Musings about Spinning Wheels -- unexpected issues

I picked this wheel up at a garage sale at the end of the day, when everything left was being sold quite inexpensively.  The person who sold it had gotten it used from somewhere else and had never used it herself.  I'm not sure it had ever been used to spin on.  It came with 4 bobbins, a lazy kate, and even the orifice hook was still there!  The label on the front said 1985, Nagy, by Woodspin, Greytown, N.Z.  It is a really beautiful wheel,

I took it home, cleaned it up, and started to play with it.

It's a scotch tension wheel by design -- the whorl groove is the same size as the bobbin groove, so double-drive is not likely to work well.  It could be set up in irish tension, too, I suppose, but the info I found online indicated that it was designed to be a scotch tension wheel (brake band over bobbin).

The scotch tension band used a hair elastic for its tension.  The hair elastic and both bands were not in great shape so I replaced them.

New bands, roving stuffed into loose parts, tension adjusted, new leaders on the bobbin(s), oil anything that looks like it could use oiling...

When I sat down to spin, the flyer kept dropping out of the maidens during spinning, ker-thump.  Also, the hole in the back leather was just as big as the hole in the front leather, with a lot of space that wasn't necessary.

Well.

It turns out that this was one of the last Nagy wheels made.  The early Nagy wheels are very well regarded, especially the upright.  But as the years went by, the brand (and design) was sold and sold again.  The final manufacturer wasn't all that careful.  Some of the last batch of wheels that were made had a serious manufacturing error -- the maidens were too far apart and the flyer would drop out.  Someone on Ravelry said that the problem wasn't that, it was that the threading for the whorl was in the wrong place.  I'm not so sure about that being the only problem because even if the whorl was screwed in closer to the back maiden, there would have been a lot of slop for the flyer to bounce around and drop out of the front maiden.

A friend of mine 3D printed a bushing to put in the back leather -- there had been one originally when the wheel was made, of unknown material, but apparently that had been lost years before.  That helped a bit.  The friend also made a spacer to keep the flyer closer to the front maiden so it wouldn't drift backwards towards the back maiden and fall out.  That helped a lot more. 

The scotch tension is also a bit weird.  I am not 100% sure I have the correct path for the brake band.  Also, the bobbin is very smooth and shiny so there's not quite enough friction.  It's hard to get the right amount of bite, neither too little nor too much.

I can spin on it.  But I have to pay attention!  I have to make sure that the flyer stays where it should, and occasionally tweak the brake tension as needed.  Somewhere I have the yarn I spun on the wheel, but I'm not sure what I spun or where it ended up.  (I try to spin at least one bobbin of yarn on every wheel I rescue.)

Someone on Ravelry set up their Nagy Saxony in irish tension -- wheel band over the bobbin, brake band over the whorl -- and that seems like an approach that might work well with this wheel.

I have/had plans to work on the Nagy "someday" to get the scotch tension set up to be a bit more friendly and predictable.  But, it looks like I might be selling this wheel.  The buyer is definitely aware of its issues!  I hope the buyer can finish tweaking things so that this becomes a lovely spinning machine in its functionality as well as its looks.  I am totally happy to take back the wheel and return the money if it ends up having more issues than the buyer wants to deal with.

Maybe someday I'll stumble across another Nagy, but if so, hopefully it'll be one of the earlier models that doesn't have a major manufacturing flaw!

Here are links to info about the Nagy:

https://nzspinningwheelsinfo.wordpress.com/istvan-nagy/

https://nzspinningwheels.wordpress.com/some-spinning-wheel-leaflets/ and in particular, the Nagy leaflets

https://nzspinningwheels.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nagy1.pdf

https://nzspinningwheels.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nagy2.pdf

https://nzspinningwheels.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/lnagy1.pdf

https://nzspinningwheels.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/lnagy2.pdf

https://nzspinningwheelsinfo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/nagy.jpg

https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/working-wheels/3144818/

Truly Gorgeous Woven Wrap (from handspun!)

A few posts ago, I mentioned that a friend of mine had taken some of my handspun and woven something with it.

Here's a pic of part of it, taken at an angle.  Isn't it lovely?!!  The stripes are various widths, narrower in the middle and wider at the ends, but all fairly random widths and color progressions overall.  This uses most of four batches of my handspun.  My friend had a bit of leftover yarn in a very contrasting color that had been dyed for a different project, so that got added, too.

The weaving is amazing.  The wrap is amazing -- beautiful and soft and cozy.  My friend said that weaving my not-so-good batches of handspun was like having a conversation with the weaving.  If there was a stretch that was too thick or thin or uneven, adjustments were made with an extra or an omitted throw of the shuttle.

Here are the batches of handspun.  None are particularly well spun, sorry to say.  They're all slightly different thicknesses, probably, as well as having some thick-and-thin areas and occasional neps and what-not.

These skeins are from natural-dyed roving, in cutch (brown), Himalayan rhubarb (yellow), and kermes (red), all mordanted with alum.  The roving is white merino/dorset (I think the sheep is a crossbred sheep, not that the roving is a blend).

I dyed and spun these many years ago and they've been sitting in my stash ever since.  I liked them well enough but couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with them.  The kermes is a bit of an odd color, I thought.

This is a batch of yarn I spun from a mystery batt of mixed colors and textures.  The baggie it was in was labeled as Shetland, but who knows.  The batt consisted of some mixed shades of brown and mustard and green, with some neps and bloops of the same colors and more.  As expected, the yarn is somewhat textured.

The final yarn, as I wrote above, was leftover dyed wool yarn from another project my friend wove.  It is a very dark purple, almost but not quite black.

The warp was also commercially-spun yarn, some kind of white wool.

Anyway, I think it is amazing.  It's so different from knitting.  The way the warp and weft interact really give it a different feel.  Colors that would look kind of meh if knitted up (unless added to a larger project) really pop and meld when woven up like this.

Needless to say, I'm hoping to give lots more handspun to my friend.  I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens with the other handspun skeins that were part of this first batch.

--------------------------

Apparently I am knitting Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride at 4 stitches per inch, 2-stranded.  The target circumference for the gift socks is about 9" rather than 8".  So, my sock was unraveled and I started over on 36 stitches.  I'm past the heel on the first sock.  The two very similar colors of Lamb's Pride look really nice together.  They're just different enough to add a bit of depth.  I hope the tighter than expected gauge will lead to higher durability.  I'm easy on socks, but I don't know about my friend.

I've started yet another charity hat, same yarn and everything as the last one.

I'm still dithering on a Next Sweater.  And the Miami Vice shawl is getting closer to done.

Next Sweater dithering (and a few other boring progress reports)

The just-finished Appledore Gansey sweater, with a quick/basic blocking, on the recipient, over the layers already being worn.  Yay, it fits!  It is still a little too loose in the shoulders and upper arms for my liking, though I didn't really adjust the sweater before snapping a pic.  I think much of that is a style and body type thing -- it probably would have been more flattering on someone with wider shoulders and/or a burlier upper body.  But it's done and in the possession of the Intended Recipient, who is very pleased with it.  The recipient often wears multiple layers, especially in winter, so oversized enough so that lower layers don't bunch up is not a bad thing.

The handspun worked very well for the sweater.

Now on to the next thing(s).

I'm almost done with the latest charity hat, so I'll get that finished up and start the next one.

I'm doing some quick gift socks for a friend.  I'm using two strands of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride (worsted weight, 80% wool 20% mohair, single ply) from the stash.  I felt like doing top-down generic socks, so I'll have to get my actual gauge after a few inches of knitting.  I'm starting with 32 stitches but might need to go down to 28 or even up to 36.  But I think this will be OK.  The friend wants these to be slipper socks that will felt a bit especially while being worn, so a little big isn't a problem, not to mention that one needs a bit more ease for fat yarn.

I'm not completely sure how much yarn these will take, given my friend's foot measurements.  Eh, maybe I'll just keep on knitting socks (for various people) once this pair is done, until the skeins I'm using are done.  I have 2 skeins of dark teal green and 4 skeins of dark aqua/turquoise in a shade that is very similar to the green.  I'm using one strand of green and one of blue, held together, mostly so that the socks will be quick to knit and very warm, but also since a single ply tends not to be as durable as a multi-ply, and 2 strands of single ply yarn will hopefully be more durable than one.

I ended up with someone else's remnant Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride stash, all seconds, mostly 2-3 but sometimes 4 skeins per color.  The thing about seconds is that sometimes the yardage is short, or there are lots of knots, or there are funky bits in the skeins.  I've slowly been going through it.  I'm looking at some of what's left and seeing three skeins of a light brown, three skeins of a heathered gray, and two skeins of black, all of which kind of go together.  So...  that's enough for a sweater, if I can figure out what I want to make.  I also have oddments from old projects over the years in a variety of colors that could be added.

Stripes.  Those are easy.  But.  I usually look pretty terrible in horizontal stripes.  Also, there would be ends.  So many ends.  I could do helical/narrow stripes, maybe, though there might be some weirdness where the sleeves join the body if I don't calculate it exactly right.

Color patterns.  A lot of fun.  But, things like Lopi-style yoke-patterning usually require a main color of about 800 yards, and I have a bit less than 600 yards.  But not impossible.  Fair-isle is another possibility, especially if it's enlivened with leftovers in contrasting colors.  Faroese style color patterns could be interesting -- alternating gray and brown stripes with simple black color patterns on each.  But then we get back to stripes, lots of ends, unattractive, etc.

 

There are some ideas in Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind -- not only a few sweaters with Faroese and other small motifs, but also her vertically-knit striped smocks, which would be straightforward but would require seaming.

I don't do steeks, by the way, so patterns get adapted around that.  I don't fear cutting the yarn. I fear wanting to unravel a disappointing project to reuse the yarn and having zillions of cut ends that aren't easily reusable.  And maybe that too is part of why I don't want to knit stripes.  Though usually I carry the yarn ends up inside the sweater and only cut them and sew them in when the sweater is finished and I'm content with the results.  In my experience, sewing in the ends carefully makes the smoothest-looking stripes in circular knitting.  Nothing else I've tried has been as unobtrusive.  Though honestly I'm fine with jogs and not worrying about it.

Hmm, EZ's bog jacket is a possibility, too.  I've made a baby bog but not an adult bog.  That too requires seaming.  The stretch of kitchener stitch is long enough that it also counts as seaming, at least in my opinion.  A ribwarmer, maybe, since 600-ish yards (i.e. 3 skeins) might be just about enough to make with one of the three-skein colors?  I've already knit a 3-skein vest from the Lamb's Pride Seconds stash, so if the yarn usage is comparable, then it'll work.  EZ also has a few vertically-knit panel sweaters, similar to ones in Lind's book but usually mostly done in garter.  In general, EZ has seaming in her garter stitch sweaters.  Though, sigh, I can seam stuff even if it's not my favorite thing to do.

There are Yet Other possibilities out there, from my various pattern collections, Ravelry, etc.

Or I could throw this pile of yarn back in the stash.  Or make things that aren't sweaters.

I do want to make another sweater, though, now that the Appledore-ish gansey is done.  Colors, cables, gansey, something plain, interesting construction, real pattern, vague template, etc., so many options.  Ditto for yarn choices.  I've been conscientious about acquiring sweater quantities of yarn for a while, and there are plenty of good choices available in my stash, both handspun and commercial yarns.  I still have lots of oddballs and odd quantities, too.

Now that everyone is all bored, I'll go back to the hat and socks and continue dithering about the next sweater-equivalent project.

A finished item -- my handspun Appledore (ish) gansey (ish)

Almost a year to the date from when I finally cast on, with this yarn and this number of stitches etc., my Appledore Gansey is finished!

I still need to tuck in the ends and block it, but I am excited that it's done and want to write about it now instead of later.  I know I've written about it before and thus this might be repetitive, but too bad!  It's my blog and I'll bore if I want to.

This started with me being intrigued by the Appledore Gansey in Rae Compton's Complete Book of Traditional Guernsey and Jersey Knitting.  I liked the plainness of the gansey, livened by a bit of decoration on the shoulder straps.

The traditional Appledore gansey is a plain gansey with all the trimmings -- a side seam in purl, underarm gussets, one-piece knitting of a drop-shoulder design with the sleeves picked up and knit down after the shoulders were joined, and shoulder straps.  I'm not 100% sure what the traditional range of patterns for the shoulder straps would encompass.  Betty Martin (often rig and furrow strips then betty martin strips, alternating) and seed stitch are what I see in modern patterns and most old photos.  A lot of old photos are fairly indistinct so aren't too discernable in the books and websites I have available to me, so I don't really know what other shoulder strap patterns were used by the Appledore knitters.

There's also a photo on page 2 of Beth Brown-Reisel's Knitting Ganseys that shows a plain gansey with only rig-and-furrow on the shoulder straps.  The photo is from the Sutcliffe Studio, and I have no idea if those ganseys were a specialty of anywhere in particular.  Google searching for the photos has not yet led me to any more info, alas, though I suppose I could email BB-R and ask her.

I wanted to use stash yarn for my version, and in particular, handspun.  This meant that I needed to reconfigure the pattern for my new gauge.  Also, my handspun is not uber-smooth like traditional gansey yarn, so knit-purl patterns aren't necessary going to show to good advantage, especially with the not-so-fine gauge.

So, it's gansey-ish rather than a classic gansey made with the traditional fine machine-spun yarn.  And it's Appledore-ish since the shoulder strap pattern is rig-and-furrow rather than a documented knit/purl design like betty martin or seed stitch.

For those who care, Rig and Furrow is a name for stockinette and reverse stockinette stripes.  Purl-knit-knit-purl for a 4-row pattern repeat, though one can adapt for all kinds of variations.  Seed Stitch is alternating knit-purl on one row with purl-knit on the next.  Betty Martin is 2 rows of k2p2 followed by 2 rows of stockinette, with the k2p2 blocks usually but not always aligning with each other.

My first attempt was several years ago.  I got to the point where back and front would split and decided I didn't like it.  I had put in a reverse-stockinette horizontal ridge just about the ribbing and decided it looked really stupid.  Plus the yarn was pink and, well, it was a bit TOO pink for my current tastes.  So I took it apart and returned the yarn to my stash.

My second attempt was sometime in 2025.  I tried a different batch of handspun.  After a few inches, I decided it wasn't quite right and unraveled that, too.

My third attempt began last September, with a batch of dark forest green handspun that was roughly Aran weight.  I don't have a great photo of the yarn, alas, or I'd inflict it on y'all.  Maybe later.

A family member wandered by during my planning and swatching and expressed interest in receiving a handknit sweater, so I declared them the Intended Recipient and took their measurements.

Rae Compton and Beth Brown-Reisel and Gladys Thompson (Guernsey and Jersey Patterns) all have extended discussions on gansey construction and patterning.  BB-R also has percentage charts for adapting the gansey idea to one's own gauge and measurements.  Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system and the templates with percentages in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way also helped me figure things out.

There are some great online resources, too.  I don't remember all of them, but I'll call out Gansey Nation (http://www.ganseys.com/) and the info and links from the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon (https://barnstaplemuseum.org.uk/ourstories/dressed-for-chill-the-appledore-gansey/) and also photos and write-ups of Josephine Sim's pattern from the booklet by John Whitlock and her, even though I don't own it (yet), Prangs, Tacks and Frocks, which can be found scattered throughout the internet.  Places like Propagansey and other specialty websites, various other museum sites, and the Ravelry gansey forum (Guernseys, Ganseys, Knit-Frocks - Fishermans' Sweaters) were also helpful and inspiring.

Armed with schematics, percentages, and technique tips, and a probably-lying gauge swatch, I cast on.  Then measured my real gauge, unraveled, re-calculated the numbers, and cast on again.

It went well.  Knit knit knit.  Then I had to make some decisions and put the knitting down.  It sat for several months.  Well, who needs a warm sweater when it's summer?

A few weeks ago, we got our first taste of autumn.  I was inspired to pick up the knitting again.  My subconscious had made all the decisions I had dithered about earlier.  And I knit knit knit until it was done.  YAY!!!!!

It fits the intended recipient.

It's a little big in the upper arm area.  It might be better for someone with burlier shoulders.  But also, when I came back to it this month, I ended up making the above-underarm area a bit deeper than I had initially planned.  I had started the underarm gussets a bit early so the sweater was a bit too short for the intended recipient's preferences, and thus I added more above the underarms to get to the total desired length.  I didn't feel like ripping it all the way back to the start of the gussets.

But other than that, I'm very pleased with it.

The neck opening before the final ribbing was also kind of enormous, since I added more length to the upper body after I'd started the front neck shaping.  But amazingly and wonderfully, the ribbing took care of that.  I reduced a lot of stitches after picking up for the collar/edge and it didn't pucker or gap or anything, yay.

Dunno if I could have or should have done something similar for the upper sleeves.  I'll consider that for next time, though.

Something interesting I noticed:  Usually, there's a small gap between the body and sleeves when everything is joined up or picked up and knit down or whatever.  I use the yarn tails to close up holes.  With the underarm gussets, there was no gap at all, no loose spots or holes or anything.

I used almost exactly 900 yards and still have 350-ish yards of the yarn left.  That'll return to my stash for some future project.

Hmm, what sweater do I want to make next?  And who shall it be for?

For ganseys, I like the very common seeds-and-bars design, so that's a possibility.  But maybe I'll do something with cables.  Or an Elizabeth Zimmermann design.  Or something else entirely, of course.  I haven't done a Lopi sweater in a while, for example, and someone is willing to buy the yarn if they get the sweater.

I'm close to done with my traveling shawl project, too.  Soon I'll have to come up with a new travel project.

Other than that, I'm doing charity hats and will probably knit some house socks for a friend.  I need to go through my stash to see what I have that would be suitable for thick-and-quick socks.  The friend wants the socks to felt a bit with wear, so that will also be taken into consideration.

I should do some spinning.  And do a write-up on another of my rescued spinning wheels.

The friend who took some of my handspun to try weaving with has made a truly amazing and gorgeous wrap.  That too will be in a future post.

Spinning -- "Dave" (Columbia x Rambouillet)

I have finished the latest 4 oz. blob of roving.  This is a from a Columbia x Rambouillet sheep named Dave, from Promised Land Fibers.  I ended up with about 450 yards of 2-ply, yikes!  I'm definitely spinning thin this year, dunno why.  Photos never quite show the colors correctly; this is a fairly dark gray yarn.  The fiber has a few white and brown bits mixed in with the overall dark gray.  The roving is immaculately clean, no VM, though the staple length can be slightly variable at times.  It drafted easily, too.  It's not the best spinning job in the world, but it'll be perfectly functional for pretty much anything I want to do with it.  Maybe I'll knit it up 2-stranded into a hat or mittens or something.  Or pass it along to my weaving friend.

I'm not sure what I'll spin next.

My travel knitting projects are still being worked on.  So no new project completions (or starts) to report.

I might be selling a spinning wheel soon.  I'm trying to decide which ones to offer the potential buyer.  I'm glad -- these wheels should be used, and they are all going to be wheels I was delighted to save and restore, but which I don't personally use all that often myself these days.  If that made sense.  I really do need and want to sell several of the wheels I've rescued and accumulated.

August Project Report

It's been a busy month and not much has gotten done.  But I want to have at least one post for August, so here it is!

I started a new spinning project -- some pretty gray Columbia x Rambouillet roving from a sheep named Dave.  I'm about half done with the singles, and then got busy with all kinds of things.  It's still waiting for me to finish it and then get it plied.  Then I'll decide what to spin next.

I've been turning my soap and it's about ready to use whenever I want!  I'm excited.  The friend who taught me how to make the soap is very encouraging, so hopefully I will get to make more soap soon.

Knitting -- I'm doing charity hats again and my pink travel shawl is also making good progress.  I really want to finish my green handspun Appledore-ish gansey but I need the time to sit down, make a few decisions, and then keep going.  I have roughly 8-10 more hours of work on it, I think, maybe a bit less.

I'm thinking about doing more weaving, though I haven't decided what I would want to weave.

Ooh, something pretty amazing -- I gave a friend of mine some of my handspun wool, including some that had been natural-dyed.  (I mentioned it in a earlier post.)  My friend took that yarn and wove me a truly gorgeous wrap.  Wow.  I am incredibly touched by my friend's generosity as well as skill and artistic vision.  Obviously I need to hand out more of my handspun!  Seeing what other people do with it is pretty fabulous.

I taught that same friend to spin.  Dunno if I mentioned that already.  Another friend loaned this friend a wheel.  My friend is a natural -- drafting came easy and the yarn is already looking fantastic.  It is very gratifying to see another person take up the craft and to know that I have made some small contribution to my friend's success.

I don't have any current knitting project plans yet.  No doilies are itching to be cast on.  No sweaters nor planning the next travel knitting project.  I still ought to cast on for some socks, and there are some quick little hat patterns/ideas that appeal, and I haven't made mittens for a while and maybe should do a few of those, too.  But for now, Real Life is keeping me busy.  Also, I want to do more spinning if/when I do have more time.

Unlocking a new skill -- soap!

A friend recently ran a get-together that involved making soap.  Yes, from lye and oils and fats and stuff like that.  This friend has been a professional maker and seller of soap, so it felt like quite a privilege as well as a wonderful introduction into this ancient technology.

After pouring our saponified goo into molds, we let it sit for a few weeks, then cut it into smaller bars.  It's still quite soft!  Now it gets to sit for another month or two to finish curing.

When we first cut the bars, there was quite a cross-sectional color variation, from brown on the outside to greenish-cream in the middle.  Now, a few days later, the color variations are evening out to various shades of cream and brown.

The above bars (the square ones) have clay added.  I like the swirls, though we'll see how it looks after curing.

The round bars have various scents added.  The molded hexagonal bars and all of the bars with clay added are unscented.

I'm looking forward to future adventures in soap making!