Ropes and Gourds

So in my last post, I had just taken a ropemaking workshop with Gwen Powell.  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the class, even the part where I practice stop, drop, and roll without intending to.

After the class I went home and spent the evening surfing the web for more information about ropemaking.  It became an obsession.  By the next morning, I NEEDED a rope jack.

Contacted Stephanie at Dragonfly Farms - the website for Stephanie Gaustad and Alden Amos.  He made the rope jack we used in class.  Their products are specialty items, so they don't have inventories rope jacks waiting to be purchased.  In fact, there would be a pretty long wait if I ordered one.  As nice as their machine is, I needed one NOW, so I kept looking.

On any given day, you can  find about half a dozen rope machines on ebay.  I know because I've been watching daily for a few weeks.  So far there has been only one modern looking machine, and the rest have been antiques in varying conditions.  The machines  have had anywhere from three to five hooks.  Tempting, but cast iron can decay -- and can fracture under tension - such as the tension required to twist a rope.



After a couple of days looking for a maker of new machines, I decided there was no such beast.  And decided to order a gadget for making cords -- same concept but smaller output.  I had seen a Bradshaw cordmaker somewhere, and been intrigued by it.  I ordered it from Louise French and it arrived within a couple of days.   Excellent service!

This is a really fun tool and does not require more than one person to use.  An advantage over ropemaking that almost had me convinced to stop pining for the bigger machine.

 
 The cordmaker attaches to your power drill.  To add stability, you can rig up a sled for it.  I'd like to do this eventually -- making it high enough that the side of the cordmaker doesn't touch the work surface -- would definitely prevent accidental wear and tear.

It also comes with a wooden "outend" that has four hooks corresponding to the hooks on the cordmaker.  Clamp this to something at right angles to the work surface and you're set.

The "outend"

Basically, you run your yarns/strings/threads between the cordmaker and the outend.  You can run material between hooks on the outend to avoid having to make lots of cuts and knots, but you should never do this on the cordmaker because its hooks must be able to spin.  You don't have to use the same materials on each hook, but they should be equivalent in thickness or the cord will not twist evenly.  You also want to make sure to have the same tension on hook.

Then you get to start twisting!  For the first twist, you hold the cordmaker carefully by the side and start the drill.  Because you are restricting the case, the individual hooks will turn, putting twist into each group of strands.  As you continue to twist, the drill will be pulled toward the outend.  How much you let it twist depends on the materials you are using and how tight you want your final product.

When you have decided you have enough twist, then you stop the drill and wait for the hooks to stop rotating.  Let go of the cordmaker case so the whole thing can rotate.  Start the drill, and watch while it twists all of your groups of strands together. When you have decided that the cord has enough twist (another subjective decision), stop the drill, and tie off the cords at each end to prevent them from unraveling before you remove them from the hooks.  Depending on what you're going to do with the cord, you could also tape the ends. 

 I've been having a lot of fun with the cordmaker -- figuring out how to finish the ends neatly for jewelry has been a bit of a challenge (I'm not fond of jewelry that is simply tied on).  I actually went to a local bead store and the person there had no clue what I was talking about.  What I wanted was actually called a cord end (pretty arcane, huh?).

So here's a look at a few of the things I've been working on...

 

But the story doesn't end with the order for the cordmaker.  Because I just couldn't leave it alone. No,  I got hooked on YouTube videos about ropemaking, and saw several where the people mentioned "Rope Master."   I did a lot of websurfing on the name, but there's apparently a professional jumprope athlete (seriously!) and a mountain climbing rope by the same name.

The day after I ordered the cordmaker, I came across a link to "Farm Collector" but it led to a page full of farm equipment and no rope machines in sight.  Frustration!  I'll dispense with the boring details, but more tedious poking around that website finally resulted in this page.   I couldn't even tell if it was a current ad, but I called the number and left a message, figuring nothing would come of it.

Just a couple of hours later, I got a call from Mr. Rope Master.  He still makes and sells the machines, and we had a nice long conversation.  A very interesting man.  And my check to pay for my new 4-hook Rope Master was in the mail that afternoon.  In under a week, my machine was delivered.  It includes the twister on a stand, a hook for use as the "outend,", and a rope guide --  it's hanging on the hooks in the photos below and looks a little like a fancy bubble blowing wand.  And the machine is red!  Huzzah!

Now all I had to do was round up some friends to make rope.  Some pals and I had been planning a short trip to Welburn Gourd Farm over the July 4 holiday weekend, so I asked if they would like to make some ropes after we returned.  Didn't have to twist any arms.

On Thursday and Friday, I decided to work off some of my extravagance guilt by cleaning up my studio, which had again become a dumping place for things that needed a place to go.  And to make room for another addition to the studio (part of the extravagance guilt) that I will talk about next time.  After I've done something productive with it so I don't look like a complete flake.  I'm ok with being a partial flake, I guess.

Anyway, I had some things that took up a lot of shelf space because they don't "shelf" nicely.  I enjoy seeing them so I won't put them in boxes to save room.

I had a couple of packages of those Command removable hooks, so I hung them on the wall.

Got back a little shelf space and I get to enjoy looking at them every time I walk into the studio.

Now I'm looking around the studio for other things  I can hang on the walls because I like it so much.

Wonder if I can attach stuff to the ceiling?




  So Saturday arrived.  Field trip time!  I wasn't really interested in gourds.  I have no talent for drawing, carving, painting, etc.  And what else do you do with a gourd?  But I wanted to go just because I adore these ladies and knew we'd have a great time together.  And we did.  But I had no intention of buying any gourds.  None.

OK, so I saw some dolls that had been made using jewelry-sized gourds for the heads.  They were turned on their sides so the neck of the gourd was the doll's nose.  Did you ever see a dog so homely that you kinda fell in love with it?  I couldn't stop looking at these dolls and thinking I could do that.  These were made up as fairies, but I'm seeing a spinster, a weaver, a knitter, etc., each with her little tools and partially finished project.   The only thing I'd have to paint is the eyes.  Wonder who I can get to paint the eyes for me?   I came home with a handful of very small gourds. 

We had a great afternoon making rope.  So now we're thinking about cool things to make with all these ropes. I have a feeling our family and friends are going to get pretty tired of receiving rope-encrusted objects on gift-giving occasions.

  

Gwen Powell Workshops

In mid-June, the Saturday Spinners hosted a two-day workshop with Gwen Powell.  Gwen has earned a certificate of excellence in handspinning from the HGA (there are only twelve people who have reached this level), and she's become well known for having worked with Clemes & Clemes to develop their very popular blending board. 

On Saturday, we had a class on using the blending board and spinning woolens from the rollags.  Gwen showed so many techniques I couldn't keep up!  I still have a pile of rollags to spin up one of these days.  But I think I have made better friends with my board and now I know what to do with all those little orts of yarns and threads I've been stashing away.

Rollag

Spun singles

I think the first thing we did was some simple striping -- just laying out rows of different colors in varying widths on the board.  

Gwen gave some instruction on woolen spinning -- something I've avoided.  I did very poorly at first.  I'd like to say I was getting the hang of it by the end of the day, but all I can say is that I was doing less poorly.  A few thousand hours of practice and I might get a handle on it.

Another technique we tried was color blocking - overlapping colors slightly, while keeping the fibers all going in the same direction.  I got a little carried away.














We also played with loading the board in different directions.  I started to do just a little cross-hatching but it got away from me and I ended up with a bizarre plaid.  But I like the way the rollags turned out.  Wonder how they'll spin up?

Laying down cross-hatched pieces

Added thin layer of dark brown over all to give stability

The 'plaid' rollags

Garneted singles

 Then we tried some garneting.  I remember garneting boards from my first incarnation as a wannabe spinner.  They were terribly expensive and I wasn't skilled enough (ok, at all) to really consider getting one.  In garneting, you basically tangle little bits of interesting stuff into your base.  If all goes well, most of the stuff stays in when you spin it.  I chopped up small pieces of a filmy purple chiffon and an opaque gold fabric into tiny pieces, along with some little bits of chopped up gold thread, and cross-hatched those bits here and there on the board that was already loaded with my base material.  Seemed simple, but it was challenging to get the little bits to stick without pulling up the base.  This technique is going to take a lot more practice but I really liked the results.  Most of the bits actually stayed in the yarn when I spun my singles, and I lost just a few when I plyed them.

Just part of the unspun rollags from class

Saturday's class

 Check out Gwen's videos about the blending board on YouTube.

IEHG West Dye Fest June 1

Where does the time go? 

I've been to so many classes and group events, I can't even remember everything that's gone on since Studio 66. So I'm going to write a brief (for me) post for each of the highlights.  First...

IEHG West Dye Fest...  at the home of one of our members who has a dyeing station at her home.  We had jugs of the acid dyes left over from Studio 66, and did microwave dyeing on all sorts of things.   I got carried away with a gorgeous shade of turquoise and used it on nearly everything. 

Even though it was one of the hottest days of the season, we had such a good time playing with dyes and oohing and aahing over everyone's results. And of course I was so busy enjoying the moment, I didn't think to take photos.  We had drying racks full of the most brilliant colors all over the yard, and I just wish I could show them here.

By the way, I learned that Reduran does quite a good job at removing dye from skin.  Ask me how I know this.

A few days later, I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures so I took these with my phone.  Then learned that it captures turquoise as blue.  So the photos here have all been photoshopped to get back some of the actual color, but they don't do the real things justice.  Guess I'm going to have to break down and get some batteries for my digital camera.

Silk Hankies

More Silk Hankies

Mohair Locks.  There are actually twelve different combinations of colors - but the phone camera loses a lot of detail.

Wool Roving - looks pretty garish.  May overdye...

Just can't get the color anywhere near realistic on this.  I painted one long edge of this silk scarf with teal and the other with purple, and let them blend in the center.

I started with turquoise on the ends of this scarf and added a little teal every few inches as I painted toward the center.

Wool roving - pure turquoise

More wool - turquoise with more purples and pinks than shows here.

This was a really ugly yellowy-beige wool that made my eyes hurt.  I squirted some red, pink, and purple dyes on it randomly and got this gorgeous coloring.  Now wish I'd had more of that ugly stuff.

Studio 66 Retreat 2013!

Artwork from my Studio 66 tote bag.

The Studio 66 retreat was last month and I'm still trying to get myself organized.



Full disclosure...  Studio 66 is the work of three amazing women who have been my teachers and friends for several years.   They, like so many of my fiber friends, are very generous and mean the world to me.  So when they asked me, a shrinking violet, to demonstrate the bow loom weaving I learned with Marilyn Romatka at Convergence, I immediately agreed.  Silly me!






 Somehow along the way I managed to turn a brief demo into a whole class on the subject.  I've been trying to lure some non-fiber friends into the fiber world by teaching them this simple but fun technique and it didn't seem that much of a stretch to teach it to a group.  I figured maybe 5-10 people would be interested enough to sign up for the class, so I decided to put together kits with all the supplies needed and to make the looms in advance. 

Then people started signing up.  Thirty-five of them!  I decided to put together fifty kits to accommodate any stragglers and a few friends I'm going to be teaching later.  It was actually fun assembling the kits.  I wanted everyone to be able to work with colors they like, so I shopped for lots of pretty beads and pearl cotton in many colors.  And somehow ended up with enough materials to make 60 kits like this.   Hardest part was cutting sponges into several pieces and then cutting five slots in each piece to use for a "bridge" to organize the warp on the loom.

The bow looms are made by taping a large paper clip to each end of a 1/4" dowel.   I cleaned out three local hardware stores trying to buy enough dowels to make 80 looms (for 60 kits plus anticipated breakage).   And got some strange looks from three different store clerks who couldn't resist asking why I was buying all those dowels.

In the midst of all this preparation, I had to make a business trip to Berkeley two weeks before the retreat.  I hauled along a few of the looms and supplies to make some samples to show the class.   And found that I didn't have time to do much.  So I wisely decided that it would be more effective to show samples of pieces in all phases of construction.

Here's a close-up of one of my samples to show what the fabric looks like.  It's a pretty tightly-packed weft-faced weave.

So far, everything going according to plan except for the samples I had hoped to make.  Until the morning I drove home from Berkeley.

Started with a little sore throat.  Which got worse and worse on the 7-hour drive.  By the time I got home, all I could do was drag my pitiful self off to my chair, where I pretty much spent the next week.  When I should have been finishing my kits!

Which takes me to the day before I was to leave for the retreat.  A visit to the doctor resulted in a prescription for a heavy-duty antibiotic to treat what was now a nasty bacterial infection in my throat,  and approval to go to the mountains as long as I didn't tax myself and got plenty of rest.  Ha ha. 

Back story:  I had to leave the first retreat early to take care of a sick pet.  Helped at registration but couldn't stay for the second retreat due to a family wedding.  Beginning to think that there's a curse keeping me away this event, and until Friday morning, I really thought I was going to have to cancel and let my friends down.  Not that the retreat wouldn't have been just as great without my class, but I don't like to break promises.

Doctor promised that the medicine would work wonders quickly.  Thursday evening I frantically finished assembling the kits.  Friday morning, I woke up feeling a little better, so my friend Pat and I piled into my car and drove up to Forest Home. 

I was able to work registration as usual.  This is a treat for me, giving me a chance to greet lots of friends and meet new people.  That night featured a lovely dinner, followed by a make-and-take lesson on making rolled paper beads.  My friend Wendy, who taught the class, knew that I wouldn't be able to do everything, so she had me choose my paper in advance and made a bracelet for me.  Isn't it pretty?

There were also several vendors.  I didn't plan on buying anything at the retreat, but my friend Sydney, who makes beautiful gourd art pieces (among her many other talents) had three gourds decorated with seahorses and I couldn't resist.  I did pass on a very large one and a medium-sized one, because I just don't have room for them.  And later kicked myself because someone else bought them.

I also bought a very healthy cotton plant from Sydney, who gave a demo on growing and spinning cotton at the retreat.  And so far have managed not to kill it despite my talent for killing off plant life.








And I couldn't resist this angora from Sandy at Desert Bloom Angora.  Because I needed more fiber (chortle).  I haven't spun with angora yet, but this was so soft and just the perfect shades of blue. 
















Every retreat has featured a different dyeing technique.  This year we dyed silk.  The retreat provided each of us with torn silk strips, along with all the materials, equipment, and instruction needed.

We brushed the paints on our pre-soaked silk, rolled the strips in plastic wrap, put in baggies, and stuck them in the microwave for up to 10 minutes, depending on the amount of fiber being processed.

As usual, I was so busy doing, I forgot to take pictures until later in the day, but you can see a small sample of the results on the drying rack.






 


I have four lovely bundles with a turquoise base (looks blue here, but it's a gorgeous turquoise in real life) and several different accent colors.

The Studio 66 gang had several items woven from these strips, including shawls and pillow covers.  Don't yet know what I'll do with mine -- perhaps a scarf...







Then came my class.  Got there early to set up and I had a student already waiting for it to begin.  She was a charming lady, and helped me get organized.  As students arrived, I got them started with their looms and I didn't even have time to get nervous.  It was a fun class -- everyone was attentive and courteous, and I hope they had as much fun taking it as I did teaching it.  

Happy Weavers

 I HIGHLY recommend this technique to anyone wanting to get people (even children) started with weaving.  It's inexpensive, simple to teach basic concepts, and gives new weavers a fast success with a finished product in just a few hours.  Marilyn Romatka has an excellent book, Creative Crafts of the World,  that gives instruction in this and a number of other crafts.  I have the Kindle version as well as a hard copy.

All and all, it was a great weekend with many long-time friends, and many new ones. I could go on for hours about all that happened.  Someday I'll get around to telling the lizard story from the first retreat and this year's follow-up.  But I'll close here with with evidence of just how great a time I had --  After I got home and unloaded my car, I sat down to rest a minute and woke up several hours later.  Then went to bed and slept for a solid twelve hours. This from an insomniac who can't sleep more than three hours at a time.   Can't wait for the 2015 retreat!

This and That, and I Add Another Fiber Arts Superstar to My List

Wow, the last few weeks have been crazy.

Saturday Spinners had a dying workshop last month.  Seems like every time I get into dyeing, we use a  different technique, and this was the easiest yet.  Each of us dumped our prepared fiber into a pot of water with a little vinegar, and brought it up to a simmer.  We had a couple dozen different colored dyes mixed in cups, and when the fiber was ready, we poured small amounts of the dyes directly on the fibers.  I dyed half a pound of combed merino top, and the results are the closest to what I intended that I've ever gotten.

I have an uncomfortable feeling that the spun yarn may blend into the color of a fresh bruise, but I'll get around to spinning it pretty soon and we'll see.

A dear friend gave me another knitting machine a few weeks ago -- this one a bulky knitter which is now at Newton's getting a tune-up.   Now I have the whole array of possible gauges. What fun!

I've been at a standstill with knitting lessons while I struggle to learn to use the lace carriage.  

Gave myself a break and knitted some sock blanks -- one for a friend to test and one for a door prize at Studio 66 (more on that in my next blog post).  Wendy chose some shades of green and yellow.  Although the colors aren't all that appealing in this photo, I had a chance to see her knitting socks out of the blank last week and they look beautiful. 

The cool thing about these sock blanks is that you machine knit two strands of yarn at once.  Then you knit one sock from each of the strands.  Because they were dyed as one, you get socks that pretty much match.  Some slight variations in color where the dyes don't soak through evenly, but that just adds a little interest IMHO.

At the end of April, I got to study with another fiber arts superstar, Amy Tyler.  Amy's business is Stone Sock Fibers, and you need to visit her site to look at photos of her gorgeous handspun yarns and knitted garments.  Amy teaches loads of workshops on knitting and spinning, and the GLASG guild hosted four workshops with her.  I was able to take a couple of vacation days to attend three of them.

The first was a day-long workshop called "Creating the Yarn You Want."  When I opened up the packet Amy provided and saw all the sample project cards waiting to be filled up, my heart sank.  I thought that at my skill level I would never be able to keep up with the class.  But it turned out to be a fun, no-stress class and I was pretty surprised at the end of the day to realize that not only had I kept pace, I actually had some very pleasing results.

We learned ways to control the thickness and twist in our yarns, and how to ply balanced yarns.

Much of the time was focused on duplicating yarns.  We were given a commercial yarn and asked to match it for thickness.  Then we made some samples, traded with our neighbors, and had to match the thickness of one sample and the twist of another.  


We also did quite a bit of experimenting with twist and drafting speeds. 

I came home from this class feeling like I might actually be a pretty good spinner one of these days. 

In addition to the many samples above, I had a big skein of singles created throughout the day.   Think I'll Navajo ply this one of these days and use it to accent a triangle shawl.






The second full-day class was "Blending Colors at the Wheel."  I have to confess that I am color-challenged.  I tend to stick to the same handful of "safe" colors that I prefer (reds, blues, and purples) and am not terribly adventurous about mixing colors and using those outside my comfort zone.  So I purposely tried to choose other colors when we had the opportunity to make selections.

The first thing we studied was the way thickness of spinning affects color.   Amy gave us samples of two different colors of top and had us spin a thick sample and a thin sample of each.  Then we plied thin to thin and thick to thick.   We also did the same with two different colors of roving.

Not surprising, the color differences stood out more in the thicker samples, while they tended to blend together visually in the thin samples. 








Then we worked on pre-drafting roving.  Here are some sample skeins of some lovely Coopworth wool called "Fairy Dust" from Hidden Valley Farm.

For the sample on the left, we were instructed to create a thick yarn with low twist.  On the right is my "default" yarn.  You can see how the colors in the thick yarn have kept more of their individuality.



We did a fun study of relative percentages.  Instructed to choose a light value and a dark value I chose a rusty brown (outside comfort zone) and a cream (safe).  We blended them 25% dark, 75% light, 50/50, and 75% dark, 25% light.  The result is three different but harmonious yarns.  I just love these three yarns, even though I would not have chosen this brown in the real world.



In this exercise, we chose four random colors.  I picked green (ok),  coral (ugh) and blue and gray (pretty). 

Then we spun the largest bit of color (gray) into one single.  We broke up the other colors into smaller pieces, mixed them at random and spun another single. 

Finally we plied the two singles together. 

I'm still not wild about the coral color, but I do like the overall result.

This sample is from my favorite exercise.  I picked three colors I like - red, cream, and medium gray, and one I don't - brown. 

We broke each into bits of various lengths, then randomly selected one bit at a time to spin two singles.  Finally, we plied the two singles together.  The result looks a bit like the fractals I spun a few months ago, but much more random.  I love this yarn and one of these days I'm going to duplicate it in larger quantity. 




After class, a few of us went to dinner with Amy.   What a fun evening!

The third day we had a guild meeting, lunch, and a half-day class on  "Spinning with Silk Hankies."  This was the most challenging of the three for me.  I had never spun silk except blended with alpaca, let alone worked with hankies.

Class began with a "hand spa."  No matter how smooth you think your hands are, this silk snags like nobody's business.  After an exfoliating scrub, we slathered on lotion, and still the silk snagged - just not as much.

Working with the hankies turned out not to be as difficult as I had expected, but still much harder than wool.  We got to pick a couple of different pieces out of a pile of beautifully colored hankies (just a section of them shown here) to work with.

Then we learned how to separate the layers, draft them into gossamer ribbon-like strands, and spin them.  We played with the amount of twist, did some Navajo ply, and created a two-ply marled yarn by trying to match the twist in a silk strand with wool and plying them together.   I still have some exercises to finish but this was a good introduction to spinning silk.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much I bought several packets of hankies to dye and spin from Nancy's Custom Handweaving (she usually brings a load of fibers, books, and tools to guild meetings). 


I thoroughly enjoyed all three classes and would take any of them again.  I learned a lot but there's a lot more I could learn from Amy.  She is a personable, engaging teacher, and her instruction was clear and easy to follow.  I just read through the handouts she provided -- they're terrific, and will help me remember all the information Amy shared in the classes.  

I have more to talk about, but it's going to have to wait for my next post.  Coming up...  Studio 66 Retreat 2013!