Sunday morning

The new silk drive band lasted for 7 plying sessions (7 colors, 2 oz
each) plus a bit of spinning to finish the 8th color. Today I'm going
to try braided monofilament fishing line. I'm leery of using it on
the wheel as I don't want it to cut the grooves any deeper in the
whorl or bobbins, but I'll keep an eye on things.

The wool I'm almost finished plying off is Romney, commercial tops; I
dyed the stuff in 2oz lots back in late January, finally got around to
finishing the spinning (thanks to Vintage Purls for some incentive to
empty my bobbins!). I have 8 colors: purple, dark orange, Plochman's
mustard yellow, goldenrod yellow, old gold, navy blue, Easter Egg
Green, and Barbie Pink. I think I'll find some commercially-dyed
Romney top in black to use as ground, and make some hugely wild Fair
Isle house socks.

Still on needles is the bottom-up fake Faeroese shawl from _Folk
Shawls_. Rows are getting shorter, so is my attention span. With
empty bobbins I won't be quite so distracted by the urge to spin
(don't ask me how that works) so I should make good progress on it for
a couple of days. I need to finish it fast because Air Conditioning
Weather is here and I want to be done with that huge pile of
alpaca/wool yarn in my lap before it gets Really Hot.

Small boy seems to have rediscovered his interest in spinning so
before I tie on my new high-tech drive band I'm going to dig his PVC
spinner out of the closet, get it put together, and let him practice
plying with some commercial ends of yarn. The stuff I have in mind is
overspun weaving yarn, with luck his plying practice will turn it into
something useful for knitting.

I have some yardwork to do today: I need to spade out some mint and
oregano before it takes over the world, and move some lavender from an
area that's choked with it to a spot that gets a lot more sun now
thanks to a neighbor's tree blowing over in a storm a couple of months
ago.

This morning we had breakfast and DH left me with the kids while he
goes to the office to try to meet a deadline. I've been sick as a dog
for about 2 weeks, but the antibiotics seem to be doing the trick.

I'm working on some stuff for babies. I decided to combine stash
busting with vintage pattern experimenting, and things are going
well. I've finished 1 raglan and am working on a little jacket
presently. (Note: baby clothes are for yet unconceived tadpoles of
other mamas. I'm just using up yarn).

It's a beautiful day, and I'll probably do some yard work, transplant
some seedlings, try to keep the boys from really injuring one another.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hesira



On Apr 29, 11:01 am, WoolyGooly wrote:
The new silk drive band lasted for 7 plying sessions (7 colors, 2 oz
each) plus a bit of spinning to finish the 8th color. Today I'm going
to try braided monofilament fishing line. I'm leery of using it on
the wheel as I don't want it to cut the grooves any deeper in the
whorl or bobbins, but I'll keep an eye on things.

The wool I'm almost finished plying off is Romney, commercial tops; I
dyed the stuff in 2oz lots back in late January, finally got around to
finishing the spinning (thanks to Vintage Purls for some incentive to
empty my bobbins!). I have 8 colors: purple, dark orange, Plochman's
mustard yellow, goldenrod yellow, old gold, navy blue, Easter Egg
Green, and Barbie Pink. I think I'll find some commercially-dyed
Romney top in black to use as ground, and make some hugely wild Fair
Isle house socks.

Still on needles is the bottom-up fake Faeroese shawl from _Folk
Shawls_. Rows are getting shorter, so is my attention span. With
empty bobbins I won't be quite so distracted by the urge to spin
(don't ask me how that works) so I should make good progress on it for
a couple of days. I need to finish it fast because Air Conditioning
Weather is here and I want to be done with that huge pile of
alpaca/wool yarn in my lap before it gets Really Hot.

Small boy seems to have rediscovered his interest in spinning so
before I tie on my new high-tech drive band I'm going to dig his PVC
spinner out of the closet, get it put together, and let him practice
plying with some commercial ends of yarn. The stuff I have in mind is
overspun weaving yarn, with luck his plying practice will turn it into
something useful for knitting.

I have some yardwork to do today: I need to spade out some mint and
oregano before it takes over the world, and move some lavender from an
area that's choked with it to a spot that gets a lot more sun now
thanks to a neighbor's tree blowing over in a storm a couple of months
ago.

On Apr 30, 4:01 am, WoolyGooly wrote:
Still on needles is the bottom-up fake Faeroese shawl from _Folk
Shawls_.

I did order a copy of this book and I finally got notification
yesterday that it's in the post so I should get it today or tommorow.
Soon I will know exactly what you are talking about.

VP.

On 29 Apr 2007 13:53:32 -0700, Vintage Purls
wrote:

On Apr 30, 4:01 am, WoolyGooly wrote:
Still on needles is the bottom-up fake Faeroese shawl from _Folk
Shawls_.

I did order a copy of this book and I finally got notification
yesterday that it's in the post so I should get it today or tommorow.
Soon I will know exactly what you are talking about.

VP.

It's a book worth having. I think there are only two shawls in the
book that I have no desire to knit, and one that'll get a major
overhaul when I do get around to it...

On Apr 29, 12:50 pm, "YarnWright" wrote:
WoolyGooly spun a FINE 'yarn':



The new silk drive band lasted for 7 plying sessions (7 colors, 2 oz
each) plus a bit of spinning to finish the 8th color. Today I'm going
to try braided monofilament fishing line.

It really sounds like there's something wrong with your wheel - I know
dozens of spinners, covering pretty much every wheel manufacturer, and
I've never known anyone to have this kind of problem with drive bands
wearing out so fast. For instance, I've had the same drive band on my
wheel for four years - many, many hours of spinning and plying - and
it looks new.

On 29 Apr 2007 19:27:15 -0700, fiberlicious
wrote:

It really sounds like there's something wrong with your wheel - I know
dozens of spinners, covering pretty much every wheel manufacturer, and
I've never known anyone to have this kind of problem with drive bands
wearing out so fast. For instance, I've had the same drive band on my
wheel for four years - many, many hours of spinning and plying - and
it looks new.

Oh yes, no argument from me on that count. I have a wee antique
saxony; she's had the same (cotton, lap-spliced) drive band on her for
nearly six year.

The problem wheel has a "non-standard" finish on it, which I believe
is why the distributor has washed it's collective hands of my problem:
they've decided the finish is the problem, not the bad butt joints in
the drive wheel itself.

I also pointed out the **** factory sanding jobs on every piece of the
thing and the fact that nowhere in the manual does it say bupkiss
about doing any pre-finishing sanding - which I did because I'm
clueful. I can't imagine I'm the *only* person who has trouble with
drive bands on Kromski wheels...

I am currently using a braided monofilament fishing line as a drive
band. If it's performance on my electric plying gizmo is any
indication it will never give out. I'm worried it'll cut into my
whorls though. I think I'll run with fishing line for oh, half an
ounce on each bobbin, split evenly between the two whorls I seem to
use most often. Today's 20-minute session with the stuff showed me
that it will in fact wear down the finish - the whorls and bobbin
groove are already much slicker than they were despite my several
hours of buffing with 600-grit sandpaper.

After that if a silk driveband goes south on me in less than 20 hours
of spinning I will be hard put to NOT personally betake myself and my
POS wheel directly to New Voyager and camp on their doorstep until
they address my problem...

On Apr 30, 2:42 pm, WoolyGooly wrote:
The problem wheel has a "non-standard" finish on it, which I believe
is why the distributor has washed it's collective hands of my problem:
they've decided the finish is the problem, not the bad butt joints in
the drive wheel itself.

Is this the purple painted wheel? So they'd be happy if you finished
it with polyurathene but not with paint?
I don't care if you'd used gold dust to finish the wheel (actually I
would 'cos I want to see it, but that's not the point I'm making here)
- if you've sanded the running grooves then it's a construction issue
not a finish issue. Go camp on their doorstep I say.

I'm with fiberlicious I replaced the band on my old wheel with
Ashford's "turbo" version by choice not need. And I haven't touched
the one on the new wheel and don't envisage having to for quite some
time.

VP

On Apr 29, 10:42 pm, WoolyGooly wrote:
On 29 Apr 2007 19:27:15 -0700, fiberlicious
wrote:

It really sounds like there's something wrong with your wheel - I know
dozens of spinners, covering pretty much every wheel manufacturer, and
I've never known anyone to have this kind of problem with drive bands
wearing out so fast. For instance, I've had the same drive band on my
wheel for four years - many, many hours of spinning and plying - and
it looks new.

Oh yes, no argument from me on that count. I have a wee antique
saxony; she's had the same (cotton, lap-spliced) drive band on her for
nearly six year.

The problem wheel has a "non-standard" finish on it, which I believe
is why the distributor has washed it's collective hands of my problem:
they've decided the finish is the problem, not the bad butt joints in
the drive wheel itself.

I also pointed out the **** factory sanding jobs on every piece of the
thing and the fact that nowhere in the manual does it say bupkiss
about doing any pre-finishing sanding - which I did because I'm
clueful. I can't imagine I'm the *only* person who has trouble with
drive bands on Kromski wheels...

I am currently using a braided monofilament fishing line as a drive
band. If it's performance on my electric plying gizmo is any
indication it will never give out. I'm worried it'll cut into my
whorls though. I think I'll run with fishing line for oh, half an
ounce on each bobbin, split evenly between the two whorls I seem to
use most often. Today's 20-minute session with the stuff showed me
that it will in fact wear down the finish - the whorls and bobbin
groove are already much slicker than they were despite my several
hours of buffing with 600-grit sandpaper.

After that if a silk driveband goes south on me in less than 20 hours
of spinning I will be hard put to NOT personally betake myself and my
POS wheel directly to New Voyager and camp on their doorstep until
they address my problem...

Oh, that would SO **** me off! Would it be worth offering to send it
back to them to strip and refinish? Would they even do that?