Fibre Christmas!

Been awhile since I last posted, so I'll catch you up on my last couple months' progress...

I got 15 items into Studio Fair, and sold 8 of them (all the yarn I put in, plus half the bookmarks). Most of the items pictured in the last photo are at new homes now.

I turned the blue tape into a bookmark and 2 lanyards - one neck-length, one wrist-sized - figuring I'd at least get feedback on what people thought. Most liked them, but overall, I heard several requests for break-away hardware, since many job sites require it for safety. There are still some applications where it's preferable to have a solid lanyard, so eventually I'll try to have a mix. There's lots of time before next year for that.

Fibre Christmas - I invested fairly heavily in my fibre business this year, and bought a few items from Birkeland Bros, to help them get re-started in their new location, and because I wanted to get moving on the Tent From Hell as quickly as possible. Their natural black crossbred sliver is just the ticket - the quality is lower than I'd hoped, but for a tent, that matters a lot less than it would for other applications. Because the shipping was nearly as much as the fibre, I gritted my teeth, and ordered a pound of merino locks and 100g of black tencel to mitigate the cost. It'll be a consideration on future orders, but not a deterrent - the options here are limited, and I like to support local/regional/Canadian businesses whenever possible.

Progress pic - more or less... since some of what I finished sold (again) ;)

After Studio Fair, to raise funds for the Guild, and help move items that didn't sell there, we had an open house - and as usual, more internal trading happened than external. Isn't that how it works everywhere?

My plunder (some purchased, some gifted, some traded - I've finished more 'elf work' in another weaver's studio)

Yeah, it's _very_ purple - but the natural grey is _lovely_, and I already have several greens in my stash, as well as quite a bit of brown and black alpaca. We'll see where it leads - and I'll be buying more, I'm sure... but I want to spin some of what I have, now that my stash is diminished from selling a goodly chunk of what I finished this year. I've been pondering what do work with on my combs, since the first batch of combings looked so good.

The wheel has definite perks, like holding more yarn than my smaller spindles (the bobbin in the first photo has 100g of merino/silk on it) - I'll have to consider that going forward. Do I want to sell larger skeins, or 'whatever I make'-sized skeins... with finer yarns, I could go either way, and for tape weaving it doesn't matter at all, but knitters aren't used to irregular/random put-up, so there will be education involved, or I might need to standardize, and keep the 'orts' for my own work...

So many directions I could go... more research is needed ;)

Just realized I missed photos of the 2 tablet warps I have on the big inkle - I'll post them when I make some progress!

Scattered, but still progress.

Not a lot has happened since my last note - but I've still managed to give some stuff away before photographing it... when will I learn?

Progress Group Photo:

MIA: 2 inklette lengths of linen and cotton/linen/probable ramie, and 3 bookmarks - given away as Largesse for an upcoming SCA event. (also did a few repeats on the celtic knot tape that's been on the loom forever)

Finished plying and whapping the Daffodil merino, finished plying the River Wide merino/silk, but have yet to skein/whap it, and add a counting string. Started using my Ashford Turkish for its intended purpose - currently plying ball#2 of the Tent Project.

The Anne Dixon Inkle book arrived, and the tape on the inklette is the first of my 'work through the book' pieces - a variation on the dots and squares from page 18. It's currently stiff as a board, but even the linen was flowy and soft after proper wet-finishing, so I'll wait and see. I was shocked at how well the singles linen behaved - I was expecting it to untwist and shred, or at least shed heavily under all the abrasion from weaving, but it was fine - the suspected ramie, on the other hand, _will_ need some sort of help. I'll play with beeswax or Thread Heaven before I go so far as preparing linseed dressing, since it's only one yarn that needs the attention.

The ThreadsThruTime Tiny Turkish spindle is my latest, (and hopefully la$t for awhile) purchase - the ball of silk I've just started plying has been my coffeeshop spinning for the past few weeks. I'm trying a new tactic - using a hair stick as a plying nostie, so the inside of the ball can't collapse fully, and start to tangle - the single was pretty high-twist, and I don't trust it not to snarl. Jury's still out on whether the extra fiddling is worth it.

The remaining bookmarks will go into my Studio fair stash, and hopefully I'll get another set or two done. I still have to decide how I'm mounting them for display. I also have to chart and weave at least one commissioned tape that's been on the back-burner for over a year, and warp and start another. (all the more reason to finish or cut off the knotwork tape)

Time management has never been my friend... feeling it now!

Of new looms and progress...

I'll admit it - I'm a collector, and it borders on hoarding. I'm learning to let stuff go, but there are times when a _new_ 'something' is justified. That's the case with my most recent equipment acquisitions. I travel, have a fairly busy life, and wanted to have the ability to bring non-spinning projects on the road, or to coffee shops.

Enter my new toys:

The Ashford Inklette was purchased at the end of May, and the tri-loom early June (that's a slightly better photo of the red skein from my prior post - oddly, it photographed better at night than in daylight...) I also purchased a set of 2-pitch combs from another Guild member, so I can process longer fibres without having to resort to slower manual teasing. With luck, that'll mean more tent spinning this year, since that's been stalled since last summer.

I bought both looms with the idea of using them for weaving in public, and while travelling. Both are extremely portable, and I hope to get some items finished on both in time for Studio Fair. The Guild is suffering some 'momentum' issues, between the ageing membership and waning activity levels, and there has been discussion on whether we would take our 'free' booth for sales, or just display/demo. (Free is in quotes because the Guild earns the space by assisting with Arts Council activities.)

I can't fill it by myself, but I'm committed to making sure it's not entirely empty, and _not_ waste the income opportunity, since the Guild needs those sales as much as I do.

Progress since last post:
I did some plying on the spindle in the photo above, and finished over 120" of tape - didn't photograph it, sadly, because there wasn't time before I had to send it to the Silent Auction winners. Once again, I suppose that means I'll have to make more, so I can add it to the project history.

All that weaving didn't help my neck, so I had to put some things on hold over the weekend - but I did manage to spin 1/3 of a bobbin of Ashland Bay merino/silk, in Rose - which looks more like granite, but will work nicely for some tapes I have in mind.

...it's a bit more grey than that, so it may need a daylight photo. I also started some merino in Ashland Bay Ruby, on a spindle.

As with most things, I don't know how long I'll keep at this, or how much I'll _do_ with a blog - but I've been pondering a more complete picture of my textile meanderings for a couple years now, and sticking with the GoogleVerse is convenient... so here it is.

I guess this latest bit started with a desire to _see_ for myself what actually gets done, rather than moaning about never getting anywhere... so I've started spindle plying while 'wasting time' on the web.

First week's result? ...one skein of merino. Colour is Ashland Bay Cranberry (189 yards, scale says 24-25g, and much deeper red than pictured - all my other photos pushed it MUCH too purple, but it'll never be an easy shade to photograph)

I always find the differences between my spindle and wheel-spun yarns interesting. This is much loftier and has more 'squoosh' than my usual spindle-spun of similar grist, even though my wheel pulls like a small pony.

...I kinda like that in a wheel... forces the yarn to be stronger, which I need for the lace knitting and band weaving it'll become - and _packs_ it on the bobbin, making it much easier to find an end if one breaks, since they can't bury themselves quite as far.

The difference is probably twist angle - I can whip a spindle into adding a LOT more twist than I'm willing to wait for on the wheel - for this weight, I'm usually treadling nearly 4x per inch... Thumbelina tops out at a 6:1 ratio, give or take, so she's no speed demon.