A couple of Iowa events

I was able to get to a couple of events this spring. One was the Federation of Spinners and Weavers meeting  that was held in Cedar Rapids this spring. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. and Mrs.  Rick Reeves, they are very lovely people. I had been having an issue with my 24″ Saxon style wheel not to wanting to wind the yarn up on the bobbing.   I had exhausted my bag of tricks, so I took it along for Rick to look at.  It took a few minutes for him to find the problem and to give me the solution. I followed his advice and the wheel is purring along just fine.  Sorry for the blurry pictures.

Mr. and Mrs. Reeves

I bought a beautiful CVM fleece from this lady, unfortunately I have misplaced her business card. I think she is from around Waterloo.

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I also had a chance to go to the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival in Colfax, IA. A lady I know from work had her alpaca fleece and yarn stand set up.

Lisa and her Mom were manning the stand.

Lisa pulling a batt of Alpaca into roving.

All in all Margie Meehan organized another great festival.

 

 

 

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September

Here it is the end of September already, spent the weekend cleaning carpets and doing some outside work to get ready for the dreaded winter months.  Earlier this month I went with my sister and brother -in-law to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival.  My sister is getting into spinning with intentions of weaving her own yarns.  I have been to the festival several times and enjoy it every time, this was their  first visit and they were pretty overwhelmed with all the vendors and activities that were going on. On the way home BIL wanted to stop at Mt Horab and look for trolls.  He found them:

The shop these were in front of had a lot of fun stuff:

This past week Son was driving past a rummage sale and spotted a spinning wheel, they had just opened the sale and he was the first one in and he grabbed this little wheel:

Here she is all cleaned up:

From the looks and feel of the wheel it had never been spun on, probably just used as a decorator piece.  The wheel was made by an Erwin Griesbach, there is a date of ’84 under the table along with his signature.

That’s all for now.

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Shepard’s Market 2014

My sister and I went to the Shepard’s Market on Saturday, this was a great wool market to attend. The event was organized and put on at the Vinton, Ia high school by Sue H. from SunRise Suris Alpaca ranch.  The location was really nice to be able to have enough room to roam around in and be able to visit with vendors and to shop.  I would like to “THANK”  Sue and all the vendors for having such a nice show.  Here are a few of the vendors that I had a chance to visit with.

Janette

My sister and I took a little break from shopping and we sat down for awhile.  So I decided to pull out my little Indian book charka and spin some cotton for a few minutes.

All in all it was a great day, looking forward to next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Antique Acres Old Time Power show

My best friend suggested going this show, so we did. Hubby stayed home so we made a day of it. Tromped all over the grounds and all through the flea market.  While going through the museum building we got to meet a spinner and sock knitters.

Barb from Barnett Sheep and Wool was busy spinning away on her Majacraft “Rose”.  She raises purebred Karakul sheep and spins and weaves along with many other  things.

As we continued through the museum we met a couple of sock knitters using their sock knitting machines.  Glenace Shank from “Blue Heron Knits” gave me some information about PIGS (People in Glorius Socks) the Iowa sock knitters group.  Hope to be able to attend the convention next spring.

We were getting about whipped out so it was time we left.  So, we hit the cassino on the way home. No luck there!!

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March to August 2013

I have been busy dyeing and spinning for the last few months.  But yet I don’t feel like I have gotten anything accomplished.  I did have fun with Kool aid and gentian violet.  Gentian violet is a medicinal dye used to treat yeast infections.  The wool used for the gentian violet was Scottish Blackface, it’s a little on the harsh side, just right to use for the feet in socks.

For this batch of kool-aid dyed wool I used an adult romney fleece.  It was a beautiful fleece that took the kool-aid well.  I am almost done spinning up this batch.  Will be using in sock tops and in the sock feet with a mohair carry along yarn for strength.

A couple of weeks ago I found a spinning wheel on Craig’s List that just called my name to come and rescue.  It had all of it’s parts but you could tell it was a very old wheel.  So we took a little trip about two hours west of our home and brought her home, she needed very little repair, just a new front maiden bearing and a good cleaning.  Turns out she was also signed by  her maker “G:Yunker”, according to Spinning Wheels and Accessories   by Pennington and Taylor, he was a maker that lived in PA/OH.  In their book this wheel is referred to as a “Left-foot” wheel because of the way the treadle is built.  The cross over brace goes from right to left to accommadate the uprightness of the wheel.  She is a little fussy but she does spin a very fine yarn.

I finally took the plunge and knitted a TAM, they have always looked difficult to me, so I took on the challenge to my brain.  Here is the results of my challenge.  It’s not perfect by any means, but at least I didn’t say F—it and frog it. I learned so much about the construction of the tam and strand knitting it was worth the challenge.  The tan yarn is alpaca and the dyed yarns are various wools from other projects.  Blocked it over a large dinner plate and run some cotton around the opening edge and pulled it up to stretch it out.

 

 

 

 

 

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Oh No, Not Another One!!

I made the mistake of going to the antique show that is in town today and this is what I came home with,  a lateral spinning wheel with orange bands on the spokes. The wheel came fron an antique dealer that was here form North Dakota, I probably paid a little too much for it, but considering I didn’t have to drive forever to pick it up or pay for shipping from somewhere hundreds of miles away I felt the price was reasonable.

Lateral Spinning wheel

There are some minor cracks here and there but nothing that can’t be stabilized or that will keep the wheel from spinning.

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Teeny Tiny Spinning Wheel

I found this little wheel on a consignment site a couple of years ago. It needed some work on it to get up and spinning, we needed to rework someone elses attempts at restoring it.   The wheel isn’t quite in alignment and it makes a thumping noise when spinning, but it spins silk like nobody’s business.  I’m not sure but I think it is a little English wheel, the drive tension is set with a peg holding the back maiden in place instead of a screw type tension.  All in all I know I paid way too much for it, but I sure like it and enjoy spinning on it.  The wheel is about 12″ in diameter.

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Carpet

We got busy on Sunday and layed new carpet in the kitchen.  We used carpet tiles and so far we really like them.

I’ve also been busy spinning some Bond merino, getting ready for sock knitting time. I’m using the Lamb for the singles.

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Jensen Tina II, The Lamb Spinning wheels

Here it is mid June and I’ve been busy with yard work and other stuff around the house.  Somewhere I got into something that has been itching and driving me crazy. Went to the doctor and he said it was a plant oil toxin, inother words probably poison ivy.  Gave me a steroid cream and it is helping alot. Now to find the culpret and kill it out. 

I’ve been busy with spinning and cleaning up a couple of wheels.  This time I used an almond based oil that conditions and protects and so far I really like it, plus it smells nice.  My latest spinning wheel aquasition is a Jensen Tina II, this wheel is a dream to spin on. I think it is going to be a forever wheel.  Much easlier for me to spin on for any amount of time, some of my other wheels make my hips hurt after awhile.

Tina II is a double drive that can be converted to a scotch drive. It has three whorls, so there are several ratios available.  I think there is a high speed whorl  available, but I don’t have that one.  I really don’t think I need it either. I spun up single of some icelandic and ramboulliet on the Tina and plyed them on a little wheel that I had gotten in Missouri a few years ago at the World Wide Wool Festival at Bethel MO.  That little wheel is called  “The Lamb” made by Larry Harper of Seymour, MO.

 

The LambNice wheel for a beginning spinner, it has an Iris tension and only one ration about 6:1, bobbins hold about 4 ozs. It is made out of oak, I use this little wheel primarily for plying.it’s own tensioning band, along with the bobbin being tensioned by the drive band.  This gives two different speeds which allows the yarn to be drawn up onto the bobbin. 

 

 

Irish tension system 

Plyed with the Lamb.

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5/9/11

I’m finally getting around to posting a picture of the yarn spun from the romeldale and  wensleydale cross that I got from Heathered Ridge Farm.  I spun up singles from each breed and plyed them, softness with strength.  Then dyed it with Jaquard chartruese with a touch of extra yellow. The singles were spun on an antique Norwegian table wheel and plyed on a 24″ Reeves.  Hope to make a shawllette from it.

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