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NEFF 2012!

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 | Author:

And of course… after Rhinebeck…

Then it was time for more dyeing, and NEFF! New England Fiber Festival. Luckily this one was close.

I was with Moose Manor and Art for your Feet on this one, who shockingly made it up here after Sandy wiped out their power and flooded their basements and left all manner of destruction in their neighborhoods.

NEFF
NEFF

It was nice, relaxing. And of course, good company.

NEFF

On the first day I made my only big purchase, a Russian spindle from Spunky Eclectic. I’ve never spun on one of these before. It’s made with lignum vitae and I really like it. Though it’s not as transportable as a suspended spindle.

NEFF

After about 20 minutes of futzing and figuring, I pretty much got it down, though I’m not terribly fast at it. I made some lovely super fluffy yarn with the ColumbiDale roving.

Once I’d figured that out I decided, hey screw this fiber stuff. Fiber’s for noobs and wimps, right? If Rumplestiltskin can spin straw into gold, I should be able to do better than that, right?

Aawwww yeah. I decided physical spinning was too easy. Bring on ethereal spinning! I’m gonna spin LIGHT!

NEFF

And finally it was back home! WHEW!

Dogs say, “Next time we’re coming with you!”
Dogs

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
Sprite

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Shop Update! Lots of New Things

Sunday, March 04th, 2012 | Author:

It’s a small one, but it’s got lots of neat things in it!

Shop is here

Fibers: Manx Loaghtan, Scottish Blackface, Whitefaced Woodland, Targhee, Herdwick, Southdown, Texel, Dorset, Dorset Horn, and Phouka

Colorways: Black Magic, Bluebells, Boston Bay, Charcoal, Coffee Beans, Deep Blue, Fireflower, In the Glade, Marmalade, Raspberry Peach Sorbet, Red Trillium, Spring Showers, Braaains

And two spindles with fiber!

Fiber

So, that’s all for now!

And now a doggie photo! We discovered Gobo LOVES listening to birdy sounds on the iPad.

Fiber

~The Gnome
Gnome

Category: accessories, roving  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Shop Update: Spindles!

Sunday, January 29th, 2012 | Author:

The Shop

Five new spindles! Two of them are already sold, but the other three are up on the shop, including a new model, rim weighted!

Spindles

Spindles

And here’s a close up of one of the new ones.

Spindles

Spindles

Spins really well, I have to say. I test every spindle before it goes out to determine if it’s balanced well and if it has an “ideal” point to hook the yarn through as you spin. These, as rim weights are prone to do, spins way long but is harder to crank up quite as fast. You might also notice that this model has a significantly narrower shaft (and a tiny bit longer) than my other top whorls.

And now, my hands are all crampy from holding and sanding whorls and carving shafts.

Mokey says, “I’m cuuuuute, there, now you took the photo… will you throw the ball for me now?”
Mokey

And that’s all for now!
~The Gnome
Fae

Category: Spinning  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment

Bits of Shine, Bits of Happiness

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 | Author:

So, waaay back I acquired a lovely little Greensleeves Loki.

Loki
Loki

Then in the great spindle disaster weekend… disaster struck four of my spindles. Among those, my Damsel Monique and Bosworth Mini were repairable by me. The Turkish Delight still needs a new shaft…

But the Loki… somehow it ended up on the floor in it’s spindle bag and… got stepped on. I was horrified. The hook was totally bent over, the shaft snapped off right at the whorl. I was heartbroken!

So, recently, I finally saved up some money and emailed the fabulous Elizabeth, owner and crafter of Greensleeves Spindles.

After a few emails, I mailed the poor sad whorl off to Utah for rehabilitation. It came home the other day! With a *beautiful* new shaft, even prettier than the original!

Loki
Loki

Huzzah! My favorite high twist fine yarn spindle is back! PERFECT for silk.

And now some photos of stitch markers recently made for inclusion in large ($50+) orders. Center ones are jade.

Stitch Markers

Tiger’s eye and smokey quartz

Tiger's Eye

Malachite and sodalite

Malachite

And now your daily dose of gratuitous cuteness…

Mokey Sleeping

That’s all for now!
~The Gnome
Fae

Category: Spinning  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

Bottom Whorl Spindle Myths (A Video)

Friday, June 11th, 2010 | Author:

So I’ve had this for a while now (as evidenced by the fact it was filmed at my old apartment).

I keep thinking that I’ll do an addendum to it, or add something or what have you. But I don’t. So… I’ll post it as is. If it needs a new version, or an addendum, then you – dear readers – can tell me what you’d like to see.

So, here’s a small video I made about bottom whorls. Specifically it was meant to address two of the big myths I’ve seen spread about.

1) Bottom whorl spindles are heavy

2) You can’t spin fine on a bottom whorl

There’s also some basic explanation of how to use a bottom whorl, if you’re interested. Personally, I love my bottom whorls. I want to get another at some point, since my big one tends to be full of plying projects as it’s my longest shafted spindle (see earlier post with 4.2oz of icelandic plied onto it).

So, without further ado, here it is. Bottom/low whorl spindles.

Let me know if you have questions, comments, etc!

P.S. Thanks here to Tom, for filming this for me.

That’s all for now…

~The Gnome
gnome

Category: Spinning, Technical  Tags: ,  One Comment
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