SpinnySpinny

The Learning Exchange samples are going in the mail, The Boyfriend is off for the long weekend, and work is being relatively tame. I even already took care of my mother’s birthday present. I can hang out and do all the fiber stuff I want.

I’ve started spinning for some legwarmers, but not the kind you think. You see, I like the idea of handknit socks, but I don’t actually like knitting that fine so they fit in my shoes. But it’s Summer once again in San Francisco, so my legs are freezing all the time. I’m going to make just the leg part of some knee socks, out of one of the black lamb fleeces I got last summer. It will probably take a little elastic in the top cuff to make it work, but that’s really no different from the sock variety.

In the I-Have-A-Loom-Now department, I ordered some cotton weaving yarn. One is a big cone of singles blended natural green organic cotton, which I will probably ply with itself the same way I did with the stuff I found on pirns at the surplus craft store. It’s all really fine, presumably intended for weaving sheeting. I now have white, brown and green and I think somehow dishtowels will happen. I just need to get the studio cleaned up.

So today I was out for lunch and had some time to kill, so I wandered over to Pearl. It’s a big art supply store on Market Street. They always have strange and interesting things in the clearance section and I have at times found some pretty nifty stuff. Very much like today.

I’m pawing through bins, and come up with a wool hand card. Almost at the same time, my friend halfway down the aisle pulls out a matching one from a different bin. 60% off. They are a set of Leclerc fine wool cards, flat ones. They have had them downstairs in the craft department forever so it really was a matter of time before they ended up here. Some hunting unearths another set, still wrapped together in cardboard and tape. There is even a standard pair, with huge painful-looking wire teeth. (No, thanks.)

Now I’m not normally interested in carding by hand in the first place, and I’ve never been fond of the Leclerc cards. They are kinda clunky, and I prefer curved ones anyway. They are some of the less expensive available, but still like $60. And I don’t have a set of flat carders, something that may prove useful later for teaching. We troop up to the front, our matching sets of wool cards for under $20.

Pearl clearance being what it is, I ask how much. They weren’t marked, of course, and although the scanner said the regular price was 39.99 you never can be sure. They do indeed come up 39.99, 60% off, $16 plus tax. Yippie! Then the comment from the cashier: “That’s for one.”

Huh? Wool carders come in pairs. One of them isn’t much use unless perhaps one owns an extremely large cat. “But they come in pairs,” I insist. The cashier is convinced that because there are two of them (from different sets, apparently, and both tagged) then they must be sold individually. We quickly determine that my friend and I are the only two people in the store who have any clue what these things are. I can only convince the staff they come in pairs because my friend has an identical set wrapped together. The cashier examines them closely. And scans the barcode. Sure enough, they come up the same price as the “single.” How is that possible?

Sheesh. I realize that not everyone can be a spinning maven. But to not have the first clue about one’s own inventory? And for something that has been sitting around the store for literally years? But at least I got my discount hand carders.

The last of the gray Romney fleece is finally scoured. I sorted out the shorter and more curly bits for carding and the rest is bagged and waiting for me to start on more Peruvian warp yarn. I even washed the rest of that questionable Dorset, although I still don’t know what to do with it. But the more wool I get scoured, the more I can seal in plastic bags and put in the storage unit. After the “M” incident, I’m not keeping raw fleece over there. Now I can start on the black Merino lambs.

I got this idea a few weeks ago that I should finally knit myself a sweater. I’ve avoided it because I’m actually not all that fond of knitting but I like to have handspun hats and scarves to wear. It’s great for small travel projects, something I am always in need of. I determined a while back that I am also in need of a “casual outergarment.” Something to throw on to run outside. I like the idea of a poncho, but I’m so over the whole “Celebrity Poncho” thing that I don’t want to touch it for fear someone will assume that I’m one of those kinds of people. I am decidedly anti-fashion when it comes to anything that involves People or Entertainment Weekly. Maybe in a few years when everyone has forgotten about it.

So, I think, I’ll knit myself a sweater. A nice classic cardigan I can nonchalantly drape over my shoulders. When somebody asks, I can respond “Yes, isn’t the yarn nice? I made it.” But since it will be of my usual 3-ply worsted, it will wear forever, never pill and be immune to the damp San Francisco evening breezes. And then I contemplate my sweater-making skills. Or, more correctly, the complete lack thereof. How will I get it actually fit my narrow shoulders and wide butt? Will I look like a stuffed sausage? None of those patterns have ever heard of bust shaping. I wonder if undertaking a first attempt in handspun is such a hot idea. What if I completely blow it? This leads me to the unthinkable: do I Buy Yarn?

I’m not sure I’m quite ready for this.

The Pima cotton is giving me fits, but I got some writing and another swatch done anyway. I wove something roughly the size of a coaster with weft stripes of fuzzy llama yarn. I keep wishing I had a real loom but when I actually start thinking about it, what I need is a place to put a real loom. The loom itself is much less of an issue. I still have the table loom, but I’m not using it because there isn’t even a place for that. I have no table to put it on, and using it on the floor is horrible. Even if I had a better piece of floor than the high-traffic middle of the living room. So I did it on the frame loom, with string heddles and sticks and everything. I could have finished the fourth selvedge but I left it as fringe because it gets much more difficult as you get closer to the end. This is seriously primitive stuff, I had to pick up most of my pattern sheds by hand. I can keep one on a shed stick, but I’d have to tie up harnesses if I wanted the rest of them.

I went to Carolina Homespun yesterday, partly because I needed a tapestry beater and partly to just get out of the house. I picked up, err, “A Few Things” and looked at some other weaving stuff. One of the big problems with early weaving technology is that there is no simple warp spacing mechanism. With no reed to hold the warp in position, it’s very hard to maintain width for anything but narrow warp-faced fabric. It is possible to set up something with a rigid heddle, but the finest you can get with those are about 12 ends per inch. Seeing that most of my interest in weaving starts around 20, that isn’t much help.

With the writing, I’ve been trying to get all the Elements and Principles stuff done. I completely hate it because most of it is theoretical principles of design stuff. Supposedly these are the qualities of good visual composition, but it’s all very eurocentric and doesn’t consider the many non-Western artistic aesthetics that don’t fit into it’s nice neat boxes. And it’s all visual. Tactile perception, a large part of textile design, isn’t even remotely considered. I’m supposed to provide “illustrations, photographs and/or small samples” for each item. I’m not going though the work to spin and weave swatches just to talk about theories of visual design, so I’m doing it with photographs. I selected the images, but I haven’t finished all the writing. I took one new picture, but mostly I just pulled old stuff out of my library. (Yes, they are all my images, I changed the resolution so they look ok online but that’s it. If I find someone is using them, you will be hearing from me.)

I need to get back to that cotton. Ick.

I have a third millspun reproduction and the Andean swatch now. The swatch is drying, so it will be a while before I can get pictures up. But on the second attempt, it worked nicely. A little weird warp tension here and there, and I have no clue about the traditional way to finish these things, but it’s done. I spent most of the day weaving, once I got it warped the correct way, it went quickly. Even if I did forget where I was every other pick for the first two repeats. I even found a use for those 0000 double pointed knitting needles I foolishly bought — they work great as shed sticks for needle weaving the starting edge. I wove in various ends that could conveniently be woven in and neatly tied off the rest. The other end has a fringe, to show how the overtwisted warp works and also because I didn’t want to fight to open smaller and smaller sheds.

Tomorrow is another fleece-buying opportunity, err, spinning event. I’m sure I will see all kinds of things there that I just Must Have Right Now, but I will have to avoid temptation. I already have too much raw fleece sitting around the living room in plastic bags because I can’t put it in the storage unit like that and it takes forever to wash 400g at a time in the sink. I was going to bring the swatch to weave but once I got into it I realized it was too fussy because I didn’t know the pattern very well. But I did get the bread started for my potluck dish! I had to promise The Boyfriend that I’d make a little one just for him, he really likes bread and I don’t bake as often as I used to. (Yes, I did indeed make the trek west with my wagon full of household goods and a jar of sourdough starter. I haven’t used commercial yeast for about eight years now.)

Last night was the monthly get-together at the local spinning shop. I picked up a few things I’ve been needing: new drive band, shed sticks for weaving and FLYER CLIPS!! Finally I can replace the nearly-dead ones on the Insanely Fast Flyer. Plying this Andean stuff just kills them. I’ve been trying to locate some replacements for months. Was it last summer? I don’t even remember anymore. I also got some Egyptian cotton top, which I will try for the fine cotton yarn and see if I like it better than the Pima. I picked up some alpaca/silk, not normally something I am interested in, to try it with the supported spindle. Early results are mixed, I may end up with the cotton pencil roving after all and this turns into a holiday gift exchange goodie. I really didn’t want to do a whole skein of cotton on the supported spindle. I’d rather not do anything on the supported spindle at all, actually.