Last Christmas I gave my brothers soft squishy presents under the tree.  They unwrapped and found bags of fiber which I promised to make into something that would be unique and perfect for them.  I never guaranteed that they’d be done quickly or anything.  Here are the results of several months of spinning and knitting.

A cable hat for brother #1 made of merino wool

And…for brother #2 who can’t wear anything wool because it is too scratchy, a pair of mittens designed for operating an iPod or iPad made out of superfine alpaca.

These are hunting gloves, with a finger and thumb separated from the hand.  The tips of the index finger and thumb have conductive thread stitched in.  This is what lets the touch screen devices pick up the “touch” signal.

He’s going to have the warmest hands this winter–no need to take these mitts off EVER!

I took a break this morning from all the things I should be doing.  It was lovely to sit by my window, in the bright sunshine, and spin up 4 oz of “baltic” blue roving from Paradise Fibers.

It’s now one very large skein of 2 ply yarn.

Now…back to the regularly scheduled work…

It’s not as hard as I thought it would be to change a drive band.  I was a little concerned because I would have to take my spinning wheel apart, or cut and refasten the drive band.  I searched online and found a tutorial that made the process look fairly simple. The process of replacing a drive band is simple– it is also not anything like what this tutorial claimed either.  Perhaps it’s because I have a single treadle wheel and the tutorial seems to be for a double treadle.

In any case, all I needed was a flat head screw driver.  I decided that because I have one treadle, and one piece of surgical tubing that connects the treadle to the footman (and the wheel) that I would undo the screw that connects the tube to the treadle, and insert the loop of drive band there, and then put the screw back in.  In a matter of minutes I’m ready to go again!  Thanks so much to Paradise Fibers for the speedy delivery of my new drive bands!

I’m taking advantage of the day at home to give it a test drive.  Back to work and robots tomorrow.

Look at the goodies!!! I stopped off at the post office on the way to robotics this morning, and was thrilled to see that the package I got was a box full of my order from Paradise Fibers.  There’s some gorgeous  baby camel in there that I can’t wait to spin.  Also, and perhaps more importantly, there are two drivebands for my wheel.

After a long sleep tonight I’m going to attempt to change the band tomorrow.  It’s a job that requires a bit of wheel dismantling.  I hope I have the appropriate tools.  If I don’t, at least I know a robotics team that is happy to share!

My grandmother, the knitting matriarch of the family, turned 95 today.  The family gathered to celebrate with cake and ice cream and champagne.

My mom made a delicious banana cake garnished with chocolate coated strawberries.  It was quite an elegant dessert party.

I brought my newest finished project to show and tell after dessert.  My handspun blue/green/purple yarn has now become a hat.  It’s a one-of-a-kind toque that will warm the head of a friend of mine this winter.

It is soft, stretchy and long enough to keep ears toasty warm.  I am very pleased with how the blue-green and blue-purple colourways have blended together to form waves and strata of colours.  Cables are almost lost in the stripes…but I needed the cables to keep me interested, and to add elasticity.

This hat has many hours of love and care spun into the yarn, and knit into the stitches.  I hope it brings much warmth and comfort to the wearer all winter long.

In the quiet midnight moments, when the world is still, I have taken to unwinding while sitting at my spinning wheel.  The whir of the wheel turning, the repetitive pedal pushing, the rapid rotation winding freshly spun singles onto the bobbin, colours merging and blending from black to green, from purple to blue, slowly filling bobbin after bobbin….all of this has calmed me….quieted my brain…over the past few busy days.

What’s wonderful about this type of meditation/relaxation is that there is something to show for all of the midnight moments.  I now have a lovely one of a kind skein of yarn.  The colours remind me of peacock feathers.

there’s lots more purple than the top picture shows:

I think this might become another baby sweater.  It’s all superwash wool, easy to care for.

The roving (Longwool top in nightgreens and nightviolet colourways) was purchased from slimchicken’s etsy store.  I alternated spinning various lengths of each colourway, then plied two bobbins worth together.  There were a few lumps and bits of roving that appeared to have felted–it strikes me as odd, since it is superwash, but apart from the few felted bits, the roving was a pleasure to spin, and I’m sure the finished garment will be really pretty too.

This weekend I snapped…..

It was Spin In Public Day, and I was considering hauling my wheel out somewhere and spinning in the sunshine.  However, when I went to my wheel, I found that my drive band had snapped!  I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s someone or something sabotaging my spinning, but there’s no proof, and really nobody would spend that much time to cause me this much frustration.

I guess with enough stress for enough time anything (or anyone for that matter) will snap.

note to self (and others): do not leave a drive band under tension between spinning sessions.

I had replaced a drive band before (blogged), but didn’t really want to go searching for more tubing.  There’s got to be a way to fix this band.

What do you do when you’re looking for rather obscure specialized information? Last time when faced with this issue I looked up different suppliers and sent out a bunch of emails.  This time I tried something different.  I consulted Twitter!

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a social networking tool, a way to communicate with people in short (140 character) messages.  You can follow people who are interested in things you care about, and just about anyone can follow you too.  Sometimes you know people, sometimes you don’t, but if you are needing advice, there’s bound to be someone willing to offer their 2 cents to help you out.

I’ve been on Twitter for about a year, and I’ve developed a network of spinners and knitters whom I follow, and who follow me.  I threw out my query to the Twitterverse, and sure enough, within minutes, there was an answer!

@KLgrant1971 (from Wiltshire England) suggested the following ideas

“Pair of tights or a stocking like a fan belt repair? Super glue and duct tape?” and then added…

“I’m not a spinner, but hubby’s dad was a mechanic & I picked up a bit of knowledge by osmosis! Hope U find a solution! ”

So….I set about fixing my drive band/finding a replacement.

First I tried to melt the ends of the current band, and stick them together.  Plastic melts right?  Is my drive band plastic?  It turns out that mine is rubber, and that does not melt.  It catches fire, and makes a stinky smoke and a hot ash, but doesn’t get sticky at all.  Rather disappointing!  (If you try this, be sure you have water on hand, and beware of the stink!)  I was glad my candle smells like cranberries.

Next I tried to tape the ends together.  I didn’t have duct tape, so I found the next best thing, really sticky scotch tape–this kind is really flexible, so I had high hopes.  I had to cut bits off of each end of the drive band due to the whole burning/stinky ash attempt.

For a while, things were looking good.  The tape held, but the loop made a clicking noise every time the tape went around the bobbin–I think the tape made the drive band too stiff in that area.  For a while, it became a self shifting mechanism as the band slid itself (against my wishes) from the largest part of the bobbin down to the middle size, then the smallest, and finally off of the bobbin entirely.  It was worse the faster I spun.  After a little troubleshooting and experimentation the whole band snapped once more, and not where the tape was!

Rather than patching the whole thing and trying again, I took a bit of a break.

After removing myself from the frustration for a while, I went back to my wheel today with a new approach.  Stockings!  I’m sure we all have a pair or two with a hole in them, tucked at the back of your top drawer because you knew that they’d be useful someday.

To repair a spinning wheel with stockings:

1. cut off one leg of the stocking.
2. cut that stocking leg in half from toe to top (don’t try to rip it, it will rip around the leg)
3. Thread the stocking around the wheel where the drive band goes.
4. Stretch the half stocking all around the wheel, and tie it so it will stretch to fit the bobbin.

Before declaring victory, I spun a bit yesterday and then again today just to be sure that it is still a working solution.  I am actually amazed at how well this works.  I don’t know how long lasting it is, but for now I’m back spinning again thanks to @KLgrant1971 on Twitter.

P.S.  I’m @sticksandstring on Twitter.  Feel free to follow me!

Has twitter ever helped you solve a problem?

One month ago today….

I was on vacation, meeting alpaca.

and dyeing roving on the fire.

Today I’d like to present to you the result of all that spinning

I have completed a pair of mittens for Evan (my traveling buddy) to commemorate our adventure, and remind him of his introduction into the crazy world of fiber arts.  (He spun the white fleece on a drop spindle at our campsite)

The mittens have 2010 on the cuff (palm side) and on the back of the wrist they have alpacas!

All of the black stranded colourwork is done with alpaca that I bought on our trip.  This means that the inside of the cuff is extremely soft and fluffy.

I like how all of the colours stripe and blend together.  The mittens don’t match perfectly, but I think that adds to the charm.  They are one of a kind, and will be making their way to Providence this fall for his birthday!

I am really enjoying these autumn skies.  The clouds shift so quickly….

….and keep distracting me from my spinning wheel!  Soon enough these clouds will be full of snow, and it will get dark so fast that I will not be able to capture them.

I hope you take time to look up and admire the colours and fluffiness of these clouds while it is still warm.

What’s on my wheel?  Why it’s a combination of superwash fibers from slimchicken’s etsy store.  The colours are Nightviolet (which seems more predominantly purple and blue mixed with black)

and Nightgreens (which seems more predominantly green and black)

I purchased 2 oz of each colour, and I am alternating sections of roving as I spin.  I’m a little unsure (as usual) about what this will end up looking like, or what the finished product will be.  That’s all in the fun of spinning.  Lots of time to contemplate possibilities….

….and get lost in the clouds.

I wasn’t really sure what I’d end up making when I picked up this ball of handspun.  I was pretty sure that I’d be making something that didn’t come in pairs, since I had no way of knowing how the stripes or colours would distribute themselves across the ball.  So…socks and mittens were out of the question.

I knew that there’d be stripes of some kind–with handspun from painted roving, you can’t really escape it!  I decided to try knitting Laila (ravelink), a baby sweater that I created for friend’s of mine when their little Laila was born.  It is a top-down, placket neck, raglan sleeve, seamless sweater, knit in the round.  I love it because it requires very little finishing, and shows off stripes really well.

I also wouldn’t have to worry about the front and back being two very different colours (some of this yarn is very orange, and some is very green).

Being swatchless has its advantages–I knit, and make things, and usually they turn out the right size for someone….the problems arise when I try to make baby clothes.   I don’t have access to many babies, so I’m at a loss as to their proportions.  To this end, I brought the sweater to my mom–a fairly conventional knitter who works to gauge, from patterns that have sizes on them.  She measured what I had against some of her 6 month sized sweaters.  This one seems about right for a 6 month old.  The neck opening is very stretchy, and so is the body.  I left the sleeves wide until the cuff, decreasing only 4 stitches over the entire arm.

I had wanted to do garter stitch at the sleeves and around the body just like I did at the neck.  Garter stitch is so much more brainless to knit than ribbing…but I found that the bottom edge of the sweater started to flip up when it was edged in garter stitch.  I ripped back, did a few rows of K2, P2, ribbing, and it seems to lay flat now.  I’m not sure if the flipping up is due to the garter stitch, or the twist in my spinning–it was not a balanced skein, but with me, it rarely is!

All that remains for this sweater is to pick out the most adorable little buttons.  I’m thinking that I might go for wooden buttons, or black buttons, or maybe three different coloured buttons….there are so many options….I’ll bring it along to the fabric store and see what speaks to me.

And now….I’ll have to wait for a knitter to have a baby sometime in the spring or summer….I don’t think a non-knitter would fully appreciate all the work that has gone into this creation!

Thanks to slimchicken (etsy) for dyeing the roving.  It’s lovely!