I think this was love at first sight. New for 2010 from Kromski. I’ve never spun on a Kromski. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one up close, but this one is lovely. The walnut accent on the wheel is the real eye catcher. The bobbins are interchangable with their other wheels, so I think it would look even better with a walnut bobbin.

Can I justify another wheel? No. I only have two hands and two feet, and I already have two wheels…but it’s so p-r-e-t-t-y…

http://www.newvoyager.com/fantasia.html

My craft room is overflowing with wool. I really need to spin more!

The sink is full of yarn this morning.

A little color and texture inspiration.

Dyeing a similiar colorway won’t be too difficult…but how to knit it??

I absolutely detest dry, forced-air furnace, winter air. It sucks the life out of wood, wool and me. So a few weeks ago, after putting up with ugly room humidifiers for too long, I decided that we needed some water features in the house. I wasn’t positive they would completely fix the dry air problem, but the thought of falling asleep to the sound of water trickling over rocks was enticing.

First we looked at indoor fountains in local stores and online. Most were too expensive or too ugly. So in the end we decided to make our own. We made three: one large fountain in our bedroom, a small fountain for my son’s room, and a medium size for the family room. This one is my favorite.

How We Did It:

Bought
1- large shallow bowl – $50.00 (Pier One Imports)
1- aluminum candle holder on legs – $6 (Pier One Imports) Note: this needs to be a non-rusting metal or plastic
1- bag medium size decorative rocks – $3 (Michael’s Crafts)
1- bag medium size clear glass discs – $3 (Michael’s Crafts)
1- bag small clear glass balls – $3 (Michael’s Crafts)
1- x-small water pump  – $20 (Feeder’s Supply Pet Store)
1- small piece of clear 3/4″ plastic tubing to fit pump – $1 (Lowes)
1- large bag pea gravel – $5 (Lowes)

Total: $91 (the large bowl was a total splurge…you can make this for a lot less using a less expensive bowl)

Equipment
Razor knife – to cut the plastic hose
Drill
Metal drill bit – same size as the hose

Putting it Together
Using a drill bit the same width as the clear plastic tubing for the pump, we drilled a hole through the middle of the metal candle holder. We set the metal candle holder in the center of the large bowl. The bowl selection was important – I wanted a large shallow bowl to expose as much water to air as possible, but it also needed to be deep enough to completely submerge the pump (which measures about 3″x3″x2″). This bowl from Pier One was perfect.

Next, we attached a small 2″ length of the clear tubing to the pump and set the pump underneath the metal candle holder. This pump, from our local pet supply, has little suction cup feet so it stays in place at the bottom of the bowl which is nice. We then pushed the hose up through the bottom of the candle holder and let about 1/2″ of the tubing stick up through the hole.

Then we filled the bowl with just enough water to cover the pump. Before plugging in the pump, we held a cupped hand over the top of the hose to keep it from shooting water all over the place in case it was turned on too high. Then, with the pump shooting water up into my hand, we adjusted the pump until only about 1″ of water bubbled up out of the hose.

Finally, we rinsed all the rocks to remove any dust and then placed larger ones on the metal candle holder, strategically placing them so the water would roll over them. And then added some pea gravel, larger rocks, glass disks and glass balls to the base of the bowl.

Total Time: about 30 minutes (mostly spent adjusting the pump and rinsing and arranging the rocks)

This fountain is putting at least a pint or more of water into the air each day. I know this, because that is how much I usually have to add to refill it. And the sound of bubbling water throughout the house is wonderful.

Here is the largest one we made for our bedroom.

The only difference: This very large bowl was only $34 from Lowes. And instead of using a metal candleholder I used large sticks from the yard, cut to size, to hold up the pump hose, a small piece of scrap slate as a shelf and the rocks. The group of small twigs sticking up in the back add some decorative height, but also hide the electric cord from the pump. We used the same bags of rocks and gravel left over from the other fountain, so this one only cost $55. It holds about a gallon of water too, so I only have to add water every few days.

Introducing Priscilla. Currently on the wheel and coming along nicely. This yarn is being spun from the pink roving dyed in a roll shown here and here. She’s being spun at a relatively consistent width, and although the current wraps per inch (wpi) is probably about 16, the wool will bloom in the water when the twist is being set. The final wpi will likely about around 10 to 12.

Here are the rovings. Both colorful and ready to spin.

I just made this book mine. I found it on YesAsia.com, along with a host of other Japanese books that I covet. It is en route along with Nordic Knitting, the book I mentioned here.

The texture of the yarn on the cover reminds me of paper. I’ve considered spinning a paper yarn before, but couldn’t figure out what to use it for, so it never made it past the planning phase. For some reason I think Tyvek would make an interesting yarn. I wonder if there is nylon in it so it would take an acid dye? Humm…might have to try that.

The Daily Purl has a beautiful Setsuko Torii example here. I love it.

Making the most of time off during the holidays, Jim lit the forge and spent a nice winter afternoon hammering on steel. The smoke pouring out of the chimney made it look like a cottage out a fairytale.

He spent most of the day working on an iron hanger that I requested for a piece of fiber art, but he also created this: An Over-the-Door Hook

Believe it or not, this was only his second or third time out in the forge. Not too shabby for a beginner blacksmith, huh?

The idea for this yarn started with this lovely Romeldale wool fleece. The thought of running these cottony soft clumps of wool through the carder just seemed wrong. The cafe latte bleached tips would have been lost in that process, so this yarn would have to be an uncarded creation. Of course, that decision meant that the yarn would also be a thick n thin since it is nearly impossible to draft uncarded wool into anything but inconsistent clumps.

Next, I considered the color. I bought this fleece for the beautiful carmel brown, so dye was definitely out of the question. But there needed to be more contrast to give it some pop, so I started considering additional fibers. The wool is merino soft and I didn’t want anything to take away from that, so first I chose some very silky, uncarded bamboo fiber. This would add some shine and interesting tangles and still compliment the brown wool. Next I wanted a little more texture, so I decided to include some high quality carded silk noil. This would add some additional contrast to the brown and also act as a binder to keep everything together since silk will stick to just about anything. Last of all, I wanted to use a technique where I over spin the yarn on the wheel wrapped with thread, then unspin the yarn a little on the hand spindle to loosen up the twist while creating additional bumps and lumps in the yarn. Any spinner who has ever tried to untwist a section of spun yarn knows what I’m talking about here. Only this time I would be doing this intentionally. I selected a variety of threads that would compliment the wool to wrap around the yarn.

Time to start spinning.

Selecting the materials for a yarn is really only half the challenge. The number of different techniques used to spin the fibers can create a variety of very different yarns. I had an idea of how this clumpy thick n thin yarn might turn out, but the final results are always a surprise. Of course that is the fun part…not knowing exactly what will come off the wheel. I did decide at this point not to use the variegated thread. It had a hunter green section that just looked wrong, so I tossed the first few feet of yarn and started over without it.

After unspinning it off the wheel and onto a handspindle, I had a better idea of what it would eventually become, but this was raw unwashed wool, so the final results wouldn’t really come through until it had several good hot baths in soapy water. The wool ‘blooms’ in the water as it expands and releases the lanolin. Then it puffs out as it dries.

And here it is! A little rougher around the edges than I had expected, and the threads disappeared into the wool more than I had hoped, but it is really soft and has plenty of character. A very unique fellow indeed.

For additional details about Bastian and other yarns please visit the shop at http://www.houndscroftfarm.com