Spinning Wheel Repair

It is great that Skipper is a Wood Turner.

I have been running some "Learn to Spin" workshops and this Ashford Spinning Wheel belongs to one of my clients, she bought it along to learn on but it required some repairs, so a little visit to  "WrightTurned" workshop was needed.

As you can see in the photo, where the treadle connects to the main leg of the wheel the wood had  become chewed up allowing the treadle pin to keep falling out, it was held in place with some cord.

First the hole was drilled out to make a clean purchase for a new piece of wood. The new wooden plug was hand turned on the lathe.

Shaped to give a perfect snug fit and hold firm. Then cut to size and rubbed down.

This is called a visible repair. It has strengthened the working part, is functional and looks in keeping with this lovely old wheel. 

The wheel was then given a service, buffed, oiled, fitted with a new double band and was all set to keep spinning for many years to come. As you can see it spins a treat!

Summer Colour in Cloth

                                               Our garden is full of colour and inspiration!

I am always influenced by the nature around me, summer colours start to feed into my woven cloth at this time of year.
This month I have been making vibrant cotton warps for the looms. It is a nice break from working in wool on the looms. (I'm busy spinning on the wheel in the garden, so there will be plenty of woolly projects later in the year).
However some people have allergies and do ask me if I weave and knit in cotton, so its always good to offer an alternative. Also in the summer months its great to work in cool cottons and linen.

 Hand weaving the Saori Way along with more tradition weaves of stripes and squares in gorgeous colourways.

 New cloth fresh from the loom.

Beautiful Summer Wraps/Shawls in soft cotton. The perfect "go to" accessory for the Season.

Brief Jottings on June

 JUNE  

A few notes and jottings for this month. Cropping the first lavender - hanging up in the studio to dry. I will use it in my hand woven lavender bags and sachets. I always put fresh sprigs layered in my fleece and wool storage too.
Harvesting my woad seed - I will dry them and pop them in a paper bag to store ready for next year's sowing.

 Had so much fun with sticks and wool by weaving some very organic artful  stick/ branch weaving
They will be little woolly accents placed around the garden allowing the flowers and plants to grow and intertwine.

AND

I held my first "Learn to weave on a Rigid Heddle loom" workshop.

Back in my March post I said this was something I had been planning to do for a while, so it was really good to introduce and share the joy of weaving with two students and thrilling to see their happy faces as they went home clutching their very first weavings. 

Room For A Loom

 Of Course! There is always room for another loom. This Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom needed a new home, it was looking very sorry for itself with an old woolly warp tied on and a gathering of dust and dirt to clean. But as a weaver I saw the potential in this old loom. It is in very good working order and all it needed was a little TLC to get it up and weaving again.

 A good wash and clean with wood soap.

 Then a visit to the WrightTurned work shop, where Skipper got all the working parts running smoothly and  gave it a wax polish treatment and buffed it up to a beautiful sheen.

All warped up and happily weaving once more 

An Ashford Rigid heddle Loom is a perfect loom for the beginner. It is simple to use. Using one is a great introduction to weaving and as I intend to offer "Learn to Weave" sessions in the future this little loom will be very useful. It will certainly find itself busy once more.

Meanwhile I shall use it for small projects when they come up.  

Warp Speed - Part One

 Warp - the threads stretched on the loom.
In this photo you can see the warp threads being loaded this is called dressing the loom.

On my Ashford rigid heddle loom I thread the warp directly on the loom using a free standing wood peg to hold all warp wraps. I thread each one through the heddle as I go. It's a great way of mixing and experimenting with warp stripes.  

 For my Saori Loom I like to make my own warps (even though you can purchase ready made warps for this make of loom). I enjoy  creating cloth that is totally unique with my own warp patterns, colour choices, yarn, widths and lengths.
 To do this I have a warping frame on which I make my warp first, before transferring it to the loom to be threaded up. It is a slower process but Slow Cloth is just that, it take time, weaving knowledge with purpose and love for the craft.

 Here is a close up of the warp threads. Each warp end is individually threaded in the reed.

 Here you can see the heddles are all threaded too. I'm ready to wind the warp on to the roller. I have a 6 metre length which is kept under a light tension as I slowly wind it on to the loom.

When all the length of the warp is on the roller, I adjust the loom until I'm happy with the evenness and tension of the warp.
Time to make cloth!

Saint Distaff Day- Back to Spinning

Hand Spun Wool on Bobbin and Niddy Noddy

 Welcome and Happy 2018. I hope you like the new look to my blog, it's still a work in progress, I want to keep it clean, fresh and easy to view and navigate around.

Saint Distaff Day,   

http://www.tellinghistory.co.uk/resources/distaff.htm

Interesting article if you want to know the origins.

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Well I felt my faithful Ashford Spinning Wheel deserved a really good make over and a bit of pampering to start the new year of spinning -so a visit to Wright Turned workshop (aka Skipper). 

  Where it was cleaned, polished, oiled and buffed to perfection, much more thoroughly than my usual regular maintenance, I was so pleased and excited to get back to my spinning and set to work immediately.

2 Bobbins of single thread on Niddy Noddy

 A smoothly running Spinning Wheel is a joy to use. First task was to ply up all those bobbins and spare singles to free up the bobbins for more spinning.

Plying

 Plying the threads together to produce 2 ply yarn and filling a new bobbin on the wheel.
 You can see the wool thread held by my 3rd and 4th finger and the plied twisted yarn feeding up away from my thumb and index finger.

Bobbin full of 2Ply Wool Yarn

 I had some textured hand dyed woad oddments on a couple of bobbins so plied those too.

 When I have oddments it is great to spin them all up together and make a really unique yarn, just perfect for adding to my Saori weaving. Lumps, bumps, textures, colours, different, thicknesses, rough, smooth, silky you name it!  Just using up all the bobbins as I go mixing and ...

 seeing what happens....

Thrilled with the results!

I still have to sett the yarns by washing them, but I have some more lovely Stash to start 2018 knitting and weaving projects.

New Equipment- Part Two- Fringe Twister

This is my little Fringe Twister made by Ashford. It makes light work of  twisting the warp ends on my hand woven scarves. I clip the wool ends I wish to twist in the device and turn the small level  away from me, counting how many turns as I go.

I'm finding between 12 and 20 gives me a nice twist for my yarns.

When I have the right tension and twist on each section I transfer two wound warp ends into the same clip and then turn the level in the opposite direction so as to wind the two wound strands together. Thus making a neat twisted fringe.

This makes for a secure tie off as well as a lovely soft and textural finish for the warp ends. Now my olive green and soft brown hand woven scarf is ready to be completed. I shall "full" it by washing to soften the wools together and create a wonderfully warm, snuggly, cosy textile perfect to wear close to the skin on a cold winter's day.