Saturday, May 20, 2017

A life of its own


Lately, my obsession is with spindle spinning. Back  in November, I got back into spinning because I wanted to be able to spin colors I didn't have on hand and got a couple of spindles & since then, it took on a life of its own! I still haven't made anything with the stuff I've spun, but I'm getting there! I do plan to weave with some, and almost tossed some singles onto a loom when I realized I still needed to wash and set the yarn first... or maybe I don't, not sure? I'll find out!

The fractal project has taken on a life of its own as well: I spun and plied the first 4 ounces and bought more to even out the 2 plies. I decided to work on the 2nd braid in the same fashion.... it's all spun up and since then, I've contacted the person who makes these beautiful braids (Friends in Fiber) for another braid and have been working on it. I don't know how long I'll be going this route.

It's interesting: when I finished the second braid, which is now waiting to be plied, I had to work out the color order since the longer color runs ended at a different spot from the first.

Anyway, pictures:

The second ply ball with new fiber being spun:








First braid plied & rolled into a ball:




The first ply ball in a skein!

Before skeining

I've also played a bit with 2 support spindles: one is a Ghstworks Russian (he's on Etsy & makes beautiful spindles.) I also have a tahkli, and i've spun cotton on both. I'm finding the Russian spindle to be slow going, but it's an interesting process. Whenever I pick up one of my turkish spindles, it's like coming home. I figure I'm still in the learning curve process with support spindling.


Last night I wound the yarn off and made ply balls... they're on a stick now, since I don't have a nostepinne.. I





Monday, March 20, 2017

Fun times at Weaving Rainbow!

I love my little Hokett looms, as well as the tools he makes. I've sold a fair few, and plan to sell more.

I'm planning on getting some mini warping reels. They are sooo adorable! They can warp up to 7 yards (depending on yarn thickness), and would be great for a short warp or a rigid heddle loom.

I wish I had some weaving to show off, but I've been a wee bit obsessed by spinning on spindles! Here's my latest plying project:


Underneath:




I hope to have the fractal ply on the niddy noddy sometime this week... this plying process JUST might be the thing to motivate me to get my wheel back in commission! I think the wingspan pattern may be a good one for this yarn, but I need to see how much yardage I can get out of this braid of yarn. If I need more, I have another 3 ounces, and if I need even more, I can get more from the seller I bought it from. I haven't measured to see how many wraps per inch I'm getting with this spin, but I'm guessing it's about DK or light worsted...it's a fun project, and feeds my soul.

I have a couple of other spinning projects in progress as well, which can be seen on my instagram page
with weavingrainbow for the username.

In other news, I wonder if we're skipping summer a little bit this year? It's still March, buuuuut... I've heard that the wildflowers are going to be gorgeous!

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Instagram!

I recently started posting photos on Instagram. My username there is weavingrainbow.

You can see photos of my spinning adventures there, and here are a few:




Saturday, January 7, 2017

2017 Tapestry Diary & Pink Pussy Hats for Women's March on Washington

I've got a diary planned for 2017... at the outset, I'll use my "legal pad" sized copper loom.. in a month or two, I'll get the parts for a loom using galvanized pipe. I checked a few places for pipe,and may get it locally or from Zoro... maybe it'll be the approach to 60 project and beyond... we'll see.

I got sidetracked from that for now to do a few pink pussy hats for the Women's March on Washington that'll be happening 2 weeks from today.

Once I get the hats going, I'll gt back to the copper loom. I don't know what I'll weave, but will definitely weave 2017 at the bottom. I'm not sure how I'll put the date... maybe Roman numerals?