(no subject)

[which_chick]

Busy day at the Sheep and Wool festival, wherein I bought stuff (big surprise) and did my part for the economy.



I bought a wheel (ashford kiwi, modified to have fold-up treadles). It's largely green.

I bought some fluffy white sheep fur.

I bought a drum carder (Schacht, the small one).

I watched some naalbinding and I bought a book of charted motifs from olden times. The author person, who was there, signed the book. Should I ever need socks with welsh dragons on them, I'll be all set.

I drove home from Sheep and Wool. I went play pony but the pony people were busy with other stuff so I said I would be back in an hour and I drove home to play with my toys. By the time it got to be an hour later, the heavens had opened and there was Thunder and Lightning and I decided that maybe I should not be so in a hurry to go play pony, so I did not. Instead, I played with my toys some more. Yay toys!

Also at Sheep and Wool, many people said nice things about the HoHI, which was pretty gratifying and stuff.

And now, it's bedtime. Tomorrow, if it isn't pouring rain, there will be funnel cakes at the Appleblossom Festival. Maybe, if it's still light when we get home, there can be pony in the late afternoon. One can only hope.

Comments

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

Me reading this post:
Oooh, wheel.
...Oooh, drum carder.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

So, anyway, what made you choose the kiwi?

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Cute, small, will not take very much room in my house. Ashfords hold resale value, there's an upgrade path (bulky flyer kit, high speed upgrade) to look at if I want more than this wheel does without buying a new wheel. With folding treadles, it's kind of portable which means it can spend some time at Marybeth's house, visiting her. Also, I like double-treadle wheels.

The Kiwi is an entry-level machine, a reasonably-priced one that works well. That's what I was looking for, what I wanted to buy.

The drum carder, so that you know, is the sexy. I think I love it.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

Solid reasoning. I'd be interested to know what you thought of other wheels, if you've tried any. I have problems with the smaller wheels because they seem to have a lower orifice height and I can't seem to deal.

I am so jealous of your drum carder. I'm trying to work up the gumption to spend the comparative pittance on hand cards. I hope you post some sweet pictures! I've kind of been wondering if you'd gotten less interested in spinning (although way more interesting stuff seems to happen to you than me, so you probably just have way more to talk about. Me, it's all projects, all the time.)

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I do tend to cycle in and out of things, but the problem lately has been that fiber arts stuff is mostly wintertime fun for me. Once the weather gets fit, I return to ponies as blog fodder.

Since March, there's been the breaking of Project Horse Calli. This coming week, we'll be starting pre-conditioning rides (during which we will work on training the Calli horse as well as convincing the chilluns -- Cass and her brother Waylie this year -- of their ethical duty to steward the welfare of the equine under saddle in the exact way that the owners of Eight Belles did not) and then in June, we will begin conditioning in earnest. It's gearing up to be a summer of Pony.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yeah. I'm trying to hang on as long as I can, but pretty soon it's going to be so hot I won't even be able to understand why I like to knit or spin.

[core0psis.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Fun toys! I started with a drop spindle, which I love because it's so portable (and 'cos I get a lot of weird looks when I take it out in public), but got a bit frustrated with how long it takes to wind the yarn off it. So I just bought myself a spinning wheel this Spring, and after sanding and finishing with tung oil (of course!) have been happily learning its idiosyncrasies. Mine's a Kromski Polonaise - I fell in love with their pretty and could not resist, though it was close between that one and the Ashford Traveller. I still feel a bit trembly when I think of the price... That's an awful lot of yarn!
Next weekend is our Sheep and Wool Festival! I'm quite looking forward to it. So much so that I've been studying "In Sheep's Clothing" by Nola and Jane Fournier. It has full-size photos of many different wools, and pretty tables of staple length, sheen, and other useful stuff. Most edifying!

[As a largely silent member of the studio audience - Really enjoy reading your lj - thanks!]

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

The Kromski wheels are gorgeous. I can't blame you on that -- just, y'know, I'll pay that for a saddle, but not for a spinning wheel. How are you enjoying "In Sheep's Clothing" -- worth a read? (I have a certain amount of interest in things sheeply, see, and I've been looking for a sheep fleece reference work.)

[core0psis.livejournal.com]

Yes - worth a read!

While they don't have pages of info per breed (about 1/2 a page per), and not every breed, but there's enough to be going on with, I think. The gems are the full-size photos of locks! I would have liked to see photos of yarns spun from each wool, but maybe they left that for the reader to do! So much is lost in a photo. I did get a bit annoyed that for many of the wool types, the description is on the back of the photo page, not the facing page. I rather think that they could have sacrificed a page or two to put description and photo on facing pages all the time, but maybe that's just me.

What they do well is give brief descriptions of the environment the breed is adapted to, colors, and both commercial and handspun uses for each, all of which give a decent idea of the type and feel of the yarn you might be able to produce. And there're some 40-50pp of how-to at the end that I found interesting and worth reading: choosing fleeces, flick carding, combing, washing, teasing, spinning draw techniques, etc.

I haven't done exhaustive looking into other reference books on the same subject, though, so I'm afraid I can't give a comparative review!