(no subject)

[unicornduke]

Today I went to a lovely spinning guild thing where a local farm has a yarn shop and she hosts local folks and fiber artists for some spinning and knitting. It was great. Lots of fiber talk, a cute dog and I got to watch people spin and got some ideas on how to improve spinning on my wheel. I hadn't brought it because hauling wheels around is annoying but I got some work done on the black alpaca roving ,which is so pretty. I need to figure out if I'm going to ply it or what because it is spinning up so fine. As it turns out, I bought a hard mode wheel. Flax wheels are meant to put a lot of spin onto very fine thread so the spinner has to draft quickly to keep up with the wheel. I'm getting there. What I've spun with wool is decent, although not yet up to weaving quality. But good for thin fingering weight probably.

I've also been doing some research into the wheel and I doubt I'll be able to get replacement parts meant for the wheel because there's very little on the internet about the makers of the wheel as it is. Sanford spinning wheels. It was a family business with a couple of generations involved and possibly some son-in-laws, based in Newtown, CT in the early 1800s. Probably. Not much to go on and I'm not that savvy at historical research. I might dig into it another time, when I'm not super distracted by watching hockey games.

Watched both hockey games on today. I'm only rooting for the Pride now because they signed Lovisa Selander, who I am a big fan of. I've never been a sports person so I'm not quite sure how to deal with this intense feelings for her. Not quite a crush but it is weird. I did buy her jersey already so shrugs. The Twitch deal that the NWHL signed has super upped the number of people watching, which is awesome and everyone is being nice in the chat from what I've seen but I'm also not in there much.

I sat and spun on my wheel through the end of the first game because the Riveters lost very badly until the second game started and took a video here. Definitely turn sound off because there was a beeping car and the sound of the tv where I had an old stream running to listen to.

Tomorrow I'm planning on BAKING. I've got to run and buy some groceries first thing, mostly flour and such. Then I'm planning to make a squash pie (crustless so technically it's probably just a custard. I think crusts on pies are a pain in the butt to make compared to the filling and the worst part of the pie and not worth eating. Fight me), an upside down apple cake, and a pear cake. I also need to make yogurt. Two more hockey games to watch tomorrow afternoon too.

My boss also told me to take Monday off paid because he's taking off and one of the other folks I support is also on vacation. So that's nice.

Comments

[graydon]

Wheel spinning is sort of three hobbies, as I understand it; there's the "I can spin this" sourcing hobby, there's the "making the wheel do the thing" hobby, and there's the "now I've got string! must use the string!" hobby.

The alternative seems to be to throw money at it and get a modern production wheel, but that might not be as much fun.

[unicornduke]

lmao, those are all three hobbies that I already have so I don't need a lathe for a fourth! I chatted with B and she gave me two leads for woodturners, one in the area and one related to her maybe as backup.

Where's the fun in a modern production wheel?

There's actually these: Link they are tiny 3d printed wheels that look pretty neat. Not full production wheels but not as wildly expensive as newer wheels.

My main thing is that I have a working production wheel for a quarter of the price of a new one. I can't imagine that the two parts would be expensive to have turned. A couple of bobbins and one long shaft to run from the foot pedal to the wheel. I'm currently using twine, which is working just fine for now.

[graydon]

The lathe goes under the "make the wheel do the thing" heading! It's just some ancillary tooling, not a new hobby. :)

Leads to woodturners are good. If you have a bench vise, bending the shaft from whatever round bar stock is reasonably straightforward. I have no idea about what having something turned costs; decent fine-grained hardwood can be a bit of shock, price-wise.

The wee electric wheels strike me as marvels of portability compared to anything else; if you want to bring your spinning somewhere it nigh-must be a better option.

Modern production wheels seem to go best with people who find the fun to reside in getting a lot of consistent spinning done. (the "I have a sheep, I am going to have a dress" crowd.)

[unicornduke]

Lmao, lathes appear expensive so that's right out. I'll be able to figure something out at some point. It's not urgent since I can still spin. The only issue might be the shame if I take it to the spinning guild with the twine as shaft still being used.

It's an antique production wheel, so I could make stuff for a crowd but old style lol