Regular life updates...last weekend I went to Estrella War, a major SCA event that takes place in Arizona. It was my first event in two years, and I had such a wonderful time! Among other great stuff, this turned out to be quite a good event for fiber-arts type endeavors--I picked up some dyeing stuff, including madder and ossage orange, as well as some washing soda, which I have so far been doing without. I also picked up some gorgeous fiber, a blend of merino wool and bombyx silk. I have spinning up for the last few days into a fine, two-ply thread which I will dye and weave into a belt. I also bought some metal fittings for the belt, which are replicas of a buckle found with the burial of Queen Arnegunde. One problem...the buckle I bought turns out have actually been a shoe buckle, not a belt buckle at all, so there goes authenticity. But, oh well. It will still be pretty. And the pieces I bought are a really nice reproduction--if I can find the merchant online, I will post a link.

Oh, bother, it's too nice a day to write something scholarly about spinning wheels. Basically, I decided I needed one, and my mom chipped in as a birthday present. Rather than invest in a new one, I checked out the used market. You can see pictures and prices of new spinning wheels at The Woolery, but I got mine through an ad at The Spinner's and Weaver's Housecleaning Pages. This was when I was living in Yosemite, and the lady selling her wheel to me lived in Placerville, CA, so I dorve up and got it from her in person, which meant that she could also give me a quick lesson in using it. Be warned--you really shouldn't buy a used spinning wheel sight-unseen, and if you've never used one before, you should have a trusted spinner try it out before you buy it.

Anyway, what I got is an Ashford Traditional wheel. It works great and seems to be a good wheel for a beginner like myself.

Whoah...I just have to pause here and tell you something...I can hear a car outside in the street playing the beginning of "Teenage Wasteland" by the Who. Too funny.

Back to the story. It took me a long time and a lot of practice to get a yarn that I was really happy with on the wheel, but the day did come. More recently, I got a lace flayer for it, which is a device that allows you to spin really fine yarns. I experimented with spinning cotton, and that has yielded nice results, and now, as I said, I am doing this merino/silk blend, for which I have high hopes.

Oh, bother. The sun is bright, the breeze is warm...I'm signing off. Next time I will say some useful things about spinning wheels and how they work and their history, and then, on to what I really want to talk about: dyeing!

--Jenny Jo #

      ( 2:48 PM )  
Dear Dyery,

Regular life updates...last weekend I went to Estrella War, a major SCA event that takes place in Arizona. It was my first event in two years, and I had such a wonderful time! Among other great stuff, this turned out to be quite a good event for fiber-arts type endeavors--I picked up some dyeing stuff, including madder and ossage orange, as well as some washing soda, which I have so far been doing without. I also picked up some gorgeous fiber, a blend of merino wool and bombyx silk. I have spinning up for the last few days into a fine, two-ply thread which I will dye and weave into a belt. I also bought some metal fittings for the belt, which are replicas of a buckle found with the burial of Queen Arnegunde. One problem...the buckle I bought turns out have actually been a shoe buckle, not a belt buckle at all, so there goes authenticity. But, oh well. It will still be pretty. And the pieces I bought are a really nice reproduction--if I can find the merchant online, I will post a link.

Oh, bother, it's too nice a day to write something scholarly about spinning wheels. Basically, I decided I needed one, and my mom chipped in as a birthday present. Rather than invest in a new one, I checked out the used market. You can see pictures and prices of new spinning wheels at The Woolery, but I got mine through an ad at The Spinner's and Weaver's Housecleaning Pages. This was when I was living in Yosemite, and the lady selling her wheel to me lived in Placerville, CA, so I dorve up and got it from her in person, which meant that she could also give me a quick lesson in using it. Be warned--you really shouldn't buy a used spinning wheel sight-unseen, and if you've never used one before, you should have a trusted spinner try it out before you buy it.

Anyway, what I got is an Ashford Traditional wheel. It works great and seems to be a good wheel for a beginner like myself.

Whoah...I just have to pause here and tell you something...I can hear a car outside in the street playing the beginning of "Teenage Wasteland" by the Who. Too funny.

Back to the story. It took me a long time and a lot of practice to get a yarn that I was really happy with on the wheel, but the day did come. More recently, I got a lace flayer for it, which is a device that allows you to spin really fine yarns. I experimented with spinning cotton, and that has yielded nice results, and now, as I said, I am doing this merino/silk blend, for which I have high hopes.

Oh, bother. The sun is bright, the breeze is warm...I'm signing off. Next time I will say some useful things about spinning wheels and how they work and their history, and then, on to what I really want to talk about: dyeing!

--Jenny Jo #