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It was a very exciting stage this morning (or afternoon, if you are in France). In general, this year's race was quite absorbing, and I got a lot of spinning done. Here is my own personal Alpe d'Huez, 17" high, which represents the spinning efforts of the past few Tours de France. Actually, there's more, but they are partial skeins and not as pretty to photograph. What about the bananas, you say? They're there for scale. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
Yesterday we stopped at Hagood Mill for the antique car show. Many restored examples, and all in running condition. This beauty was a real show-stopper:
The mill wheel, the largest example of a functioning water wheel in South Carolina, is always a cooling influence on a hot day:
I peeked into the window of one of the restored log cabins at this barn frame loom (it appears to be a work in progress). Then I did a double-take. Are those polyester heddles on the shafts? Hm-m-m.
A short walk in the woods to photograph a few fungi, then home again.
After five years of wonderful support from our customers, both editions of The Woven Pixel are nearly sold out. Bhakti (co-author of The Woven Pixel) and I have three copies of the book remaining in its physical form. When these are gone, there will be no further copies printed. If you have been thinking of purchasing the book, act quickly! We are discussing making the book available in digital form, but so far we haven't made a firm decision about this.
To order the physical book and accompanying CD of illustrations and pattern presets, see information on the sidebar or go here.
A friend left a nice big bag of carded alpaca at my side door a few weeks ago (thank you, Janice!), and I spun it up yesterday. I wound the singles into a ball on a nostepinne (lots of explanations of this word on the web, but here is a pretty good one), then rewound the doubled yarn using one strand from the outside of the ball and one from the inside. I plied from the ball, and here is the result.
This is a coarse and hairy yarn, but the lovely color and texture will be useful as an accent yarn in some future project. As always, I am amazed at how a huge volume of unspun fiber seems to melt down into nearly nothing when it is spun!
Addenda:
N. Miami has reblogged one of my favorite pictures, from Bruce. See it here. He has also found a felt ball rug that's got me thinking…
But I won't win a maillot vert for this one, as it took me way longer than the projected eleven days to complete the weaving. And yes, another broken warp.
But I won't win a maillot vert for this one, as it took me way longer than the projected eleven days to complete the weaving. And yes, another broken warp.
The temperature here in the piedmont of South Carolina has dropped drastically in the past couple of days, and there is a grayness in the colors. A great relief, as least for a while. It was funny to realize that my current three projects are all nearly devoid of color, too. The jacquard work slipped a little in the 400 picks per day effort, but I am now up to pick 4200 (out of 4500). More broken warps, always the black ones.
The carbonized bamboo ("Black Diamond") I was spinning a few months ago has now made an appearance on the rigid heddle loom, combined with some commercially spun natural silk-cotton-poly blend knitting yarn. This blend has a handspun look and plays well against the glossiness of the bamboo. Initially I was planning to do a shawl in log cabin blocks, but at the last minute opted for solid horizontal stripes on the face (and vertical stripes on the reverse, of course). It's end-and-end in both warp & weft.
The angora-wool blend is now all spun up. There's not much to show for all the effort, but it was fun to spin and has great sentimental value. The facts: 2.7 oz. total yarn, 130.5 yards, 772.8 yds./lb.
This morning we were all very soporific after watching Stage 12 of the Tour. Fortunately the rain stopped and I was able to go to Plan B, which was felting. I had put aside a cute little felting kit, and I took a basin of warm soapy water outside and let the good times roll.
Throwing the sopping wet felt balls back and forth was way more fun than adhering to strict instructions, so perfectly round balls were not possible. But what fun!
We rinsed them in plain water, and now they've got to dry. I hope the birds don't get them first.
Today we drove to Asheville for lunch with friends Kate and Chris. Kate is the driving force behind the fabulous Pan Harmonia chamber music group, and Chris is the artist behind the Abell Flute Company (a well-matched pair). We were given a tour of Chris's studio. Here he is telling us about the grenadilla wood (also known as mpingo) he uses for his flutes and whistles.
Grenadilla is extremely dense—so much so that it doesn't float in water. Chris ages his supply of grenadilla for as much as ten years before it is ready for flute making.
He also makes wonderful whistles. His flutes and whistles have silver fittings.
He has made his own guitar (just for fun).
Chris's workshop is located in the Grovewood Studios, also home to other artists and and the North Carolina Homespun Museum. Here's an installation of Lyman Whittaker's wind sculptures near the front door.
And something I found absolutely hilarious: this sign outside the Grovewood Cafe:
Do you remember Cowboy? He was a lovely angora bunny. He joined my family in 2008; I guess you could say he was my grandrabbit. I had visiting privileges, and all the angora combings I could use.
Well, Cowboy died a while back, and my supply of his fur lay unused—until now. I had been spinning during the Tour de France, and all of a sudden my electric spinner had to go back to the manufacturer for a repair, with two weeks of bicycle racing still to go. Yesterday I got out my bag of Cowboy fur, carded it half and half with gray Corriedale, and began spinning and plying on a top-whirl hand spindle. The yarn has "character," as the angora contains lots of matted lumps and bumps. Here is my first batch, not yet washed.
When I'm done there will be quite enough for a nice fuzzy knitted hat. It's hard to think about an angora hat in the middle of July in South Carolina, but Cowboy rides again.
