Homemade Skein Winder

I have driven myself nearly insane trying to find a free-standing skein winder. I had very specific needs and requirements, which none but a few commercial winders offered.  I wanted it to be free-standing, portable, fast, and capable of handling 2-yard skeins.  All of the commercial offerings which met these requirements were, in my opinion, ridiculously expensive.

Enter my retired engineer hubby. After telling him the requirements and appealing to his desire to save our retirement funds for greater things, he went to work on my request. Two days later, he presented me with exactly what I desired.

EUREKA!!

Aren't husbands wonderful?

New Skein Winder in Action

Evening Prayers for Faster Production Answered

My prayers were answered in one word: Vespera from Heavenly Handspinning.

Having produced reasonably quickly on my Kromski Symphony for years, I was content.  However, as time passed and my fiber stash has grown exponentially, I began looking for a faster spinning production method.  After the obligatory searches for e-spinners and watching many YouTube videos of various manufacturers, I settled on the Vespera.  My purchase decision was driven by what I felt would offer me: (1) the quickest learning curve, (2) the ability to spin all weights, (3) the ability to spin huge amounts of lace weight yarn very quickly, (4) a price point that agreed with my pocketbook and, most importantly, (5) reliable support from the manufacturer.  The  Vespera fit the bill perfectly and within a few days, this simple little wonder of an E-Spinner has stolen my heart.  It also has become the most valuable tool in my studio, in terms of time-savings and production speed.

My first day with "Zoe" (my Vespera) was spent in getting acquainted with her and giving her a bath with Howard Feed-N-Wax. I couldn't bear that she looked thirsty in her unfinished form.  Honestly, simply taking the time to give her a "drink" with an initial coating of a nourishing wax really made the beautiful wood grain pop.  I find her quite lovely in her current condition.  Having neither the time nor the inclination to finish her beyond "feeding" her with a nourishing wax, I moved right on to getting acquainted with her tension and the speed increase.  Zoe and I were made for each other.  She quite patiently and obligingly spun beautifully at various tension adjustments and speeds.  By the end of Day 1, my new Vespera, Zoe, and I were fast friends.  By the end of Day 2, I was able to ply a weeks worth of spinning (done on my Symphony) and I was, indeed, one happy camper!

My one difficulty with the Vespera is understanding the workings of the drive band.  Everything in my spinning education over the years has taught me that drive bands should not be tight, bearing in mind that the extent of my spinning education has been with double drive wheels.  The original band provided with the wheel worked perfectly.  Unfortunately, I broke that band by attempting to nip off some of the extruding melted poly material at the join, which seemed to make the band slip as it passed around the motor pulley.  I rejoined the original band but that seemed to make it too tight and what looked like sawdust, from the groove in the bobbin, littered the table below the Vespera and a glob of it went into the motor. After frantically using a can of compressed air to blow the sawdust out of the motor, I sat and stared at Zoe for a good long time, trying to understand how much belt tension she wanted.  I have read several posts which seem to imply that it doesn't really matter how tight the drive band is, yet I find that very hard to believe, based on my sawdust memories. Apparently, several people use the small, rubber drive band that came with the original sewing machine motor. While, personally, I feel that is a bit too tight for the Vespera, particularly if you're planning to ply (which requires that you twist the drive band), maybe my understanding of e-spinners is lacking in appropriate drive band tension. I'm hoping to get some comments to this post to enlighten me on that topic.

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, the above drive band issue is tiny compared to the many pluses of this little wonder.  My only other wish for improvement to the Vespera would be to extend the flyer arms to the end of the bobbin so that it's not required to remove and turn the bobbin in order to fill it. When you are spinning as fast as this spinner allows, the need to stop, remove the bobbin, turn it, and replace the bobbin to simply fill the other end of the bobbin gets somewhat annoying, as it occurs very frequently at these speeds.

All that being said, I love, love, love Zoe, my new Vespera!  I couldn't live without her now.  If you're thinking of buying an e-spinner, look no further than Heavenly Handspinning.

My Favorite LYS Isn't Really L...

I have spent many years and traveled tens of thousands of miles accumulating what is, by all accounts, a shockingly huge yarn stash. As my husband tells me frequently, I could start knitting right now and knit every minute of the rest of my life, and never come close to running out of yarn. The recent advent of the 'reality show' genre has everyone I know totally convinced that I must plead guilty to being a yarn and fiber 'hoarder.' Were the moniker not already taken, I could safely be known as a Yarn Harlot. All that being said, I really should not have to buy yarn ever again; particularly since my other passion is spinning. Alas, when I'm not buying new yarn, I am spinning it.

Having lived all over the world at one point or another in my life, I have had several LYS (local yarn shop[s]). However, once I discovered Knit Picks, they became my one and only LYS (though not terribly local) forevermore. I can't even remember how I first found them; most likely in a knitting mag or while searching for some tool I needed. From that first visit on, I have become a true Knit Picks devotee and the love affair continues to this day.

If my recollection is accurate, I believe my first purchase from them was their Options Interchangeable Nickel Plated Circular Knitting Needle Set. From then on, I could not live without Knit Picks wide selection of tools, which truly are created with the knitter in mind. Having fallen deeply in love with their Nickel Plated Circulars, I promptly put my Addi Turbos away. While Addi is a great knitting needle, I consistently have problems with their cables. Once I had my hands on that first set of little, floppy purple cables, my heart soared. I have tried the Harmony needles, which are indescribably beautiful. Unfortunately, I have panicky visions of snapping the delicate wood in half and am afraid to invest in the full Harmony circular set. Based on my experience with Knit Picks customer service, however, I am quite certain that snapped needle would be replaced in an instant.

After buying nearly ALL of Knit Picks tools (and I still buy the new ones as they come out), I began sampling their yarn. It's not as though I really need any yarn, yet I always find some pattern I want to knit that my stash just doesn't seem to cover. Actually, it probably DOES cover it but I'm just too lazy to go to the basement to look through my yarn bins (shhhh-h-h-h-h)! My favorites include their sock yarns, particularly Stroll and Stroll Kettle-Dyed. My latest favorite is their Shine yarn (any and ALL weights). The first time I felt this wonderful yarn, I couldn't stop "petting" it, I just feels wonderful in your hands. While it's a Spring/Summer blend of cotton and modal, I can't make myself STOP buying it. I just keep telling myself I'll have a great stash for next Spring's knitting. My favorite colorway (of all time) in the Knit Picks line is Queen Anne, named for cherries of the same name. Sometimes, I just surf over to Knit Picks to admire that colorway and to send up a little prayer that someday, the colorway will be included in ALL of their yarn lines.

In closing, give yourself a little treat no matter how large your stash may be, and check out all the offerings at Knit Picks. You'll never regret it! I highly recommend them!

eBay Buyer Beware... Great Wool, Dirty Roving

Currently, I am going through my inventory of raw fleeces, rovings, etc. and processing them for winter spinning. No better time of year to scour dirty fleeces, dye fibers, and prep them for processing than summer, when the sun is hot and the fibers dry in a flash. In doing so, I ran across this old roving which I bought ages ago (around 2002) from an eBay seller.

When I first received this purchase, I was flabbergasted (and more than a little annoyed). I took one look at this horribly dirty roving, heavily laden with vegetable matter, and tossed it in one of my wool bins for a time when I could stand to look at it. Today is that day.

The fiber itself is a deliciously soft wool (can't now remember breed, it has been too long ago), but my guess is merino blended with some lesser wool. It is truly next to the skin soft. However, the amount of veggie matter left in this fleece and sent to a processor for roving is mind blowing! It is apparent to me that the seller of this wool had little care for the quality of the fiber they were selling, they just wanted it sold fast. While I certainly don't mind picking fleeces, one does not expect to have to pick a commercially prepared roving. Shame on the eBay seller, who will remain nameless.

In any event, I have now combed, carded (again and again), and picked this roving to the point of usability. I purchased a bit over 3 lbs and it has taken a great deal of time to get it to its current state of affairs. I am now blending this wool with baby Suri alpaca, 60% alpaca/40% mystery roving. Even at this stage, I will still have to pick out vegetable matter while spinning. It is unbelievable to me that this roving, commercially prepared, was sold in this very filthy fashion.

Moral: Be very, very careful what fibers you buy from eBay! Know your seller!!

First Magic Loop Socks

I have been toying with the idea of trying the magic loop technique/method of knitting small circumferences, rather than using double points. A small project seemed ideal for my experimentation -- eureka!! SOCKS! After deciding on the needle technique, I had to decide how I wanted to knit the socks; from top to toe or bottom up. Bottom up always wins with me, since I hate fiddling with the toes at the end and am not a big fan of grafting. The beauty of knitting socks from the toe up is that you can try them on while knitting to ensure a great fit. I decided on a great toe-up cast-on technique called Judy Becker's Magic Cast-On. Then I rummaged through my stash and found some sock yarn. For this project, I used Knit Picks Kettle-Dyed Stroll for the toes, heel and cuff and Red Heart Heart & Sole. I discovered that the Magic Loop is an awesome way to knit small circumferences and, I tend to prefer it over both double points and the two-circular method. Give it a try! You'll love it!