Stasia's Place Of Grace

Friday, May 14, 2004

 

Welcome Home, Jeff!

Jeff is back from a two-week jaunt to Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia. (If you're planning a trip to Lithuania, he says this B&B can't be beat!)

This trip was for fun... yes, fun. Personally, I'd choose Paris or London or Montreal, but Jeff's idea of fun is a National Geographic exploration or someplace like Belarus where they have objectionable toilet paper... if any.

But, like any well-trained husband of a fiber addict, he returned bearing chocolate and handmade textiles!

The hand-carved, antique weaving shuttles - one of which still has coarse linen thread on the bobbin - are from Belarus (the land of my forefathers). The tablecloth is from Latvia, the table runner to its right from Lithuania. The fun hat was made in Lithuania in the colors of their flag. The mittens and socks are from Latvia, and the sash is from Lithuania.

Everything was purchased from vendors at outdoor markets. Do you know you can buy a spinning wheel in Belarus for $15?! Problem is, you can't get it out of the country because of their antiquities laws. But Jeff took photos of wheels he saw for sale and at museums, and also of little old ladies selling their handknit items on street corners - if my aged scanner will cooperate, I'll try to put some up here soon.

Jeff brought the sash and hat for Kary - we all know Kary likes crazy hats!

He also brought some new pieces for our Gzhel pottery collection - sheepies among them! Our favorite piece is a wine jug shaped like a chicken (not pictured). When you pour the wine out of the chicken's mouth, it chirps like a bird! When Jeff's Belarussian friends saw the pitcher, they remarked, "Oh, yes, it sings." Jeff thought he was missing something in translation until he tried it here for the first time!

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Project Progress

I finished knitting some socks made with yarn I spun from my beloved Sheltie, Geddy, who passed away in 1998.

Geddy was sable and white, so his "wool" blended to gray when I spun it. Here are the socks, along with a skein of yarn made with one ply of Silkworker silk and a ply of Silkworker silk and cashmere. It glows! I am a bona fide Silkworker roving collector - if you go to her site, you will become one, too!

The small skein is a sample I spun of Sparx the Shetland sheep's lovely wool for a sweater I'll be making for Jeff.

I bought some fantastic new fiber preparation tools - a hackle and a comb clamp to match my Forsyth wool combs. The hackle is a work of art, with Purpleheart accents!

I've been preparing test skeins of Shetland sheep wool, comparing a carded prep to a combed one. I want to spin a durable, non-pilly yarn for Jeff's sweater, and I like the results I'm getting from combing - despite the fact that it is slower than using my drum carder, and that a lot of the shorter fibers are being combed out. But that's normal in the combing process, and I'll be able to save those to card with other wools later on.

Maybe these photos whill help you see the difference in the combed and carded preps and spin(dl)ing styles. (I'm using some lovely Tabachek spindles from my collection - a new Koa is a fave at the moment!)

I spun the combed prep in a worsted, inchworm style. I spun the carded prep in a sort of long-draw, woolen style. And here are the results for comparison:

Top: combed/worsted
Bottom: carded/woolen

Top: combed/worsted
Bottom: carded/woolen

The photos aren't the clearest, but I see a definite difference in how the little worsted skein reflects the light, while the woolen one absorbs it. Both are soft, but the woolen one feels much "cushier". That will not work for a hard-wearing sweater for Jeff, so combed prep and worsted spinning are the winners!

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Here's a mini-quiz I posted on Spindlers - answer on your blog!

What was the last thing you...

...spun on/with? (Wheel or spindle? Maker, type?)
...spun up (Fiber - and what/who was its source?)
...bought/made/traded-for that is spinning-related?
...did that was fiber-related, besides your spinning?
...ate?
...drank?
...heard?
...laughed at?
...were inspired by?

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I hope you will have an awesome, creative, meditative, joyful, celebratory, fulfilling day!

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