Spinning With Hooky Sticks & An Akha Spindle; Brighid's Dyers' Gathering '07

What a wild and busy seven days last week was! Obviously no blog post. It's struck me that summer is a crazy and unpredictable time not only for me, but for you, too. Therefore, I'll try to stay with my once-a-week post, but please don't fret or freak or anything (not that you don't have more important things to worry about...) if it's bi-weekly here and there.

So what happened last week? Well, one example that topped the list was that Chris did perhaps the most romantic thing he's ever done in all our 27 1/2 years. He not only agreed that I could see Bob Dylan performing at Look Park, in Northampton, MA (many thanks to Leslie and E for alerting me that this event was to take place)...but, in addition, Chris was my handsome date for the concert. Now it goes without saying that Dylan does not hold the same appeal for Chris as he does for me. Therefore it was only me, of the two of us, who was hooting, laughing, crying and dancing during the tunes. But no matter...we had a blast and the evening was lovely and beyond memorable, thanks to my Babes being with me. People-watching was truly interesting...there were folks who looked like they had never stopped taking acid since the 60's; and venerable, gray-haired hippies and their oh-so-hip offspring and their already-cool babies; and non-stop yakking yuppies who kept checking their palm pilots for heaven-knows-what; and obviously devoted groupies who chatted about being at Bob's last 50+ concerts in detail. One thing that became blazingly clear as I people-watched: Women look horrendous without bras. Big breasted woman who haven't worn bras for the last 40 years especially don't look very good without bras. These women's choice of attire fall into the same category as guys who unbutton their shirts down to their navels, especially when their guts are bigger than their rear ends. Oh and for the record, "Highway 61", "Desolation Row" and "Thunder On The Mountain" were the spectacular hits of the night, amongst a bevy of Dylan's incredible tunes, in my opinionated opinion.

Another interesting thing that occurred last week was that our yard was visited by a whopper of an adult black bear during the late afternoon. I happened to be upstairs in our bedroom when I heard a loud crack. Puzzled, I looked down upon the bird feeders. The bear had crushed the thistle feeder and removed the bottom tray. "Bear" was nonchalantly relaxing on the ground as a family dog would, thistle tray held between its paws, licking (with a frickin huge tongue) up the thistle like it was the last drop of honey in a jar. Alexander, youngest of the spider, asked why I didn't take a pic? I was mesmerized, that's why. And I was afraid that if I stopped watching and scooted downstairs to get the camera, I'd miss the whole show. I did yell down, "Bear, you need to leave now, please." Bear did not listen, but got up in his/her own sweet time and sauntered off into the forest. I moved the main feeder farther away from the house, just in case Bear wanted to bring relatives back.

Let's see...another neat thing that happened last week was that a friend, Candy, who I've known since third grade came, with her husband, Frank, to visit. Some of my spinnerly friends were invited to the pot-luck we held in their honor, as well. It was a rollicking good time as my friends were reinforced with the notion of what it means when I say I'm from Detroit. Candy and I realized that we each took no pics. She said that simply means we will meet again in the future!

As mentioned in the last blog post, Brighid's Dyers gathered together last Saturday. We were a small (5 total) but truly lovely group of dyers. We were lucky in that we had a quiet table in the back room of Bickfords , a family-type restaurant. What follows are a few pics of the event. For more info on Brighid's Dyers, please go to the website, designed and maintained by Elizabeth, Llama Farm Girl. Also, do check out my past posts, My Early Natural Dyeing Adventures & Brighid's Dyers and Solar Dyers Unite & Our Amazing Elizabeth~A Brighid's Dyers' Founding Member Plus.

From left to right: Emily, Tamara, Elizabeth and Leslie.

Leslie, who amazingly, but inadvertently, dressed to match her skeins, is holding a 5-ply Guernsey yarn that was solar dyed using a leftover Peruvian natural dye from a recent River Spinners dye day. Leslie couldn't remember exactly what dyestuff was used for her pretty skein. Anyone who went to that event know?

The above skein is the same as the one that Leslie's holding. The lower skein, also a 5-ply Guernsey yarn, was solar dyed with Brazilwood. The Brazilwood came in big, honking pieces so Leslie's wonderful husband, John, turned it into sawdust so that the optimum amount of dye in the dyestuff could be procured. Both skeins were solar mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. For more on solar mordanting, see the past post, Solar Mordanting.

Elizabeth, also known as E, is show-n-telling about her adorable solar dyed baby sweater, destined for a dear friend's child. The dyes were of the leftover synthetic variety...Gaywool and ProChem weak acid dyes. This was E's very first hand knitted sweater, complete with buttonholes and Kitchener stitching of the hood. Isn't it simply grand? Lucky baby!!!

Here's a pic of E holding some of Knitpicks wool lace yarn. It's been solar dyed with synthetic dyes and is a most beautiful variety of blues and purples.

E's sister is none other than Tamara, of Spincerely Yours. She's holding her hand knitted camera case that was adapted from a free, internet cellphone pattern. The yarn began as solar dyed fleece, using Wilton Cake Icing Dyes. Be sure to note that Tamara, all through the Brighid's Dyers' get-together, had "bright ideas" (see above her head.)

Tamara is shown holding two solar and naturally dyed skeins. The darker skein was dyed with Jewelweed. The lighter skein was dyed with Queen Anne's Lace. Both were mordanted with alum. The yarn is a wool, commercially spun, 8-ply.

While Tamara did not dye this skein, she DID spin it for a friend who does not spin. The 100% Tussah silk fiber came from Sliver Moon Farm. Gorgeous! I'm told that Tamara used my plying directions from the last post for this two-ply.

Tamara and E stopped by the hardware store and picked up two sizes of "Terry's Tubs." See the past post Solar Dyed Silk, for more on these easy-to-use solar dyeing set-ups.

Things got decidedly silly...Terry's Tubs as hat apparel.

E's t-shirt was actually dyed with Hawaiian red dirt, brought home from a recent anniversary trip! How cool is that?! Tamara knitted her lovely, periwinkle-ish top.

Emily, who we happily met for the first time at the Brighid's Dyers' gathering, brought these sweet hand knitted and Kool-Aid dyed baby booties. E had previously and kindly distributed Kool-Aid packets for everyone who attended (what better gift for dyers?!) and we realized that the flavor that Emily used was included in the give-aways ~ Black Cherry (plus a tad Grape.) Such rich and vivid color...not to mention the booties smelled delicious. The yarn was commercially spun and the pattern was by Debbie Bliss.

One friend who couldn't be with us at the Brighid's Dyers' event was Jenna. But that doesn't mean that she hasn't been dyeing up a storm. Here you'll see some of her jars of dyeing fiber/yarn, sun-tea-style. Jenna's been dog-sitting of late and that's Jasmine in the background.

Note how the jars in the previous pic were clear glass. The jars in the pic directly above have been painted black, with a clear strip left down the side so that Jenna can monitor the dye job. Matisse, a beautiful Turkish Van, is posing with the dye jars and one of Kevin's, Jenna's husband, incredible pieces of sculpture.

And a whole line-up of solar dyeing going on amidst Jenna's gardens...

On to answering a request from Laritza for pics of spinning with the Akha spindle, mentioned in the last post, Plain Vanilla Two-Plying And Balanced Yarns. This Thai hand spindle is held so that the shaft is horizontal to the ground. The whorl is situated more-or-less in the middle of the shaft. There is a notched hook carved on one end of the spindle. Being in the "supported" spindle category, even short fibers, such as cotton can be spun successfully on this spindle.

I used a fine cotton thread (hidden under the cop of stored yarn) as a leader to spin onto.

Hold the end of the spindle's shaft with one hand. The pointer (index) finger and the thumb do the twiddling/flicking. The middle, ring and pinkie fingers lightly cradle the shaft once it's flicked and in motion.

Once the pointer and thumb flick the spindle, as for twiddling, the other three fingers have to open up a bit in order for the spindle to revolve. Don't expect tons of revolutions...the spindle may turn only once or twice or so per twiddle. The finer the yarn you're spinning, the more twiddles to make a stable yarn. Note that the spun yarn is stored above the whorl (on the same side as the hook.) Also please note the candy-caning of yarn up to and under the hook.

The twist travels towards the hand holding the unspun fiber like a freight train heading down the track. The hand holding the rolag has to draft as the twist approaches. If the hand drafts the fiber too quickly, the yarn will drift apart and not be stable because the twist hasn't had a chance to build up. If the hand drafts so slowly that the twist builds up and firmly enters the drafting zone (ie. drafting triangle,) it will be difficult to draft at all because the excess twist has "locked" it. The trick is to draft in tandem with the twist approaching, staying just ahead of the twist.

Once an arm's length has been spun, extra twiddling (if needed) will insure that the yarn is stable.

Once you're sure that the yarn has adequate twist, wind on as you would with any hand spindle. Be sure to leave a few inches of lead yarn beyond the hook, so that it'll be easy to continue to spin.

Do any of you spinners out there own an Akha? Any tips you can add would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Onward to hooky stick spinning. A few folks mentioned in the comment section that they'd like to see some pics and directions on using this simple, but fantastic tool. Not only is the hooky stick great to teach young and older folks alike, it's CHEAP to make...just cut a length of coat hanger, bend a hook on one end and be sure to smooth the rough ends with a file. Get some fiber and you're ready to spin!!

As mentioned in the last post, but worth repeating...drafting, twisting and storing yarn can all be achieved on a humble hooky stick. I like to keep a few in my purse just in case the situation for teaching spinning arises.

To begin, catch a few fibers with the hook. 'course if you pulled just then, without inserting twist, the fibers would come off the hook easily.

But if you begin to twiddle the hooky stick, yarn immediately begins to form.

Just like with the Akha spindle spinning shown earlier, draft in tandem with the twist you insert by turning the hooky stick. Obviously there's no whorl on the hooky stick, so you can't flick it and let it rotate freely in your fingers. Instead, you have to literally turn the hooky stick in order for twist to go into the fiber.

Rather than attaching a leader to spin onto, as with the Akha spindle, I instead carefully slip the beginning of the yarn down to the shaft.

It's a bit fiddly to start to wind the yarn on for storage. Consider rolling it along your thigh for support if you're having trouble winding yarn on at the beginning.

Again, be sure to leave a few inches above the hook so that the spinning of more yarn can occur.

I usually spin an arm's length before I store.

The above pic shows how I make a ply-back to check how the yarn will look plain vanilla 2-plied.

Ted ~ look closely and you'll see the 60% wool/40% Ecospun fiber that you sent me to try. Maybe I'll hooky spin enough for a swatch sometime soon!

Will end with an e-mail from Sue:
I have a Pat Green drum carder with what looks to be 49 teeth per inch(I bought it used and have no paperwork on it, so I just counted the teeth). I wash and pick the Icelandic wool fleece (I do not separate the thel and tog) then run it though the drum carder. It comes out very bumpy looking:itty bitty clumpy things, not at all the long and silky that I am looking for. What am I doing wrong? Many thanks for your input.

The spider answers:
The carding cloth you have on your Pat Green will work wonderfully with (according to the sheets that came with my Pat Green Beverly carder) "long lustre wools, medium wools and adult mohair." You've not done anything wrong, Sue...it's just that the short, finer, downy fibers of the Icelandic fleece are bunching up with each other, due to such few tines per inch on the cloth of your carding drum. Not every carding cloth works well with all situations. This is why Pat Green sells the interchangeable drums which can be used on some models, with different #'s of tines per inch...not to mention various lengths and fineness of the individual tines on each drum. Oftentimes, the higher tines per inch on the carding cloth can handle the finer fibers better than a lower amount of tines per inch. Additionally, my carder can be set at a slower speed in order to card shorter/finer fibers more thoroughly. Readers, can you offer any additional suggestions to help Sue?

One more thought: If I had your carder, Sue, with no other bells and whistles, I might finish off my batts with my hand carders, in order to distribute the finer fibers throughout the thicker fibers.

Hoping all you readers in Canada had a great Canada Day. Happy Fourth of July to readers in the lower half of North America!