wool

Peace at last!

thriftwizardLeave a comment
Shawl, "blocking" after a little light fulling...

At long last I’ve caught up with myself a bit. After keeping my head down all week learning how to use my tri-loom (which I’m afraid I did buy new; I ran out of time to make one, even if  several 7′ lengths of seasoned oak had somehow materialised) I’ve finally completed a commission I was given back in the summer, for a shawl in rich browns, gold & oranges.  It’s been a learning process… I know now that the tri-loom produces a much more substantial & even weave than the scrap loom, but as the threads are under far more tension, haloed, “sticky” or underspun yarns are not the best materials to pick. So if they are what I happen to have to work with, back to the scrap loom, which is a much quicker technique too. But for top-quality stuff, the tri-loom it shall be.

In the meantime, my car has been filling up with goodies – there’s fabric, yarn, several nice handcranked sewing machines including a “Queen Alexandra” Jones FCS in fine shape, a sturdy 50s concertina sewing box and some very interesting books in there, as far as I remember! (Not to mention a bale of barley straw for the chickens & rabbits – it’s dry in there, and not in anyone’s way.)  But there they will probably have to stay until after the weekend, as we have guests and there’s enough “clutter” already inside.  I’ve also been busy networking on the Transition front; we’re planning a “Skills Taster” day early next year and I’m having quite a lot of fun going round to various groups & asking them to come & demonstrate.

I’ve also sold off my Louet S20 spinning wheel. I’m sad it had to go, but since my diagnosis I’ve realised why it had started to hurt to spin for any length of time on it; I needed a double-treadle or wide-treadle wheel. I chased a few on Ebay and won one, an EasySpin, which is absolutely beautiful & spins very nicely too, but is made of some kind of hardwood which is very brittle where it’s cut thin, such as the bobbin ends. So it’s not up to everyday life in a hectic household; I will try to hang onto it until I have my workshop as I do love it, but don’t want to risk damaging it. So what to use? As I already had quite a few Louet accessories & spares & their wheels seem to suit my style of spinning, as well as having a relatively small footprint, the answer was obvious. So I’ve dug into my rapidly-decreasing little savings pot & acquired a very lovely brand-new Louet S75, which I hope will be my “forever after” wheel. I haven’t had time to do much on her yet, but am working on two gorgeous Gotland fleeces, in very different colours but both beautifully soft, blended with a little angelina, and will post a pic when I’ve plied the first two bobbins-full together. The wheel is a dream to spin on; light & easy to treadle and very smooth, with the classic big Louet bobbins & good-size orifice. Lighter than the S20 to move, too, but with rubber feet so she doesn’t slip gently away from me as the S20 used to.

So now I have to behave myself for at least a year – NO more new equipment! I have enough supplies to keep me busy until next summer, by which time I should have acquired my bionic hip & be able to run my stall again, well stocked up!  Anything I really think I need will have to come to me secondhand or rescued, be made by me, or wait until my birthday and/or Christmas 2010. It shouldn’t be a hardship; I’m very lucky to have as much equipment as I do, and I really don’t have room for any more. So that’s my challenge to myself for the next year; to do what I need or want to do with what I already have, or can make for myself, am given or rescue.

Another wombled goody…

thriftwizard1 Comment

I’ve had a busy few days, with no time to spare at all.  But today I simply had to take something to the Tip – a mattress pad which had spilt right open in the wash; even I couldn’t come up with another use for that, and it was damp & had started to become rather smelly – and I’m really pleased that I did. Lee called me over and showed me something that had come in shortly after my last visit, last week. “But it’s not complete,” he said sadly…

But what it is, is an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel, in pretty good nick. Not 100% useful without a flyer or bobbins, but the beauty of the Trads is that there are a variety of flyers & bobbins available to fit them, in either single or double drive. They’re still very much in production, so there will be no problem finding them, and as it happens I’m due to go down to Herrings in Dorchester tomorrow anyway, which is the nearest source. The treadle connector was broken, but that’s just a strip of tough leather & was easily replaced, as the drive band will be too. The wheel spins smoothly & looks to be running true, so all in all that’ll be another fine tool rescued from an early grave.

As is the little upright flax wheel that I found sitting in a dark corner of our local market. It’s a pretty little thing, but didn’t look to be in the best shape; the drive band was wrapped around the axle quite inextricably so the wheel couldn’t move smoothly, the treadle pedal was hanging off, and the arm that probably once held a distaff just had two snapped-off dowels poking up. Altogther it looked like adorning a weekender’s inglenook fireplace was the only thing it was fit for, but yet… the flyer is complete and sturdily made, there was an intact bobbin, the orifice looked clean & clear – worth a try, I thought. The price was towards the higher end of what’s acceptable for a non-working wheel, but bang on for a weekender’s ornament. So home it came with me. I had it up & running within an hour; the pedal re-attached perfectly easily and I was able to unscrew the pegs that hold the axle in to remove the mangled drive band. I had some suitable cord to make another, and once I’d reassembled the flyer the right way round and oiled it here & there, it was ready to spin, and very well it does it too! It’s fast & smooth, if a little noisy; well worth trying to find some more bobbins for. I’d spun a small skein within half an hour and took it to show the stallholder the next morning. So cross your fingers for me that Herrings have something in their odd bobbins box; if not I’ll get some made up but that will take some time & cost more.

So that’s what I’ve been up to…

flax wheel
Upright flax wheel by (or from) Leonard Williams of Whitchurch

Fibrefest report…

thriftwizard1 Comment
All fibrefested out...
All fibrefested out...

Right – so many impressions, it’s hard to know where to start. It was an overwhelming feast of colours and textures, the sound of happy voices and the beam of excited & contented smiles. The weather was a bit grey and a bit drizzly, and a cool wind blew up at the car park (quite a hike from the Mill, for anyone who’s not overly mobile) but I’m glad it wasn’t sunnier as it could have become very stuffy inside the marquees.

When we arrived, at about 12.30 on the Saturday, the marquees were heaving and it was a bit of a mad crush. Next time (do we really have to wait two years?!) we’ll come down on Friday night so that we can be earlybirds and wander freely amongst the glorious colours & textures & intriguing devices, deciding at our leisure who’s got what we really, really want. Then when the stampede arrives, we’ll trot off to the workshops, which I didn’t get around to booking this year. I loved it all, especially meeting the animals & farmers, & I got everything I’d gone for, and more. I picked up a fabulous Gotland lambs fleece by arrangement, and couldn’t resist a small bag of white Wensleydale locks for dyeing, felting & spinning experiments. A big thank-you the lovely ladies of the Crochet Design & Threads of Life stall, who were so encouraging to me with my whacky double-ended ideas and my two friends, who are new to crochet. From them I got two double-ended Tunisian hooks, one rigid, the other with a cable, to add to my collection. From The Mulberry Dyer, an honest-it’s-not-Kumihimo wooden disk, with stand and bobbins. From the Threshing Barn, a new modern bobbin for my elderly Louet (so I can ply at the same ratio I’m spinning at – I already had two) and a circular weaving kit. I didn’t mean to buy that, it just refused to leave my hand. I enjoyed the swapshop, picked up lots of inexpensive yarns from a variety of inspiring stalls and the Mill’s own bargain bin, some rather more expensive (but scrumptious!) ones too, and a little gold Angelina, learnt to knit without needles at the WoolFish, bought some chicken buttons from Injabulo & a packet of Madder from Jane Deane. Best of all, a little upright rigid-heddle LeClerc loom from the Swapshop… happy bunny here! But we had a go with the sock-knitter and oh dear, I think I need one of those too…

Over it all, the mill is an insistent presence; a tall & slender but sturdy redbrick chimney soars into the sky like a fairytale tower, roofs jumble at odd angles and little pathways beg to be followed under mismatched windows and zigzagged cast-iron stairways. The river murmurs along the back of the mill, with abundantly productive kitchen gardens running from the mill buildings down to the water’s edge; the millstream is channelled to the front and streams down into the massive waterwheel. Inside, mellow light filters through dusty windows, racks and shelving down into serried ranks of wooden bobbins and iron spikes. Machines whirr into life, seemingly randomly, as you walk through. The repetitive clatter & thump of the working loom sounded oddly like some mad rock drummer working out a new rhythm and the operator, young, bearded and earphoned, could have been the recording engineer. In the boiler house, two great iron faces peered reflectively out of the walls; next door a massive drive wheel was looped around with gigantic cotton ropes which vanished upwards into the light through a long slit in the wall. Odd-looking valves and coils stand on metal spires like surreal samovars and there are dial faces whichever way you turn. If Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria had designed a mill, this would be it. My camera was working overtime…

Can’t wait for the next one…

DSCF1503

Sometimes things just fall out right…

thriftwizard1 Comment

During the Country Fair on Sunday, I was asked, amongst others, whether I’d like to do another down in Winton in 3 weeks time – Bournemouth Vintage Fayre in fact – I couldn’t turn down an opportunity like that, now, could I?

But they’d rather like stallholders to enter into the Vintage 1920s spirit. I had visions of dressing up like one of Bertie Wooster’s dreaded Aunts, so went for a quick rummage for tweeds down at the Tip today. However the first thing that came to hand was a rather glamorous pink moire floppy hat, then a beaded, frilled & layered blouse, in almost the right size. I have a soft pink curtain that could be turned into a shawl, with the addition of some fringing, and a pink & red layered skirt. Add all these together and I could look quite respectably vintage, I think!

But the icing on the cake was finding a rather lovely 1920s Filigree Singer 66, in a decent bentwood case, with just about every attachment I can think of. So my stall should be well-laden…

And that’s not to mention the phone call from one lady I met on Sunday, who knew her neighbour had 5 fleeces to save from a composty grave. I picked them up today and they are quite gorgeous – in need of a wash, but absolutely super wool, which I look forward to spinning some of. And the phone call from a Freecycler who had rather a lot of good, dry conifer wood to dispose of; we won’t go without a fire this winter!

Life is full of unexpected blessings sometimes.

A woolly-minded interlude…

thriftwizardLeave a comment
Scrumptious Portland fleece - but mucky!
Scrumptious Portland fleece, drying out.

Just over a week ago, we picked up some Freecycled Portland fleece. Portlands are small, intelligent, friendly ancestral Downland sheep and their creamy-white fleece is supposed to be very good for “beginner” spinners. So when our moderator Josie mentioned that a friend had just taken on some neglected Portlands, on Portland itself, and needed to rehome their newly-shorn fleece fast, as she had nowhere to store it, I felt that it was worth a 10-extra-mile trip over to the Island to pick it up, as I was going down to Dorchester for a WSD Guild meeting anyway. So off we hurtled, met up with Su and her other half, and relieved them of – well, I’m not sure how many, quite a few anyway – damp fleeces.

I’ve had a really busy couple of weeks; last week’s excellent camping trip to West Dorset was followed in short order by a trip up to Surrey to camp in my brother’s garden for his daughter’s 30th birthday party. During this time, the fleeces were drying out gradually on old trellises and other loose garden bits, thanks to DH moving them from lawn to garage and back again, depending on the weather conditions. Now they are mostly dry, I shall bag two up for Josie, awaiting her safe return from hospital; I’ve wrapped two more up to send to an e-friend who expressed an interest in free fleece, and have a mere – oh, ten or thereabouts – left to deal with…
So – how to “scour” fleece en masse? Here’s my way, two at a time, as they’re small sheep: warn the family the bathroom’s off limits for a while (we do have a shower room too) then soak for a good long time  in a deep, hot bath, with a little sandalwood essence. Get yourself out, dry off, add some shampoo to the water and put the fleece in gently, pushing it down until it’s all underwater. Leave overnight, then pull the plug out & let it drain. Fill the bath again with cool water, move the fleece around very gently so that it doesn’t felt, then drain again, and repeat until the water runs away clean. One last rinse with a cupful of vinegar added, then drain and squeeze gently until the water stops running. Stuff damp fleece into pillowcases, then spin (only spin, no rinse!) in your washing machine, and lay out on some kind of grid to dry.
A lot of dirt came out of the two I washed overnight, but what didn’t come out were the burdock burrs. I thought I was going to lose a lot of fleece along with them as they were completely entangled, but once the fleece was wet, they pulled out quite cleanly & easily. There’s a fair bit of the dreaded VM (Vegetable Matter) still in there, but most of that should come out when I card it. There’s also still quite a bit of lanolin, so it should be nice & easy to spin, then I can wash it again before dyeing.
But I suspect that lot will keep me busy until next Christmas!