It is a new week and we are back at it. Ok, we were at the mill on Sat and Tim and I were there on Sun (doing things other than running machines).
We had a better day on the spinner today. In fact, it barely needed us.
We are in the path of the storm that is affecting many, many states. We are supposed to get .25 - .5" of ice sometime between tonight and tomorrow am sometime. Then 1 - 3" of snow. And tomorrow night looks iffy as well. We are all tired as all be of this winter....Of course, it was about 1 year ago that Snowmageddon (sp??) hit. Everyone is skittish.
I am planning on staying home and working on the website if the weather does what they think it will. School has already called a 2 hour delay.
Craig made some nice rug yarn today. I do not have any pictures of today's product but you know I will get some soon!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Another Day - still more learning curve
OK. We were ready to tackle the spinner again today, having taken yesterday off. We decided to try some black and some brown fiber that Craig had washed and picked in WV close to two years ago.
Just when we think that we have thing pretty well figured out, we learn a how bunch more. The first thing we learn is not to make assumptions! We started with 3 pounds again, about half of each color. The picking, carding and pin drafting went beautifully. The pin drafter (which I think Chuck calls it Eeyore) had an A+ day. No problems at all. Humming along nicely at 18.0 ( we were on 11.0 earlier this week). Higher number, faster drafter.
It was the spinning that got us. Again. Now, we have a point where we know we should leave well enough along and we push that limit every time. We had the brown spinning along well - it was a little dry and was a quasi-pepe day. Then we decide, well, the spinner is working, why not add the black? Why not? Because white and brown and black have different qualities. The spinning speed for the brown and the spinning speed for the black were different. The black turned out overtwisted where the brown was happy as can be. Now, I do know this from my handspinning days but sometimes the memories move to the front of my brain a little slowly....
So we did most of 3 lbs in less time than on Wed but still had some moments that we are eternally grateful there were no witnesses for. Well, except for the three dogs. Maybe just two - Claire was pretty much out, sleeping in front of her personal space heater all day.
Where do we go from here? Tomorrow we return to white. Mon and Tues we will do black and brown.
We are getting there! Even though we are having isues, we are thrilled with the quality and consistency of the yarns we are producing.
Just when we think that we have thing pretty well figured out, we learn a how bunch more. The first thing we learn is not to make assumptions! We started with 3 pounds again, about half of each color. The picking, carding and pin drafting went beautifully. The pin drafter (which I think Chuck calls it Eeyore) had an A+ day. No problems at all. Humming along nicely at 18.0 ( we were on 11.0 earlier this week). Higher number, faster drafter.
It was the spinning that got us. Again. Now, we have a point where we know we should leave well enough along and we push that limit every time. We had the brown spinning along well - it was a little dry and was a quasi-pepe day. Then we decide, well, the spinner is working, why not add the black? Why not? Because white and brown and black have different qualities. The spinning speed for the brown and the spinning speed for the black were different. The black turned out overtwisted where the brown was happy as can be. Now, I do know this from my handspinning days but sometimes the memories move to the front of my brain a little slowly....
So we did most of 3 lbs in less time than on Wed but still had some moments that we are eternally grateful there were no witnesses for. Well, except for the three dogs. Maybe just two - Claire was pretty much out, sleeping in front of her personal space heater all day.
Where do we go from here? Tomorrow we return to white. Mon and Tues we will do black and brown.
We are getting there! Even though we are having isues, we are thrilled with the quality and consistency of the yarns we are producing.
Cover of the Magazine - Who is sporting a baby bump?
Well, it is not exactly what you might think if you read a lot of tabloids. Yesterday we decided to revisit the rug yarn maker. All the poofs from the spinning machine, rovings that pepe lepew'd and would not go thru the pin drafter were bagged up and put in "Rug Yarn Heaven".
Now, every time we think a machine will be easy to learn, we find it has little glitches as well. We learned that the bumps were not sliding off because the lead line we were using was wound to tight. English, Barb, english - put that in layman's terms!
I had a revelation and switched to a much larger alpaca yarn for the core and what a difference! The inconsistences are all but gone. Why use yarn or twine? Twine or jute gives the yarn a nice stiff quality which many rug makers want. Yarn has a softer effect. The core also allows you to spin some less quality fibers that may not survive the pin drafter and spinner. Plus, it is for rugs. They do not have to be your best yarn to make a great rug. And all those poofs from the spinner can be reused here instead of wasted.
The rug yarn maker will also make a coreless yarn. We have not experimented much with this yet.
So here is your baby bump px:
Now, every time we think a machine will be easy to learn, we find it has little glitches as well. We learned that the bumps were not sliding off because the lead line we were using was wound to tight. English, Barb, english - put that in layman's terms!
The rug yarn maker works using a core yarn. You thread the machine with twine or yarn and the fiber coming off the carder winds itself around this core. But you need 2-3 yards of core line to thread it completely. This means 1 yard or so is beyond where the fiber attaches. And this yarn, if it is the wrong one, can wind so tight around the metal bobbin it refuses to come off. Some people use jute, some use twine, some use bakers cotton, etc. We had used one spool of cotton Jeff brought with him so when it ran out, I attached 8/4 cotton rug warp. Oops. Also, we were getting a fairly inconsistent product.
I had a revelation and switched to a much larger alpaca yarn for the core and what a difference! The inconsistences are all but gone. Why use yarn or twine? Twine or jute gives the yarn a nice stiff quality which many rug makers want. Yarn has a softer effect. The core also allows you to spin some less quality fibers that may not survive the pin drafter and spinner. Plus, it is for rugs. They do not have to be your best yarn to make a great rug. And all those poofs from the spinner can be reused here instead of wasted.
The rug yarn maker will also make a coreless yarn. We have not experimented much with this yet.
So here is your baby bump px:
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| Proud papa |
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| Which bump is not like the others.... |
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| Making batts on the battmobile |
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| Can you guess whose new felt matt this is? |
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Time trials
The goal of today was to see just how fast we are processing fiber at this point in time from washed fiber to skeined yarn. Also, we need to know how much ends up on the floor instead of in a skein (and this is why it is an industry unwritten standard to charge for weight of finished product, not received weight).
We started with 3 lbs. The carding went really, really well. Pin drafting went fairly well. There are a couple of rough places in the machine that snag fiber and cause an uneven roving. We had to stop a couple of times to work on that. We did not include that time in the trial overall time. The second trip through the pin drafter is supposed to go better tham the first. It took about the same because of the mechanical issues.
The spinner is where we ran into real issues. We got it up and running no problem - three bobbins going, making yarn, while we still had fiber going through the pin drafter. We thought we had worked out a lot of kinks with our spinning yesterday. And we had. just not as many as we thought.
We can not explain it but all is going well can go straight to you know where in a heart beat at the spinner right now. We must have used at least an hour and 12 ounces of fiber in ways we did not anticipate or expect or want. But we finally got it working as we wanted (there were some mechanical issues as well but we stopped worrying about the time.
We ended up with about 1300 yards of 2 ply yarn. Unfortunately, we "lost" about 12 ounces, mainly on the spinner. You can see why in a second:
The roving travels overhead. It comes down, goes under the red roller at the top. Then it goes behind the grey belt and under the grey wheel. Where the fiber gets "lost" is that it wraps on the green wheel while waiting for you to get the yarn going. These little poofs or tribbles (if you are a trekkie) get removed and not made into yarn on this machine. This poof was bad and wrapped on the grey wheel. It has been cut to remove it. It comes off nice and pressed and straight. We had a lot of these poofs today....
So, we will do another time trial in the next day or so. Please do not think that we are never going to get it right, or it will take forever or we will lose a lot of your fiber. This was our first real attempt to do everything in one day. We are happy and we will improve!
Now, after yesterday's bump incident, it was decided I must have threaded the bobbin incorrectly. But look at what happened to Craig's today:
We started with 3 lbs. The carding went really, really well. Pin drafting went fairly well. There are a couple of rough places in the machine that snag fiber and cause an uneven roving. We had to stop a couple of times to work on that. We did not include that time in the trial overall time. The second trip through the pin drafter is supposed to go better tham the first. It took about the same because of the mechanical issues.
The spinner is where we ran into real issues. We got it up and running no problem - three bobbins going, making yarn, while we still had fiber going through the pin drafter. We thought we had worked out a lot of kinks with our spinning yesterday. And we had. just not as many as we thought.
We can not explain it but all is going well can go straight to you know where in a heart beat at the spinner right now. We must have used at least an hour and 12 ounces of fiber in ways we did not anticipate or expect or want. But we finally got it working as we wanted (there were some mechanical issues as well but we stopped worrying about the time.
We ended up with about 1300 yards of 2 ply yarn. Unfortunately, we "lost" about 12 ounces, mainly on the spinner. You can see why in a second:
So, we will do another time trial in the next day or so. Please do not think that we are never going to get it right, or it will take forever or we will lose a lot of your fiber. This was our first real attempt to do everything in one day. We are happy and we will improve!
Now, after yesterday's bump incident, it was decided I must have threaded the bobbin incorrectly. But look at what happened to Craig's today:
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| Craig's bump. Someone did not have the patience to work it off in 1 piece! So, see, it was not how I threaded the bobbin! |
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| But the pieces make excellent dreadlocks! |
Tuesday silliness
I did remember the camera this evening. Here are some pics and explanations of yesterday.
So, Craig talked to Jeff today to see if we were doing something wrong. His response "Did you try car wax?" Um.....no....waxed rug yarn is not a specialty of ours!!
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| The plier working well! The two bobbins behind my head are being twisted together to make one yarn. |
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| Have you met Yogi? This is Craig and Bill's new dog. No, he didn;t do that! But that speed bump did slow him down. |
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| OK. This is not working. It was just supposed to sllide right off. It didn;t. It took me 15 mins to get it off the bobbin! But I got it. |
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| The bump in my left hand (your right) is what correct size. See a problem? |
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Two good days in a row
Things went well again today. Well, we had some moments with the spinner but that is mainly due to learning curve.
We had some research to do and a couple of other chores that needed to be done midday, so we were not in the mill all day. We got the pin drafted rovings spun and were fairly pleased with the 2 ply yarn we made.
I am sorry that I forgot to bring my camera home, because there was some extreme silliness that got the better of us around 4:30. Craig was doing some mechanical work on the pin drafter and I decided to try and set up the rug yarn maker myself. I had not threaded it before. I was thrilled to make a beautiful 50 yard bump of rug yarn. We have fiber we need to make into rug yarn to weave some special order rugs out of and I made the mistake of saying that I thought we had the process down! Then I tried to take the bump off the bobbin. 15 mins, a lot of laughing and crying (all in good fun) later, I did manage to get the bump off. Not intact by any stretch of the imagination....apparently I threaded the bobbin wrong.....Px tomorrow! I have not laughed that hard for over a year (it occurred on Christmas Day 2009, reading Pg 132 of Berkely Breathed's Flawed Dogs novel).
We had some research to do and a couple of other chores that needed to be done midday, so we were not in the mill all day. We got the pin drafted rovings spun and were fairly pleased with the 2 ply yarn we made.
I am sorry that I forgot to bring my camera home, because there was some extreme silliness that got the better of us around 4:30. Craig was doing some mechanical work on the pin drafter and I decided to try and set up the rug yarn maker myself. I had not threaded it before. I was thrilled to make a beautiful 50 yard bump of rug yarn. We have fiber we need to make into rug yarn to weave some special order rugs out of and I made the mistake of saying that I thought we had the process down! Then I tried to take the bump off the bobbin. 15 mins, a lot of laughing and crying (all in good fun) later, I did manage to get the bump off. Not intact by any stretch of the imagination....apparently I threaded the bobbin wrong.....Px tomorrow! I have not laughed that hard for over a year (it occurred on Christmas Day 2009, reading Pg 132 of Berkely Breathed's Flawed Dogs novel).
Monday, January 24, 2011
A new day
Cold, yes. Productive, yes. For whatever reason, things went beautifully today. It would have been nice to have had more time. The 2 hour delay this morning ate into some of the work day.
We were using an anti-static but we also needed a little cohesive agent. Alpaca can be a bit slick. We got a combo mixture from RI late on Fri and didn't get much of a chance to work with it.
And whaalaa. wonderous. The carder and pin drafter were both working splendidly. We did not make it to the spinner but we will first thing tomorrow. And we have some rug yarn to make as well. And maybe some batts. Gee, i must be plannign on an actual full day!
So we are aiming a a new goal: two productive days in a row. Seems very doable to us.
I did not get any pictures today.
As an aside, Craig's friend Jen accidentally sent an alpaca sweater through the washer. The result was, of course, felt. She gave Craig the sweater to give to my daughter but it was way too small for her (and she is tiny for a teen). So I decided to make something out of it for her. I decided on a purse, but I wanted to try to retain some semblance of the original sweater. I had to hand sew it as my machine was being tweeky but it should hold together. I enjoy doing blanket stitching. I got the idea for the purse from this site
http://content.janome.com/index.cfm/ProjectCenter/Project_Detail/Recycled_Sweater_Purse
Their purse was felted after all the pieces were cut, so I do not think their use of the collar would have resulted in a pocket. I did not line my purse. If you enjoy felting with old wool sweaters, there are plenty of sites to help you out.
Do you all remember Claire, my 12 year old doxie? Well, I found a site where the woman makes doxies out of old sweaters. Her blog site is http://twokitties.typepad.com/my_weblog/felted_sweater_projects/ . Weinermania!
Someday, when I am not standing at the pin drafter 10 hours a day, I might get to make more stuff!
And since I am qusi-off topic and putting links in, if you need a good laugh, check out http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ I wish I had this type of comedic timing in my writing.
We were using an anti-static but we also needed a little cohesive agent. Alpaca can be a bit slick. We got a combo mixture from RI late on Fri and didn't get much of a chance to work with it.
And whaalaa. wonderous. The carder and pin drafter were both working splendidly. We did not make it to the spinner but we will first thing tomorrow. And we have some rug yarn to make as well. And maybe some batts. Gee, i must be plannign on an actual full day!
So we are aiming a a new goal: two productive days in a row. Seems very doable to us.
I did not get any pictures today.
As an aside, Craig's friend Jen accidentally sent an alpaca sweater through the washer. The result was, of course, felt. She gave Craig the sweater to give to my daughter but it was way too small for her (and she is tiny for a teen). So I decided to make something out of it for her. I decided on a purse, but I wanted to try to retain some semblance of the original sweater. I had to hand sew it as my machine was being tweeky but it should hold together. I enjoy doing blanket stitching. I got the idea for the purse from this site
http://content.janome.com/index.cfm/ProjectCenter/Project_Detail/Recycled_Sweater_Purse
Their purse was felted after all the pieces were cut, so I do not think their use of the collar would have resulted in a pocket. I did not line my purse. If you enjoy felting with old wool sweaters, there are plenty of sites to help you out.
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| Pocket made from back neck area. Left the tags on as a reminder... |
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| This is the front of the sweater. it was a zip neck. Now it is a water bottle pocket! |
Do you all remember Claire, my 12 year old doxie? Well, I found a site where the woman makes doxies out of old sweaters. Her blog site is http://twokitties.typepad.com/my_weblog/felted_sweater_projects/ . Weinermania!
Someday, when I am not standing at the pin drafter 10 hours a day, I might get to make more stuff!
And since I am qusi-off topic and putting links in, if you need a good laugh, check out http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ I wish I had this type of comedic timing in my writing.
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