Yeah I’ve been carding batts and building spindles instead.  I am so swollen with water and puffy from being prego - that my hands go numb very easily.  So if I try to spin or knit I loose all feeling within about 2 minutes.  So, I have put that aside and I have been making spindles and batts instead.  I went to a local fiber festival, and the stone spindles were a huge hit with the spinners there.  I sold nine, and still had some left, so I have opened an Etsy shop.

I have filled it up with the products of my labors.  I have a few of the hand carved spindles available, at this time only through the spindle and batt club.  The  club is actually quite a lot cheaper than purchasing individually, I may have to raise the price some.  The fiber you get with the spindle, although super nice isn’t the level of luxury that the batt club is though.  The spindle is actually made and glued together though, instead of using a grommet.

The grommets are nice, because you can assemble the spindles quickly, but the thing is that you always have a little wobble, and have to adjust the whorl quite often.  Still, is this batt not georgous?  I am loving the angelina and soysilk blended with wool in these “Bling” batts.  That is this months theme.  The subscriptions are coming in, and I only have a few left for the next three months, so I guess it is catching on and doing pretty good.

Another shot of a spindle for the club.  I am still working on putting wpi tools on the ends.  I will probably be doing some carving on the tops of the shafts too, but I’m starting small.

I have also been making some hand carved wooden spindles, not just using the stone beads.   Here is one I made with a horse on the whorl.  It wobbles a bit, but still spins very well.  I cut a little too much out of the face part.  I may try to take more off the other side to balance it out.  I don’t know if I can sell this one, as it wobbles so at the end.  Other than that it is fine, but it might bug some people, what do you guys think?

It is beautiful, and that counts for something, it is made to be more of a showpiece.  The battle between form and function is always a struggle when you are producing art that is used for something.  I dropped the function side on this one just  a bit than I normally would, but I like it all the same.  The wood is purple heart and this is the natural color of it.  It reacts to sunlight and turns this lovely color.  When you carve into it though, it is brown like mahogany or something.  Once it sits in sunlight for a few minutes though it turns purple.  It’s really cool to watch.

Two more wooden whorl spindles, one in maple and one in purple heart.  These are just plain flower motifs.  I am working on more designs.  My sister requested a cat.  I was thinking it would be fun to have people commision a spindle with their logo on it, or a special pet.  What fun! These are also destined for the spindle club.  I need to prefect the design and get them more consistent.

So I have been dying and carding too, in generall enjoying myself while waiting for the baby to come.  Seems like it will be forever before it is time.  I am seeing lots of pink coming out of the pot, mixed with purples and blues.  You would think I was 9 months pregnant and expecting a little girl baby with all this fiber…heh heh.

Here are a few batts I made for pictures in the Luxury batt club -  Purples!  and Pinks!  I can’t seem to help myself, I am hopelessly trapped in a downward spiral of girlie colors.

But OOOHhhh so lusious anyway, this stuff is something else!  It’s half 16 micron merino and 1/2 Optim!!!  To say it is soft, is just an understatement.  It feels like nothing you can even imagine…I love it.  But I can’t spin it right now, I have to wait 

Oh look, more purple and pink!

well, I may have it out of my system, excepting of course the angora, optim and 16 micron merino laying on the table that his hot pink, dark purple and pale purple….I think that is going to do it for my pink fix.  I hope.  Anyhow, this is the stuff I am making theluxury batts for that club out of.  It is going to be SO hard to ship it off, that’s all I can say.

I also got my hands on some BABY suri alpaca fleece, a whole POUND of it!  I dyed some purple of course lol.  Like most locky type of fleece it dyed all sorts of colors, and I will be very excited to see how it actually looks carded.  The natural color was silvery gray.  It feels like kid mohair to me, but nicer and softer.

Finally I dyed two skeins of yarn that Heidi my friend in Norway sent me.  These are just beutifully spun and so soft.  Of course I had to dye them baby colors.

They still turned out beautiful, and will make something very very nice for a baby.  I will probably use the blue for a lace scarf, it is subtle, periwinkle color with some slightly more purple places.  It is a little more gray than it looks, so it will make something really nice for a grown up.  The other will be made into something for the baby or one of the girls I imagine.  I may spin more to match for a sweater or something.

Beaus sweater is coming along, he has started the sleeves now, but I haven’t any pictures.  I am really likeing how the handyed fair isle looks.  It is a EZ yoke sweater, and I have ordered a pattern he liked from School house press for the neck.  I’ll get a pic soon - here is one of my sample sleeve.  If you recall I started this sweater and he took it away from me in the hospital when our daughter was having her belly button closed.  Bye bye beautiful sweater….

He’s been slow at finishing it, but he has picked it back up and is working on it.  I’ll get some pics of his version, as this was just my test swatch for the sweater.

My point is, that the pink handspun looks fantastic for the fair isle and the gray is just some plain yarn I bought in a huge hank.  It makes for a really nice looking effect, shows off the handspun, but is a much smaller spinning committment.  You still get all the satisfaction of the handspun look though.

Speaking of fair isle, I want to encourage all of you to learn how to knit with the other hand.  I knit contenental normally, but with patience I have also learned to knit very well american style and now fair isle is so easy and quick too.  It really is worth the time to learn to knit both ways.  Just spend a few minutes a day, maybe 5 or 10 on an “other handed project” something simple like a hat knit in the round or something.  I think you will be surprised how quick you can pick it up!  Good luck!

I don’t know when you’ll hear from me again, but I will pick a contest winner before next post.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Beth of www.thespinningloft.com a loyal reader and my pal for Fiber Frenzy liked the spindles so well, she ordered 15 of them.

A little background on Beth, she is an absolute expert spinner, specializing in lace weight.  I can tell you that she spins very well with a highly technical ability.  Anyhow, I sent her the first batch which you saw in an earlier post.   After testing them out, despite my reservations, and some problems with 2 of the smallest ones, I have a second opionion, and you can read her unbiased opinion.

I got the spindles today and tried them all.  My least favorite are the smallest whorls.  I’m not sure if it needs a smaller shaft or what.  I’ll play with them a little more on Saturday, I only had a minute or two with each today - but they sure are beautiful.  I’ve chosen one for myself - the one with the swirly top next to the hook. That wood near the hook seems to have gotten cracked in transit so I’m going to glue it and see if it helps.
These spindles are just fabulous and I’m sure I’ll have no trouble selling them.

I had been concerned about the whorl size, but it seems that they do just fine, even though the whorls are smaller.  The two smallest ones, were not so good, so we will not be making any THAT small until we can manage to correct that problem.  Here is the rest of Beth’s order, I have done a couple of larger spindles in the 35 - 40 gram size, and also a couple of bottom whorl spindles.

The whorls are horribly difficult to photograph as a group, but they are all really beautiful.  I am very pleased with them.  We shall see what Beth thinks about the modifications made on these.

So, excepting for the smallest ones, and one that had a small crack, they were all a success.  I will have to wrap them in MORE bubble wrap next time, and see if that protects them more.  Of course Beth will be able to get three new spindles, if she wishes, although it would seem that she is attached to them, because thus far, she doesn’t want to exchange them

So now, I am off to the wood store to buy better wood to use, and also to get a few little tools that will help me out a lot.  I am also getting some special finishes and some other fun stuff that should make the next batch even better.

An update on the spindles, sorry no picture as I shipped them all off, so they are gone…  Don’t foget to comment, and get entered in the contest for a prize at the end of the month!  It will be valued at about $50 so it will be something nice!

I have solved the glue problem, useing a polyurethane glue, nice stuff by the way.  And I have also solved the hook issue as well.  I bought some heavy duty T pins, such as are used for upolstery or to hold fabrics on dress forms.  VOILA!  Non bending hooks, yet small enough to still look elegant.  They don’t look quite as nice, but still look good, and I think they added strength will be worth the sacrifice in appearance.  They will still shatter if dropped on a hard surface like concrete or tile.  I can’t do anything about that

So I have a few more to make to fill orders, and further refine the design.  I could use a little help with preferences.

So far, people seem to prefer the colored stains.

Here are some questions you can answer for me…

WPI on the bottom or top?

High gloss or satin finish?

top or bottom whorl?

And finally, a little talk on the concept of “Out of the Box”.  Generally speaking I am not a big adherant to the out of the box kind of creativity.  Out of the box is an expression that indicates a new or totally unheard of design, technique or use of material.  Personally, I think that in many forms, it’s pretty much all been done at some point or another.  Some fella 2000 years ago probably made spindles, similar to the ones I am making now, only probably did a better job at it.  That sums it up right there.

However, I think I may have actually come upon an idea that may not have been done, at least not commonly.  It could be because it won’t spin correctly LOL.  I’m going to try to make a double whorled spindle, with a top and bottome whorl, and see what happens.  I am thinking that if you put a small whorl on top, and a larger whorl on the bottom, you would have a longer spinning, faster spinning spindle.  I’ll have to see though.  Still it’s an interesting idea, I’ll let you know how it works!
So I have four types of spindles in production.  30 - 40 grams on a 10.5 inch shaft for heavier yarns, 25-30 grams for medium to light yarns, 15 - 20 grams for lace yarns, and also some 15 - 20 for cottons, support spinning and ultra light yarns.  Am I missing a size that would be desirable?

Sooo, I am finishing up this order, and will now be taking new orders.  You can email me at allena at spindle and wheel dot com (all run together) if you would like to order a spindle.  I can work with you one on one to find exactly what you want that way.  Prices are $35 and this includes shipping charges.  International orders will be slightly more, due to higher shipping costs.

Well so, form over function means that the item should be beautiful, and the function should be a secondary consideration.  That is true with these spindles, sort of.

I learned that I was actually useing them incorrectly, and thus my problems.  I was trying to spin thicker yarn oh maybe 20 wpi or so, and these spindles won’t work for that.  They stop spinning.  I found that if I spun lace weight, as in about 30 - 40 wpi (for the singles) they spun fantastic.  I was just thrilled.  So the form and function are harmonious at this point.

The only hitch left in the design of these little beauties is adhereing the whorls and hooks securely.  I am testing yet another glue, and should know by tonight if it will do the trick.  If this one doesn’t work well enough, then I will try epoxy, and I am also considering soldering them on.  Wouldn’t THAT be gorgeous!

So the only design element I am not feeling really good about is the hook.  I found that if you dropped the spindle 10 feet down onto the ground from the porch, and it happend to land on the hook it bent.  To eliminate this problem I would have to use a MUCH heavier wire, and my form would be quite unattractive.  So I think this will just have to be left as it is.  I am going to look into some heavier pins to see if I can find something that will be a little more stable.  I didn’t have any trouble dropping them from short distances, so I think even as they are that they would be just fine.  They are somewhat delicate however and not something to be thrown around as the whorls will chip and the hooks will bend.

But enough talking, show me the spindles right?  Here is what I have made, and tested thus far.

I just love them, these test spindles will probably be sold for a smaller fee than the ones I will eventually make, I am thinking maybe around $25 for these, and then if I can get more consitant results, probably around $35.

Some of the whorls are carved, and some of them just don’t show up as well.  As I list them I will need to take better individual shots, but I thought this would give you all a good idea of what I had up my sleeve!

What do you think of the colored stains?  I mixed these myself, and I like them best.  I will be making up all sorts of colors, and this will let me choose the right color to go with the whorls.  I also have a lady who will let me “Pick through a HUGE box” of whorls so I can have a much better selection.  These were just a few I chose to try out, and I hadn’t found a good supplier yet.  But NOW I have one, so I have nothing to stop me!  It’s very exciting, I love to create.

The lighter ones weigh around 18 grams, and the heaviest one about 28 grams.  I will be designing some heavier spindles soon, for more heavy yarns.  The heaviest 28 gram one will work for heavier yarn, but you have to twirl more than I would like.

I spun on each one, and I thought they all worked really really well.  I could spin at least a yard with one twirl, which I thought was reasonable because you have to stop to wind on then anyway.  Especially if you are spinning in the car while riding… ahem

I did get a few odd looks, but found them all wonderful to use.  I will sell these, then take what I make from those sales, and buy more whorls and wood and make more. 

Also in progress are nostepinnes, (with a wpi tool included) and a wpi tool/necklace, and also some tiny spindle ear rings and necklace pendants.  Should be really really BEAUTIFUL!  and also useful.  I could also make little stone whorl key chains which got my 14 year old son really excited.  ???  What is up with that?  He doesn’t like spinning, but is nutso over a spindle key chain.  Oh well I guess I should be happy he wants one of those instead of an IPOD or something…

Let me know what you think, you guys are helping me make something really pretty, and useful.  Who knows, what if one of these was the prize???  Or something even better?  Better comment, just to be safe LOL!

I’ve been making spindles, that are GASP pretty!  They are pretty labor intensive, and very beautiful, but I am not sure how well they spin.

This was my first one, which didn’t work out so well, because the carving catches the fibers and winds them around.  So I have since redesigned the spindle.  I have kept the wpi tool, and made some with it on the bottom, like this one, and some with it on top, because I thought this would be more handy.

The problem is, that they don’t seem to spin as long as other spindles I have used.  I am thinking that I may need to put a slightly longer shaft on them.  This one spins better than the others, and it’s about 9 inches long.  Usually spindles of this weight range (18 - 28 grams or so) have shorter shafts, but since the whorls aren’t so big around, maybe this is why.  Of course the other thing to consider is that it spins a lot faster than others I’ve used, so maybe it’s just going faster than I can keep up with.  Of course as the twist builds this will slow down the spin.

Any expert spindlers have any advice?  I would like to make some of these to offer on the site, if I can speed the process up, and test them out for effectiveness.  I also have a few more problems to solve.  Mainly the beautiful little hooks I have made do not seem to stay put as well as I want them too.  I’ve tried super glue and elmers glue.  Maybe I should try hot glue that might adhere better.  I have also considered trying gorilla glue.  The hooks are made from heavy stainless steel straight pins, and nothing wants to stick to it really well.

So what do you guys think?

Rememeber than each time you comment on a post, you are entered in the contest for a really cool prize…

I wonder what it will be???? Trust me your going to see it and be really sorry if you didn’t comment to enter yourself in the running.