Making Stuff: Week 2

Posted: January 24th, 2010 | Author: Hellchick | Filed under: DIY, Spinning | Comments Off

I’ve decided that since I do a lot more than spinning it would be a much better use of a weekly blog post on making stuff to, you know, make it about all the stuff. I knit, I spin, and I’ve even developed a little dabbling interest in making jewelry over the last year, so why limit it to spinning? So this week we’re just going to consider last week’s post a test run and continue the weekly theme under the title of “Making Stuff.”

I haven’t had as much time this week as I normally do because we’ve been really pushing hard on a deadline at work. (A little side note: did you know that the game I’m working on has been announced? If you haven’t already, check out Monday Night Combat at Uber Entertainment. We’re all pretty excited.) But I did manage to squeeze in a half hour or two here and there this week, and most of that was spent getting to know my new Lendrum.

Oh, my Lendrum! I’m so excited! Last week I bought my first-ever new-for-me spinning wheel, a Lendrum double treadle with all the accessories — plying head, fast flier, lazy kate, the works. For almost ten years I used a borrowed Louet S10 that dated from the 1970s. It was a great wheel, but really only great in the sense that I was ignorant of how other wheels felt and having learned to spin on this one (after graduating from a drop spindle) it was what I was used to. That doesn’t mean I look back on it as a bad wheel, quite the opposite. But it had its quirks — including a vicious knock that happened every rotation, something I tried for years to get rid of but could never find and fix the actual source — and began to feel limiting once I’d been spinning for several years, and I frequently looked in envy at the newer, more modern wheels that other spinners I knew were using.

I had to give back the Louetlast last year and suddenly panicked about having to replace it with…well, something. I didn’t know what I wanted but I knew I needed a wheel. But like many things in life it can take a long time to find the wheel that’s right for you. I didn’t have that kind of time. I had a pretty low budget for a wheel and knew I was going to have to go used and cheap, and I found an Ashford Traditional double-drive for an affordable price on Craigslist. I was nervous because it was such a radically different wheel mechanically than my Louet, but it looked like a fine wheel and I knew I’d spun enough to be able to figure it out.

I took it home, worked with it, and actually really enjoyed spinning on it. It had more ratio ranges than the Louet and it felt like it took less brute force to make yarn and more fine movements and tension tuning. I was making laceweight yarn by the first night I had it and even began trying a long draw on it for the first time shortly after.

But no matter how much of a step up it’s been from the Louet it still has some bizarre quirks I find frustrating. Taking the bobbin off is a real pain — you’ve got to unscrew the end, usually getting grease on your fingers from the flier rod which you have to be careful not to get on your fleece. And don’t even talk to me about changing to the jumbo flier, which you have to do if you have any hope of plying on this wheel without having to break your skein in two because the bobbins are so small; the jumbo flier requires a complete change out of the maiden and there’s a shim you have to keep track of in order to easily change between the jumbo flier and the regular one. God help me if I lose that shim.

So although I enjoy the wheel I knew it wasn’t going to be my final one, my real wheel. So I tried the wheels of people at the Eastside Spinners’ Guild. One nice lady let me use her Louet S45, a tiny compact wheel that looked like it was made in the future. I was in love from the first rotation — it treadled so easily, had no orifice (it uses a metal wire), had no flier hooks to fuss with (it has a simple movable metal flier piece), and was so tiny and light you could easily travel around with it. Then she told me the price: they run close to a thousand dollars. Geez. And that’s only because Louet stopped making them — when they were in production they were closer to $600 but went into such high demand after production was stopped that you can’t find them for that price any more.

Although I loved the S45 and was determined to get one I realized that it didn’t quite have everything I wanted in a wheel no matter how much I loved it — I wanted something somewhat portable, something that had the equipment or attachments to give me good range of ratios and bobbin sizes, something that was double treadle, and something that was quiet. And of course, something in a reasonable price range. I went into the Weaving Works in Seattle to try an Ashford Joy, a portable wheel that I knew had some of these qualities, and I was absolutely sure I was going to love it and even assumed I’d be walking out of the store with one. But I sat down with it and, to my surprise, utterly hated it. Disappointed, I turned to the Lendrum they had sitting next to it.

I’d seen other spinners with Lendrums and had never really given the wheel much thought. It looked utterly normal, like nothing special. It was even kind of oddly built in that it leaned forward unlike any other wheel. Spinners I knew who were looking for a Lendrum had mentioned having a hard time finding one, which I just wrote off without much thought. I’d heard spinners who use them rave about them and thought, well, I’m here, so why not? I assumed I’d dislike it.

I grabbed some test wool and oh my God, something about this wheel just felt perfect. It treadled like butter, the flier head was adjustable in height, it was quiet, and it broke down easily into a more portable form. Changing the bobbin was incredibly easy and changing to another flier head was a cinch. The tension system was easy and it had a great range of ratios. And no flier hooks! It has a simple metal O-type ring with a squeezy hook that you can easily slide up and down the flier arm. I was sold, literally. It was the wheel I had been looking for. I ordered one and last week it finally came in!

I finally feel like I have what could be called, for me anyway, a production wheel. So I’ve spent this week getting to know the ins and outs of this great wheel by spinning something super simple: some commercially-prepared alpaca/tencel blend that I’ve had for a while that I wanted to spin up into a lace-to-sport weight yarn.

It was a great yarn to start with because it wasn’t a special challenge, just an easy yarn that I could spin while concentrating on the various parts of the wheel and how they affected my spinning. What’s funny about this wool is that I think it might be the last batch of commercially-prepared and dyed fiber that I’ve bought, and that was at least two years ago. I’ve been so consumed with using my own alpaca fiber or dyeing and prepping my own blends that I’ve lost interest in buying commercially-prepared stuff (except if it’s going to serve as a base, such as undyed Merino roving). But you have to admit, this color is lovely. It’s a sage-y green with hints of gray-blue in it. I had two pounds of the stuff and had already spun up a good portion of it into 384 yards of roughly fingering-weight yarn on my Traditional. So I’ve been spinning the rest at the same gauge and I’m just about finished with it now, ending up with two full bobbins on the Lendrum. My plan is to make a really intricate lacy shawl or scarf with it, probably a replica of Peacock, which I spent a year knitting only to find that the color really wasn’t me (I hadn’t yet figured out that just because I love a color doesn’t mean that color is going to look good on me) and ended up selling it for a good price to someone looking for a gift for their mother. When I finish spinning it up I’ll probably switch to the plying head on the Lendrum and see how that feels.

I’m still working on some commissioned scarf yarn made from Benz’s fleece (a denim yarn made with one strand of black and one strand of his white dyed red) but in between carding it and washing it I managed to squeeze in that beaded yarn I linked last week. The other day I stopped to pick up more beads to finish the other half and found myself browsing some really great jewelry supplies, beads, and the like. Last year I developed a slight interest in making my own jewelry (note to self: finish fixing the bracelets I made for people last year!) and picked up a few items that I thought would make a very quick and lovely necklace.

I started with the stone disc and the two curved beads on either side. I figured I could use the silver wire I had at home to wrap the disc in a nice way to attach it to the necklace, and I saw some conic beads that would be perfect for hiding that join. I used a simple necklace I also bought with them, cutting off the end so I could slip the elbow-shaped beads on and then re-crimping it with a small loop on the end to serve as the closure. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out, although I’m still very much a novice when it comes to working with wire. Getting it to shape the right way without any little bumps or jogs is still something I’m learning how to do.

While rooting through my supplies I came across a few beads I’d bought a few years ago and a pendant I’d also bought and tucked away knowing that at some point I wanted to turn it into something. I already had my tools out and I figured I had the supplies, so why not do that now?

This time I didn’t have a necklace ready to string the stuff onto, but I did have beading wire and various findings and clasps. So I took my beading wire and used it as a necklace base, doubling it through the loops since it’s pretty thin and on its own didn’t seem strong enough for a necklace. I’m also happy with how this one came out, although I probably should have used some crimping beads to keep the small metal beads from sliding beneath the large pendant attachment ring. Still, though, for spur-of-the-moment it’s not half bad and I like it.

I’d really like to get better at jewelry-making, although it’s something I do pretty off-and-on. But it’s amazing to me what you can create for yourself with some very simple supplies, and like spinning yarn it seems like there’s a very long road toward quality and mastery that would be enjoyable to follow. I see people on Etsy who create beautiful jewelry pieces themselves that are far and away better than what I see in jewelry stores, and that seems fun to know how to do. So I’m going to keep working at it.

Next week’s plan: more work on the commissioned scarf yarn and possibly some new beaded yarn. Stay tuned. And in the meantime, check out Fiber Arts Friday to see more people making more cool stuff.

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