Dabbling

I've had a good week just dabbling with this and that.


 I've been re-reading Judith MacKenzie McCuin's The Intentional Spinner for the second time. What a fabulous book!    This is one of those books that has something to teach spinners at every level.  Things that I sorta glossed over the first time I read this really clicked with me this time.  And the next time I read it, I bet I will get even more out of it.

The first sixty or so pages are devoted to fibers.  Excellent overview of the most common (and some not-so-common) types of natural and man-made fibers.  Very clear descriptions of how these fibers are formed, with quite a bit of folklore and history thrown in.   First time I read this book, I had only spun a bit of sheepswool.  Having spun bits of several other types of fibers, I found myself relating to much more information.  Makes me want to try every fiber she describes.  Chapter Four, on "science of fibers" has more information on how to identify "mystery" fibers than I have seen in one place and now I feel the need to start burning bits of my stash.

Now I'm into the section on drafting techniques, ogling all the different tools I haven't yet added to my studio.  She shows some absolutely wicked looking wool combs, among other neat things.   Only critique I have of the book so far is that the type is too small for me to read clearly in the early morning or late evening hours when my eyes aren't at their most alert.   But I suppose the book would have to be twice as large if the type face was bigger, so guess I'll invest in higher magnification reading glasses and stop griping.

This book is high on my list of recommended reading for serious spinners and fiber geeks. 





After a hiatus of 30 or so years, I finally decided to try my hand at knitting again.  Like I need any more hobbies.  But a book of prayer shawls that I received automatically from my craft book club and forgot to return in time has been calling to me.


Straightening out my stash the other day (and I have been keeping my promise to spend a few minutes every day cleaning out the studio), I saw the perfect yarn for one of the shawls.  Naturally the shawl design requires intermediate knitting skills, so I decided to give myself a break and knit a simple K2P2 pattern with some Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair I found at Big Lots a couple of years ago.

Figured out why my hands used to hurt when I  knit.  I keep a death grip on the left-hand needle.  The right hand action is not so easy to describe.  Picture playing jacks, with the knitting needle as the ball.  I have the yarn gripped in my ring and pinky fingers, which are folded as tightly as possible.  I drop the needle, grab the yarn with my thumb and forefinger, wrap it around the needle, and grab the needle again.  No wonder that a) my hands were killing me and b) WTH?

As goofy as it sounds, I was actually a pretty fast knitter.  Had to be, I guess, to be able to keep any control over the right hand needle.   Decided to work on technique and learn to loop the yarn with my index finger and R-E-L-A-X the ring and pinky fingers on both hands.  I'm doing quite well on the left, but have to keep stopping and purposely opening up the fingers on the right.  Did a few dozen practice rows earlier this week, until I stopped dropping stitches.  Today I finally cast on and knitted just five rows of 80 stitches in an hour.  At this rate, I'll be done in 3.5 years.  Or so.

Been studying more about preparing alpaca fiber.  I'm still not happy with the amount of VM left in the fiber after washing, picking and carding.  Seems that a lot of people who work with alpaca use tumblers to help clean and open up their fibers.  There are several people who make tumblers just for this purposes, but they seem awfully expensive.  Of course, I thought batts were awfully expensive till I actually prepared my own, so who knows?  Yesterday I ran across someone who uses an old gas dryer as a tumbler.  It's not connected to a gas supply, so there's no issue with heating the fibers.  Did a little searching, and found out there are quite a few people doing this.  You can pick up an old gas dryer for $15-30.  A couple of people have hot-glued big nails to rare earth magnets, and stick these on the drum to help pick open the fibers.   Genius!  So guess who will be looking for a used gas dryer one of these days?

Have just about doubled the amount of spun yarn on my kick spindle.  Blood pressure doing just fine, thank you!

Judith MacKenzie McCuin - Another Rock Star!

Writing about Judith MacKenzie McCuin yesterday started me thinking about the workshop I took last September.  It was hosted by the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild, which reminds me of one of the reasons why I love my fiber arts community so much.  I knew only one member of the group that took this class, yet I was given such a warm welcome and everyone was so friendly, I felt like I was among old friends.  I think there are no strangers in this craft  - just friends you haven't met yet.

The workshop I attended was one of three offered -- one titled "Spinning for Color" and two sessions on "Popular Wheel Mechanics."  In hindsight, I think I would have tried to sign up for all three if I had had any idea how interesting and inspiring Judith would turn out to be.   She shared a lot of personal anecdotes as she guided us through the mechanics of different types of spinning wheels, shared techniques for getting different results with a single type of fiber just by making a couple of changes to the wheel, and shared quite a few samples of different fibers -- which was what I needed to finally begin to understand how the characteristics of the fiber affect the spinning.   The class was conducted in a circle and it was fascinating to look around and see all but one or two people (there are always at least a couple of THOSE people) hanging on her every word.

I was so caught up in the class that I forgot to take pictures except for this one:

 

Pretty pathetic, because I really would like to show the whole circle.  But that's Judith using a Hansen MiniSpinner, third from the left.

 During the course of the class, Judith made it a point to talk with each person one-on-one at least a couple of times, look at their wheels (she even helped several people replace their drive bands and did some minor repairs) and their work, make suggestions, give gentle praise and even gentler criticism.  This is my idea of a true teacher -- one who shares knowledge, points out where, and more importantly, HOW you can improve, and makes students believe they can master the task.  I'm sure it helps to have students with the desire to learn, but she was working with students at all levels from rank beginner (me) to near-experts and somehow everyone seemed to come out of the class with new skills.  I will definitely take this class again (and anything else she teaches) if the opportunity presents itself.

The moral of this story:  if you have the chance to study with a rock star, take it!  One of the best things about spinning and weaving is the centuries of tradition that have led us to the point where we have access to wonderful tools and all kinds of wonderful fibers.  The best teachers not only share their skills with us, they share the stories and traditions they have learned along the way.  They not only inform, they inspire.  Which may be the reason that I now have pounds of wools and silks in my stash just waiting to tell me what they want to be when they grow up.




 What I actually learned in this workshop:  spinners usually develop a treadling speed that doesn't change regardless of what they're trying to spin -- so to change the thickness of your product, you must vary your tension and whorls.  I made this sample using just three whorls on my Joy and some Corriedale roving.  For each size, I increased the tension until it became impossible to spin, then moved to the next whorl. at the lowest tension that would draw in. 

We also tried several different techniques: woolen, worsted, semi-worsted, over-the-fold, techniques for joining fibers, plying, some novelty yarns with slubs and boucle.  And different types of fibers - blends of wools with cashmere, silk, and bamboo, as well as several types of sheepswool. 

By the time we reached this point my brain could take in no more and I didn't finish sampling all the fibers and techniques Judith presented.  All the more reason that I would take this class again in a heartbeat!

Oh, yes -- and reminiscing about this workshop and the wonderful people I met, I was reminded that I had been intending to join the guild because they have such great programs.  Sent in my application form today.