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Ah, the sun!
It got us all charged up this weekend.

The pups had lots of fun frolicking and carrying on, and we got lots of yard and sheep work done.

Only one still unshorn:

That would be the little crazy bugger, of course!

Could have gotten him done while we had them all in for manicures and such today, but I was just too tired to give it a shot.
Some time later this week maybe 🙂

And, I’ve finally gotten focused on my next sweater project!
The Classic Oak Cardigan, by Alexandra Charlotte Dafoe

I picked the pattern out a while back, but was uncertain of what yarn I was going to spin for it- or more specifically, which fleece.
But sometime this week it dawned on me- the thing to do was to blend a couple/few fleeces from the substantial wool stash to get just the right effect!

So here’s what I’ve got:

That’s Chone on the left, Jonasson Farms Border Leicester at the top, and Hidden Meadows CVM/suffolk cross at the bottom right.

And here they are all blended together:

The photo is a little bit washed out, it’s a little bit warmer and nuttier than that. More like this:

and this

The swatch turned out a little big- the so I’ve got to adjust my spinning mode from worsted to DK weight, but then I should be right in the ballpark.

(Go Ms!)

Today I managed to get the two white guys in for hair (fleece) appointments-
and boy, did they need it!

Frank and Felix were both really badly felted all down their backs-

Which made for some pretty tough clipping. My clipper hand is really shot.

But they were both pretty good sports

I think they were both just really relieved to be rid of those heavy, matted coats!

I was able to salvage some wool from each fleece that might be spinnable once I trim the tips off, but there is a whole lot of wool that is just completely felted in slabs.

I haven’t thrown it on the compost yet, though- because I’m thinking that maybe some use for it will present itself.

For now, its just hanging out outside on a rocked area, where hopefully the heavy rains predicted for the next couple of days will give it a cold water rinse and me some time to think about what it might be good for!

Guess I really do need to shear these guys twice a year.
Poor Felix looks all naked and lumpy after his haircut, but I’m sure he’ll fluff out and curl up pretty quick.
Will be interesting to see how much fleece they put on between now and Sept/Oct.

Get growing, guys!

Here I am, in Las Vegas.

But still daydreaming about the spinning wheel project. 🙂

I’ve been looking at a lot of photos, especially of New Zealand wheels, and I’m really amazed at the creative approaches that various wheelsmiths have taken towards tensioning the driveband.

http://www.nzspinningwheels.info/keneila.jpg

http://www.nzspinningwheels.info/mathieson.jpg

This is really one of the design elements that could make building a wheel fairly woodworking-intensive. Tensioning assemblies that slide up and down with one or more wooden screws are pretty typical for the  traditional Swiss/Austrian lateral treadle wheels.

But I’ve decided that I don’t necessarily want to go traditional.

What I want to do is design a wheel that is fairly easy to build, sturdy, attractive, and very functional.

And I think that the garden-variety bicycle has a lot to offer.

Here are the first pieces of the puzzle:

26 inch bicycle wheel and an old set of handlebars.

Can you see it?

It’s like on of those “magic eye” things.

You have to sit and look at it for a while, then it all comes clear.

Hint: Rotating, not elevating.

I’m thinking that handlebars, acting as the mother-of-all (reshaped a little, perhaps made adjustable in width, to accommodate different fliers), mounted atop the frame of the wheel, could rotate on it’s “neck” (or whatever that piece is called) to tension the driveband.

It is a little big. Maybe I need smaller handlebars. But the shape is right.

Crazy, eh?
We’ll see 🙂

I think a lot about spinning, and spinning wheels.

And lately I’ve been rather consumed by the thought of figuring out what would be my ideal wheel.
There are so many styles and types: modern/traditional, castle/saxony/norwegian/tyrolean, etc, etc, etc.

And it’s not just an issue of style, but also how the form fits the function.

I currently have three wheels: a Kromski Minstrel (Stella), a Pirtle bulky spinner (Hank), and an antique probably Serbian little skewed wheel (Sophie).

Of these three, I’m kind of favoring Sophie these days.

She’s got this great 45 degree angle thing going on between the treadle and the flyer, and with the way I spin, it is pretty much perfect, ergonomically speaking. But she’s just little. About a 15″ wheel. She’s a great traveller, but my perfect home-based wheel would have a larger wheel and would operate at higher ratios.
I’m thinking 24 inches would be about right.

The Stella, my Minstrel has served me well for over 5 years,

and turned out miles and miles of yarn. Lots of things I like about this wheel- double drive/scotch tension, large bobbins, very smooth and quiet, larger wheel than Sophie (18 inches). But lately I find that when I spin on her I’m more comfortable sitting a ways back and off to the side, just using one foot to treadle. It works, but is not ideal.

(Hank, the Pirtle is cool,

but he’s a specialized guy, so he doesn’t really figure in this discussion.)

It was suggested to me by someone who knows a lot about spinning and wheel mechanics that I might want to get a wheel that has the flyer assembly on the right side, because I draft with my right hand forward.

That makes sense, but in a regular Saxony or Norwegian configuration, that would mean having the treadle off to the left. I’ve tried at home to see if I could get used to treadling with just my left foot, and it feels really weird.

But then I saw the answer.
The Swiss Production Wheel.

http://habetrot.typepad.com/habetrot/2006/10/post.html
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nimrodvern/lafayette-wheel
http://threesheeps.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-weaving-and-old-spinnign.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22356120@N05/sets/72157624881847621/

On these guys, you sit in line with the wheel, flyer pointing off to your left.
Neat, eh?
And since the treadle doesn’t have to go under the wheel,, you don’t need to set the whole thing up on legs, and it is quite compact while still having a larger wheel.

But you don’t see a whole lot of these wheels around. Most are antiques.

My plan- to build one (with the help of The Man, of course)

More on that next week 🙂