onsdag 25 september 2013

Spinning machine

I'm very proud of myself: I made a "charkha" this morning:


It works really well. It's much faster and easier to spin cotton on the bobbin winder than on any other of my spindles or wheels. Attaching a bobbin and a quill makes it a real spinning machine! I'm sure you can spin any short fibers with it.

The bobbin is from Ashford. I use them as storage bobbins for my spun singles, and I also have bigger ones from Schacht. Many of you may have bobbin winders and bobbins, so start making you own spinning machine! The quill can be anything that fits into the bobbin and has one sharp end. I made mine from a piece of wood I had lying around, only needed my beloved Swiss army knife to fix it. You can finish it with sandpaper if you want, I didn't, as you can see. It works splendidly anyway.

Off to Twitter to boast. I already did on Ravelry and Facebook :D

fredag 20 september 2013

Fox and crows. On the field today


So what am I doing midst of these crows?


I'd better get up. They won't leave me alone.


Damned field. Why do they have to plow so early in the autumn?


Almost home! They can't follow me under the barn.

onsdag 18 september 2013

Books


This summer I have purchased a few books. Some of you may know I worked as a librarian for forty years. Books are an essential part of my life. Even if I read lots of e-books and listen to audiobooks nowadays, I still want printed books also. To touch and feel a book is a great pleasure and a very tactile sensation.


"Keskiajan puvut" (Medieval dress) by Satu Hovi, Hannele Maahinen and Katri Niemi is a book I've wanted to have for years, if not decades, but never thought anyone would write. The book is a thorough guide for making you own medieval dress, for child, woman, and man. Tunics, gowns, dresses, nalbinded mittens, shoes, bands and cords, embroidery, details in the dress. I can't wait to find fabrics so I can start sewing!


Easy to copy patterns, and good photos. This one shows the typical bronze embroidery used in the medieval Finnish dress:



It was often used in hems, where it adds weight so the dress is easier to wear. We all know the Marilyn Monroe effect, don't we?

I have also bought a book I've been looking into for very long: "Ur textilkonstens historia" by Agnes Geijer. It's a thorough history of textile in the Western world since ancient times. I'm especially happy about the weaving section, as that is a field I know almost nothing about.


The book has been translated to English, "A History of Textile Art". The illustrations are typical for the time the first printing was published in 1972: adequate and clear, with many drawings. The printing from 2006 which I now own also has color photos. The pictures below foresee something that's coming into my life very soon:


Kasper likes books, here he's reading Elizabeth Wayland Barber's "Women's Work. The first 20.000 years". He was very interested in the picture of a woman spinning on a drop spindle, I couldn't make him move so I could take a photo. Sometimes I think he knows what he sees, because this is not the first time he's been looking at pictures of spindling women.



I also have Barber's "Prehistoric Textiles", that I like very much. "Women's Work" is an archaeological and sociological study of women's work with producing textiles, starting 20.000 years ago and ending in Classic Greece. The thoughts such a study gives you are overwhelming. So much work, so much struggle, and all done while taking care of your family and your house. It makes you shiver. My motto, "Not one day without thread", comes from reading books and studies like this one. The book is full of wonderful examples of how textiles have been made, and of the conditions during which the women worked.

Please give a thought to the women and children in the textile factories in India, China, Pakistan, and other countries where all the cheap clothes are made in our days.

And look here! Deborah Robson's and Carol Ekarius' "The Field Guide to Fleece"! This little book is a shorter version of "The Fleece & Fiber Source Book". It's meant to be exactly what it says, a field guide. Small enough to take along to fiber festivals, and sturdy enough to be thrown into your back pack together with cameras, phones, snacks, knittings, drink bottles, and spindles. The book is bound, and glued strongly enough to for rough handling (= you can open it without fearing it'll fall into pieces!) The paper is glossy, of a thick high quality, so you can't very easily tore it.


The text is of the kind we've been spoiled with from FFSB: interesting, informative, easy to read. For each breed the authors give suggestions for use, and they also tell how the wool takes dyes. The order is alphabetical, so it's easy to find what you're looking for. The photos make you want to purchase the wools immediately, and start spinning. Here's one Deb's favorite wools:


The book loving dog and the new books about textile:


Oh yes, two more books coming my way this autumn :) Kasper may have a look at them also.

söndag 15 september 2013

Dyeing

I have been dyeing lately.




This is lovely NZ Merino from Ullaffären. I bought 1 kilo white top a couple of years ago, when Renee had this wonderful quality. Some of you may know Renee from Ravelry, where she has two groups: Sponsor a Spaelsau Sheep, and Longbacken. She always has high quality fibers in her shop.



This is British Longwool, also from Ullaffären.

And this is 1,3 kilos of Corriedale from World of Wool. I dyed the tops for the spinning class I'll teach this autumn. I want the beginners to spin tops with lots of colors, so they can see what's happening when they draft and add twist.


I bought a steam cooker for dyeing, and that was a really good investment! It's so easy and really the very best way for me. I don't like kettle dyeing, and dyeing in the oven, even if it's also an easy method, doesn't feel quite comfortable. I use the oven for cooking also, and I'm not sure there won't be anything not so healthy coming from the dyes.


I wrap the wool in glad pack. I use only the two upper bowls, as I read somewhere that the lower is too hot. I'll test that when I have wool I don't care so much about. I don't use this steam cooker for cooking! I leave the wool in the glad pack until it's cooled, then I rinse once, press out as much water as I can and hang to dry. As you can see all tops are open and airy after a very slight stretching (wouldn't call it pre-drafting). No felting, very little compacting. I can dye 200-230 grams in one pass.

fredag 13 september 2013

Shetland textiles

So here's a book we all must have: Shetland Textiles

söndag 8 september 2013

Troll butter and weavers


That's what it looked like yesterday evening, and this morning:


Fuligo septica, in Swedish trollsmör, "troll butter", "scrambled egg slime" (amongst other names) in English.

The spiders are busy in the nights, weaving fantastic, incredible traps:


Our whirlygig looks so nice in the mist. It's really running wild up in the pine tree! A horse from a fantasy story!


And Kasper shows his beautiful autumn colors:


onsdag 4 september 2013

Birds

Yes, they are leaving!

Barn swallows


Crane birds

But they'll be back next year :)