Spinning - wheel & spindle

I've been spinning a lot lately!  I think it's the first time I've done any considerable amount of spinning since the grandson came to live with us 3-1/2 years ago.

This is from rolags by The Wooly Witch, who is unfortunately no longer selling fiber.  The colorway is Maleficent - black and dark purple, with some sparklies.  It is lovely, drafts nicely, and spins up beautifully.  I believe I had 4 packages; each package had 4 rolags.  I spun up two packages onto one bobbin, and this is almost one package (I think I have one rolag left from that one, and one more package to go before I ply.)

I have also been playing with some CVM from Long Ridge Farm, and a Trillium drop spindle from Bull Sheep Fibery on Etsy.

I'm going to consider this practice for a potential Longest Thread entry.  The Longest Thread contest is about a year away (maybe 13 months) but mailing deadline for entries is about the end of October. Every year that they have it (odd years) I say I’m going to do it, but never have. And it takes a LONG time to spin up the required 10 grams (about 1/3 of an ounce) of wool (and now they allow alpaca as well) THAT thin. Here’s the beginning of my first practice.  Gold thread is sewing thread, for comparison.

I love this spindle!  It's about 7 grams in weight.

I also got a great Spinning Box this week.  This has undoubtedly contributed to my continued enthusiasm with my spinning!

Dates and Old Acquisitions

This morning I saw a post on Facebook that said Schacht has created a page on their website to register Schacht equipment.  I registered my Schacht Matchless double treadle spinning wheel, and went looking through old blog posts to find out when I got it.  I remember buying it second-hand, and driving up to Maine to meet with the seller.  Apparently that was on October 15, 2011.

This led to a search for the purchase date of my antique Canadian Production Wheel.  I remember that it was in the early 2000s, and we drove up to North Conway, NH to get it.  The lady had an awesome Border collie as well.  According to an even older blog, that was on January 25, 2003.  Both of those dates have now been entered into my records.

I also started reading through a book that my youngest son got me as a gift last year - Handwoven Tape, Understanding and Weaving Early American and Contemporary Tape, by Susan Faulkner Weaver.

I have a reproduction tape loom (based on plans in an old issue of Early American Life magazine) that I got from a friend.  I haven't done much with it (yet!) but just like the inkle and tablet looms, it does hold some interest.  These photos are from August 2014, and the loom looks pretty much the same now as it did then.

I'm contemplating a display and demonstration at our library of weaving and looms, and this would be part of it, along with the inkle loom, the tablet loom, my Baby Wolf (after it arrives and is warped up), and associated books.  The library would like it; I just need to decide when I could do it.  I'm thinking about a weekday/weekend two-day demo.  The library is not open on Fridays, but is on Saturdays so I am considering a Thursday/Saturday demo.  I could have the three small looms set up with projects (maybe even a Weave-It, with one square done and the Weave-It loom partially warped with the next one) as well as the Baby Wolf, and have the applicable reference books on the table next to each project.  I would plan to do most of my weaving on the Baby Wolf, but could demonstrate the others as requested.  I don't know nearly as much about weaving history as I do about spinning history, but it would still be fun and might entice a few more people, especially if they see what you can do with smaller looms.