Spinning

Welcome back! Happy 100th Day of School!

I hope you had fun playing in the snow last week. There was a lot of it!

Your teacher told me that the only questions you have been writing down are, "Do you have a pig?" and "Do you have a horse?" Since I've already answered those questions I won't take time to answer them again.

You are all smart enough to think of other questions!

*     *     *     *     *

Wow! It's cold outside! It's a nice day to do chores, then work on indoor projects.

I thought you might like to see some spinning so Matt took a few short videos for you to look at.

This video is really short. Can you see my foot pedaling? It's making the wheel on the spinning wheel go around and around. 

The wheel is attached to the pedal by a short cord.

When my foot works the pedal, the pedal pushes the wheel around.

This is what happens to the wool when I'm spinning it into yarn.

You'll have to watch very closely to see how the yarn winds onto the bobbin.
When the bobbin is full, I take it off and start a new bobbin.

Today was a short post, but it took me a while to put it together. I had to take my spinning wheel out, clean off all the dust, grease it so that it would spin, and put on a new cord! I haven't had time to spin on my spinning wheel for quite a few years. 

Every year at Christmas I spin on a drop spindle at the Alpine Living Nativity. It's a lot of fun to answer people's questions and let them watch me.

Here is a 'fun fact' 

Did you know Mrs. Hahn used to spin, too? She did! She wanted to learn how when she was younger so we both took a class together on spinning wool into yarn.

If you have questions about spinning, I hope you write them down and send them to me. Or if you are reading this online, please ask your question in the comment section. I'd love to answer you!

Have a great 100th Day of School, and have a great week, too!

Teaching Spinning

We try to do fun things when we homeschool. Hands-on projects are favorites. This week I taught the children how to use a carder and drop spindle. Here are a few photos from the day. Thanks to Vet2Be for taking them!

 Charging the carder with wool.

The carder all full of wool. The wool is nothing special, just stuff I use for teaching. It wasn't sheared very well so it is great practice wool.

 Me showing the kids how to card :)

One of the hardest concepts for kids to understand is to not dig the teeth of the top carder into the teeth of the bottom carder! One of the kids had the wool pushed way down into the teeth because she didn't understand that the purpose of carding is just to get the fibers going in the same direction and to get the last bits of vegetable matter out.

Each time I teach something I learn how to explain it better for the next time. This was no exception!

Home-made Drop Spindles

I was intrigued by the idea of making drop spindles using old CDs for the whorl. I have seen instructions on the internet to make them and thought I would try my hand at a few since I will be teaching a spinning to some children in a few weeks.

There is big difference between something that is home-made and something that is hand-crafted. All my drop spindles are home-made. Not one of them is beautiful, and not one of them took me more than 15 minutes to make. They aren't beautiful, but they work well. I've spun enough on one of my home-made spindles to knit a small back-pack, so I know they work just fine.

I found the instructions for CD drop spindles at Lifestyle Studies helpful, but I didn't follow them exactly. They do a good job with instructions, so if you are interested, take a look at their link.

I was able to find some old CDs as well as some cup hooks at home. I had to purchase a dowel and a few rubber grommets at the local hardware store. I found the grommets by the electrical supplies. They were only 35 cents each.

I didn't use the blind well nuts as directed in the instructions on Lifestyle Studies, mostly because I'm a cheapskate. I teach for the fun of it and generally don't charge 'tuition' so if I can keep my cost down, then I feel better about my hobbies.

I glued 2 CDs together with some E6000 Crafter's glue and let them dry overnight. I brought my glued CDs to the store, stuck the grommet in the hole and found a dowel that would fit through the hole.

At home I cut the dowel into 12" sections and sharpened one end with a pocket knife. (Vet2Be helped sharpen a few, too.) Then we put the dowel shaft through the CDs with the rubber grommets in place. Since the fit was snug, but not tight, I decided to run a bead of E6000 Crafter's Glue around the bottom of the grommet where it meets the dowel. It made the whole contraption much more secure.

One of my Sheepy friends said I could probably use masking tape to enlarge the dowel to fit in the CD as well. So I also gave that a try, too. I still had two sections of dowel left as well as a few more CDs and cup hooks. I'm almost always willing to experiment, and this experiment saved me 35 cents!

One of the blogs I visited said that she didn't like the CD whorl because it wobbled. I was concerned about that since having a fairly well balanced spindle makes it much easier to learn to spin. It is hard enough to teach kids to spin with a drop spindle, if I give them a spindle that wobbles I would be setting them up for failure. I would much rather have students (children or adults) succeed. In order to get the shaft straight so it wouldn't wobble, I put the drop spindle together with glue around the shaft, then put it in a jar to get the shaft straight. I lined up the shaft with a corner (most of my house is plumb) and let the glue dry overnight.

This is one of the CD spindles with tape around the shaft sitting in a jar to make sure that the shaft stays plumb while the glue is drying.

When I tried the spindle the next day I found that it wasn't wobbly at all. I did end up with one drop spindle that was a little wobbly, but that is because I wasn't careful when I glued the two CDs together. One CD was shifted just a bit to the side.

The other drop spindle in the first photo is made with a round wooden base with a hole drilled in the center. Hubby drilled the hole for me. I found the wooden base at Wal*Mart a few years ago for about $1. I have also used wooden wheels that I found at craft stores for the whorl. The CD drop spindles are definately cheaper.

The only thing I would do differently on the CD spindles is use hardwood dowels. The hardware store only had pine dowels, so that is what I bought. My old wooden spindles all have hardwood dowels for the shaft. I like the feel of the hardwood better. It is also easier to drill a pilot hole for the cup hook in the hardwood dowels.

One thing I did notice about the CD whorls is that they are much slipperier around the edge. So when I 'lock up' the yarn around the bottom, it tends to slip around the CD. The wooden whorls don't have that problem. I haven't thought of a way to fix that problem yet. I know that will make it a bit trickier for students to 'lock up' the yarn.

A view of the bottoms of 3 drop spindles. Left to right: a wooden whorl made from a sculpture base found at Wal*Mart (yes, that is a rubber band holding the wooden whorl on the shaft), CD whorl with tape to enlarge the spindle, CD whorl with a rubber grommet.

I now have 11 drop spindles, 4 made from CDs and 7 made from wooden parts. That's enough to teach a bunch of people how to spin!

Spinning Wheels

I've been teaching a neighbor and her cousin how to spin the last two weeks. Originally the neighbor's mom asked how much I would charge to teach someone to spin. Ummm.... I don't charge! There are some things that I do just because I enjoy them. I won't charge to teach them because I don't want to turn a fun hobby into a business. I just want to enjoy it and I want the other person to ejoy it, too.

I started with the drop spindle because that is the way I learned. I think it is much easier to draft and let the twist travel up while you are holding the spindle still. Then spin the drop spindle a bit to twist the yarn, hold it still, and let the twist travel up the draft. Once you get the hang of how the drafting feels when using a drop spindle, it is much easier to move to the spinning wheel.

My drop spindles are all home-made, not hand crafted. You can see the dowel going through a circular wooden stand I bought at Wal*Mart. Hubby drilled a hole in the center of the stand and I sharpened the bottom of the dowel with a knife.

At the top of the dowel I drilled a small pilot hole and then screwed in a small cup hook. I sanded everything smooth, but I did not do a fantastic job of it. I just got most of the rough edges off. Since I used these drop spindles when I teach in elementary schools, I also penciled an arrow (not in the picture) to show which direction to spin the spindle.

Since I haven't taught spinning in a long time, I had to review the beginning techniques for spinning. I found this great YouTube video. Spinning 101 on Knitting Daily TV Episode 213. She goes through the basics in the video and even uses an Ashford Saxony wheel.

The hardest thing to get used to on the spinning wheel is keeping the wheel going at a smooth, steady pace and drafting the fiber at the same time. It takes a bit of coordination until you get the hang of it.

My wheel is an Ashford Traveler and I love it. It has the double drive assembly, but I usually use the scotch tension because it is easier to adjust. Maybe one day I will upgrade to a double treadle spinning wheel (maybe a Schacht). I haven't had any problems with mine so I'm not ready to 'fix what ain't broke". My Traveler is about 17 or 18 years old and has spun lots of yarn without any trouble.

This is my wheel, an Ashford Traveller.

The flyer assembly. Many years ago the original string broke. I replaced it with Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn. Works like a charm! Someone told me I should rub the yarn with beeswax so it would have more grip. I haven't, but I suppose that if it slipped alot I would give that a try.

Usually the spring and summer time is filled with outdoor activities like weeding and gardening. But this spring has blessed us with so much rain that I've been back indoors enjoying knitting, spinning, reading, and playing guitar.