That's What I Call Service

A few weeks ago, my niddynoddy broke. I am ashamed to say it was probably my fault: since I was used to my self-made niddynoddy which I had bound and glued together, and which is therefore flexible, I usually take the yarn right off any niddynoddy I use at the given time. The niddynoddy I ordered on etsy is kind of screwed together, though, and it couldn't hold the tension. It creaked a few times, and then one of the two "arms" broke.


I wrote to The Spinner's Emporium, where I had bought the niddynoddy in question. I explained about what had happened and asked them whether it would be possible for them to make a replacement for the broken part. And guess what? They not only made a replacement, they didn't even charge me! Not even for shipping. I explained it was probably my fault, but they seemed to think it was valuable information, so I didn't have to pay anything. They were so nice and helpful, I am still thrilled. And the replacement piece arrived a few days ago and it fits and I am happy :-)

Now, here is some advice:

1. if you use a niddynoddy, don't take the yarn off right away, but do the following first: push the yarn on one "arm" to the middle of the niddynoddy, and then take off the part of the yarn that's on the opposite arm. That way you'll relax the tension a little before pulling the yarn off.

2. if you want a beautiful, handmade niddynoddy, AND wonderful service, go to The Spinner's Emporium and order one - they are great! Thank you so much, Paul and Dody!

3. don't think there is nothing to be done if one of your beloved tools breaks - just ask whoever might be able to help you (if possible, the person who made the tool)! I say this because what I thought first was: I'll have to send the niddynoddy back so they can make a replacement piece, it will cost lots of shipping fees, and I will have to pay for the replacement, and more shipping fees. For a while, I really thought about throwing it away and pouting ;-) But sometimes, whoever makes the replacement won't need the piece that broke, so getting a replacement piece is easier than you'd think. So asking about your options is always a good choice.

Well, having given out advice without having been asked, I'll shut up now ;-)

Today, I'm sad

Some time ago, a fellow spinner and I agreed to a trade: she would send me a handmade spindle and I would spin her some custom art yarn. I was so looking forward to receiving the spindle, having seen pictures beforehand.
Today I received a parcel with a fat, colourful batt, many different sweets and the spindle - which was broken. I HATE our postal service! The spindle was well-wrapped (in bubble wrap AND the whole fibre batt) and it should have survived the journey. I'm really mad right now, as well as sad. (oh dear, that even rhymes...)
I also feel bad for my fellow spinner and her husband who put a lot of work into this beautiful spindle, all for nothing.

New Spindles & New Yarns

Finally our spindles form IST Crafts have arrived! They were so worth the wait. Not only are they very beautiful, but they also work extremely well.

The large one is Santos Rosewood on Sycamore with Sycamore shaft, whorl size 75mm. The small one is Yew on Sycamore with Ash shaft, whorl size 60mm. Weight of the small one is 20g, and I didn't think of weighing the large one before trying it and putting wool on. The wool I used is Bluefaced Leicester, by the way - one of my favourites :-)


I already tried my spindles on Saturday, just after they arrived, and I took the ones Twisted had ordered with me to a friend's birthday, knowing I would see her there. I was smart enough to take some fibre as well, seeing that I hadn't told her the spindels had arrived. So she was surprised and able to test them right away ;-) Fortunately, our friends are used to us spinning or knitting, so there were no problems there. This reminds me of another project I'd like to tell you about, but I'll do that some other time. Look out for the Scarf of Horror! ;-)

And now for some more eye candy - my freshly spun favourites, one corespun and one flower yarn:

Hopefully to be listed quite soon.

Waiting PATIENTLY

VERY patiently! *drums fingers on table*
;-)

The reason? I've ordered a beautiful niddy noddy from The Spinner's Emporium, which has been shipped and should be here soon, and we (Twisted and I) have ordered some gorgeous spindels from IST crafts. Ian told us some of them were not in stock, so he's making them to order - that's so exciting! :-) We're really looking forward to receiving them, they are so beautiful.

Here's to the other half of the world

You might have noticed that our winter collection has dwindled quite a lot and that we've been busy spinning spring and summer yarns. We've been overjoyed about the weather getting warmer, since we've had enough of cold and rainy days - which is what winter is, here. However, we've remembered that the seasons are not the same all over the world and have therefore decided to expand our winter collection again, for all of you who are still expecting winter, for those of you who just like winter, and, of course, for all of you who just like our winter collection ;-)

The fibre for this yarn has been carded with the help of our wonderful, new drum carder and the yarn itself will be listed in our shop soon :-)

It's here, it's really here!!!

In fact, the drum carder arrived on friday, but I wasn't able to set it up then. I was away for the weekend, so I had to wait until today - but then I DID IT! ;-)
I am still trying to use the right amount of fibre and I haven't experimented with different colours, yet. I am very satisfied with my first batts, though:

The black one is quite small, but the white ones are what I supposed would come out. The picture is not very good and the batts look a little boring - but they really are gorgeous! I've used white Blue Faced Leicester, white linen/flax, white merino/silk blend and some white and silver angelina - and the texture is simply heavenly! I am quite inclined to spinning them right away :-) Or maybe I'll have another go on the carder, first. I hope TrashQueen, my dear friend and business associate (;-)) will be able to join me this evening - for freaky fibre festivities!

YESSS!

We've ordered a drum carder! And now we have to wait - hopefully it won't be long. We are incredibly excited :-)

Lots of new stuff

We have to admit there hasn't been much new stuff lately, neither here nor in our art yarn shop on Etsy. We have both been busy with work and studies and there wasn't much time for crafty things - but we'll do our best to change that. In fact, we had a nice get-together yesterday - a whole day of spinning and wire bending and knitting :-) Snowberry&Lime delivered some wonderful new fibre, like Cashmere and Gotland lambs wool, and also some very strange fibre, like this glittering fleece of merino wool and sparkling nylon fibre:



I had to test this immediately, and I also spun the Gotland lambs wool and some alpaca-silk yarn during the meeting:


The glittering stuff really looks like artificial turf (though it is a lot softer, thank goodness ;-)), so that's what I will call the yarn. I also started spinning some cashmere last night, which is incredibly soft. Maybe I'll dye the yarn after spinning, but I still have to decide about the colour.

And then there is my new favourite yarn, the first one I spun on my new Ashford Traditional (which I got for Christmas and still haven't told you about - shame on me!) WITH the new jumbo flyer (which I should have gotten for Christmas, as well, but which I only received a few days ago) and the only one (at the moment) I think I really can't part with: Dark Atlantis


It has been spun from black merino, mixed together with hand dyed lambs wool of shades of greenish blue, blueish green and turquoise (hard to describe, really) and glittering fibre. There are some hand crafted spirals and lots of facetted glass beads in it and it sparkles and is dark yet a little colourful and I really think I have to keep this one for myself ;-)

Another thing I made for myself is a new orifice hook for my new spinning wheel. It's the second one I made, since the first one was rather crappy, and I really like how it turned out:


As you can see, I am really into wire bending at the moment. It started with some harmless stitch markers for the crafts fair last year - and then I had to buy a book or two and some tools and try to do other stuff - and now... well, we've already opened another shop and let's just say that stitch markers won't be the only wiry things in there ;-)

It's amazing...

...how differently various fibres can smell and feel, especially when they are wet. I've just washed my latest 7 yarns and was once again amazed at how e.g. alpaca feels and smells in comparison with silk. Silk does smell a bit fishy and feels somewhat slimy or slippery, while alpaca smells... well, I can't even describe it; I just like it :-) Smells like warm animal - in a positive way.
I don't know if this is even interesting to anyone, but never mind ;-)

Oh - I finished my set of needles mentioned earlier, btw.

The big spinning wheel swap: Hello Ashford Traditional, good bye Nameless One

This is the... uh, let me count first... the... fifth spinning wheel in about three months. The fifth! And it arrived three days ago, looking just as grey, dusty and sad as on the picture on the left. Isn't this just a shame!? How can anyone treat a beautiful Ashford Traditional that way!?
Well, I did what I always do when a new spinning wheel arrives here: I went to the hardware store to buy me some new glaze, new sandpaper (240s, it's always the first to be used up) and a brass aglet.
And then I spent yesterday with restoring it. I cleaned, sandpapered, sandpapered again, painted, glazed... Man, that was a tough piece of work!

But it was worth it! Look how beautiful it turned out! And as the glaze dried quite fast, I was able to spin some yarn on my as good as new Ashford Traditional - and I completely fell in love with it.
Meanwhile Weird spun a bit on my huge dark Nameless One and was that overwhelmed that she almost begged me to buy it!

And how could I refuse that request?
:-)
So we both, Weird & Twisted (well, TrashQueen here, eh) have new spinning wheels! Yay!

New things to come

I was quite busy during the last week - I spun five different yarns, dyed some wool/silk blend in two different colours and... I bought a second (huge!) dyeing pot today. I hope this will help me save some time ;-)

The new yarns will be added to our shop soon (depending on how good the pictures I've taken today are), one after the other, of course.

And now it's time to do something else, for a change. Like finishing the paper for university, which will take some time. I'd rather spin some more, though ;-)

WPI-Tool

I have wanted to make a WPI-tool for quite some time now. I really need to measure my yarns this way, so today I decided to get down to work.






I don't exactly like working with wood, but I managed to make a nice tool.






I've already tried it out with some yarn I spun a couple of days ago to sell on Etsy :-) (Coming soon!)

Knitting Needles

This is one of my two new pairs of knitting needles. I worked them a few days ago for a new project. New knitting needles cost a lot, spars are much cheaper. And it's fun to work needles out of them, to carve and sand them - the surface is now all soft and shiny!
I'm so happy about how they turned out! I just love them! The little red beads shine in the light and look like red currants on cheese cake!

There are more photos on flickr of this pair and the other one, which I adorned with dark brown wood beads.