Settling in

As mentioned in the last posting, we have moved to our new home in the mountains. So far I haven't actually done any spinning/weaving/fiber work! Too busy setting up the house ready for the arrival of all our furniture from both the storage in Maryland (arrives the second week of June), and from NZ (about the same time, as it arrived in the US on the 24th, but still needs to clear customs etc).

That being said, I do have combs, a drum carder, my Rappard wheel, and the table loom, so really nothing to stop me getting going, and as most of the 'move in list chores' are now done.

The equipment coming together

It will be great to get a couple of looms set up in their own room permanently, and still have another room for spinning and fiber work.  More on that once the gear arrives

Move to America

The move finally happened, and basically without too much fuss (although at times the stress level did rise slightly).  But here we are settled in Tennessee with progress on all fronts.  We have bought a house and 17 acres of forest in Polk County (on the doorstep of the Cherokee National Forest), our furniture from Maryland and New Zealand should all arrive early June, but we will be moving in with the bare basics by the end of the month.

We have made a few trips up to Maryland to retrieve some of the more fragile (paintings) and valuable items from the storage.  On the first visit Anne managed to retrieve my Rappard wheel and some Clun Forest washed locks.  The only trouble was that these were probably our 3rd choice locks, but never the less I was able to take the washed locks, open them up a bit with the flick carder and spin direct from the locks.  That resulted in my first skein produced back here in the US.

200 yards of  2-ply, superfine, 8 tpi.

The next trip I rescued some other bags of locks and a large bag of flicked locks (Anne would normally then run them through the drum carder).  I also managed to slip in the Ashford drum carder.  This made the spinning a whole lot faster as I was able to make up batts and spin from strips torn from them.

After watching a little of "The Gentle Art of Plying" a video by Judith MacKenzie that I purchased just after arriving here, I noted her comments about the light reflecting differently off fibers spun as 'S' and 'Z" - all to do with the direction they align.  This got me to thinking what would happen if you had such yarn set out in stripes across a warp, and then you wove the same 'S' and 'Z' stripes in the weft.  That started me on spinning singles the 'opposite' way to normal, and plying them similarly.  With the Clun Forest batts from the carder I soon had nearly 500 yards of each.  The weaving will have to wait for the looms to be set up once our furniture arrives. Who knows what will happen with the yarn during the weaving/fulling process.

The other test I tried, after having once tried this and given up, was to remove the fiber from the drum carder using a diz to produce roving.  There are plenty of videos on the web showing how to do it, so I tried again and had moderate success, which with practice should become easier.

Fine Clun Forest roving from the drum carder

The diz - an old plastic top (with very small hole)

I'll continue to work doing this - and will try a larger hole in the diz, which will speed up the process considerably.

In other 'settling' news, we went along to the Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild meeting this month (see: http://www.tnvalleyhandspinners.com/ )and signed up.  A great group and I may have a potential outlet for some Clun Forest yarn.

On our last trip up to the storage (we're almost ready for the final move) I did find a bag of the 'best' locks so I searched around and found my wool combs as well in case I get the chance to produce some top.

Look out for more regular posts once we get the Internet set up in the house...

Final post from New Zealand

The time has finally come...

We are all but packed up (the packers come on Tuesday to pack up and remove everything that is moving to the US), and sorted ready for the move.  It's been a while since I posted anyting - driven mainly by the lack of fiber work undertaken, but here is a brief summary:

I missed the November guild meeting, as I was in North America briefly (including a little bit of house hunting in TN) - Anne did go along though.  Then we both missed the next meeting as we had visitors over from the US, which left the final meeting this month (Feb - there isn't a January meeting) - so time to return our library books, and say some good-byes to the wonderful group of weavers we got to know in our year back here.

I gave my 6 year old granddaugther a drop spindle (an Ashford top whorl beginners spindle) and wool to start her off (young) with an interest in fiber, although she was far more interested in my mandolin - also given to her for future use.

My sister-in-law gave me the Ashford traditional (1 of 4 wheels she had!) that I had had on loan all year.  I have spun quite a lot of fiber on it (also from Jenny) and really did enjoy it - so was very pleased that it will now join my Rappard 'Little Peggy' in the US. (2 out of 2 NZ wheels!).

The upright loom was dismantled and moved to the garage to join the counterbalance loom (parts) ready to be uplifted by the packers.

The two looms in pieces ready to be packed

 All going well we should be established in Eastern Tennessee by mid-summer, and hopefully I can get all my looms up and running in one place.

Back to Spinning

It's been a few weeks since I had the spinning wheel out - it was put away when we were tidying up ready for visitors, and then most of the craft work after that was weaving (the tartan and the Navajo throw/rug).

I found some very nice camel roving in the stash that my sister-in-law was kind enough to include with the spinning wheel I have on loan.  It's a beautiful light brown/fawn colour and very very soft.  Initially I thought it was angora, but the bag clearly has camel hair 1lb, $2.50 (I suspect it was purchased quite some time ago).  There is about half of that 1lb left, so I'll make up some 2-ply with it, and then use some white angora to make up enough for a scarf of some kind.

First of the camel

The roving spins very easily, although not with my normal Clun Forest short forward draw.  With that method it tends to 'grab' very quickly and can without much warning end up with a super thick portion with the only solution to remove it and join a new section.  I was able to spin some fairly smooth medium thin yarn, but really had to pay attention to the spinning.  By using a modified draw - drawing the drafting hand back like a long backward draw and controlling the spin with the forward hand a lot more the yarn became a little more manageable.  It was interesting to see the 'cut/shorn(?) ends looping around the drafting triangle as the yarn was twisted and drawn out.  Twisting in themselves at a slightly different rate.  Not sure what causes that, but it doesn't do any harm.

I nearly finished enough for two bobbins last night so should be able to finish this in a few nights.

In the meantime the Navajo inspired rug/throw is going very well.  I'm able to weave about an inch an hour (there are 5 shuttles, and the blue colour changes in a Fibonacci sequence on every direction change.  Anne suggested a name for it so it will now be known as the Turquoise Lightning blanket (it is the light coloured blue that inspired the name)

Progress on the blanket

Family Tartan

With a busy Sunday of weaving I managed to finish off the tartan sampler that began so long ago.  It only took two days of weaving to make up the 15 inch sample once everything was prepared.

The skeins wound onto balls prior to warping

 The warping took a lot of knotting - changing the colours at each of the many stripes.  Each colour having a minimum of 2 threads so the knots were all at the one end.

The warp tied on to remaining warp.

To cut down the amount of the hand spun/dyed yarn that would be wasted the warp was tied on to the remaining warp after the ikat project, plus enough to make up the number of ends.  The 200+ weavers knots meant that by the end I was fairly quick at tyeing them! 

Tartan on the loom

 The weaving was fairly quick and once I worked out the right beat to maintain the 45 degree twill line, it was relatively easy.  With the weft threads having a minimum two for each colour all the shuttles stayed on one side and I was able to hook them into the selvedge on the way up the right side.

The traditional wine at the finish of the weaving

Tartan off the loom and sewn at either end

Simulating the cushion that it will become.

The next job will be to full the cloth and then to sew it into a cushion to put on the couch.  In the mean time it is back to work on the large loom and the Navajo throw/rug.

Progress on the zig-zag throw/rug.

Ikat finished

Anne took over the weaving of the ikat scarf/sampler from me which allowed me to head back upstairs to the upright loom to work on the Navajo throw/rug (good progress there).  We managed to finish the ikat with almost exactly the amount of weft wool planned.  I dyed the last lot of stripes (measured correctly for the width).  That ran out about half an inch from the second 'chevron' (warp ikat) which allowed us to use plain white for the weft emphasising the white blocks caused by off-setting the warp yarn (white) stripe.  I then dyed some stripes at the shorter weft width as done at the beginning of the weaving just to finish it off. There was about 10 turns on the bobbin when the warp could be wound no further.

As with all 'finishing' we celebrated with a wine - this time both of us as it was really a joint project.

I have to prepare a 'pdf' instruction sheet with photo's to give out to the guild members this coming weekend.  We don't have our normal meeting, but are instead heading to the Port Nicholson guild exhibition in the morning and then heading for lunch out at the gallery.

Warp stripes - with binding to stop the dye spreading.

Weft ikat 'winding' up the warp.

 With the warp width and the weft strip width only slightly off-set the red/yellow/red stripes move alternatively right and left as the weaving progresses.  Obviously wrapping around and moving back when they hit the selvedge.  Only slight variations in warp width can mean larger 'loops' right up to a 'standing stripe'.

Warp ikat 'chevron'

The warp stripe, off-set by the shifting device.  Not particularly tidy, but shows the principle.  The other chevron was less clear as it appeared underneath the weft ikat stripes.  I would try and do something a little more tied together if planning this again.

All finished this project.

  The plyed warp held up well, and the quickly spun Clun Forest two-ply weft matched very nicely.

Guild project

Anne finished her section of the guild cotton project.  The complex twill went pretty well over all.

The finished project.

All at the guild were impressed with Anne's first time efforts.  The rest of the weaving should be finished by the next meeting so we will be cutting off our own sections ready to hem and then wash.  It will be good to see them hanging side by side.