Swift but not big enough

I knew when I made the purple warp that it was too long for my swift, which only takes 2 meters. And I didn’t make a cross, so I had to wind it into a ball somehow!

Well, I have the long poles for warping. They have holes in them the same size as the rods I used for the swift, including the one in the middle! I have clamps, coffee, sleepy kittens, what could go wrong?

longswift1 longswift2

So anyway, enough of that, I’m still playing with paint these days, just had to try this out before calling on the help of a person with long arms.

Yarn tools

I love it when things can be made from the “what’s in the woodshed” principle as well as having more than one purpose. I’ve previously shown you my blending hackle, here it is without fun fur on. I made the tines from welding rods and sharpened each one by hand, they’re very strong:

hackle2 hackle1

I also have a homemade swift. I tend to never get to the point where I polish and paint these contraptions, although I do love beautiful tools. I’m simply too busy using them, that’s all, and I know I’m not much of a carpenter anyway.

swift1

I use the pegs from the swift with these crude pieces of lumber to warp both directly and  – eventually – indirectly. In summer I’m going to find a wall space outside to fix them vertically, as this will make running the yarn back and forth much easier on my back than leaning over the table.

warp02
direct warping a wide loom with multiple pegs

warping01
Measuring  a 3 m. Ø skein for space dyeing a pooling warp (or so the plan goes). By moving the pegs AND the bars further apart, I can make virtually any length of warp I desire, there are 8 pegs total. One can hold the cone of yarn!

I can also use the pegs and bars to strap poles onto if I want to make a navajo style warp for my large tapestry loom.

I meant to include an image of my homemade tapestry loom, but we ran into a small problem and didn’t get it finished on Sunday. I’m going to have a look at it and see if I can come up with a new idea for the last bit. It’s functional as it is, but I want to include multiple leash rods I think they’re called. Homemade shedding device kinda thing.

I also made a few spindles before I got my wheel. I don’t use them very often now I have to admit, but they work very well, especially the 14 g which I used to make a lace shawl. I too dream of Goldings and Bosworths, but I’d rather have more fiber.

lace6

Drumcarder – I haz one

I’ve been so amazingly lucky recently that family members have chosen to share some abundance with me. Not only did my mum replace my 10 y.o. camera with a shiny new modern gizmo, I also have a new fiber tool. While being an owner in itself doesn’t ring my bells very loudly, I’m whooping at the thought of all the stuff I can DO with these toys. Never mind that I’ve hardly had any new clothes in a decade, I’m warm, clean and not too offensive.

The large drum is easily removed and replaced, so you have the option of coarse or fine cloths. I’m mordanting the last of my Dorset fleeces to be dyed and then everything gets run through the machine. Among other things.

I’ll be in the wool room if you need me. (aka living room aka paint stoodio)

drum carder

Kartemaskine

Lykkens Pamjulefis, det er mig! At blive tildelt overflod bare for glæden ved at give og modtage, ikke for ejerskabets skyld som sådan, men alt det man kan udrette med det rigtige værktøj og godt humør. Og nu mangler jeg hverken det ene eller det andet! Den store tromle kan nemt skiftes, hvis man vil have en grov- eller fintandet.

Så hvis ikke I kan se mig, så ved I nok hvad jeg laver… Der er sat en gryde bejdse over med det sidste Dorset råuld og så skal hele balladen ellers igennem maskineriet. Og naturligvis foreviges med det fine kamera, jeg har fået af min mor, da det gamle var ved at stille træskoene.

Mini skeins

It’s become very popular to knit or crochet blankets, amigurumi and other small or assembled items with small skeins of handspun or handpainted sock yarn as well as leftovers of commercial yarns. Especially the hexipuffs have been all the rage for quite a while! (I realize blankets as such have probably never been out of fashion, but so many cool patterns are emerging)

I normally don’t follow fashion much, but thought I’d join this madness and use it to my advantage: I’ll simply make my colour experiment swatches in the amount of mini skeins when I spin and dye, so that I actually have something useful and not just a piece of coloured string. And they make good travel knitting. I’m not making puffs, but rather like the hexagon shape, so that’s what I’m doing right now.

I’ve made a couple of niddy noddies from bits and pieces lying around the place, so that I don’t have to drag out my (also homemade) swift every time I want to wind a small skein.  Dowels, spheres from a hobby shop (leftover from spindle making), a broom handle and a thingy from an old wine rack. Voila presto! I never got round to glueing on the spheres because I wanted to make sure I had the correct circumference. And the rubber band colours help me keep track of counting anyway…

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Mini garn

Jeg er begyndt at lave mine farve/spindeprøver i mængder der passer sådan ca. med et par hexipuffer o.lign. sådan at jeg rent faktisk kan bruge dem til noget bagefter. Det er sikkert også udmærket til rejsestrikning forestiller jeg mig? Jeg synes det er en fin måde at få afprøvet alle mulige kombinationer, så det har jeg tænkt mig at gøre fremover i stedet for altid at spinde 50-100 g af hver slags garn og så ikke rigtig få det brugt. Jeg gider nok ikke rigtig lave puffer, men sekskanter synes jeg egentlig er flot, næsten cirkler. 😉

Mit haspetræ har jeg strikket sammen af dele fra en gammel vinreol og et par trækugler fra Panduro… De er ikke limet på endnu fordi jeg ville være sikker på omkredsen (garnet strækker sig jo når man vinder det på), deraf elastikkerne. Og så fandt jeg ud af, at farverne hjalp mig med at tælle omgange og ja, så kom jeg ikke længere!

Postman was good today

Brought me a batch of Shetland top from World of Wool for my sweater projects, some silk hankies and a set of extra-fine Valkyrie combs from The Whorl’s End. My homemade crude set with nails just doesn’t always cut it….

Now I can straighten out that blue merino that I accidentally dyed with a bit too much detergent in it, causing some stickyness. I’ll see if I can’t sort it before blending with the other colours for my spinning project.

Nice surprise speedy delivery after a few days under the weather. But at least I’m making progress on my reversible sweater! Which means of course soon I’ll have not 2 sleeves to finish, but 4 once again and at least 3 project in line! I guess I need to recover from my sleeve syndrome

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Postmand Per på besøg

Fik lige en dejlig pakke med silk hankies og mere Shetlænder fra World of Wool til mine sweaterprojekter. Og så kom jeg lige til at bestille et par Extra-fine Valkyrie kamme fra The Whorl’s End

Jeg kom til at farve en tot merino med lidt for meget sæbe i, så det er en anelse filtet. Bare lidt, jeg håber kammene kan løsne det, så jeg kan blande med de andre farver jeg havde planlagt.

Skønt med lidt opmuntring efter et par flade dage på sofaen, men i det mindste har jeg nået lidt på min omvendesweater. Det betyder så bare, at i stedet for at mangle 2 ærmer, bliver der snart 4 igen, og jeg har mindst tre nye projekter i kø! Så jeg må se at komme mig over mit syndrom