Pips’ Left Paw

@pips-left-paw

Weaver. Reader. Cat roommate.

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Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 18d

Finished! These two innocent-looking and superficially identical bobbins conceal yarn made from 27 different samples of 25 breeds of wool in a range of colors and texture. Stage 21 of #TourdeFleece. #handspinning 🧶

A top view of a Lendrum spinning wheel with no bobbin on a burgundy carpet. Two bobbins with gray yarn are laying on the seat of a wooden spinning stool that is tucked up close to the wheel.

Two walnut bobbins on the seat of a well-aged golden colored maple spinning stool. Each bobbin has a heathery gray on the outside. The yarns are superficially similar in medium gray tones but they are from different breeds and have strikingly different textures. The yarns hidden within each bobbin are even more varied in color and texture.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 19d

Ergonomic? No. But it’s Stage 20 and the couch is calling me. Last of the Finull #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A low angle view of the spinning wheel with a very long white yarn stretching into the foreground. The fiber and my skirt are visible in the bottom of the frame as I am slouching back on a couch that is far too low for ergonomically treadling the spinning wheel. A green armchair and books are visible in the background.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 20d

Stage 19 is just a little bit of spinning time, ekeing out a bit more of the Finull. #handspinning #TourdeFleece 🧶

The spinning wheel on the porch with white wool singles on the bobbin.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 21d

#TourdeFleece stage 18 has some lovely multicolored North Ronaldsay and the start of the bonus Finull. I’ll need to pick something else for the last few stages of TdF, as there is only a bit of bonus Norwegian after i finish the lovely soft Finull. #handspinning 🧶

Looking down at the top of a Lendrum spinning wheel with a walnut flyer and a bobbin of multicolored sandy brown white and gray yarn. It has a speckled look.

Pips the cat wanders around the porch in the background of another image showing the side of the bobbin.

And end-on image of the spinning wheel’s mother of all, showing the maple front maiden and orifice, the walnut flyer, and white Finull yarn parked by wrapping it around the handle of the threading hook that is stored in a hole in the maiden.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 22d

Stage 17 white Dala-Päls and a top view of the wheel and my grumpy friend. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

Top view of a Lendrum spinning wheel partly on a burgundy carpet and partly on a warm-toned oak floor. Pips the tabby cat is laying on the floor adjacent to the wheel.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 23d

Stage 16 after the rest day: Grey Troender, Härjedal, and not-Nordic-at-all Blue Texel-Holland. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a red carpet. The bobbin has a medium gray yarn, and the spinners left end is holding the yarn under tension. The unspun fiber is a gray-brown coarse and crimpy mass, nothing you’d want near your neck.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 25d

A little bit of this was yesterday, but for today Stage 15 of #tourdefleece I’ve romped through samples of Dutch Spotted, Fjällnäs, Faroe Island, Hog Island, Finn, and some bonus Icelandic. Here are snaps after the first two and then after the Finn. #handspinning 🧶

A quarter-full bobbin with a gray and brown layer of Dutch Spotted wool yarn and then the tiniest sample of luscious white wavy Fjällnäs wool.

The same bobbin, now in outdoor light, coming up in half full with yarn from the brown (white white hairs) Finn wool.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 26d

Stage 14 has just a little spinning on a busy day. Gestrike is the breed for this bit. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

The mother-of-all on a Lendrum spinning wheel with the latest yarn emerging from the orifice and conveniently wrapped around the orifice threading tool which stores itself in a hole in the front maiden.

The Gestrike wool on the bobbin has a pleasant gray-white-black variegation. It’s got a gray undercoat with black and white hairs.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 27d

Stage 13. Gotland, from a fairly matted roving. It is sooo satisfying to see the new breed’s yarn cover up the one underneath. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A very close view of a 3/4 full bobbin. Close to the first full lap of the Woolee Winder on the bobbin of white Finull with the new gray Gotland wool.

The same bobbin now more fully clothed in the gray Gotland yarn.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 28d

Stage 12 of #TourdeFleece is fluffy white Finull, very pleasant to spin, on top of yesterday’s Gute. I have a couple of ounces of this one so am saving part of it for the next bobbin of this multi-breed yarn. There are 13 breeds left plus some extra Finull and extra Norwegian #handspinning 🧶

A walnut Woolee winder bobbin with a white singles yarn in a dark room.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· 29d

Stage 11 #TourdeFleece had an unexpected morning opportunity to spin some Gute (ancestor of Gotland). Pips is a little cranky but is nicely showing off her white shoes. #handspinning 🧶

The flyer and bobbin of a spinning wheel are out of focus in the foreground. The the background a recline tabby cat half sits up to stare the camera. Several trash bags full of scoured fleece are also in the background.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 15

Day 11? Stage 10? It’s Tuesday and mostly my #TourdeFleece activity was collecting scoured fleeces from a local mill but I am also getting in a little spinning. Icelandic tonight.

A Lendrum spinning wheel in harsh lighting and a three-quarter view. The latest yarn is white worsted Iceland wool, on top of a gray layer on the bobbin.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 12

Two wildly different Swedish breeds today - springy crimped white Jamtland wool followed by hairy double-coated gray Varmland. #TourdeFleece day 8. #handspinning 🧶

A pudgy left hand drafting a very fluffy white wool into a fine yarn, with a Lendrum spinning wheel in the background.

A top-down view of the bobbin covered in the white Jamtland yarn and starting to be overlaid with gray Varmland yarn.

The same bobbin now covered with the gray Varmland yarn. It wasn’t very much fiber so the bobbin does not look much more filled.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 11

I think this bobbin is going to be a serial multi-breed yarn spun from the fiber samples of a (mostly Nordic) breed study workshop I just did at Black Sheep Gathering. On top of yday’s Norwegian, Day 7 is about an ounce of double-coated pinky-brown and white Rya. #TourdeFleece #handspinning 🧶

A bobbin of pinky-brown and white heathers yarn spun from Rya wool.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 10

I think this is enough for Day 6. #tourdefleece #handspinning 🧶

A walnut bobbin about one third filled with a variegated gray wool yarn.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 10

Day 6 of #TourdeFleece, the consider is all sorted out and it is warm so I am in the shade on the porch with part of a batt of some Norwegian wool. #handspinning 🧶

A close look at a variegated gray Norwegian long wool semi-worsted yarn in progress on a Lendrum upright spinning wheel.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 9

A little stymied by cone winder trouble on #TourdeFleece day 5 but all of that Corriedale is as plied as it is going to get and it is mostly wound off.

Four cones (with varying degrees of fullness) and a half-filled bobbin of brown wool yarn sit on a green cutting mat.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 8

This bobbin is FULL on #TourdeFleece day 4. Started to ply the Corriedale marathon of long draw practice. As expected from the irregular first bobbin, the plied yarn has (fairly charming) variation in grist. #handspinning 🧶

A walnut Woolee Winder flyer and bobbin that is nearly overflowing with a rustic two-ply of woolen-spun brown Corriedale wool.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 7

Day 3 of #TourdeFleece is a total reversal. From long draw short-staple wool to ultra-worsted line flax #handspinning. But also there is nothing like the start of TdF to motivate me to work on other crafts like greenwood #spooncarving and #bandweaving on a colonial-style box loom. 🧶🥄

An action shot of left-handed drafting of the flax. It is suspended on a distaff on my right hand side. The much smoother (and damp) S twisted yarn is building up on the bobbin of a Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a reddish-brown carpet.

Another view of the blonde (and moderately stinky) linen yarn on the spinning wheel’s bobbin. Industrial scale tank retting gives some unwholesome smells - this fiber has been deodorizing on my porch for months now and it will still need more alkali and sunlight after (eventually) weaving.

An apple wood spoon half-carved, on an orange table next to a sheathed sloyd knife.

A tubular tape in progress on a band loom (or box loom), with a belt shuttle resting in the open shed. The rigid heddle stays fixed in the box and the weaver raises or lowers the warp to open on or the other shed. Always throwing (ok, passing) the shuttle from one side creates a closed tube. In this case the tube has a bright green seam, from the selvedge threads, running along the back, which looks pretty cool.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 5

#TourdeFleece day 2 - the full pound of Corriedale (started well before TdF, I am not a monster) is vanquished and the later bobbins are much better than the first one (but I still find it hard to control the grist with long draw). #handspinning 🧶

Three bobbins arranged on a green upholstered stool with a tabby cat laying down alongside (facing away from the camera). Each bobbin has brown woolen-spun Corriedale wool. The leftmost bobbin has visible irregularity but the others are more uniform.

Somebody didn’t like her modeling gig. (Pips the tabby cat twisted her body around on the footstool to show airplane ears and a stink-eye expression).

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jul 4

Starting my #TourdeFleece by sprinting for the finish line of a pound of brown Corriedale that I have been using to improve my long draw woolen spinning. #handspinning

A blond Lendrum upright spinning wheel on a burgundy carpet with a tabby cat asleep on a footstool in the background. The wheel has a walnut Woolee Winder flyer and the bobbin is nearly full of a brown woolen-spun singles yarn.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jun 9

Done! I’m pretty happy with how it came out and have some ideas for improvement next time. #handweaving #handwoven #naturaldye #leatherwork #handsewn 🧶

One side of the finished bag, draped over the rear upright on the honey-colored wooden floor loom that I used to weave the bag outer fabric and lining.

The other side of the bag, with a different set of pieced stripes of linen visible. The loom shafts are in the background looking like a parade of white Texsolv cord holding up each of the 24 shafts.

I had another 16x7 piece of madder dyed leather (I cut it and dyed it to be the inside base of the bag but changed my mind about using it) so I used it and some other scraps from the dye pot and the practice-skiving to make a littler insert/organizer container to use inside the bag. The central opening has a base and is shown holding a laptop power supply. There is a shallow open-bottom pocket in front that holds my phone nicely.

The back of the organizer has a clip for house keys and three generously proportioned pencil/pretzel/stick loops.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jun 8

The idea is coming along nicely. #handweaving #handwoven #sewing #leatherwork #naturaldye #madder #linen 🧶

A salmon-red leather based is clipped to some handwoven linen fabric forming the base of a bag. The leather is veg tanned and was mordanted with alum and then dyed with madder.

The bag is right side out with the handles clipped in place to be sewn next. The outside of the bag is pieces rectangles of the various woven fabrics from the Endless Warp.

Detail of the bag exterior with one of the about-to-be-sewn red dyed leather handles clipped in place.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· Jun 1

Other than the text (manuscript or printed) and -growing- the flax, this used to be a two week workshop called Old Ways. Make paper and bone tools, shape wooden boards from an ancient stash, spin flax thread, make leather or parchment, shape brass , and assemble into a gothic book. Here’s mine:

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 29

I have an idea of what to make out of these (literal) sample fabrics, but it will need some leather components so I am doing some experiments on natural tannins and dyes on veg-tanned cow leather. #weaving #dyeing #naturaldye 🧶

Samples of variously treated veg tanned leather drying on a glass cutting board. There is a control sample in the center bottom, a bland bright tan like a Caucasian Barbie. On the left are browner strips soaked in kakishibu (two small pieces are grain up, one piece is flesh-side up to show the different takeup of the tannin). In the center top are orangey peach samples (grain side) and terracotta red (flesh side) samples dyed in madder. The madder bath was heated to 120 F for a few hours last night and then cooled overnight before the leather was added. On the right are some very boring medium brown sampled dyed in walnut hull powder. Probably should have cooked that bath but didn’t bother… all three baths were 40% WOF and the leather soaked for 6 hours with everything at room temperature.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 23

This one didn’t make it into the class photo. It forgot to have 40/2 weft for comparison with the fine weft. #handweaving #handwoven 🧶

A draped length of line fabric. Most is unbleached silvery gray in color, with 60/1 linen as both warp and weft. The there is a stripe of four repeats of the motif in a much thicker green 30/2 linen yarn. Because the yarn is thicker, the motif is elongated and the angle is much steeper than the angle in the area of fine weft.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 22

Overwintered flax is all harvested and drying. A lot of it had fallen over and lodged so the bundles are a little chaotic. #spinning #handweaving #fiber #slowcloth #flax 🧶

Tied up bundles of freshly pulled flax stems from the second bed. Some bundles are facing towards, others facing away, with green stems and seed heads at the tops of the bundles and yellow stems on the bottom half of the stems.

The flax from the first bed (pulled a few days ago) drying on bamboo poles stretched between two extremely derelict wooden chairs.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 17

Most of the samples from that everlasting fine linen warp, after wet finishing. I have been playing with a photobooth - there will be photos of the individual samples and observations later. Probably. #handweaving #handwoven #woven 🧶

An array of handwoven fabric samples spread out in an overlapping stack. All are unbleached linen in both warp and weft and silvery in color. The left half of each sample has the same 60/1 weft as th warp and looks paler. The right half of each sample has heavier 40/2 weft and is heavier fabric with a more solid silvery appearance. Each sample is a different pattern that either requires or -could be- woven on a 24 shaft straight draw threading.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 10

The long linen warp is cut off at last (at last!), soaked, washed in the machine, and now drying on-grain on a roller. #weaving #handweaving 🧶

An 18” diameter roller made of bamboo dowels and plywood. A soggy unbleached linen cloth is wrapped around it. This is a new finishing approach for me, from a tip in one of Peggy Osterkamp’s books. It is otherwise pretty hard to handle a long yardage that wants to permanently wrinkle plus the unavoidable wrinkles from modern washing machines.

A wider view of the roller. It is suspended on a bar between a pair of barbell stands.

Pips’ Left Paw@pips-left-paw· May 5

Next two drafts on the linen warp, and my louche cat Pips. #handweaving #weaving #cats 🧶