to have another look at the tension block to make sure it was OK. It wasn't, it had become black & oily again, so I got some paper towel & a soft cloth & gave it a really good clean out. There's a spring at the back of where the flyer is connected to the shaft and there was some oil that had become really gunky. I think this might have been transferring back onto the part where the flyer arm goes back to meet the tension block. So after I'd cleaned it I cleaned the suede again, roughed it up & then put some beeswax onto the suede to keep it clean & give it more contact on the flyer arm. It seems to have worked as I didn't have nearly as much trouble getting the yarn to wind on. This particular wheel is made using ball bearings so needs rarely or never to be oiled, so I think either the wrong oil had been used or it was just too much oil for the wheel. I hope that it will now settle down & I'll have many happy hours using it. It's also great because it's quite small I can sit on the couch & use it & not block him indoors' view of the telly, which my other wheels do!

The alpaca came from a lovely couple, near to where I live. His Mum was a member of our Guild, she joined because he had the alpacas & she wanted to learn to spin the fleece. Unfortunately she died last Christmas, so the fleeces from this year's clip were all just left. We went to the farm to have an afternoon spinning etc., drinking tea & eating yummy cakes. Some of the Guild took fleeces & I was determined not to, but there were a couple left & one was a pretty humbug, sort of oatmeal colour, so I took it in the end & gave a donation for the local charity that they support. It's still sitting here, a month on waiting for me to do something with it. I'll probably blend it with some wool rather than spin it by itself I think. I'll experiment & see what happens

Holidays are great

But it's a shame that we have to come back from them isn't it. Still I suppose we'd have nothing to look forward to & it would get just as much a grind being in the place where you holiday all the time, there'd be no change, which as the old saying goes is as good as a rest.

We were very lucky with the weather, which is unusual for us, it's normally great weather & we go away & it turns horrible, but this time we chose the right week.

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise. I got a hand delivered letter which had been sent via a mutual contact, from someone I was friendly with as a girl, the last time I must have spoken to her must have been over 25 years ago. Apparently she reckons that she said something to me in a phone conversation that really upset me & I broke off all communication with her, but I thought that I'd upset her which is why she never rang me again, just goes to show how words can be misconstrued. But it is lovely to catch up with her. I emailed her with my address & phone number & she was straight on the phone for a chat. She's now married for the 2nd time with 2 sons of her own, one adopted daughter from her 1st marriage & 3 step children from her 2nd marriage & 6 grandchildren, they look such a happy family & I'm so pleased for her that she's found happiness with her 2nd husband. I'm also pleased that we've got together again as I've often thought about her over the years & wondered what happened after her 1st marriage broke up.

I can see that my weekend is going to be busy, our post lady asked me yesterday if I knew of someone who could help her process a fleece that she'd been given while on holiday in Yorkshire. Apparently it's a Cheviot fleece that's from last year's shearing with which the farmer won a prize. I of course said that I could help her, so it looks like Sunday will be spent sorting this fleece & teaching her how to wash it etc. She has a spindle which she's tried to use but can't, so I'll have a go at teaching her as well. I'm certainly not going to offer to spin it up for her, got far too much stuff of my own to spin.

Coffin Fleece anyone?

I've just been to collect a fleece, a Norfolk, and the shepherd said that it was his coffin fleece. He explained that it's a traditional thing for a shepherd to have a fleece in his coffin if he/she dies as a mark of their occupation & he keeps one from the current year's wool clip just in case he dies. I felt a bit guilty about it, but he assured me that there was plenty of stuff around that could be put in his coffin by his family if need be, and I did say that he looked pretty healthy to me. I said to contact me if he ever needed some of the fleece back, but then he'd be dead wouldn't he doh. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to really look at it yet, but it doesn't seem too bad, not too many second cuts etc. & seems at first glance not to be too full of VM, but I will see when I open it out properly. What is a bit upsetting is that he's let all the other fleeces, some 200 of them, go to the BWMB for pennies. I told him that hand spinners would happily pay good money for decent fleeces & he said that they do have some good ones, he's even got a 2nd prize for a fleece recently at one of the shows. So next year I've promised to contact him around April/May & see if I can find people interested in buying some of the fleeces. He actually works for a Trust which needs to obviously make as much money as it can, so it would be good if he could make a bit more for them.

Weddings, aren't they wonderful?

Yes it's said rather tongue in cheek really. We had to go last weekend to a family wedding near Manchester. Now I'm not a great one for do's like this especially as it wasn't close family. I find them rather boring really, especially because these days such a huge emphasis is put on getting everything just right for the bridal party & they forget that they've invited all these guests who may have to hang around for hours with nothing to do. Yes you may say I'm being miserable, but this particular wedding got off to a very bad start. The bride was 45 minutes late, yes 45 minutes. There were 280 guests all sitting very uncomfortably on the hottest day of the year, when many of the people there could have been watching the agonising World Cup England/Germany match. There was only water to drink if you wanted to climb over the other guests to get out to get some. Apparently one of the make-up artists didn't show & the one that did was very slow. I honestly couldn't even tell that they'd had the make-up done professionally when I looked closely. The bride's mother walked down the aisle looking as though she'd sucked a lemon, what a way to celebrate your daughter's wedding, I'm glad I wasn't on the receiving end of her tongue on Monday morning! Apparently she's not known for her diplomacy & tact.

Then of course everything else was running late & we didn't finish dinner until 9.30. Luckily the hotel was only a couple of miles away so we didn't have a long drive back afterwards, but it wasn't the best time, you couldn't even get on the tiny dance floor to have a boogie & the band they had was so loud that you could hear it well outside the hall, but the youngsters enjoyed themselves while anyone over 40 sat outside in the marquee.

Luckily we don't have any more weddings or big do's on the horizon. Don't get me wrong I love a good party, but this was just so uncomfortable & I had to sit for so long without anything to do that I was bored rigid. Shame I didn't have my knitting with me or at least a bit of crochet to keep me occupied, but then people would have known I was a bit odd instead of just suspecting it haha.

Anyway my moaning will now stop as I received a few samples of fleece today in the post. One was some Polwarth, one Polwarth ram & the last was Llanwenog. Unfortunately as I was a bit late asking about the Polwarth the only one left is a bit felted, but might come up OK in the wash. She sent me a bit that's been washed & it seems to be good, but will just need careful washing & the locks will have to be pulled apart as I go. It's certainly very soft & silky & will spin up I'm sure as next to the skin soft. I'll have to see if the ram fleece is any good, but I suspect that it will be a bit stinky & probably not as soft. The Llanwenog is quite a bit coarser so I might not bother with that as I don't think it's a lot different to the Texel that I've already got plenty of. I'm also getting a Norfolk fleece later this week, so hope that will be OK, as I haven't yet seen it & don't know anything about the people selling it, so only hope that it's useable after I've made the trek to get it. HD thinks I'm barmy & that I've got enough fleece, but a spinner can never have enough. He doesn't know about the 500 grammes of Merino that I got a few weeks ago either or for that matter the mohair that came at around the same time mwwahaha. But then when I read about how much other people have I've have very little but HD doesn't realise that.

A good weekend

My other passion than all things woolly related is probably a rather unusual one, it's Morris Dancing. I've been involved with my Morris side since it started in 1981, so very nearly 30 years now. I unfortunately no longer dance due to dodgy joints, but I can still play music, so I can be involved.

I had a great fun weekend in the Forest of Dean dancing with FOD Morris Men & other sides. This is the 2nd year we've been invited along & although we didn't have the scenic tour this year which we did last year, when we had Tintern Abbey & Symonds Yat to dance, it was still enjoyable, with good company. Being organised by a men's side we found the food rather stodgy, unfortunately we women don't in general enjoy eating pie all weekend, but that's all we seemed to do! I left HD at home to look after the dogs & shared the B&B with a very long standing friend, I mustn't call her 'old' of course, but we've been friends well over 30 years. We had a wonderful B&B called The Rock, at Hillersland just half a mile down the road from Symonds Yat & the views were absolutely spectacular. It was very comfortable & the owners & their dogs were very welcoming, certainly somewhere I would love to stay again. I was absolutely exhausted though when I got home on Sunday, from not only the weekend but also from the long drive home, over 3 hours straight driving on A roads is pretty tiring, especially as my car's still not behaving itself . Anyway I hope we can go along next year & perhaps have a bit more of a holiday rather than just the weekend.

Cars don't you love 'em

My cars been a right pain, I know it's nearly 8 years old, and up until now it's been a really good workhorse, not let us down at all, but a couple of weeks ago it just conked out on HD. Stopped dead, nadda nothing nil. He of course didn't have either his phone (he has 2) or his AA card on him. Luckily he was outside the shops & the people at the dry cleaners who he uses regularly, let him phone me. Well the AA came out very quickly & towed him to a garage round the corner which lots of people we know use. Turned out we knew the owner from HD's youth club leader days. Anyway it seemed the clutch & flywheel had gone & they'd broken some sensor on the crankshaft, so that had to be replaced as well as the clutch. The car had to be taken to a specialist clutch place in town, but I have to say they were excellent, however we noticed that oil was leaking, so they had the car back to have a look at it. Apparently someone had jacked it up without a board & done damage to a stopper or something (you can tell I know all about cars) so they replaced it free of charge & let us have a courtesy car while they were doing the repair & checking it out. When we got it back HD noticed that there was another leak, but when I checked I said that it was only water from the air-con, but by then he'd rung the clutch place & they were on their way to collect it. Again they left us the courtesy car & took it away to check. Turns out I was right, it was just condensation from the air-con ( see I told you I know all about cars ;-) but they were great in the way that they dealt with it. It's so rare that you get anyone admitting that something was their fault & putting it right without charge or checking something out that isn't even their fault at all. It's restored my faith in the motor industry & of course we wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, which has to be the best way of getting business.

I'm still plodding on with spinning the Texel fleece. HD was out most of Saturday, so after cleaning the kitchen which was a right tip, getting the car from the clutch place & doing a few other chores I spent a bit of time with my drum carder prepping a load, then did a bit of spinning & plying. Then I saw my neighbour who keeps a few sheep & popped round to have a look at the fleeces he'd shorn. I ended up with 2 of them, one's a Leicester Border cross, which seems quite fine & soft & a good length staple, the other one's I think a Suffolk cross, bit shorter staple & not quite as fine or soft, but will probably spin up OK. I've not pulled them out of the bags we put them into yet, but I think looking at the bits I pulled off there's going to be quite a lot of 2nd cuts as he sheared them himself, but will have to see what they're like when I've washed them. Trouble is it takes so long to get them washed & dried. I don't want to put them in the bath as DH would go barmy, so do bits in a washing up bowl that I keep for the wool only. Also the weather's up & down, so the rest of the Texel that I washed is still not quite dry & I don't want to do any more until the weather is settled, it looks like it's going to be showery for this week. Sunday was more plying & spinning & HD is now completely sure that I love sheep more than any other creature. Not true of course, they're just very useful animals.

I've also started on a cardigan, it's a Drops pattern with some teal coloured yarn that I bought from Moonstone Yarns. The yarns' merino & acrylic, lovely & soft & lightweight, but the bottom will curl up. It starts with 6 rows of garter stitch & then changes to stocking stitch. I frogged it back & started the stocking stitch on the purl row rather than the knit row, and I thought that would solve the problem, but it's still curling, probably because the wool's very lightweight, but hopefully it will lay down after blocking. If not then I might try a crab stitch border or maybe even sew a few beads on to give it a bit of weight.

Sunshine

At last the sun has come out again, it's been such a miserable Bank Holiday weekend, typical of the British spring & yesterday felt like a good day for November & certainly not the 1st of June! We were going to go boating at the weekend, but the car broke down last week & we've had to spend a fortune getting the clutch, flywheel & some sensor that broke replaced. Still it's a good job that we kept our AA cover going as they were really quick to respond & we got a free hire car for 3 days. However I'm not too happy as last night coming home it made a bit of a clonking noise & lost a bit of power, then today we noticed some sort of fluid on the drive, so it's going back tomorrow, they said 'something might be a bit loose' a screw perhaps, says she tongue in cheek!

Anyway I'm getting on with planning the Ravelry meeting in September with both Chris & Dianne agreeing to do proper workshops. I will write a bit more about both of them in future, suffice it to say that both are very experienced in their fields and present very enjoyable and informative workshops. Hopefully lots of people will take up the opportunity to gain the knowledge that they can impart.

So now to my spinning.I've started on the Texel with a vengeance, I've done a sampler and one bobbin spun & another one on the way, but if I'm to get as far as making an Aran sweater for HD then I'd better get a move on. Why an Aran sweater? Well I showed him a sample of the yarn that I'd spun & knitted & his reaction was 'that would make a lovely Aran jumper' when I said that I'd probably dye it. It's true, I'd spun to about 8-9 WPI so it's Aran weight yarn & it's not really soft enough for next to the skin, it's a bit scratchy, not too much, but would make a good hard wearing jumper, so I frogged back & did this cable sample & it certainly does look good. I'm pleased that I didn't hot wash the fleece with detergent & just soaked overnight in warm water & scouring solution as I prefer the way that it's spun with some of the lanolin left in, it's meant that I could get a thicker spin into the yarn. Since I've learnt to spin lace weight I've found it very hard to go back to spinning heavier yarn, but have managed with this possibly because of the fact that the lanolin in the wool gives a lot more 'drag' to it as I spin. I then washed the sample in very hot water with dishwashing liquid in & the lanolin has come out. Now lots of people say that you can't get the lanolin out once fleece is spun, but when I started spinning some 30 years ago most people spun in the grease i.e. straight from the fleece, then washed later. I know that this is impossible with some high grease fleeces like merino, but with lower grease fleece it works perfectly well. I'd say experiment with what you've got as this is the only way to go, there's no rule book, no law on how to do it, just go with what you feel comfortable doing & see if it works. Lots of people wouldn't dream of putting fleece into boiling water thinking that it would just felt & shrink, but so long as it's not very fine & you don't agitate it or shock it by then putting into cold water it should be quite OK. After all have you ever tried to actually make felt? It takes lots of hot soapy water & lots of effort, that's what I've found anyway.