I have a sister who taught me to knit. Her name is May. She can knit lace but does not really enjoy it. She can spin on a wheel but prefers spindles most of the time. She likes nice tools and a Happy Sister is a good thing if you live together and are both menopausal. We both went to Lambtown this weekend and made ourselves very very happy! Please see above yarn my sister bought there. The orange skein on the far left is 100% superwas merino from "A Verb for Keeping Warm" and is called "Sticky Monkey Flower". This is to be a baby sweater for one of our nieces who is expecting. The other two skeins are 60% linen and 40% SW merino in Hollyhock and Jade, also from Verb. She is thinking of making market bags. Clearly, no lace involved here but great projects none the less. Below the yarn you have a Kate made by Will Taylor May got at Carolina Homespun. We have a few Lazy Kate's but this one has clean lines, is compact and really appealed to her. Next are three spindles that my sister picked up, again at Carolina Homespun. She has a "thing" for Ken Ledbetter spindles and the first one has a Wengi finial Bubinga whorl, Maple shaft and a vintage button in the center. The second has a Purple heart finial, Maple Whorl, Purple Heart shaft , Mother of Pearl inlay and a vintage button center. Just below those is a Jenkins Turkish spindle of unknown wood type (no tag). What of the last two spindles you ask? These were not obtained at Lambtown. A few years ago my sister bought a Majacraft Rose wheel at the same time I bought a Lendrum. We have discovered over time that I prefer her Rose and she prefers my Lendrum. She swapped wheels with me and I decided to buy her a few spindles as a "Thank You" as her Rose was more costly than the Lendrum. Breaking away from the "Ken Ledbetter Obsession" my sister has, I picked up two Tom Forrester Spindles for her. The one with the trees is referred to as a "Pyro" because he burns the designs into it and is called "Orchard". The Whorl is Black Walnut and the shaft is Santa Maria. The second is a "Dervish" and I can't remember the wood. Both spin great and will keep my sister busy for a long time to come. I will get my own stuff in order and post my haul later :-)
16 comments:
ooh. Beautiful eye candy. The yarn is gorgeous, the spindles--they're lovely (and works of art). I can't wait to see what you got.
I am in awe!! Your sister's purchases has my eyes "a poppin"!! Lambtown must have been heaven to be at. ps- maybe your sister May should blog? I'll patiently await your show :)Terry
the spindles are fabulous -- such craftsman ship. I've not wanted to get into spinning because I just can't add a spinning wheel to my "stuff: but am REALLY tempted now to think about learning how to drop spindle. Can you ask your sister how much "yarn" you can do with drop spindling (you can tell I know NOTHING about it LOL) and what do you do when you have more roving but the spindle is "full?" I do love beautifully made tools, sigh ....
Quite beautiful! I think I saw you two talking over that lazy kate early in the day, nice choice! :)
The yarn is beautifully spun and the spindles are exquisite! That must have been a wonderful trip! You are so lucky to live near all these fabulous festivals, sigh.
I am curious about the lazy kate. I use the one that came with my Rose but it has no tensioning mechanism. It is just the box with cross shafts to hold the bobbins. Does this one tension and how? My sister does not know a knitting needle from a crochet hook :(
z's Moma:
Hi there, this is May!
Yes, the yarn at A Verb for Keeping Warm is really gorgeous. Jane and I had the pleasure of visiting the vendor's new studio site in Berkeley. Talk about kid in a candy shop. Their website only shows a fraction of their stock. And yes, I am a total Tom Forrester slut.
Terry:
Yes, I do enjoy my toys. No, I have decided that blogging (along with getting a tattoo and bungy jumping) is risky business, to be undertaken only by those souls brave enough to attempt it and hardy enough to maintain it.
May
maryjoo--
If you are just beginning to spin, handspindles can be a good point of entry in learning. You can Google to find a local spinning guild to get information as well as help.
As for how much spun singles you can get on a spindle, there is no hard-and-fast answer; it depends on how thin your singles are. I've never run my singles through a meter to meaure.
Transferring the spun singles from the handspindle can be done easily. You can pull the cop off the end of the spindle onto a plastic drinking straw or you can use a straight knitting needle. I have heard some people wind off the spindle onto a cardboard toilet paper roll. Others use a technique called andean plying. You can read about all these methods. A few you can even see on YouTube.
-May-
aija--
Yes thank you, that was us. We spent 4 hours at Lambtown and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
-May-
fleegle--
Carolina Homespun and Verb had booths side by side, and the building housing the fiber vendors was nice and cool. So finding spindles and yarn was ludicrously easy and definitely fun.
We don't go to many fiber events, but we are blessed with an amazing range from which to choose during the summer. Not enough time, not enough fuel, I'm afraid. However, we can only drool when we hear about events back east like Rhinebeck, Maryland Sheep and Wool, et al. Sounds like epic fun!
-May-
laritza--
I have that same Majacraft box. I tried modifying it add a tensioning knob (actually a drawer pull), but it was not satisfactory.
If you go to http://askthebellwether.blogsot.com, you can see her Will Taylor kate in her July 7 entry, with a brief description of how it works.
-May-
lovely goodies to look at you certainly get some nice fibre festivals to visit....
Saigins carf was pretty btw...
Dear littleberry,
Lambtown is a very small festival but it has local fiber vendors so it's great to support them and get our fiber and tool fix at the same time :-)
Those spindles are lovely! I just adore how spindles look, but I really do prefer spinning on a wheel. I think I've become a collector and I think I've just got to embrace that fact. :)
Dear Opal,
I had to laugh since I'm always tempted to buy spindles and I don't like using them at all. I much prefer a wheel so I end up buying May spindles instead so at least I still get to look at them :-)
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