It is a kick spindle. I have never even heard of these much less seen one (sheltered life?).
I have a moorit colored romney fleece I bought from Terry Mendenhall that I scoured and am planning to send to Ozark Carding Mill, so I carded up a few rolags to experiment with.
I am a fun lovin' kinda person, and as neat looking as it is, the kick spindle was close to getting a final kick... into the front yard.
After my initial aggravation (and my DH and DD gently telling me to put the damn thing away before I hurt myself), we began to get along nicely. In retrospect, I probably could have used a longer fiber (the moorit is only about 3 inches), and its pretty slick. So you can guess what was happening; it seemed the more I spun the looser the blasted thing got! SO! I thought I finally got it. Then I started winding off to the ball winder; two knots and a few grey hairs later, I started plying. ONE knot later and a very, very sore back, this is what I had.
OK, so it didn't turn out so bad. A nice little skein of blood, sweat and tears. Really, I'm not always aggravated, I'm a very good natured person. I love trying new things, my family isn't always thrilled with it but I enjoy it :)I then took 1200mg of Ibuprofen and went to bed. My back hardly hurts at all today!
I'm thinking that the really neat kick spindle will make a good conversation piece...
After all that, I DID find a drum carder that I could afford, a Clemes & Clemes. I will post pictures when I get it.
5 comments:
I got a sweet deal on a Clemes and Clemes drum carder, too, with a custom-made oak stand. Can you believe I haven't gotten out the box yet?
OMGosh! Are you serious??? I cant do that, I get a new toy and I have to use it :)
Besides, I love playing in fleece, cant stop myself actually...
I am intrigued by any spindle, but a bit puzzled... I can see keeping it going with the foot, but do you have to bend down and get it whenever you want to wind on? Or do you undo it from the hook and hold it to the side to wind on? Seems like a lot of bending.
I will show you how it works next time I see you. Actually, google Mother Marion's Kick Spindle and look for the utube video, you can see how it works.
I have a kick spindle. I found it works best when making a thicker singles. I tried spinning thinner, but you can't really get the thing spinning fast enough, so I use it when I want to make like a worsted weight singles. I used it with some romney and got a lovely singles from it.
Post a Comment