The rain has finally quit and we have had wondermous weather, despite the humdity.

I have been chatting with some friends on line about spinning Double Drive or Scotch Tension, so I decided to try ST on my Schacht spinning wheel. I have not had much success with it in the past. It seemed to be more fiddly than Double drive. I mean really, you have to adjust the drive band AND brake band! One adjustment on DD does both! But in the interest of wanting to be able to use my wheel at its fullest, I changed up the tensioning. I am now spinning thru some wools that I got in a grab bag several years ago. I have to say that I think I have found the sweet spot set up for my wheel! My drive band for ST is the stretchy PVC cord, fused together by heat. I have used it a couple of times before, but not as successfully as now.

I would suggest that if you are contemplating a similar experiment, to set your wheel to just the barest draw-in. Then try spinning and make adjustments from there. I would make very small adjustments to the drive band, then to the brake band, back to the drive band, etc. Did this until I was making yarn that I liked, would pull into the oriface and not fall apart. I am also using the 9:1(not sure on that, will have to double check it) ratio whorl. Have not plied any of this yet, but will post back when I do.

      (4:10pm)



Later,

Thursday July 1, 2004
I have been spinning up some cut grey silk with a beautiful dark charcoal Rambouillet. I carded the Rambouillet with the silk at about a 95% to 5% ratio. The silk brightens up the dark wool and the result is very soft and pleasing. I made an EZ pi shawl many years ago that succumbbed to wool moths, so I think it is time for another one.
Here is a picture: Click here for a larger picture

      (I forget when I wrote this!)



Later,