Change of tack

I had a post, picture rich, a-brewing. Then a few things happened, and my thoughts have gone off in another direction entirely, so this is not the post I originally intended to write.

I mention from time to time the class that I lead regularly once a month. Now, this is a lovely class, that has been running for many years, and has some people coming who have been attending for most if not all of those. I am, I think, the third tutor, and have been such, amazingly, for ten years.

It really doesn't seem that long!

So, there's the first point - those who have been coming for a long time, talented fibre people all, have one kind of need.

Most of the ten years, the class has been well attended, but the recent upsurge of interest in crafts, fibre or otherwise, has meant that we have had more new spinners coming along. Very often, they can only come for one, or the occasional session because of work or family committments; sometimes, they have become regulars. There are then two more sets of needs to factor in - learning, sometimes attempting to get across the basics of spinning in just one day, and more satisfactorily helping some of them progress.

So, there is a class on Friday. I have spent quite a lot of time today preparing for it, as we are dyeing - painting skeins, warps and fibre with acid dyes. I have rounded up equipment, and made up seven stock solutions. It is going to be a busy day.

Then I get the class list from the college. On it, there are no less than six names that I do not recognise - I have to make the assumption that they are all beginner spinners and prepare and plan accordingly.

Then come the messages about even more people wanting to come to Friday's class - I have lost count at this point, but I think that we are now up to 21.

Now, make no mistake at all, this is all good. Seeing and interacting with so many people who, like me, love fibre crafts is a great and wonderful thing, and I feel very privileged to be in the position that I am. But can you also see the complexity and challenge of all those different needs that need to be reconciled? I like to have a focus for each class quite apart from teaching beginners and improvers - the challenge is selecting what that should be, something that might with luck interest and engage most of the class members no matter what their level (all except the absolute newbies, of course.)

I attempt to have as wide a spread as possible, concentrating on spinning, as that is supposed to be what the class is all about. We are lucky enough to have a sheep farmer on board, and she will bring in a lovely fresh fleece from time to time, and we can go from there right through to working with the spun yarn. We have looked at every fibre that I have ever come across; and reguarly try dyeing, both natural and otherwise, plus some knitting, felting, braiding, baby steps weaving - nothing grander than an inkle loom. I shamelessly prowl the internet, and raid SOAR and Summer School for ideas.

Coming up with new ones gets harder and harder, or at the very least, new slants on old topics......

HAAALP!!!

Oh, I can keep on covering, revising, the spinning lore that needs to be there; but I would love a few inspirational ideas about new perspectives, new trends, well, anything at all really. (Yes, I have tried Art Yarn!) I should say, I do drag out spindle spinning (well, I would, wouldn't I?) on a regular baasis, but have so far failed fairly miserably to enthuse anyone to the extent that I am enthused!

I would welcome any (sensible, ok?) input!

We are off to the Northumberland coast for a week on Saturday. I haven't been for many more years than I care to contemplate, and I am really, really looking forward to it. Sea, and the possiblity of puffins - who could ask for more? Well, Craster kippers, maybe......

More when we get back.

Damn cats, damn computers........

I made the great mistake of thinking that staying with the same internet provider and getting them to also to be our telecoms provider would be simple. As an existing customer for broadband, no need to do anything about that, just do the paperwork to switch bills for phone calls. No?

No.

Although they didn't tell us this would happen, the broadband (although not the phone, work that one out....) was switched off for over 24 hours. And to add insult to injury, although we were getting broadband to the pc upstairs, we then couldn't. So at the moment, I am restricted to the laptop, which is fine except that I have quite a few documents that I am needing at the moment on the desk top that I can only transfer over via a memory stick, and frankly, just at the moment, I cannot be arsed.

I will have to do it soon as we need to take the tower in to have a wireless doohicky fitted and have a general MOT at the same time, much needed.

Can I have one, too?

Do you realise, I survived all tht time without internet access??? I am amazed that I have any fingernails left. Or hair. Or sanity. I must be stronger than I realise......

And no photographs either, even though I have some to show, as again I can't be arsed....to go through all the hoops to get them on to the laptop. Oh, and although not a computer woe, it falls in to the same category - the ghost in the machine aka my digital camera is back, so it looks as if I am going to have to replace it after all. I don't want to find myself on a photogenic beach in Northumberland in a few days and have the damn thing poltegeisting all over the place.

So, what have the cats been doing? Well, that Barni monster, he of the snicker-snack jaws (although I think it should really be a vorple blade....) has chomped through the cable on my iPod and bitten off both the ear buds. Swine - it was a somewhat more expensive and much nicer set. Fortunately, I had a spare, but that little b is costing me a fortune in earphones.

Meanwhile his sister is adding to her hunting tally. I was galloping to answer the phone the other evening as she came through the cat flap squeaking. Well, the vole held softly in her jaws was squeaking. There followed an unseemly chase between cat, vole and DSM which ended with the vole going to ground under the kitchen units. At least, for a while. It reappeared scuttling around the sitting room later whilst we were watcing tv, and proved much more entertaining than whatever we had been watching - at least, for me, as spotter. Only, I didn't - spot, I mean - and the wretched thing disappeared again.

So, the next day, we left the door to the outside open all day, interior doors, too. And since then, no sign of any vole, so maybe, just maybe, it made good its escape?

All the usual fibre pursuits ae being pursued. A spinning project finished, photos later, maybe. I'm being tempted by the cowl in the latest Spin Off for the spindle spun bluey-green - about to go sample.

The sun is shining, it is a beautiful spring day, and life, despite a few little blips, is really not too bad.

Oh dear, I really should refer to him like that, should I?

Aarrgh - the Blogger spell check is sulking again - I've done an eyeball, but apologies for any typos!

Some interim conclusions and a mystery object

I have given up trying to cram any more cormo on to either of the Golding spindles. Both of them were still spinning very well - little diminution in duration or speed of spin. But winding on was becoming a complete and utter pain. Now, this may be due to deficiencies or idiosyncrasies in how I wind on - but try as I might, the yarn was slipping further along the shaft in each case (although slightly worse with the top whorl). This meant that it was getting harder and harder to hold or grip them efficiently or comfortably to do the actual wind on. In addition, as the cop grew larger, I had to pay more and more attention to how I took the yarn up to the hook before starting the next spin - if I didn't get it just so, the yarn would abruptly slip.

Here is how they ended up.



I will make some attempt to gauge the yardage as I proceed, but I make no promises!

And the conclusions? I got a grand total of six whole grammes more on to the top whorl than on to the bottom whorl. That, I think, is barely statistically significant! So, with both these trials, my overwhelming conclusion is that if one or the other type of spindle is capable of having more yarn packed on to it, that is immaterial. I reach my comfort limit with a particular spindle quite a way before it is "full". And that is likely to vary depending on which spindle I am using anyway.

It has, I have to say, been an interesting experience to use a really good bottom whorl spindle, for the first time in years. Much nicer than I had thought would be the case. But I remain overall a devotee of top whorls - I still find them more comfortable and more efficient to use, because of the ability to insert twist by rolling on the leg.

And now, for a complete change of subject.

We visited my sister over the holiday weekend, and she produced this.



She had found it in a collection of sewing and mending paraphernalia she had bought at a charity shop, and we none of us have any idea what it could be. Damn - I have just realised that I should have put in something to indicate scale - well, it is two and a half inches from top to boot heel, and the spikes make it two and three quarter inches. It is made of brass, and on each side is stamped A V 16/4/19. Almost certainly initials and date. The is a small hole at the centre top, and the two bluntish spikes on the "sole". It looks more like the representation of a stocking than a boot, I feel. It could have originated anywhere in this northern textile area, even from Macclesfield and some form of silk production, I guess.

Anyone have any suggestions? We would love to know more.

Whut??

And just where did the last week go? I seem to have been doing stuff with nothing to show for it, much, and the time has just whizzed by.

OK, nothing to show for the trip to the hairdresser, because although the cut was nice as usual, the dye job failed. I tried to be too subtle, actually, and the purple wasn't vibrant enough to show up against the darker grey. My most excellent hairdresser didn't charge me, and I am going back in a week or two for more drastic action..........

And nothing to show from Thursday's little trip to the van in the car park for a mammogram, and hopefully, there flippin' well won't be. I am one of the lucky ones, I don't find this the agonising process that some do, but it is none the less a weird process, and there is always that lurking anxiety until the letter comes. That may be my last one - I'm not sure where the age limit falls now.

Then yesterday, we went to York to see the mater. Slightly bizarre conversation at one point, when she was telling me about a newish resident who had seemingly pushed her going in to the lift, and then made rude remarks about her complaining about her gammy leg - the mater's, I mean. (Totally undutiful daughter had some sympathy for that part of the tale, shame on me....) But the proposed course of action if the incident was repeated left me slightly reeling: "If she does it again, I shall ram into her with my walker" indeed! Said walker is a wheeled Rolls Royce of a thing, with solid handlebars, a seat and a built in bit for carrying bags and shopping. It would inflict a fair bit of damage if used as a weapon! I tried to suggest tactfully that rising above it, and making a quiet complaint to the management would be much better options, but knowing my mama, I can quite see a vendetta starting up!

We went in to the city for a bit of lunch and shopping, the former being successful, the latter not so. One of my favourite shops was in the process of closing down; another had nothing of any interest. I think maybe I am not the only person to be increasingly shopping over the internet. Anyway, we came home unaccountably tired, so today is a nice rest day, in fact as the weather is patchy, we are about to take the time to watch one of the films we have stacked up and do a little gentle knitting.

Speaking of which, I have nearly finished the mohair waistcoat. The shoulders are too wide, and to alter that would mean ripping the entire thing out and starting again, which I really cannot face. But it occurred to me that I could gather them in to sort of epaulettes that matched the edging, so that will be the project for this afternoon.

Plus a bit more work on the spinning on the Goldings, so there might even be a report on that soon. It has reached the point with both spindles where it is not so enjoyable; but there isn't all that much fibre left to spin, so I would like to get it all on to the pair, for no particularly good reason.

There have been one or two good and interesting things come up that I don't particularly want to comment on just yet, but, more good stuff for me to get my teeth into. Not least, I found a new (to me anyway) craft venue in town on Thursday, that has a good workshop space, and is looking to expand their range of courses, so I have my thinking cap on about that. They are certainly interested in a spindle spinning class, but I am maybe looking at a proper, extended wheel spinning course, over a number of weeks - that would be way cool!

More spindling - and other stuff

The blue-green yarn plyed, on to an Avi Wassermann spindle. All of it! Well, it is a big spindle, and I did buy it for plying. I paid attention this time to the fact that it is a centre weighted spindle, rather than rim weighted, and yes, indeed, it was harder to get going but went on spinning for longer. As more yarn was wound on, this got more and more marked, but had barely reached the point of being a problem when I ran out of yarn. So, highly successful. This will now be wound off, and washed, and then no doubt left to mature for a while before turning in to something. Might make a cowl....

And still on the subject of spindles. When I was at SOAR last year, I bought my first Grafton Fibers spindle, a very pretty little thing. I always check spindles before buying and this one worked perfectly in the booth.

Got it back to our room, tried it later with some fibre that I just happened to have hanging around, and - ugh. Wobbling all over the place. I decided that I must have bent the hook somehow in transit.

Got home, tweaked it a bit, seemed fine, started spinning something - more ugh, wobble, wobble wobble. This went on - and on. Very mysterious, these are supposed to be good spindles, and I am supposed to be a reasonable spindler. So, WTF?

Couple of days ago, I tried again, same thing. This time, I got mad. This was not an insoluble problem, I was not going to be beaten. I tried rotating the position of the hook. And suddenly, I saw what the problem was. Sort of with the design of the spindle, but primarily, operator error.

If you can bear to look at the bad photo - talk about wobble! -



See the shape of the hook? My normal practice is to take the yarn from under the whorl to the back of the hook and catch it round the hook that way. Do that with this spindle, and the yarn lodges in the slightly exaggerated lower bend, and hence it is not centred, leading to - wobble! When I shifted the hook round so that the notch was to the side, and thus I was leading the yarn up straight in to the hook, all became clear. (And that also explains why the spindle was perfect in trials, because I was always beginning afresh, hooking directly in to the fibre supply. Well, duh.)

A pretty, functional spindle; and a very slightly chastened spindler!

OK - an easy day today after a couple of days out. So, knitting and iPod, maybe? I sorted out a couple of socks that had got a bit discombobulated during Friday's AH sock class, but then knew it was time for some serious thinking about the mohair waistcoat.

People have looked at it on the needles with a puzzled air. Yes, it is a weird construction, but I have always known the shape I was aiming for with the basic garment. It was where to go with it after that stage that was the conundrum as far as I was concerned.



The blue-green is the basic waistcoat. I need more yarn that I have to do what I intend (as I have now decided) which is to go the crochet route. So the brighter green must come in to play, but also some beautifully and serendipitously matching silk from Chasing Rainbows. After all, if it doesn't work, I can easily riiiip and go with Plan B......

Now, in the background of that photograph. Something strangely shaped and violently purple.



A cat tunnel. Well, another cat tunnel. When they were babies, we got the Snowshoes a little, yellow tunnel, that crinkles. They love it and still play with it. Some time ago, we got them a bigger one, as befits their adult status and size, but they didn't like it. Then, yesterday, we went to a Cat Show, and found on one of the stalls, a larger version, or rather, longer. With pop-holes. And lots of crinkle.

We didn't need television last night, I can tell you!

We didn't go to the Show to show, I hasten to add. Or to look for kittens....I have been persuaded to get involved with the Snowshoe Breed Advisory Committee, and I actually think it could be very interesting. I have no axe to grind, and I am very good at being (and I am terribly sorry, but I can't resist this) a dogsbody.

(Oh, and we also bought them a cube with dangly bits. We are such sad people......)

Spring is sprung

Actually, today is a bit grey and mizzle-ish, but all of a sudden there are lots of daffodils out - crocuses have been so for a few days now. There are catkins bobbing on twig ends, reminding me of primary school days when we used to go out and gather them for the "Nature Table" in the run up to Easter.

For quite a while now we have been enjoying a cock blackbird sitting over the other side of the lane singing away at all hours, starting quite early in the morning. He has a particularly penetrating call, so we can easily hear him through closed windows; but other birds are tuning up now, and it won't be all that long before a real dawn chorus gets going.

We had a small, spring-related mystery last night. Getting ready for bed, with the window newly opened, we both of us quite distinctly and definitely heard a lamb bleating. Now, this is not at all an unusual thing, but we had neither of us noticed any sheep and lambs being put in to the meadow opposite - but when we went to look this morning, there was nary a one to be seen. In any nearby field! Ghost lamb? Or one wandering? We shall never know.

Ruby. Ah, Ruby. She has discovered the pond (aka "bucket", yes, I know....) She keeps on arriving in the porch with her latest trophy. So far, several pieces of duckweed-encrusted polystyrene, a ditto plastic bag (so good of her to clean the damn thing out for us....) And two frogs. Separately. Two at once would be beyond even Madam Ru, I think. Such fun. I await, trembling, the spring crop of baby bunnies.

Still spindling, and will report more thoughts on that subject soon. But I've got an Alston class with the focus on spinning for and knitting socks on Friday, so as well as sorting out supplies, books, thoughts on my usual sock knitting habits, I thought that I had better provide information and hopefully examples of two circs and magic loop.

Well, I have printouts from the internet, but in all other respects, total failure. I really did go in to it believing that of course I could do it, I just preferred not to. Not. Total failure. Ah, well. I have cast on for a picot cuff - it can be my next sock on the needles anyway, a super yarn from Natalie at The Yarn Yard from Woolfest last year, Tasteful and elegant shades of grey brown and creamy white rather than my more common screaming pinks, greens, purples and reds. I'm going to enjoy these.

The last five miles were agony..........

Finished! The pretty blue-green merino etc mix fibre all spun up on to the two spindles.



As I said before, this was not a true comparison as the two spindles were from different makers. They were of a very similar weight and a slightly less similar size. In completing this exercise, I have pushed the capacity of each of them way beyond the point where I would have stopped in normal circumstances. With both spindles, it ceased to be a pleasure, although for different reasons!

With the Woodchuck bottom whorl, I started out enjoying the process, and finding the spindle effortless to use. But as it filled up, it became harder and harder to get sufficient momentum and I ended up having to twirl more than once before stopping to wind on. The yarn became harder to keep fixed in use as well - I had to wind spun yarn round the shaft several times to avoid slippage.

With the IST top whorl, I managed to continue being able to flick the shaft on my knee to get it turning for the greater part of the process, but eventually the cop grew so long that there was not sufficient free shaft left to do this. At this point, spinning became much harder work, although I did not usually have to finger-twirl as often as with the other spindle. Winding on became an issue as well, although slightly easier to resolve - as long as I took the yarn from the bottom of the cop straight up into one of the grooves in the whorl, there was no slippage.

I was spinning a fairly fine yarn, so as the spindles grew heavier, there was some breakage going on - I would have probably stopped at that point with each of them, but wanted to see if I could get all the fibre on. (I had originally thought that if I finished the blue-green, I would continue with white to cram as much on as possible, but the spinning had become less than pleasant long before I reached that point, so I was glad to stop!)

I had no serious problems with either spindle becoming unstable as it loaded - the bottom whorl did so slightly more often, but that was probably operator error!

In the end, I managed to cram around 20 grammes more yarn on to the bottom whorl, some of which can probably be accounted for by the shaft being a bit longer.

So - absolutely nothing proved!! But actually, an interesting first step. I'm merrily spinning the cormo on the Goldings, both still functioning fine, and me enjoying the process. Another report, then, at a later date.

A nice week so far - reasonable weather up until this afternoon, when it has been raining a bit. An excellent discussion at Book Group on Tuesday, where we had been reading "A Book of Silence" (at least, I think that is the title) by Sara Maitland. We had issues with it, but found a lot to discuss on the topic of silence - or rather, solitude or peace.

I've also been reading "Thursbitch" by Alan Garner, a long time favourite of mine. Beautifully written - but I didn't understand it!

Then yesterday to Leeds, for a long and most enjoyable lunch with the coven and its Australian member, obviously a rare treat these days. Good job the train fare, courtesy of the finally-acquired bus pass, was cheap, as the lunch was exorbitantly expensive for what it was. Still, worth it - the company was grand, and so nice to be off the leash for a time.....