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You guys have liquid food colour drops don't you? That works just as well, with some vinegar. Also, rough straw feely stuff can be either spun in with the soft stuff (thus making the soft stronger but more itchy) or tossed. Kind of up to what you want to do.
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Oct 18, 2011 16:36
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:EDIT: You can't get kool-aid in the UK?! What the hell! Yeah, you can get it at candy import shops, but not at the supermarket. I forgot to try it when I went to the states (I had a list of things to do including "go to Walmart" and "try Lucky charms"). Anyhoo, it's time to bother you once again for advice. My wool is washed, and I've combed it as well as I could (it managed to get a lot more of the crap out), but I can't get it to stick together into something I can spin. One bit actually somehow formed a length of roving, but now I've got all these little bits and I can't work out how to draft (right word?) them together. Whenever it put them next to each other, rub them, whatever, it won't stay together. Once it's split, that's it. So now I have a small length of spun stuff with an open end, and a quarter of a bucket full of fluff. edit for speeeling madlilnerd fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Oct 19, 2011 |
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Oct 18, 2011 21:04
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Lay a tiny bit of the open end over a bit of fluff. Add some twist with your fingers if you need to. What I like to do is actually build up a lot of twist in the bit just before the open in in what I'm spinning, lay the fluff on the open end, and then let the twist travel up into the overlapping bits.
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Oct 19, 2011 02:56
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I'm plying up my three ply yarn! I'm so very pleased with it. It looks like I'm going to get all 4 oz onto my giant homemade spindle. How do you all wind off? All the other times I've done it I wrap the yarn around my elbow/hand to make a smallish skein. I really don't want to do that here though. Should I make a niddy-noddy and wind off onto that? It's ok to pull it right off the end of the spindle right, when winding off? That won't untwist it or anything, will it? EDIT: Here, have a picture.  
Bob Shadycharacter fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Oct 24, 2011 |
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Oct 24, 2011 16:33
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Good job! I started out winding off onto the back of a chair but this makes a very short, fat loop that isn't so easy to handle with lots of yardage. As soon as I could afford one I bought a 48" niddy-noddy and have blessed it ever since. That's an ingenious lazy kate too - before I was able to buy mine I used a plastic mesh basket with straight knitting needles poked through the bobbins. I did some kool-aid dyeing over the weekend; I'll post pics if the hubbs ever remembers to upload them.
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Oct 24, 2011 18:20
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Ha, the lazy kate isn't that good...well, it would be fine if I could get some bobbins that had ends instead of toilet paper rolls. The singles tend to slip off the edge and get wound around the needle holding them in the box and it causes a lot of profanity.
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Oct 24, 2011 20:29
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If you have a bed with four posts, you can do it around two of the closer posts. Lamps work pretty good too sometimes.
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Oct 25, 2011 01:37
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:I'm plying up my three ply yarn! I'm so very pleased with it. It looks like I'm going to get all 4 oz onto my giant homemade spindle. Awesome! You seem to have gotten your lazy kate at the same place I did. (The recycling bin!) Have you used spare knitting needles for the rods as well? Also this is why I get mad at my partner for recycling toilet paper rolls. "I COULD HAVE USED THOSE!"
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Oct 25, 2011 07:03
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Eeee, I'm so excited. I've been working a TON lately (fifty hour weeks) and I was sick this week and I'm just feeling kinda crappy and run down so I bought myself two braids of fiber from Etsy with that sweet over-time pay. (Actually spent less on these two things than I earn in one hour of overtime but whatever)   Eeeeeeeeeeeee. I think I'm gonna N-ply one of them and try fractal spinning on the other. Most likely a stupid question but when you buy a "braid" of fiber, it's like three pieces of roving braided together? Not one long piece tied up with itself somehow or anything?
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Oct 27, 2011 14:38
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It's a really cool way to braid together one long strand. You might need to split it up to get it to go in the same order, but yeah. One long strand that is folded so you can braid it.
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Oct 28, 2011 02:43
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FelicityGS posted:It's a really cool way to braid together one long strand. You might need to split it up to get it to go in the same order, but yeah. One long strand that is folded so you can braid it. Ohhh. Got it! Man I can't wait til they get here...I need more spindles! And my boss yelled at me today and I got really upset because she sucks so maybe I should buy some more too. EDIT: I sound like a hoarder, don't I? I don't actually buy that much stuff, usually.
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Oct 28, 2011 02:53
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No, you sound like someone looking for a reason to buy fiber! (And that's not bad, it's soft and warm and it won't yell at you.) (I work as tech support for a large company, trust me, the fiber will never yell like that grumpy person who just called with internet not working and they're wireless is just turned off)
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Oct 28, 2011 05:11
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I did some kool-aid dyeing last weekend! The middle two actually came out a lovely raspberry pink - it was one package of grape plus two packages of cherry. It and the orange fiber each went into a bowl with drink mix stirred in, then into the microwave for 5 minutes. The orange braid used one pack each of orange, lemonade and cherry The green and purple braid I hand-painted with grape and some green food coloring. For that one, I laid the bare roving out on plastic wrap after soaking in water and vinegar, mixed the colors up each in its own water bottle about 2/3s full, capped it and shook it up, then poked a hole in the bottle cap and squirted the colors on. Then wrap, microwave and let cool. (Yes, I know my braiding sucks. I was just so happy to have figured it out at all)
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Oct 28, 2011 12:59
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I love the green and purple one! (They all look totally awesome) And don't worry about your braiding, mine never looks that good.
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Oct 28, 2011 15:00
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I think they look awesome too. I just looked up how to do the braid, that was interesting! Maybe some day I'll really lose my mind and try dying my own stuff. I did just print out directions for building my own niddy-noddy out of PVC, because no way in heck am I using the elbow method on the giant thing of three ply I just finished. My arm hurts just thinking about it. Update: cost of PVC niddy noddy : less than five bucks and less than fifteen minutes. Awesomeness! EDIT: I'm totally spamming this thread but whatever. You guys don't mind right!? My finished three ply:  Err, evidently I need to work on skein-making, that looks like a yarn store skein that's been picked up and put back down by fifty different customers, some of them small children. No matter! I am so loving proud of this, I could actually just explode. If it wasn't a present for my bestest friend in the whole world, it would be really, really hard to give this poo poo away. Even now, I kinda wish I hadn't already told her it was for her.
Bob Shadycharacter fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Oct 30, 2011 |
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Oct 28, 2011 15:46
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( I hope it's still ok to post to this thread  )I'm going in for surgery tomorrow to relieve horrible carpal tunnel pain in my left hand, so I won't be able to spin or knit or any fun stuff for at least a week.  So I nagged my husband for pictures and rushed to throw my stockpile up on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoSiberiansFiber?ref=pr_shop_more I also just got books by Pluckyfluff and Jacey Boggs on spinning art yarns and textured yarns and I am going to be twitchy as hell while reading them and driving my poor husband crazy screaming "I want to spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!" And Oh! I finally found other spinners in my new area and one of them is actually the owner of the company that makes Strauch drum carders! She was spinning on one of the little Merlin Tree Hitchhiker wheels and told me she loves it. It's only $299 so I may be getting a second wheel soon. 
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Jan 23, 2012 03:47
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TastesLikeChicken posted:I did some kool-aid dyeing last weekend! I ended up alternating the orange and cherry braids into a laceweight single, then Navajo plied to get this:  340 yards of sock weight  Also my stinky raw wool actually washed up into silky, white, crimpy locks of Romeny and Border Leicester. I'll post pics when I get the locks opened up.
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Jan 30, 2012 21:58
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I don't know if it's just because of where you took the photo or what but your fingering weight looks so much smoother than mine.  Great work though! It looks pretty awesome. I hope you've been recovering from the carpal tunnel stuff well.
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Jan 30, 2012 22:08
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Thanks, Felicity! The stitches come out tomorrow, so cross your fingers for me ('cause I can't, hurrr!) My Navajo ply is usually kinda bumpy but I tried to roll the bumps between my thumb and index finger before I let the ply take up onto the bobbin so maybe that helped. This one did seem to go smoother than usual, though. Now, what to do with it... 
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Jan 30, 2012 22:31
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Thanks TastesLikeChicken, you got me all in the mood to spin again.     Those three are all part of a bundle I bought four years ago when I started spinning (holy crap it's been a while). There are one ounce bundles of merino, spun short draw. I'm quite pleased with them. :3 I've got one more of the batch to go and they'll be all spun up; they are dyed to sort of match, so they'll be pretty awesome together, and they'll self strip since I chain plied.  That's a 100% wool (some cross or another, the label does not specify), short draw and chain plied. That's a 2 ounce bunch, I've got another 2 ounces to spin before I'm out of that fiber. Pretty soft and squishy. And then, who knows? I'm thinking of a return to my 2-ply fingering weight alpaca batches to finish off the yarn I need for a hat.
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Feb 10, 2012 21:33
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FelicityGS posted:Thanks TastesLikeChicken, you got me all in the mood to spin again. Happy to be of service!  I'm working on a 4 oz space-dyed merino right now that I'm spinning fractal, then I have seven million pounds of alpaca to hand card (3 lbs, actually).I also learned that suri alpaca is waaaaay too slippery to use as a core for core or coil spun. By having it fall apart during plying.
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Feb 11, 2012 00:54
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So a week ago Friday it was my birthday, and a good friend got me some roving from a local yarn store! It's 3 oz of Superwash Merino/Tencel, from Purple Fleece. The colorway is "Kentucky Bluegrass" and it's quite lovely, all purples and teals with a bit of yellow/green in there. And it's so SHINY. And I suck at taking pictures.  Then last weekend we went out shopping at the yarn store (because I don't have enough, right) and I bought myself a new spindle since I only have my learner kit spindle and the CD spindle I made myself (which broke). It's a Louet, and I already broke this one too but I superglued it back together, I think it's ok? The shaft up where the hook is was split, not all the way down to the whorl.  I want to buy more spindles but I can't find any in shops around here really...except this one...and I keep looking at handmade ones on Etsy but then I worry that it's not put together well or something, it isn't like I could tell from a picture. Bob Shadycharacter fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Mar 13, 2012 |
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Mar 13, 2012 22:14
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My favourite spindle is a polymer clay whorl that I bought from Jesh (that's what her store goes by too). I have no idea if she actually makes any with clay; the potter and her may have stopped working together. Overall, her spindles are well made. If you want a nice spindle that might be a little heavy, Zebis Designs. I adore the spindles I've bought from her; they have stone whorls and spin quite well. They are also very well put together. I know she DOES have polymer clay whorl, which I really recommend cause you can drop them on most surfaces and they'll be fine. If you can find one, Spinsanity wood spindles are great, spin smooth, and are also very beginner friendly since you can drop them a lot. Also, any spindle from the Spinning Loft store should be safe. The owner, Beth, won't stock something she wouldn't use, and she has been spinning forever. I've bought a few to fill in weight gaps from brands I didn't know, and she's never failed me. If you aren't sure, she is also really good at responding to emails to answer any questions you have.
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Mar 14, 2012 01:53
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Whoa, those Zebis Designs ones are GORGEOUS. I thank you, even as my wallet curses you.
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Mar 14, 2012 15:43
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Haha, mine does that every time I look at her store
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Mar 15, 2012 00:56
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Oh man, I left the page for the etsy store open while I was working a double shift, came home, showed one of the spindles to my roommate (she was fascinated, I am sure) and then clicked the back button and the whole store website is gone! Why didn't I impulse buy one at five am while lying in bed?! Anyway, I joined the Ravelry group for it and there's no like "store closing forever just to spite Bob Shadycharacter hahahahaha" or anything, so I presume it will be back. Patience...patience...
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Mar 15, 2012 16:34
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:Oh man, I left the page for the etsy store open while I was working a double shift, came home, showed one of the spindles to my roommate (she was fascinated, I am sure) and then clicked the back button and the whole store website is gone! Which store are you talking about?
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Mar 16, 2012 02:48
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FelicityGS posted:Which store are you talking about? Whoops. It was Zebisis. Was down for most of the day apparently? At least, for me. But, they came back while I was on my dinner break so I snapped up a spindle. This one:  I'm having a pretty crummy week at work (fourteen and a half hours today and I still have to go in early tomorrow) so this is my reward.
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Mar 16, 2012 04:10
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Bob Shadycharacter, you'll have to let us know how merino/tencel spins for you I've got some over here and I'm finding I need to add more twist to it than I would using just merino. For me, it tends to loose the twist over time (24-36 hours) in the single ply, and before I have a chance to ply it together. So yeah, would love to know how other spinners are coping with that combination.
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Mar 16, 2012 04:28
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I spun a bamboo/tencel blend once when I was new to spinning, and had a difficult time with it - I had to shred it to fluff to get it to draft. On the plus side, I was able to leave it as a single; it didn't seem to need as much twist to hold together. It made a nice thick-and-thin that I ended up using for a small version of Indigenous from Knitty for my mother-in-law. I haven't wanted to try it since; maybe it's time to revisit it. Lata, how is the merino/tencel blend drafting for you?
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Mar 16, 2012 13:48
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I've never had any luck with bamboo, it is the biggest jerk to spin. That said, if you make fake rolags out of it, it's a lot easier to spin since you've just torn it up and fluffed it. Here's a tutorial on how to make fake rolags; that's how I make them now if I don't want to get out the carders. Bob that is a GORGEOUS spindle. I'm sure you'll be happy with it, her spindles are tough but functional and she's a great lady.  I just love what she does to the shaft.Spinning sounds way dirty.
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Mar 17, 2012 02:28
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So, eventually I'll have pictures of finished stuff in here. I feel like I'm neglecting "my" thread, but I have a 4 month old, and when she sleeps is when I get to do such luxuries as using the bathroom and doing the dishes. She's getting to the point where I can set her down for a few now, though.
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Mar 27, 2012 03:04
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It's cool! I've just got the same old boring stuff, since I'm spinning for a sweater. And I'm not done yet, either....
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Mar 27, 2012 03:12
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May I just say that I HAET spinning silk? Stupid slippery stuff just will. Not. Draft. But it's so shiny....
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Mar 27, 2012 03:22
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I haven't tried silk...I keep drooling over the pictures in etsy listings though. So gorgeous. Have you ever tried the hankies? Maybe they draft easier? So I haven't got my Zebisis spindle yet (it shipped Saturday) but I did get another spindle at a local place. It's just a plain wood thing, 0.9 oz but holy crap, a lighter spindle works WONDERS for me:  I'm trying to do a fractal three ply from my Rogue Adventures falkland top (colorway: sherbert). This is definitely the most consistent I've ever been. I'm almost done with the first 3rd. Whee!
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Mar 29, 2012 02:02
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Yus, I have some silk cap I need to go back to; I haven't tried spinning it on my wheel. This was pencil roving, bombyx I think. I'm spiral plying it with some Finnsheep wool I spun bits of shredded sari silk into. I'll post a picture when it's does. That spindle is so pretty!
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Mar 29, 2012 17:11
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I bought a drop spindle and some roving last year, but for a while I wasn't able to get the hang of it. I ordered some Ashland Bay merino top roving last week and tried spinning a little of it into yarn; and it turned out pretty well. I'm not going to use it for anything, but this was fun to make. I'm going to spin the rest of it and then ply it with some mint green once I've spun that as well.
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Mar 31, 2012 00:50
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That looks lovely and like it would be super cooshy.
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Mar 31, 2012 01:02
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Thanks! It's really soft. If I decide to use it for anything I'll probably make it into a hat brim or something.
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Mar 31, 2012 01:07
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MY SPINDLE CAME IN THE MAIL! Holy poo poo you guys. You guys! Holy poo poo! Look how beautiful it is!  Also it is quite a bit smaller around than I was picturing. Not complaining, it's charming and adorable (I like tiny things). Here is another poorly taken photo with a quarter for size comparison.  And of course I already started spinning the bonus fiber it came with (19 micron merino). I could not even wait to take a nice picture of the braid. Just ripped right into it.  Also it came with A BONUS FREE SPINDLE WHAT.  WHAT! Who does this? Just sends a whole extra spindle as a gift? My new favorite person in the entire universe, that's who! Zebisis Designs. Holy poo poo, amazing. Can anyone tell me how to leave feedback on etsy? I literally cannot figure it out. I found all the other people giving her great feedback, but there's like...no link to click to add my own. Also, FelicityGS - thank you SO MUCH for recommending her to me!
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Apr 1, 2012 13:18
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