every time i see a bunch of unspun fiber i just want to smush my face in it, it just looks so inviting do you find that a wheel is easier on your wrists/hands than a drop spindle? i can almost never spin these days because my hands are too painful and i'm hoping a wheel might be better
A wheel has been different stress on my hands, but overall I can spin longer on a wheel than I can on a spindle. It helps that I had lots of pt and ot for musician stuff, those ergonomics skills translate easier to a wheel than to a spindle. That said, supported spindle is similarly easy on the hands (more horizontal motion, no weight to support), and way less expensive of an initial investment, and portable!
yeah, a wheel doesn’t have you holding up the whole shebang while drafting the fiber, so that’s going to be easier on your hands.
hmm, to do a gradient with that fall rainbow i'd have to do blended batts on the drum carder. which sounded tremendously fun before my back noped out and before i realized i need to buy another kitchen scale bc i can't find mine. i wonder how he feels about stripes.
randomly: if you ever happen to have four rubber balls, three mugs, a half dozen rubber bands, some fiber you want to spin, and a LOT of energy to burn off, but for some reason can't stick a pencil in a potato to make a drop spindle, here is how you can make some yarn. :D
I've gotten 51 hexapuffs for my sister's blanket done! I only need...*checks calculations again* 507 more for the whole thing, then 26 half-hexapuffs so that it's got a nice finished edge.
this count as fiber arts? twisted a whole bunch of cord out of grass when I was bored at work yesterday, then made it into a turkshead bracelet last night. I just learned how to do both of these things last weekend! for some reason this is much more satisfying to me than knitting ever has been. I want to make more string, out of different things!
You're using raw local plant fibers to make basic cord! It's a very old fiber art :) Also the world of making string out of things is super addictive, welcome
GUYS I HAVE A PROBLEM i forgot a pile of alpaca in the greenhouse when i was washing fleeces, and it was in a container that doesn't fully drain (no holes in bottom, only sides) and there was some kind of anaerobic thing going on and it stinks like sewage. and my back is too hecked up to do anything athletic to fix it, such as multiple rinses in small batches and draining in a colander. frankly i don't think any amount of plain rinsing will remove it, i probs have to wash it again, but oh my back. any suggestions for getting an almighty stank out of a big heavy alpaca fleece without making it brittle or bleaching it? it's a natural brown/gray that i really like and want to overdye with red so it turns burgundy, in the manner of the urumchi mummies' textiles. bleaching would be Bad. and i fear baking soda would soak in such that when i try to use acid dye on it it'll foam up and/or keep the dye from setting.
I've had some success with using vinegar to remove smells in carpeting or upholstery, which is at least a related acid altho it might throw your acid balance off? I've also had a lot of success with vodka on carpets and furniture, but I have no idea what that would do chemically.
vinegar's cheaper than vodka, that's for sure. :D yeah, i'll try soaking it with a few cups of cleaning vinegar, thanks. if i wasted vodka on laundry i'd cry.
besides, if letting this poor fleece get rained on (greenhouse leaks like a sieve ;_;) means it's ruined -- a whole adorable beastie's full year of hair-growing work wasted! -- i'm going to need the vodka for me.
I don’t know much about fiber dying or what would interfere with it, but if there’s still a stank left when you’re done, you could try packing it in cedar chips for a while (or some other aromatic thing, if you don’t like the smell of cedar). wouldn’t so much eliminate the smell as replace and overpower it, but at least it might be preferable?