Resurrecting the Farm and Ranch

[southernmom]

Today the boys and the husband (I keep telling him I'm giving him the screenname 'The Almighty Rigger' but he swears he's not almighty yet, haha!) are spending today clearing out a section of the barn and putting in a couple rabbit hutches for the critters we got from Vincent. Some friends gave us a beat up old rabbit hutch that just needed a little repair-and lo and behold we just happened to have enough stuff laying around to fix them. The boys are thrilled!

[Tex]

The Hostile Native has been busy building new rabbit hutches for our llittle rabbitry. We had two new litters born in the last few days, but one whole litter was born dead. We have had trouble with that doe having babies in the passt, so I don't see her lasting very much longer.


Tex

[southernmom]

I worry about birthing bunnies. When we had rabbits, growing up. seems like it was real difficult to get the critters to live.

The Hostile Native has been busy building new rabbit hutches for our llittle rabbitry. We had two new litters born in the last few days, but one whole litter was born dead. We have had trouble with that doe having babies in the passt, so I don't see her lasting very much longer.


Tex

[southernmom]

Sooooo here's my latest find:

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It's my mother's day present. I found it at the market today for pretty cheap so I got it. Now I gotta figure out how to work the danged thing. I figure it's okay to spend a little on an antique working spinning wheel rather than jump in for $500 and find out I don't like spinning.
Now I'm gonna need more wooly sheep!

[southernmom]

Why are my pictures always sideways????

[Tex]

Do some checking and try to find out exactly what the wheel is meant to spin. I know very liittle about spinning wheels, but I do know that some wheels have very specific purposes. We have been wanting to get one for the Hostile Native, but realize how little we know about them. When it comes time for her to get one, we are planning to hit this store in Denver that specializes in spinning wheels. The Native wants one that she can spin wool and mohair on.

Find out more about it and let us know. I am interested in this.


Tex

[southernmom]

I have some posts up on the homesteadingtoday boards and a Ravelry group. (Does the Hostile Native go on Ravelry? She should, lots of info) so far I haven't got a lot of info back, yet.
What I know is that this wheel is an English Spinning Wheel from the late 1800s and has been used up until recently. There have been some minor repairs made but it works just fine from what I was told. (the guy was adamant that it works). I'm not sure about anything else, but I will keep ya updated.

[W.Lynn]

Take a look on youtube. There are drop-spindle demo videos, there should be some for spinning wheels.

If there isn't some scrap of yarn left on the spindle, you will want to add some to be a 'leader.' You tie it to the spindle, out to the hooks that keep the yarn straight while it loads, then into the tube and out the open end toward you. Then you wrap it several times by turning the wheel slowly by hand and winding your leader on for half dozen wraps or so - turn it clockwise from the 11 o'clock position and across the top. This is so when you start to do it automatically, you don't break fingers between the spokes and frame. Starting by hand will also keep you going the same direction each time, so you don't have the treadle pull the wheel opposite to what you've been doing and unspooling enough to tangle it.

Once the leader is on, with a few feet of it hanging out the near side of that tube, you get a handful of (your choice) handfuls of wool, combed a bit at a time until you have a big basket full of big puffy mounds, or some commercially combed "roving" (adds cost, I don't buy it, but it's so much cleaner and softer!) Hold a big puff and the leader together, so the fibers of your wool will be pulled in as the waves or crinkles in the fibers grab onto the fibers in the leader. I'm right handed, so I hold them in my left hand, letting the fibers out of my fingers at the rate I want (for knitting yarn, crochet thread, or small thread for tatting or weaving.) My right hand, after I start the wheel, is holding on to the yarn or thread just a little ahead of what my left hand is doing, preventing the spin from working it's way into my puff of combed wool.

Occasionally, your hand gets tired, or you let too much through, and get what's called a slub. If it's large and loose, you can stop and comb it back out, so you can start over. It happens less as you go on. Small ones can be ignored. If you're spinning for your own use, you don't want them. If you're selling yarn, there are people who won't buy unless there are slubs, they just won't believe it's hand-spun without them.

If you manage to get out to some small-community craft show/sales events, you might find someone who can demonstrate a spinning wheel or drop spindle for you, with a drop spindle your hands do the same job, but it's vertical and you kick it to keep it spinning, or you stop it and wind the yarn on so you can keep going.


Sometimes I take a drop spindle when I go to renaissance faires, it gives me something to do, and an excuse to carry a basket so I'm not shoving things down my bodice, or lifting skirts to get to a pair of shorts that has pockets.

[southernmom]

W Lynn thank you so very much! I appreciate all the info. I was confused as to whether I had to have roving or just tufts of combed wool and now I know! Thanks again.

You do Ren Fairs? I have wanted to get into that or some sort of Reenactment stuff for years but haven't gotten around to it. I think I would like to do early American type stuff. Frankenrigger has a good buddy who does it and takes it really seriously and has a blast at it. (he does pre-colonial trapper type stuff)

I found out that the Wheel is a Double Drive, single treadle screw tension Saxony. She's still definitely usable, has all her parts and all I need to do is polish her up a bit (I'm going to make up some beeswax/olive oil polish today) and put the band on her. From what I understand I can use pretty much any kind of fiber on her. I am so very excited to get started!

Also I was thinking of blending some of the lionhead bunny fur in with the wool, sort of like angora. I may get a couple of angora rabbits in the future should I become as obsessed with spinning as I think I might.
Again, thanks for the help.

[southernmom]

A couple of old pictures of some of the Ranchers in my family. Here's Buell Crum (look up the Crum name in FL cattle history-neat stuff!) He's the second from the right. He was my grandmother's father-my great grandfather. He was 3rd generation Floridian.

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[W.Lynn]

You're welcome.

I have managed to avoid the clutches of the DAR, the civil war societies, various other historical groups, etc. But they usually have neat toys, and while they aren't often prepper oriented, they are a gold mine for us. Get them on the subject of lost and disappearing arts and crafts, they'll have a dozen things to show you, or someone to introduce you to.

[W.Lynn]

Oh, if you rely on the combing to eliminate most of the grass, dirt, twigs, and small dead bugs in the fleece, your hands will absorb so much lanolin that even a nice handkerchief might feel rough for a while afterward. Washed wool won't have it. Leaving the lanolin also makes your hat/scarf/sweater lightly rain repellent, while still having wool's "warm even when wet" advantage.

Washed wool is a LOT cleaner, and while it sounds odd, it's easy to wash. Place fleece in washer, set to gentle, cold water, very short agitate time, and use a measure and a half of Woolite. While it's washing, remove a nice sturdy screen door from somewhere, set it across saw horses so the middles of the screening is supported (you might want to add some 1"x2" furring strips along the length of the door for more support. When the washer is finished, put the fleece on the screen door, out in the sunshine. Try to keep it in big clumps so it won't take off in a breeze.

For the wheel, the wood will be quite protected by the permanent exposure to so much lanolin, it tends to build up in every groove and detail. It's usually better to leave it, since cleaners, brushes, and scrapers can damage the wood, and let your famous southern humidity in. It will look cleaner (still some lanolin) and be more suitable to show off if you use washed wool.

Mine is a small, relatively cheap, upright, double drive. I often run it as single, since it pulls the yarn in faster than I like at double.

[southernmom]

These aren't the best, but they are of my Pop (the one I'm always talking about) the lady in the first is his sister, my aunt.

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[southernmom]

My great grandmother was a member of the DAR and I could join but I'm already a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy and it seems like too much work to have to dodge meetings for 2 groups, haha! When we were in TN there were living history days all the time at the local Civil War haunts and it was so much fun, I loved to watch all the old stuff going on. Sometimes I swear I was born in the wrong era.

[AmericanBTGoG]

If you're looking for ole tyme crafty stuff, there's a group of SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism -- medieval re-enactors/primitive crafters, mechanics, etc.) folks in Brooksville. Fairly active too, I believe.