Happy Dance!

I finally got my second-hand drum carder! Yippee! The frustrating part is that I’ve got too many things on my plate right now to use it. Backing up and recapping the tale, way back in what-was-it? November? I saw a for-sale ad on my Canspin Yahoogroup and jumped at it. It was a Patrick Green Deb’s Delicate Deluxe carder with both fur and production drum, doffer stick and two fettling brushes (fine and regular) for a mere $650. She paid just under $1200 (including taxes and shipping) in 2003 so I think it was a great deal. I’m looking forward to putting her, named “Deb” by the original owner, through her paces. Carder-in-action photos to come. And I think I’ll rename her slightly. She’s now officially “Debs”.

But the carder is going to have to wait. I’ve got the two other projects with deadlines. I got…erm, bored with spinning “froghair” and foolishly started plying instead. I say foolishly, because now I don’t think I have quite enough yardage to be on the safe side for my scarf/shawl. (Though I’m not sure what size it will be yet!) Judging by patterns for similar lace items, I’m just about on the money but that leaves me no fudge-factor if I need more because once it’s dyed I won’t be able to match it no-way no-how. So I’ve got to do some more spinning. Sigh. It’s my own fault for being impatient. The results are sure purty though:


That’s about an ounce/480+ yards worth. Silk and wool. Shiny and very soft. Yum. The weather was so nice yesterday that I sat outside on the upper deck and spun some more of this froghair. It was so warm I ended up removing a couple of layers of clothing and putting on a hat! I’ve still got quite a bit more to spin before I will be satisfied that I have enough. Better to have way too much than run out before the end, hmmm?

When plying I had some trouble with Tori, my Louet Victoria. Has this happened to anyone else or is my Tori just a lemon? Besides her warped wheel which causes her to sway but not too badly, the woodscrew that holds the footman’s bearing on the wheel came unscrewed. You can’t really see it happening but suddenly the wheel started wobbling and making a funny sound. I had to hunt down a Phillips screwdriver to fix it but it started coming undone again before I’d finished. Luckily I kept the screwdriver handy. This is not the first time this has happened either so I think I need something like Loctite Threadlocker to keep the darn thing from reversing out constantly. It doesn’t happen when I’m spinning clockwise because that is the same direction as the screw tightens. (Righty-tighty!) But when turning anticlockwise it unscrews. (Lefty-loosey!) Grrr…Not such a recomendation for Victoria wheels. But since mine is one of the first ones made, I’d like to hope there’s been improvements made.