Flatiron Spinning Wheel - The Build

The other day my Schacht Flatiron spinning wheel arrived. "Ding-dong", said the Fed Ex man. I opened the door and squealed like a 5 year-old on Christmas morning. Mr. Fed Ex was startled; I grabbed the box and ran.

The Flatiron is a flat-packed wheel, completely flat in pieces, which makes me call it the Schacht-Ikea wheel and giggle like an idiot. When the wheel gets to you it is completely unassembled, you have to build it before you can spin.

I do not build things beyond Ikea furniture or an excellent cheese and nibbles pairing. I certainly don't build precision tools to spin on. But this box of parts was standing between me and my next spinning wheel. I was in. It took me four hours. It took Beth Smith, who builds wheels regularly, 90 minutes. I had issues with barrel nuts, bending wood, fiddly bits and there was also a fair amount of cussing. None of this was because of the wheel, it was because of my own stubborn.

There are a lot of pieces to this wheel, one of them looks like a cat, meow.

Right off the bat, I noticed a couple of things that are genius when you send people parts to build a precision tool. The instruction booklet comes divided in half AND color coded for either a right or left side orifice - you get to pick, depending on how you spin. The other is, each section of the build is numbered in the booklet and the nut and bolt-type parts needed for that section are in a correspondingly numbered sealed bag. I didn't get lost once.

I did have to bend wood, which gave me pause. The pieces of wood are flat, the wheel has parts that are curved. You have to screw parts together to make the wood curve. It gave me the wrong kind of hot flash. But I did it.

After displaying my wood -bending-while-menopausal prowess, I put my mostly assembled wheel up on a table. It was time to assemble the maiden, attach the treadles and true the wheel. If you have ever changed a bobbin on a Schacht, the maiden assembly will feel familiar. The treadle assembly on the other hand felt as familiar as juggling with my feet. But I got it done in one pass. There is a cool trick using spacers for aligning the wheel that takes five minutes. Very cool.

I can't stress how good the directions are, I never got lost. Also barrel nuts are simultaneously genius and hellish. 

So give or take four hours, which included breaks and lunch, I had a new wheel that I built myself. It was very satisfying to build this wheel, plus if she ever has any problems or weird squeaks I'll have an excellent idea of where to look to fix it.

What did I spin on her first? I spun a little Louet oatmeal BFL. Then I took her to her first playdate.

Conveniently, my neighbor Alice was hosting spinning that day. So I took my wheel to a room full of spinners to share the new wheel love.

Everyone spun on it.

In a room of four spinners, one had a Flatiron on order and hadn't received it yet and one ordered one after she went home.

I'll spin for a few weeks on the wheel then let you know how she spins.

Of course, days after I built my wheel, Schacht posted a video on how to assemble a Flatiron.

College Visits and Book Sightings

This girl is going to college in fall of 2017. We start visiting colleges and coaches in Setpember. NCAA offical visits, meeting with coaches.
By Thanksgiving we will likely know where she will be going to school and diving. Holy crap. That went fast. She is an amazing young woman, smart, funny, brave and talented.

Who has advice for me for college visits? Bonus points if you have a college athlete.

I've had news trickling in that my book has been sighted in the wild!
One of my local bookstores, Literati, put in a display. I've heard that several Barnes & Noble Bookstores have it too.
I can't wait to hear what you think of it. Well, I'm really nervous about what you think, so let me know.

My Book Is Here!

My book is here! One copy showed up at my house unannounced. I even ignored it for a day since, by the packaging, I thought it was a book to review. But when I opened it, all the happy came flooding out. You can see in the picture just how much happy there is.

I am happy, excited, nervous for this book, but mostly am I grateful. Grateful to all of the people who helped or encouraged me along the way. My family who lived in piles of fiber for a long time. My friends who listened and answered questions and applied the often needed foot to butt. All of the folks at my publisher, my editor with her ceaseless kindness and patience, my photographer and book designer who made it so beautiful. The designers who contributed such wonderful designs to the work. My students who asked all the right questions at exactly the right time. Every person that I asked. "Hey, what do you think of....." or "What about this color......"

I might have teared up when I opened it. It's rare when a big project meets, much less exceeds expectation. I am so proud.

Now I carry it with me almost everywhere, in case I run into someone I know. It was in my bag at the grocery store and at my daughter's swim and dive team picnic. To be really honest, I am showing it to near strangers and complete strangers too, our UPS driver, one of the librarians at my favorite library branch. Everyone smiles.

But no one is smiling as much as I am!

Block Printing - 5 Minutes of Zen

I found this video online from Heritage Textiles. It's a 5 minute overview of block printing by hand in Jaipur, India. It's exactly what I needed to watch this morning, in all of the chaos and unkindness that's going on right now. There is nothing like watching the craftsmanship of slow cloth.

Traveling with Fiber

Today I'm packing for a trip. I'm going with my girl to a national-level diving meet in Orlando, Florida. I will be sitting at a pool for 5 days. The pool is covered but not closed, there is no air conditioning or even fans. The temperature will hover around 95F and it will storm every afternoon. Can you feel the schvitziness of it?

What do you think is foremost on my mind? What fiber projects to take. It doesn't matter that I will be in a heat coma and chewing ice like a cow on her cud will be all I will be capable of. I will still pack several projects, and there will be wool. I usually bring a little knitting, a spindle, a tiny bit of embroidery and now, a sample loom.

 I have to bring them just in case. What if we have a delayed flight? What if the temperature mysteriously drops 40 degrees? What if I see another knitter or spinner and have nothing to show them - no flag of solidarity to wave? If any of these things happen, I will be set and content. I do the same with books. I always bring too many (and always bring physical books) just in case.

I will admit that I mostly like to have them for comfort. I like to plan what to take. I like to see them in my bag. I like knowing they are there if I need them. The world seems rocky and unsettled these days and sometimes a little fiber time is what I need to get through.

I visited Schacht!

In June I went to Interweave to film two videos (coming soon!) and finally took the time to visit Schacht Spindle Company.  I have been spinning and weaving on Schacht products for more than 25 years. I might have been a little excited.

The factory is as amazing as you might imagine. I was taken on a tour by none other than Barry Schacht. I got to see wheels and looms in various states of production. I was amazed, but not surprised at the level of detail that goes into each step along the process. And yes, it smells wonderful in there, a combination of wood and the oil they use to finish the wheels. It was clear how Schacht turns out such high quality tools, passion for what they do starting with Barry and Jane and focus on every aspect that makes their tools legendary. I even ran into Maggie Casey picking up a part for her wheel. Since I can't do anything but talk about how great it was, I'll show you pictures, so you can see that even their process is beautiful.

Securing Storage Bobbins on a Quill

I am a huge fan of cardboard storage bobbins. They are relatively inexpensive, hold a good amount of yarn and I can write on them to keep track of my project.

I use my Hanson miniSpinner with the quill attachment as an electric bobbin winder to fill my storage bobbins. I have always been irritated that they don't fit - the bobbin openings are too big for the quill and don't spin without reducing the size of the bobbin orifice. I used to stuff fiber inside the bobbin to reduce the size of the opening and make the bobbin fit tightly on the quill, but I found that fiddly. For awhile I used rubber bands that I wound onto the quill, also fiddly.

I wanted a solution that was less fiddly because I frequently will take a bobbin off and weigh it in the midst of winding, if I am trying to divide the yarn from a large bobbin evenly between several storage bobbins.

One day I got irritated enough to take a trip to my local hardware store, quill and bobbin in hand. I found nirvana in the plumbing aisle. Rubber grommets. I couldn't find a grommet that both fit snugly on the quill and was thick enough to hold the bobbin in place. So I bought two sizes, one that fits tightly on the quill and one a size that is bigger than the storage bobbin opening. I group these on the quill with small grommets on either side of a large grommet, holding it in place.

Now I use my little grommets group on the quill on each end of the bobbin and it holds the bobbin in place every time, no fiddling.

Do you have a different solution?

Excited to Spin Cables and Read for Fun

I woke up this morning excited to spin something new. A particular yarn for an as-yet-to-be-discovered knitting project. I even know the fiber I want to use.

I love when that happens. I want to spin a fine cable, like this fingering weight cable yarn I spun from alpaca last year. And I want to spin it from this BFL/silk top I got from Woolgatherings at Madrona this year.

I'm also reading these three books to restock my brain with ideas and words.

What are you spinning? What do you like to knit with cabled yarn?