| Dear Dyery | |||
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Wednesday, February 12, 2003 ( 11:11 PM ) Dear Dyery, As promised, some pictures of spindles. I'm afraid they're not of the highest quality...one can only do so much with a little webcam. The Ashford spindle in use:
The CD Spindle (with my dad's record collection in the background):
And lastly, some of the flaxen thread that I made using the CD spindle, wound onto a spool. It is possible to use this thread for hand-sewing, if you are careful:
As for other recent developments--I found this terrific fabric store in town called the Fabric Well--they have a huge table of bargain fabrics at $2.00/yd, and from here I picked up five yards each of a madder-like red and an indigo-like blue in a linen blend--not quite sure what it's blended with, though I suspect rayon. Not perfect for SCA purposes, but at $20 for the lot, one can't really complain. They also have a $1/yd bargain table of remnants and scraps that have gotten dirty and so forth, and from here I picked up almost two yards of wonderful, heavy-weight wool in a dark green. It had a sort of funny bit of chain-stitching near one edge and was dirty at the selvedge, but otherwise was perfectly fine. I used it to make a cloak which, due to the shortage of fabric, came out very similar to the one on the Bocksten Bog Man, a Swedish archaeological find, which I used as inspiration for the style. Mine came out a bit weird, though, as I ended up putting the neck opening off center from the arc of hem, and the effect is more pronounced than I expected. I am still pondering what to do about this--will probably re-cut the hem in some fashion...although I could also sew a bit onto the front to make it longer. I will experiment. I also used some of the blue linen-blend fabric to line another cloak I have been working on, whereby hangs a rather complicated tale. To make a long story kind of short--I started out trying to make a "circle game" style full circle cloak...this means that instead of cutting out the circle from whole cloth, you cut your fabric out in long wedges (called "gores") and sew them together to form the circle, thus saving fabric--and since I was investing in an expensive wool, I really wanted to save fabric. One problem though--ever heard the saying "measure twice, cut once"? Well, it's as true for historical projects as for anything--I made an error in my calculations, and only after sewing several gores together did I realize that I had only really bought enough fabric for a half-circle cloak! Feeling like a complete ass, I resolved to save the situation as best I could, and devised a new pattern for the cloak, using two quarter-circles of gores sewed into the sides of a sort of tabard made from the extra fabric--the resulting garment has a flat panel in back and one in front (split for the opening, of course) and the full, pieced sections depending from the shoulders by the gore-points. I had something vaguely elven in mind with this new pattern, but now that it's done, it looks more Romulan...not too far off, really. Romulans have pointy ears too. Improbable eyebrows, also...In fact, maybe when the Elves talk about going into the West, they're really going off to colonize Romulus, and then something funny happens and they get all regimented and... Where was I? Right, the cloak. It's actually very nice--quite a tailored look with the squared-off shoulders, and it drapes beautifully. Looks very ceremonial and imposing--almost ecclesiastical. Did I mention it's in pale gray wool? I'm very pleased with it, period or not. Now I've lined it with the blue linen, I'm quite tempted to just wear it all the time. Probably wouldn't do wearing it to work, though. Would certainly get espresso all over it. Deary me, is that the time? I was planning to talk about spinning wheels... Oh well, next entry for sure. --Jenny Jo # Sunday, February 09, 2003 ( 4:01 PM ) Dear Dyery, So, I took this quiz called "What Lord of the Rings Male and Mood Do You Desire?" and I got this:
Gosh, the internet knows me better than I know myself... Oh, right, so, spinning: Part II: Drop Spindles: Their Form, History, and Use All right, so the title's a bit grandiose. But here's what I've learned about spindles. By the way--you can see pictures of various spindles at The Woolery . This may help you to visualize what I am talking about. A spindle is a tool for twisting fiber into yarn, and holding the spun yarn as the spinner works. Yarn can be made with no tools at all--just begin pulling fibers from an appropriately prepared bundle (you can try this with a cotton ball), and twist as you go. As the twist becomes tighter, it will move up into the mass and involve more fibers--the trick is to pull fibers out at a rate proportional to this takeup of fiber, so that as each new fiber is added to the twist, it is pulled out of the mass, at the sme time pulling on all the fibers with which it, in turn, is twisted (or that's my way of explaining it, anyway). One of the easiest ways to twist the fiber is to roll the end of the yarn along your thigh as you move the fiber mass away with your other hand. This works well at first, but you are soon presented with a problem: if you let go of the yarn end, it comes untwisted and tangles up, but you can't make a piece of yarn longer than your own armspan without letting go of the end and twisting from a new point. The solution? A spindle! The simplest spindle, and probably the first to be invented, takes the form of a straight stick with a hook or notch in one end. The yarn end is tied to the stick and hooked into the notch. Then the stick is rolled along the thigh, adding more twist to the yarn. When the yarn becomes too long to spin any further, it is wound up onto the stick, and the process begins again. That's all right, as far as it goes...but it is a rather slow process, as the stick can only roll for the length of the thigh before it must be moved back to its starting point. The next innovation was the addition of a whorl, or weight, to the stick. This gives more momentum to the spin. It is possible to use a thigh-sindle with a whorl--the Navajo spindle (see link above for a picture) is an example. However, a weighted spindle can also be used in another way: it can be stood on end and spun like a top, with the whorl providing the necessary momentum. There are two variations on this type of spindle spinning: supported spinning, and drop spinning. In supported spinning, the spindle sits on a surface (often inside a little bowl, to keep it under control) and the fiber mass is drawn upward and away. In drop spinning, the spindle hangs free and descends as the yarn gets longer. Both of these methods allow a key advantage over thigh spinning--the spinner can use two hands to control the fibers, holding the mass in one hand while drawing the yarn out with the other. Drop spinning offers yet another advantage over supported spinning--the yarn can be spun all the way from the spinner's hand to the floor, which is pretty far if you're sitting and even further if you're standing. Also, the free-hanging spindle encounters less friction, allowing it to spin longer. All these characteristics make drop spinning a very efficient and versatile method. Speaking of versatile, though--it should be noted that the character of the yarn is restricted by the spindle itself, since the size and weight of the whorl affect the speed and length of its spin. A small, light spindle will make a fine, tightly twisted yarn. Such a spindle is good for short fibers, like cotton, which require a lot of twist to hold together. A larger, heavier spindle will make a thicker, looser yarn. As an illustration of this...I first started spinning on an Ashford spindle, which is fairly large and heavy. It worked well for wool, making a yarn of medium thickness, or "gauge". Later, I acquired some flax fiber--flax is a very long, straight fiber which does best in a fine, fairly tight yarn. I tried spinning it first on the Ashford spindle, and simply couldn't get the yarn I wanted. I was making "very nice twine," as an observer put it. The reason? The weight of the spindle was too heavy for the few fibers that would go into a fine yarn to support--so in order to keep from breaking my yarn and dropping the spindle, I had to pull out quite a little tuft of fibers. Then, because flax fibers are so long, they don't pull out of the mass easily. It works fine when you draw out just a few...but my "tuft" involved so many fibers, that there was no way to get a smooth draft, and all I got was one big snarl. The solution? A CD spindle! Okay, so this is far from authentic, historically speaking--but it works great! A CD (especially a free one from AOL) makes a very symmetrical, light whorl, and the large diameter gives it a long, steady spin (something to do with physics, I guess...um...the conservation of angular momentum, yes?). I had seen these spindles in use, and set out to make my own. I got a long, wooden chopstick such as one can get in a package at the grocery store, and wrapped a strip of tape around it to form a plug that fit the opening in the CD. I slipped the CD over this, then stabilized it with two more cylinders of tape. Then I carved a notch in the chopstick, and I was done. I know this all sounds very messy, but really, it turned out just fine. And the results? Not bad! I was eventually able to produce a pretty fine, fairly strong flaxen thread.. Next time I will update, with pictures. Siging off, Jenny Jo # |
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