Episode 20: Much Bigger Bobbins

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   Michelle is

            Ravelry: MichelleTF

            Instagram: michelletfcrafts

            Facebook: Valdelia Maker

    Erica is

            Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary

            Ravelry: weavemage

            Instagram: weavemage

            Facebook: Weavolution
Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!

Finished Objects

Michelle

Michelle and her Dad built a box to hook her Electric Eel Mini spinning wheel on. It has a space below for her battery and screws in the top to hold the wheel. She's very pleased with how it came out. She spent more time attempting to spin on the Mini and finally figured it out in the end. She needed to find the balance for where to place a brake band. Too tight and it slows the wheel quite a bit. Not tight enough and it won't pull in. She had her doubts about the wheel during the first two bobbins, but was able to figure it out in the end and was able to spin 4 more bobbing relatively quickly and easily.  It will be nice for travel, but won't replace her home wheel. 

Erica

Erica has plied and wet finished her Ramboullet Gizmo yarn, fiber from Fiber Nest Studios. This was an interesting spin and has apparently resulted in Erica's son, TJ, wanting a gremlin to take care of, he promises not to feed the gremlin after dark.

Erica has also finished and wet finished the following yarns:

BFL/Silk Tea leaves from Sweet Georgia Yarns

Gotland Falling Leaves from Sweet Georgian Yarns. This fibre had become quite compacted in her stash and the result is that some parts of the final yarn are VERY OVERSPUN. She will have a think about either not using those parts, seeing how it weaves up, or possibly take the twist out of those places. The last is rather unlikely as the overspin did not happen in the plying.

Wensleydale Once in a Lifetime yarn finished out at  5-11 wpi. Erica learned a lot from spinning this long wool as well. The longwools really need a much bigger pulley/ratio to spin them rather lightly.

It was finally time for Erica to wet finish the yarns in her not yet wet finished bin. Once finished and dried the yarns weighed nearly 1 Kg (2 pounds) of handspun yarn! This was all spun between 30 April and about 15 June 2020 she was rather pleased with how much she had spun in that time period. She always knew her commute to work was taking away too much time from her spinning and weaving, haha!

Size doesn't always matter, but Erica and Michele find that the physical size of their stash does significantly decrease with each spin. Below is a braid of unspun fiber compared with a ball of the same amount of spun fiber and a skein of the same amount of fiber. Finally the ball and the skein on top of the unspun fiber, showing that the fiber takes up about half as much space once it is spun!

Collaborative Cloth all samples have been finished, mounted, measured and mailed! Erica is very excited for the group to make a final decision on breed for the project and get underway. She knows her fellow conspirators, wait no collabrators are excited to get the project going in earnest as well! Wish us luck!

Works in Progress

Michelle

Tour de Fleece! Michelle has started spinning the Coopworth/Shropshire cross fleece that she carded.  Some was spun on the Electric Eel mini spinning wheel (bobbin on the left) and some on her Ashford Traveler with the jumbo flyer (bobbin on the right). Erica thought the difference between the two bobbins amusing for some reason. 

Michelle has started needle felting a second Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the image, on top is the first Appa that she's using as a guide for the one she's working on below.

She also has removed some of the twist from some Icelandic Lopi style yarn she's been trying.

Erica

Erica has not done much knitting on TJ's second sock.

Erica has started her Organic Polwarth Fractured Dawn singles . She split one braid split in 3 vertically. First single was spun before the Tour de Fleece, remaining continuing to spin for Tour de Fleece.

Erica is sampling Deep Cove Polwarth Silk handspun to possible spin and knit the Genny Sweater by Andrea Mowry, the start of the yarn I have spun is more fingering weight the pattern calls for DK. Should I spin for the sweater or just purchase yarn dyed in this color from Sweet Georgia, cost is about the same. In the discussion with Michele the possibility of just purchasing the original intended yarn also comes up, it is a beautfiul tweed yarn from Harrisville Designs. 

Damask Cowl nearly done weaving the black. Erica has accepted that the color variation in the warp is just what comes from using hand dyed yarn, even professionally  hand dyed yarn. Had she realised it was hand dyed in Vats, she would have wound the warp multiple yarns at a time. She has ordered more red from Treeway Silks, it will have to be dyed and mailed, at least 4 weeks. Do I start with the remainder of the Bordello from Treenway I already have or do I wait and start from the new dye lot? This will also be hand dyed, so she is thinking about winding her wefts in very small bouts and switching between skeins.

Handspun warp is fully warped, tied on and treadles tied up! Just need a videographer to film me starting to weave, so I can show Weavolution Patrons how I weave a header in 4 picks! Thank you Laura Fry! :)