It’s nasty out there I tell you, mean and nasty! Wind directly from Siberia – I didn’t even stop to take extra pix for you to describe the misery just right, here’s my oversize hamsters coming in for breakfast.
I’m force feeding the woodstove as fast as I can and moved the wheel over to ply that braid I spun the other day. Plus some odd singles I had sitting around, purpose forgotten.
First I needed to make an extra lazy kate however, for my weaving bobbins converted for spinning, since their center diameter is too small for my regular kate. Good thing we have this gizmo, also used for making all the holes in my blending hackle.
First I thought it had frozen to death, but it sped up as I let it run a bit. Voila, one piece of wood and some nails, good enough to go. Yes, I’ll make a base for it, so I won’t have to clamp it to the table, but never mind that now. We also don’t need to mention that I’m officially too old to read a rusty drill in a dark garage without my glasses, so the holes are too big… I can find another piece of wood I’m sure. It still worked with wobbly nails and no clamps, at least for transferring the singles onto a proper bobbin on the wheel.
Bottom of the board with indents for nail heads and all
The one on the right was lovely as fiber and then I did a really poor job of spinning it. Don’t like it much as plied yarn either, but I guess sometimes that’s the way of it.
All done and washed. The Rambouillet is incredibly elastic and squishy, I don’t know if the former is a good thing in yarn, but I love the feel of stretching and bouncing it. I’ll spin the other braid in the same way.
And well, it was also a good day to dye, as I had enough to try a bit of snow dyeing. More on that later!
Guess who doesn’t care about the weather…
Tvindevejr
Ja, jeg behøver jo ikke fortælle jer danskere hvordan vejret har været de sidste par dage, så jeg har bare tvangsfodret brændeovnen og ellers flyttet rokken tilpas tæt på, så jeg kunne få tvundet det jeg spandt forleden.
Jeg vidste jeg havde nogen 3 mm tykke søm, der lige passede i de små, billige spoler, men havde overvurderet min egen evne til at gætte diameteren på boret; så det blev lidt vakkelvorent, da jeg lige hurtigt ville lave en spoleholder. Men jeg fik da flyttet garnet over!
Singlen til højre er jeg meget skuffet over i forhold til fibrene, og jeg er ikke blevet gladere efter tvinding, men sådan kan det jo gå. Jeg kan vel bruge det til et eller andet en dag, måske bare bamsefyld.
Rambouillet garnet er helt utroligt elastisk, jeg ved egentlig ikke om det er en god ting, men jeg kan godt lide følelsen, så jeg regner med at spinde den anden fletning på samme måde.
Colour Cottage 
Det er bare blevet så flot. Elastisk garn, jo, jeg forstår godt at du kan lide det. og så de farver MUMS!
Når jeg er totalt utilfreds med noget – eller bare ikke har nok garn til noget fornuftigt – så strikker jeg grydelapper af det. De er jo alligevel kønne, man kan foirære dem væk, og så bliver de jo også slidt op.
Jeg elsker mit modificerede dominostrikmønster til grydelapper, der ligner et hyggeligt edeerkoppespind. Ved ikke om det er OK med et link, ellers må du bare slette det. http://krydderuglen.blogspot.dk/2012/02/plantefarvet-dominostrik-la-krydderugle.html
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Især den nederste lap er rigtig køn! Og ja, man kan måske skjule elendigheden ved at blande den med noget helt andet og så alligevel få et ok resultat. Eller bare nytttigt.
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Rambo is such an interesting fiber to spin, it really is the bounciest stuff I’ve ever tried to spin. I took a photo and posted it on my blog once, 2 skeins of yarn both skeined on the same niddy noddy. One was merino, the other rambo. The difference in the size of the skeins was so startling!
http://shellssells.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/wrapping-up/
I really like your weaving bobbin idea, I may have to give that a try sometime myself. Now that I have fallen in love with spindle spinning, I’ve always got multiple projects going on at once. When I was just a wheel spinner, it was just one at a time. So, the idea of using weaving bobbins to hold some of the yarn is a good one for me at this point.
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I know a lot of people use drinking straws to slide singles from the spindle onto, now THAT’s a cheap solution! And in some cases, the straws even fit on a regular kate. Amazing the difference in your yarns – I didn’t actually measure mine after they were dry.
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Brr! Looks like that snow is headed to Western England over the weekend – maybe that will warm it up for you!
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I wouldn’t mind shifting this over to you guys one bit 😉 The scales are telling me it’s time to whip out those Fivefingers I bought just before winter hit (and around here we have no fancy pavements, it’s icy gravel road)
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Q – Nice! I’m complaining about 55 F?
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