I'm a Tool Tuesday

OK, it's not that I am a tool, it's that I have a tool, or actually, a couple of new tools. Cole has been a busy bee making me some cool stuff while off work lately. First, he made me these cone holders. I have lots of cones of yarn lying around for plying, and they tend to tip over, roll around, & annoy the crap out of me when I'm spinning. So I had him slap together a couple of cone holders! The tapered model is the 2nd iteration, designed to accommodate cones with smaller center holes. They work great, and look as good as me in the bargain. ;) I put a bit of no-slip carpet padding underneath (as I do with my lazy kate), to keep it from sliding on our hardwood floors. Think I'll put him to work on a horizontal, tensioned version like this soon. It avoids adding additional twist to the yarn like the vertical models do. Want one for yourself? I think a vertical paper towel holder would serve the same purpose, AND be a good reduce, reuse, recycle way to repurpose an unwanted household item. There's a how-to tutorial on I'm Tinking. Not handy yourself? No Homo habilis around the house? There's a cost-effective lazy susan version for sale at Catz in the House on Etsy.


One day Cole saw me trying to McGyver an empty Zatarain's Creole Rice box, DPN sock needle, & duct tape lazy kate for multiple thread bobbins, and he came up with this one. He used scraps of redwood & bamboo floorboard plus a section of wire hanger - reduce, reuse, recycle! I love that he can fabricate functional art from crap in our garage. Works like a charm, too. I'm gonna have him add 2 more horizontal wires so it will hold more spools.


The last one is a tote box to hold the canning jars I use for saving yarn scraps (not much goes to waste in this house). I've currently got 12 color-themed jars going, so he's making me a second one now that we know this one works for me. It's made of more redwood scraps; Cole is a woodworker/carpenter, so he brings home lots of leftovers from jobs he works. It's great being able to dream something up & then have it in my hot little hands within a week or so! And I love that he's DIY like me!

I'll leave you with this shot from yesterday. I always look forward to the first daffodils of the season; means spring & Farmers Market are right around the corner.

Tags: handspinning, tools, DIY, repurposed

Lots Goin' on in V-World

Is this the cutest baby ever, or what? Welcome Dinon into the world, readers. He was born on 4/20 (insert stoner joke here), and he's the best hat model EVER! I made that hat for him awhile back, before he was even conceived, as a matter of fact; I just didn't *know* it was for him 'til he popped out. I can't get over how much I love those little fists (I think he's sick of campaigning, too). ;) Oh, the hat? Made with Koigu KPPPM, which I can't recommend highly enough for infant hats: so soft! And easy to work with, too.

Put up a custom reserved listing today on Etsy, for a BOMBits Spinning Kit of art yarn ingredients in 'Crayola'. My plan is to make a bunch more kits in a variety of colors to take to Black Sheep Gathering, so if you're planning on attending and you've been jonesing for one, come by my booth for a visit. If you have a color request, be sure to drop me a line and let me know - I'd be happy to try to accomodate your special request.

Guess what arrived a day early? My new carder!!! My beater Fricke that I bought used from Otto Strauch, to complement my Finest that I got for Christmas from my sweetie in '06. Isn't it purdy? Started makin' batts on it immediately, and cranked out enough for a 50+ yard skein of WoolyBear yarn in nothin' flat. Put aside the supercoils for awhile, and spun that up. Now it's back to LoopyDoopy for a few more days. But check back tomorrow for pics of the WoolyBear yarn and batts...

Oh, and I keep forgetting to post this photo of my 'stable' of wheels. I took it a week or 2 ago, after my Pirtle was fixed. L to R: 'Myrtle', Vintage Pirtle Bulky Spinner, c. 1970s; 'Harry', Lendrum DT; and 'Babe', Babe Production DT.

And just to leave you with a weird piece of trivia: I can't believe how many hits in my blog stats come from the search parameter "knitting pattern penis" (and I suppose writing that won't help any either). I think I may have to write one, since there is apparently such a huge clamoring for it. ;)

Tags: COLORBOMB Creations, FOs, handspinning, spinning wheel, drum carder

Wheels, Wheels, Everywhere!

Man, do I feel sorry for folks that don't live here! First day of Farmers' Market, and we had temps in the high 60s-low 70s! All you poor slobs still slogging through the snow, check out our SIP (spinning in public) loveliness yesterday.

Elena (on the left) and I have been meeting Saturdays for the last few months to SIP at HumBrews, and we decided that when Farmers' Market started back up, we'd change our venue. Couldn't have *asked* for better weather, and we had a couple Purl 'n Hurler knitters (Bea, Marianne, & Autumn) join us. Plans are to make this a regular thing, so come out if you're a loc.

When I got home, Cole had a big surprise for me: he'd repaired the Pirtle wheel I bought waaaay back in December, and she's ready to spin on! Freakin' UPS dropped or otherwise destroyed the box it was shipped in, and for some inexplicable reason *disassembled* the damn thing before delivering it, and in the process broke the connector between the footman and the treadle. Anyway, Cole fabricated a new one for me yesterday, of jatoba (Brazilian cherry) - much prettier than the original, which looked like plywood. So, I present Myrtle, my lovely Pirtle Bulky Spinner in gorgeous shedua wood (I want to say the light-colored wood is maple or ash, but I can't remember).

She's an Irish tension wheel, bobbin-driven rather than flyer-driven like Harry, my Lendrum, so will take some getting used to. After trying to spin on her last night, I discovered that her wood seems to be swollen from the humidity here, so her yarn guides don't slide and her flyer doesn't turn. My personal Pirtle expert, Janice, tells me Vaseline is the answer to all her ills, but know-it-all that I am, I think I'll try some wood wax first.

For those of you who don't know about Pirtle wheels (I didn't), they were designed and made in the 1970s by a husband/wife team, in Huntington Beach, CA, Paul & Beverly Pirtle. The rumor about these wheels, only about 200 of which were ever produced, was that they were made by hippies on a commune using whatever wood scraps were lying around at hand. Sadly, this isn't the case (how cool would that have been?); Paul is a retired Air Force engineer, and he built them in his garage. :)

These wheels have amazing capabilities: the orifice and sliding yarn guides are 1", and the bobbins can hold up to 2.2 POUNDS of yarn. I have both the regular (huge) and bulky (ginormous) bobbin/flyer setups. What I'd love to find someday is the matching lazy kate. And hopefully when Cole masters his new lathe, he can make me some extra bobbins, because I only have one of each, so no plying for now. I'm excited about the possibilities of spinning on this wheel, and you can be sure you'll see the results here.

Tags: spinning, handspinning, spinning in public, spinning wheel, Pirtle, Farmers Market, Arcata, Humboldt