Day: June 3, 2017

My DIY Fiber Tools

Posted in Fiber Arts1 Comment

As you all know, this craft, this hobby (apocalyptic life skill) can be super expensive so wherever possible I’ve turned to DIY. It’s really nice to have all the different tools for fiber, it is even nicer when I’ve saved $$$.

Everyone has seen the pvc niddy noddy. But have you seen a repurposed desk fan be a bobbin winder?

The pvc swift seems to be popular. I hope this helps inspire anyone needing to save some cash on their tools of the trade. I’m a big fan of the dollar store, pet slicker brush as flick carder or hand cards. I’d love comments hearing what you have made as well as a link if you want to share.

Here are some of mine…

Tail/lock spinning with a small orifice

Posted in drafting, fiber, Fiber Arts, Handspun, Handspun Adventures, Mohair, novelty yarn, Plying, Spinning, spinning wheel, stash, Teeswater locks, Thread plied, Wool, Wool locks, YarnTagged , Leave a comment

I made this video to show how I spin locks and leave dangling curls with my small kiwi orifice and 4ounce bobbin.

Before I had any wheels that had the specs for more bulky and textured yarns, I really wanted to try spinning locks and having the curls dangle. I wanted tailspun. While I couldn’t have a yarn any thicker than my orifice, I made it work with thin yarns. I spun it just like I would spin a traditional yarn. I didn’t core spin or anything fancy. I just spun it the way I knew how like it was a traditional yarn. I did spin much longer locks but lamb locks and thin locks worked the best for my orifice. I made this video to show a friend how I did it and thought I’d share it here..

As far as plying, sometimes I would make two bobbins full and then ply them together for twice the dangley locks, or I’d thread ply but most often I’d leave it as a single, and it was fine as a single. You can see in the video even the smallest orifice can fit this size art yarn. So give it a try. I’m spinning blue faced leister lamb locks. And the orange locks are mohair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkOWi_jlcwE&feature=share