1. Home
  2. Knitting and other yarn carfts
  3. Sunday morning

Sunday morning

The new silk drive band lasted for 7 plying sessions (7 colors, 2 oz each) plus a bit of spinning to finish the 8th color. Today I'm going to try braided monofilament fishing line. I'm leery of using it on the wheel as I don't want it to cut the grooves any deeper in the whorl or bobbins, but I'll keep an eye on things.

The wool I'm almost finished plying off is Romney, commercial tops; I dyed the stuff in 2oz lots back in late January, finally got around to finishing the spinning (thanks to Vintage Purls for some incentive to empty my bobbins!). I have 8 colors: purple, dark orange, Plochman's mustard yellow, goldenrod yellow, old gold, navy blue, Easter Egg Green, and Barbie Pink. I think I'll find some commercially-dyed Romney top in black to use as ground, and make some hugely wild Fair Isle house socks.

Still on needles is the bottom-up fake Faeroese shawl from _Folk Shawls_. Rows are getting shorter, so is my attention span. With empty bobbins I won't be quite so distracted by the urge to spin (don't ask me how that works) so I should make good progress on it for a couple of days. I need to finish it fast because Air Conditioning Weather is here and I want to be done with that huge pile of alpaca/wool yarn in my lap before it gets Really Hot.

Small boy seems to have rediscovered his interest in spinning so before I tie on my new high-tech drive band I'm going to dig his PVC spinner out of the closet, get it put together, and let him practice plying with some commercial ends of yarn. The stuff I have in mind is overspun weaving yarn, with luck his plying practice will turn it into something useful for knitting.

I have some yardwork to do today: I need to spade out some mint and oregano before it takes over the world, and move some lavender from an area that's choked with it to a spot that gets a lot more sun now thanks to a neighbor's tree blowing over in a storm a couple of months ago.

Reply to
WoolyGooly
Loading thread data ...

WoolyGooly spun a FINE 'yarn':

WoolyGooly. . .

With all you've got on your 'sunday-plate' today, I'm surprised that you had time to POST about it all, grin! Me, I'm lazing as far as knitting/spinning goes today, I've a bunch of crapola to get together for my sister "re" the 80th b-day party for mother..... (addresses she doesn't have, print-ups to add to the invitations, etc, AAACCKK!) Noreen who had a wonderful time at the barbeque last night....

Reply to
YarnWright

This morning we had breakfast and DH left me with the kids while he goes to the office to try to meet a deadline. I've been sick as a dog for about 2 weeks, but the antibiotics seem to be doing the trick.

I'm working on some stuff for babies. I decided to combine stash busting with vintage pattern experimenting, and things are going well. I've finished 1 raglan and am working on a little jacket presently. (Note: baby clothes are for yet unconceived tadpoles of other mamas. I'm just using up yarn).

It's a beautiful day, and I'll probably do some yard work, transplant some seedlings, try to keep the boys from really injuring one another.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hesira

Reply to
hesira

I did order a copy of this book and I finally got notification yesterday that it's in the post so I should get it today or tommorow. Soon I will know exactly what you are talking about. :)

VP.

Reply to
Vintage Purls

It's a book worth having. I think there are only two shawls in the book that I have no desire to knit, and one that'll get a major overhaul when I do get around to it...

Reply to
WoolyGooly

It really sounds like there's something wrong with your wheel - I know dozens of spinners, covering pretty much every wheel manufacturer, and I've never known anyone to have this kind of problem with drive bands wearing out so fast. For instance, I've had the same drive band on my wheel for four years - many, many hours of spinning and plying - and it looks new.

Reply to
fiberlicious

Oh yes, no argument from me on that count. I have a wee antique saxony; she's had the same (cotton, lap-spliced) drive band on her for nearly six year.

The problem wheel has a "non-standard" finish on it, which I believe is why the distributor has washed it's collective hands of my problem: they've decided the finish is the problem, not the bad butt joints in the drive wheel itself.

I also pointed out the shit factory sanding jobs on every piece of the thing and the fact that nowhere in the manual does it say bupkiss about doing any pre-finishing sanding - which I did because I'm clueful. I can't imagine I'm the *only* person who has trouble with drive bands on Kromski wheels...

I am currently using a braided monofilament fishing line as a drive band. If it's performance on my electric plying gizmo is any indication it will never give out. I'm worried it'll cut into my whorls though. I think I'll run with fishing line for oh, half an ounce on each bobbin, split evenly between the two whorls I seem to use most often. Today's 20-minute session with the stuff showed me that it will in fact wear down the finish - the whorls and bobbin groove are already much slicker than they were despite my several hours of buffing with 600-grit sandpaper.

After that if a silk driveband goes south on me in less than 20 hours of spinning I will be hard put to NOT personally betake myself and my POS wheel directly to New Voyager and camp on their doorstep until they address my problem...

Reply to
WoolyGooly

Is this the purple painted wheel? So they'd be happy if you finished it with polyurathene but not with paint? I don't care if you'd used gold dust to finish the wheel (actually I would 'cos I want to see it, but that's not the point I'm making here)

- if you've sanded the running grooves then it's a construction issue not a finish issue. Go camp on their doorstep I say.

I'm with fiberlicious I replaced the band on my old wheel with Ashford's "turbo" version by choice not need. And I haven't touched the one on the new wheel and don't envisage having to for quite some time.

VP

Reply to
Vintage Purls

Oh, that would SO piss me off! Would it be worth offering to send it back to them to strip and refinish? Would they even do that?

Reply to
fiberlicious

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.