Day by Day

My smallest drop spindle has taken up residence in my handbag. I'm still spinning the perpetual cashmere-merino tops. It goes a long way when it's spun fine. I thought I'd used all of these hand-dyed tops some time ago, but it turns out I'd only used half.

You can see in the picture how I keep my fibre under control while I spin. Usually I tuck it into my watch band, but I wasn't wearing my watch this morning. A bracelet does just as well. Of course, I had to put down the spindle to take the photo.

Another New Spindle

The Bendigo finds continue:

I didn't have a turkish drop spindle in my collection. That gap has now been filled. The timber is osage orange which is also used as a natural dye source.

I'm interested in thinking through the folk-engineering of my textile tools. The turkish spindle design is potentially easier to make at home than those that require a turned whorl--though I am yet to test that theory. Meanwhile it's going to take a little bit of getting used to as it handles a bit differently from the others I'm used to. 

Ethan Jakob

Another Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show has come and gone and another delightful drop spindle has come to live at my house. Meet Ethan Jakob.

The timber is wild olive and red oak. I've tracked it down as coming from Greensleeves Spindles--delightfully named after the maker's grandson. This little spindle weighs only 12 grams. It's become my new handbag companion. I can't believe how light and sweetly balanced it is. 

Ooops

I came home from my weekend trip with a lovely unexpected little addition to my spindle collection.

It's a 24 gram, dichroic glass, bottom-whorl drop spindle made by Daniel McBride of Whorled Domination. I like the name nearly as much as I like the spindle itself. It's light, fast and smooth. Having only ever tried the "boat anchor" style of bottom whorl spindles given to beginners, I was very pleasantly surprised. Now I just need to be careful of the fact that I can't afford to drop this particular spindle on a hard surface. I think I'll stick with my timber spindles on public transport just in case I have a clumsy day.

Flight Mode

I had a two hour flight yesterday evening. As the flight attendant went through the usual speil about turning off electronic devices etc, etc, etc, I smiled to myself. Then I pulled out my personal in-flight entertainment:This is my second version of a flight-mode drop spindle and it was a great success. The makings are simple: a bamboo chopstick and a small plastic wheel. My friend R put it together for me. Not only did it keep me happily occupied for most of the flight, it gave me the opportunity for some friendly conversation with my neighbour--an embroiderer and knitter--and the various staff members who stopped to ask questions. Now I'm staying with friends, in the thick of wedding preparations. It appears that there will be no shortage of textile tasks to keep me occupied here. I'll keep you posted.

Snap

Not just one sock, but two socks:I finished the pair yesterday. This morning I celebrated by putting them on and enjoying warm toasty toes. Unfortunately I then had to go and spend two hours waiting at the doctors' surgery to have someone look at the sticky red swollen eye I woke up with this morning, so my leisurely Sunday morning was shortlived. I got a good bit of drop spindling done while I was waiting--that's some compensation. Now I have antibiotic eye drops and ointment to use and strict instructions to look after myself. OK, OK, that's not going to stop me knitting.

Infinite Filament

I bought this reel of silk filament at a clearance sale, I don't know how many years ago: I've used it a lot. Mainly to ply with. This morning I used it to ply the last of my angora-merino drop-spindle yarn. As if it wasn't delicious enough already! The strange thing is the reel never seems to get any smaller. Of course I didn't weigh it when I first brought it home. It was part of a boxload of stuff and I'm sure I only paid a couple of dollars for it. It isn't really infinite and maybe if I live long enough to spin up all the fibre I have at my house I'll eventually get to the end of it. But meanwhile, there it is in its fine magenta lustre waiting to be added to one more skein

Achievement

It's been more than a year since I bought my tiger myrtle drop spindle at the Southbank Market. I bought some of Charly's angora-merino tops at the same time. We've been a long way together, my drop spindle and I: public transport, cafe's, car breakdowns, doctor's surgeries, . . . we've seen them all. Don't ask me how many hours, but it's been time that would otherwise have been wasted. In fact, drop spindling has enriched my time and relieved what would otherwise have been tedious or frustrating moments--oh, and in case I was in your company while drop spindling, let me quickly say, some delightful moments too!

Now look:I've spun my way through all this delicious fibre and it's ready to ply. I'm not enough of a purist to ply it all on my drop spindle. The first attraction of drop spindling for me is portability and plying vast lengths of tightly spun lace-weight yarn from two little bobbins in not portable. I'll use the wheel for plying and set myself up with a new batch of fibre for my drop spindle. Hmmm, what to choose? I'll ponder that over a cup of coffee while I gloat over my beautiful bobbins. Or maybe I'll just gloat for now and choose later.

More Colour

I was exhausted yesterday, but not too exhausted to enjoy consolidating my learning from the day before. I spent several happy hours pasting up the samples from my design board and adding a few other yarns out of my stash. I was so pleased with the process that I didn't want to put the board away. So it's leaning up against my wall where I can see it from my armchair. I realised as I was pasting it all up that there is not a scrap of blue to be seen on the entire board--that has got to be a first for me! The lesson of mixing with black was also reinforced as I mixed up a dyepot of landscape "wattle" with just a crumb of "currawong" and dyed up 30g of silky mohair which I'd spun up a few days ago. More on that later--it's drying as we speak.

The colour wheel was next. I started to spin up the colour swatches on one of my drop spindles. That gives me a double benefit: the more I handle the fibre, the more I learn from it; plus the colour is more intense and appears better blended when spun. It was my fellow student, M's idea to use the drop spindle--good one! It handles the tiny quantities easily and saves me occupying yet another bobbin with an unfinished sample. It also makes it easy to just do a bit more every now and then.

As you can see, I'm about 2/3 of the way through the samples. I had plenty of fibre in each sample, so I've saved a bit to take an extra step. I want to blend another set of in between colours--so doubling the number of steps in my colour wheel. I have visions of doing some more blending again, but I won't commit to that until I've got this lot finished. I guess that means it's time to leave the computer and head back to the fibre. Colour is just so good for me!

Rant--and a Bright Spot

I hadn't planned to spend yesterday afternoon at a Smash Repair shop. In fact, I hadn't really planned the afternoon much at all. After a week of bad sleep, I was feeling slow, and relieved after a slightly better night. I'd promised to catch up with a friend late in the afternoon. Meanwhile I was feeling slow enough to stop at a local fast food "restaurant" for lunch rather than rustle something up at home. That turned out to be the bad choice of the day. The place was full of school-kids. Fair enough, it's school holidays and they need somewhere to socialise. Service was slow--also fair enough given the crowds of school kids. I never thought of a big bunch of school kids as a security issue, but when I returned to my car, I found some-one had snapped off the driver's side wing mirror. It wasn't bumped, scratched, dented or smashed. It was fully snapped off--a ring of broken metal where the mirror should have been and no mirror to be found. All of a sudden my mood deteriorated and my prejudices about my fellow restaurant patrons flared! Did I mention NOT HAPPY!

I spoke with the manager--no they don't have video surveillance in the car park. They will be installing it "soon". I spoke with the police--nothing they can do, but take a report which, "proabably isn't even worth printing". I spoke with my Insurance agency--they gave me a reference number. I spoke with the Smash Repair Shop--here's the bright spot--they said, come on up and they'd see what they could do.

Driving up the highway without a driver's side mirror was very unsettling. I was amazed at the number of times I glanced at the absent mirror and then over my shoulder to cope with the huge blind spot. I spent the next couple of hours in a tiny, dusty, brown office, while the Smash Repair guys rang wreckers and waited for parts to arrive. Meanwhile, I kept busy with my trusty drop spindle: See what I mean by dusty brown? As for tiny--that's the counter and I rested the drop spindle on my knee to take the shot. The office was "decorated" with dozens of certificates, interspersed with old football posters. Attractive--NOT.

The first mirror to arrive was white, mine was black. They tried again. The black one arrived. They installed it. I handed over $100 and grateful thanks. There wasn't much left of the afternoon. Would you believe I took a friend to a fast food "resaurant" for tea? I did have second thoughts, but I'd had enough of the day by then. The place was quiet. My car remained undamaged. We had an hour or so to catch up and then I went home. I don't have any plans for this afternoon, but one thing is for sure: no matter how slow and unmotivated I feel, I will not be dropping in for a quick lunch at that fast food place.

Glykeria

I had a hairdresser's appointment yesterday. They were running late, so I was sitting, waiting, happily spinning on my drop spindle and enjoying the sense of community in the room--the two clients are old friends, the staff, Anna and Soula, mother and daughter--lots of chatter; a phone call to the hospital to check on the wellbeing of another client and friend--it's a real family business. It later turned out that Anna had quietly synchronised these two appointments as a surprise to her clients.

Then another client came in. She sat next to me on the couch and exploded into excited Greek. Anna and Soula responded in kind. From the intent focus on my spinning and various gestures I figured it was about me and my drop spindle. Eventually Soula managed to send some translation my way, though both the older women seemed to hardly stop for breath. Soula was at the other end of the salon, and her explanations kept colliding with more comments and questions from my new neighbour. Then she rushed out the back door and came back with a bent stick--it was from a rose bush and covered in thorns, but that didn't seem to bother her any. Anna pulled out a reel of sewing cotton and I soon realised I was seeing a demonstration of making a butterfly skein--like the ones I'm used to making on my hand, but bigger.

As things started to calm down just a little, I gathered that this woman had come to Australia from a farm in the Greek mountains. They kept sheep, and spun their own wool. She was terribly excited to see someone spinning and wanted to pass on her tips and experiences. Then she showed me her crocheted handbag, which she had made herself.

I tried to invite her to one of the local spinning groups, so more people could share her experience and excitement, but her lack of English made her suddenly shy. She brightened up when I pulled out my camera and asked her name: Glykeria. Thank you Glykeria, it was a thrill to meet you.

Picture This

I spent several hours last night in front of my computer. It was remotely connected to the software provider's help desk in an attempt to solve my camera connection problems. It was a slow frustrating time for me, and at the end I had no solution. Today I have to find a way to check my camera, since it's being blamed for the problem. I still suspect it's a problem with the new software I downloaded.

In any case, I had learned something from my previous experience with the help desk. Instead of sitting in front of the computer expecting to be engrossed by the process, I armed myself with a drop spindle and cashmere-merino top. So here I sat watching an unseen hand somewhere in India controlling my computer desktop, while I occupied my time with my beautiful spindle and fibre. There's some sort of poetic balance in that picture for me.

Adding Colour

My skein of Finn-cashmere spindle-spun yarn has undergone a transformation in the last week.I've been progressively adding colour--five related blue-greens to be precise. The photo doesn't quite pick up the subtleties of the variation, but it's definitely not white any more. Now that it's dyed and rinsed and dried, I can think about knitting it up. First I need to make some decisions about what I'd like to make. Then a bit of sampling will be in order. I also need to document my process, since I'm planning to include this article as part of my folio.

Meanwhile, I've been working away at different preparation methods for worsted spinning. More of that to come.

My friend D is safely home, having flown from about 15 degrees in Melbourne in the morning to something like 36 in Brisbane by the time she landed. I must say, I'd rather be home, wearing a sweatshirt and spinning away!

Technology

I had tea with my friend Anna last night. I usually think of myself as being reasonably up to date with technology, but this scenario surprised and amused me: . . . wireless internet, laptop on kitchen bench, recipe on laptop . . . follow the instructions and in less than an hour we have yummy almond bickies to enjoy. Meanwhile I continued with my drop spindling.

I was spinning at the Carlton library earlier in the afternoon while waiting for Anna to finish work. I received what I consider to be the ultimate compliment from a tween girl who was watching me, "That's so cool!" Did I happen to mention I love my drop spindle?

Test Driving

I was thrilled to see several traders with drop spindles for sale at the wool show. I tested as many of them as I could. They all looked great, but I wanted to buy one that would be a joy to use. The only one that was irresistable in my hands was this banksia drop spindle by Ron West. It was the lightest one he had left of this type: 35g. The balance and weight distribution on the shaft are both very good. When I started it spinning, it didn't want to stop--and neither did I. As a bonus, the whorl is made from a banksia nut and it's just fascinating.It seems that several of the wood turners making drop spindles are in the product development phase--still learning and interacting with spinners to see what works well. So I did have a lot of fun trying things out and discussing possibilities.

I also had a chance to thank Maureen Shepherd for the beautiful Finn-cashmere tops I bought from her last year. They pretty well go everywhere with me in my drop spindle bag and I'm about 3/4 of the way through spinning 100g. They are giving me so much pleasure. Find out more about Finn sheep here.

Journey Planner

This morning I feel as though I've been hit by a train. I'm exhausted, my legs ache and I don't want to do much at all. But since it was the Bendigo train that hit me, there's a smile on my face and my mind is happily rolling over the things I saw and the treasures I brought home with me.

But first, my journey planner:
Going to the wool show on the train means at least five hours of travel. I did that sum on Friday night as I was setting the alarm to wake me in time to make it to the station. So, before I did anything else, I made provision for five hours of fibre-loving travel.

First I packed my favourite drop spindle with the Finn-cashmere tops I'm currently spinning on it. That was perfect for my first class seat on the way up in the morning. Then I packed this Alpaca-wool-mohair yarn and a pair of knitting needles. The yarn is hand-spun, semi-woollen, so it's nice and fluffy and quite soft. you can see there's lots of variation and interest in the yarn itself, so it was just the thing for the journey home. The roomier first class seats were booked out and I was too tired to concentrate much. So a garter stitch scarf filled my hands and mind beautifully while we talked over our day and got to know our fellow passengers a little.

We shared a carriage with a fantastic sock-knitter: interlacing cables in a wonderful red!--and a family who were cooperating on a project made from their Bendigo treasures: he was flicking out the dyed English Leicester fleece while she twisted it in her fingers and incorporated it straight into a crochet piece. Meanwhile the little boy "helped":) I wasn't even the only knitter on the suburban train which took me home!

This One Can Really Fly

Here's another drop spindle from Rob. I think I've started something!He took my suggestion of using a chopstick as a spindle and he's turned the whorl out of some plastic. The exciting thing is that he's shaped a beautiful little hook out of the bamboo itself, so it should be airline friendly. He brought it along for refinement. We moved the position of the whorl down a little, opened up the hook a little more and added a groove on the whorl to hold the yarn in position. It's a surprisingly sweet little spindle to use: very light and it does want to keep spinning--which after all is the essential thing. It's a much truer spindle than my original "flying spindle" made from a button. Watch this space for more exciting instalments.

Bouquet

Rob came over to give me some emotional back-up yesterday morning. I had the flooring people coming for what I hope will be the last time. I had to act like the "customer from hell" for a few minutes and demand that they check and fill every single gap between the floor-boards. The gaps were several mm wide. That's wide enough to let in water if I spill something--and you know, I'm sure to spill something! The workman who came was good about it and set to work much more willingly and thoroughly than I'd feared, but I didn't feel as though I had it in me to handle it on my own. So I asked Rob to come over.

Rob is the husband of one of my oldest quilting buddies and his mum is the one who introduced me to the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild. That's an impressive pedigree. He has a lathe and does some wood-turning. So when I fell in love with drop-spindling earlier this year and couldn't find any Australian spindles, I asked him for help. He's been working on the challenge on and off. Yesterday he brought a prototype, partly finished, to compare and consult. How's this for a handful of beauties!
The dark one at the front is the one I bought earlier this year. It's made in the US and it's a dream to use--it just doesn't want to stop spinning. The largest spindle at the back is politely referred to as a "student spindle", it came flat packed from New Zealand. I'm afraid it didn't have any aspirations of dreaminess. Rob's prototype is on the right.

After a coffee and a chat, Rob went off to continue development. He asked if I'd like the big spindle "trued". Did I ever! He came back with it: glued and turned and polished. It's now a joy to use. It's graduated from being a "student" to being a "master". He also finished off his prototype: complete with groove and fine hook. It's great. Just what I was hoping for. So there's another member in my drop spindle family--and a smile on my face.

Flight Report

Here's the fibre I bought to accompany me on my trip. Wool-silk (50/50) hand-dyed in brown-purple. This half is more brown and the other half is more purple, but all of it is gorgeous:I chose this fibre because I figure a little bit of it will go a long way in terms of effect. I can see lots of positive attributes in my tiniest safest spindle of all, but efficiency of production is not one of them!

Here's a pic of the fibre with the little Pax Spindle. I've put a 50 cent piece next to the spindle whorl to give an idea of size--that's an Australian 50 cent piece:
The flight was fine--delays, turbulence . . . who cares! I had my fibre and spindle with me. I wore the little spindle as a shawl pin onto the plane to circumvent any concerns with the XRay machine. Then I found I was sitting next to a member of the airline staff in the plane--on her way home after a day's work. After a moment's hesitation I just went ahead and started spinning. It's more of a hand-spindle than a drop spindle, but it works fine. The first comment I got from my neighbour was, "that's a smart way to get around it!". No-one seemed at all concerned and I'll happily do it again on my next flight.

Airport Security Pax

I'm making a flying visit to Queensland this weekend. I can't leave until after Weaving class tomorrow evening, and I need to be back in Melbourne early next week. It feels almost as though I'll be spending more time at the airport than with my friends!

I don't much like airports. And being forced to sit without doing any craft work feels like a significant imposition on my personal freedom. Of course, declaring any form of opposition to such security is the last thing I want to do--that's a recipe for trouble. On this trip, though, I will be happy to offer the hand of peace to any airport official, because now I have the tiniest safest drop spindle: Here's my recipe for Airport Security Pax:

• Take one large coconut shell button and a small "chopstick" closure from the accessories department at my favourite knitting store (it's about half the size of a real chopstick)


• Carefully shape the two with a stanley knife until they fit together.


• Add a dab of glue


• Carve a notch in the side of the button.


• Shape a hook in the top of the chopstick


• Allow to settle and adjust as necessary until you develop a suitable balance


• Add a small amount of suitable fibre, sufficient for the length of your trip.

Enjoy in any airport lounge, plane or other secure location!