Spinning and Weaving

Anyone on here spin or weave?

I've just been given my SIL's spinning wheel [Ashford Traditional] and have bought a small rigid heddle Ashford loom off Tardme to learn how to weave on using our Arapawa fleeces.

I was bidding on a large vertical Dryad loom but common sense prevailed and I decided it was probably far too big a step to learn the craft on so thankfully someone else won the auction!

I'm hoping to weave some nice woolen stuff which can be used in some of our re-enactment displays.

All my husbands family spin and sometimes weave, I am going to learn one day but theres too much still to learn with crochet... They use Majacraft wheels and looms.

Hi Baroque - I'm waiting for the spinning and weaving passion to hit me so I can spin up some of my own Polwarth fleece, but the quilting bug is a real hard one to shift after nearly 20 years!

I've got a Nagy wheel and, like you, an Ashford rigid heddle loom (still in it's box after, um... way too many years). A friend tried her hardest to teach me to spin several years ago, and I can see why it's such a useful, enjoyable and relaxing craft. The depth of talent out there is just unbelievable and it would be such a joy to be able to create something from start to finish out of your own fleece.

All the best in your quest to weave your own fabric - look forward to hearing how you get on. Pictures would be great too!

Cheers, Mich.

Is there a Spinners and Weavers group up your way Baroque? I still have my wheel, but it only makes dust at the moment. Too busy knitting. My friends laugh at a knitter and spinner who has self shedding sheep. Once you get started and get the 'bug' there'll be no stopping you especially if you have your own fleeces. All the best.

great to hear of everyone's experiences and passions with their crafts!

I love to crochet [and I can tat too!], plus of course knit but I rarely knit these days apart from making a couple of arm knitted scarves recently which were fun. I do lots of other hand crafts too like sewing, leather work and I love working with precious metals.

My hand carders arrived yesterday in the mail so I got stuck in with carding some of the fleece last night from the last sheep I had shorn which I'd kept for this purpose along with her black lambs fleece which is even finer.

I'm waiting for the shuttles I've ordered to arrive for the loom before I can have a go with it as the lady I bought if off didn't know a thing about it and they weren't in the box. It came with lots of other gear like a warping frame, niddynoddy, lazy kate and lots of bobbins for the spinning wheel plus a huge expanding skein winder thing and some wool ball winders and heaps of lovely wool. I'm hoping I bought the right shuttles, the ones I bought are about the same width as the loom which seemed to be what they showed on their website in the assembly instructions.

I will have a go at spinning the carded Arapawa fleece maybe tonight, I have to avoid having my cat around as he likes to lie in my lap in the evenings and he has a thing for chewing wool and pouncing on moving things ..... :rolleyes:

I don't know if there's a spinning and weaving group around here, there probably is but I will wait until I get a bit better at it otherwise its probably going to be rather depressing going along and seeing how good they are compared to my feeble skills!

And of course I'm pretty busy with the horses so anything I do craft wise has to fit in with all the other stuff thats already going on! I still have 2 x 17thC riding frock coats to finish off embellishing for my display kit, plus a whole lot of other things to make up in leather.... never enough hours in the day really.

Try this link
www.creativefibre.org.nz/areasgroups/categories/south
The Auckland Handweavers' Guild also run workshops and might be an option. I don't know if a trip to Waiheke Island is feasible, but we have a very friendly group over here too.

Ha, Ha Baroque, everyone started in the same place, but I get your drift. Have fun, I look forward to hearing your progress.

thanks for the link and all the encouraging comments!

Didn't get any spinning done last night, I'm in the middle of processing a bunch of new horse registrations for our NZ Iberian Horse Assn and these take a lot of time [at least 1 hour each] as they are very detailed, plus there's a lot of research to be done on some of the pedigrees.

I learnt to spin while we were in Oamaru and I need to get back to it - it is very relaxing. And we learnt to weave too. We jumped in with both feet and bought 60 inch Mecchia loom with flying shuttle. We were involved with the Oamaru Textile Emporium and Doe Arnot taught us to weave. She is a talented lady. doespins.blogspot.co.nz if you are interested. We sold the loom before we left Oamaru. We made fabric to make into Victorian clothing. It was an interesting time. Weaving is fascinating. And to warp up a huge loom like that was a huge learning curve. Good fun.

I've now just recently bought myself a locally made floor loom and started weaving on it finally yesterday after warping it by myself using the warping by yourself book as a guide.

I still have to do a few adjustments on it as the jacks and heddle frames have been randomly sticking a bit - I think its possibly because we laid it on the back beam in the back of my ute to transport it and maybe I need to put some wax on the frames to help them slip past each other more freely. Might have a fiddle with the tieups too as it has not been used in quite a while the lady said.

Hmmmm, this is wonderful! I bought a loom off Trademe about a year ago but haven't seen it "in the flesh" yet. Its from the top of the Nth & Im in Canterbury but I know its going to be here within the next couple of weeks. I can't remember what it is just now but Im sure I will be asking HEAPS of questions on here.
By the way, for those in Otago who may be interested, I saw a magic looking loom in a Auction House on the main drag (Sth Dunedin end) of/in Dunedin on Saturday.
The thought of doing something with a gadget like that, gives me a real buzz. I have a male cobber down the road who is also spins & weaves, & willing to spend some time with me to help set it up so Im sure he will be helpful.

That's really exciting Kiwi Tussock, what type and make of loom have you bought? [8D]

I'm now a few metres into an almost full width tabby wool cloth on my jack loom, the heddles still stick but its the wool which is quite fluffy so I have to beat between wefts.

I was a bit lazy and didn't undo the tieups on the other 4 pedals so some of the sticking sheds may be caused by the tieups on the other pedals and the fact that the heddle frames are fairly light so if the warps stick, the pairs of frames do not fall down on their own very easily when you change sheds. I have been thinking about putting some weights on the frames to help with that.

Other than that I am really loving my loom and looking forward to finishing my cloth, dyeing it and turning it into a nice sleeveless surcoat or cote hardie.

I wish I could say the same for the spinning wheel, I have a bit of a love - hate relationship with it at the moment but have managed to spin nearly a full bobbin of random & rustic looking wool so will do another and ply them and see what happens! I wanted to get good at spinning the easy long staple wool before I got onto doing much with the Arapawa wool because I think it may be a bit more tricky to spin as its greasy.

It might pay to wash a little of the Arapawa before spinning ( a handful is enough to give uyou an idea) and see if you get a better result with it clean. I used to think greasy wool had some extra charm or something when I was younger and have changed my mind. After all the finished yarn is going to be washed and so is the finished garment.

I was wondering about that too Inuik, the Arapawa wool is very greasy. I'm a bit worried about how to wash it without felting but will give it a go.

I have now spun another half bobbin on the spinning wheel after I filled the first one so I am improving slowly but am still having the odd issue with drafting which may be as a result of the wool sitting around for a long time and losing its fluffiness after carding so it all sticks together more.

I am going to look at dyeing for my weaving as well, the piece I am working on is a yukky light pinkish flecked colour which is just not my thing and it is also not a Medieval colour so it needs to be dyed before the garment it gets made into is seen in public!

So I will have to see about using some nice blue wool dyes to get hopefully a royal blue with a bit of a purple tinge. I also have a large wool hooded cloak which is currently white and I am intending to dye it a more useful colour so it doesn't show the dirt and doesn't make me look like a crusader or one of the Kings Guard from Game of Thrones!