Unlaconic Draconic

Salvete! These days I mainly post about my fibre crafts, coin collecting, video games, weird 80's sci-fi, and classics (latine loquor!). Back in the day I did a huge liveblog of Revolutionary Girl Utena - if you're interested I recommend adding /tagged/rgu liveblog/chrono to the end of the blog URL!

[queerspacepunk]

friends who know where to get spindles uh, where get spindles? I'd really love a new supported spindle that won't cost one william dollars to ship to nz but my searches haven't been the most fruitful

[cavedraconem]

I know of a few makers in NZ!

I got my supported spindle from Spinning Wood Designs! They use upcycled native timber, in this case rimu.

https://www.spinningwooddesigns.co.nz/

There's also a couple on Trademe who make and sell a few different types of spindle, also (mostly?) in native timber. I have their ultimate drop spindle kit, but they also have Russian- and French-style spindles.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/search?member_listing=4945744

[eightyonekilograms]

On two occasions I have been asked, — “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

You have to love how both

people asking stupid questions about computers, and

computer scientists responding by being total dickwads 

are phenomena that go all the way back to the very beginning of the discipline.

[purplescoins]

Balliwick of Guernsey 8 Doubles coin. 8 Doubles was the Guernsey penny, of which 12 made up a Guernsey shilling.

Minted 1945.

[aeide]

completed weaving of the penelope skyphos from chiusi:

the header is tablet-woven linen, with the linen weft for the band used as the warp for the rest of the piece on a warp-weighted loom, which you can see in the photos below (there is also a previous post with more process photos here). the reverse is a negative mirror image of the front, since I wove this as double-weave pickup rather than tapestry:

additional details below the cut:

the bottom and side borders of the finished piece are tablet-woven with a mixture of linen and mercerized cotton. the sides are a classic meander motif, while the bottom border includes the "X" square from the skyphos itself. the bottom border was woven directly onto the piece using the remainder of the warp beneath penelope's feet (tablet draft for anyone interested—I designed it to be twist-neutral and everything). the side borders are sewn on because I didn't set up the side borders when I started the project, but ellen harlizius-klück previously executed a stunning version here that has the side borders woven in, as well as a really helpful video on this technique.

I was originally planning to leave part of the black warp threads unwoven to serve as penelope's warp, the way I did a few years ago with the amasis painter vase:

but I couldn't figure out how to execute it well in this version, especially since I was doing double-weave and not tapestry. perhaps next time! overall, this was a complicated and fun project as a first warp-weighted loom piece. I learned a lot of important lessons—chief among them being to actually calculate warp lengths instead of eyeballing them and to increase the loom weights on the warps for better tension. unfortunately, I also learned I want to build a large warp-weighted loom (the one I have now was made by jennifer marcus at fiber paintings studio and it is lovely, but I would like to weave larger pieces.)

the original pot also features telemachus standing over a grieving penelope (I had room only for his spear), perhaps a reference to the scene in book 1 when he reprimands his mother and orders her back upstairs:

Odysseus was not the only one who did not come back home again from Troy. Many were lost. Go in and do your work. Stick to the loom and distaff. Tell your slaves to do their chores as well. It is for men to talk, especially me. I am the master. οὐ γὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς οἶος ἀπώλεσε νόστιμον ἦμαρ ἐν Τροίῃ, πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι φῶτες ὄλοντο. ἀλλ᾽ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε, ἱστόν τ᾽ ἠλακάτην τε, καὶ ἀμφιπόλοισι κέλευε ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι: μῦθος δ᾽ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει πᾶσι, μάλιστα δ᾽ ἐμοί: τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἔστ᾽ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ.

Od. 1.354–359. Emily Wilson translation.

my plan is to eventually create a larger version of this piece that includes telemachus and the meta aspect of unwoven warp threads. it would also be interesting to figure out if I can weave a different image on the back of the cloth, since the reverse of the pot itself depicts eurycleia recognizing odysseus as she washes his feet.

[cavedraconem]

Public holiday yesterday, so a good day to pull out the dyepot!

I experimented with adding two colours of dye (Ashford peacock and turquoise), and pre-soaking the fibre in acid before adding the dye.

I was expecting stronger colours at the points where the dye initially hit the fibre, and hoping for a left-right difference between the two colours. Not exactly what happened: instead, the fibre developed a much darker colour on the bottom where it was fully immersed, and a lighter colour on top where it was floating.

Still pretty much the colour combo I wanted!

[cavedraconem]

Felted 😔

[koniknits]

Please look at the Ethiopian spindles from this blog.

This spindle has an interesting whorl that looks like recycled linoleum, or some kind of shoe/sandal part. (...). 

The spindle had no hook, so the vendor rummaged in a bag of dried chickpeas until she found a proper hook-shaped twig. Now that I own the spindle, the hook is prized, and has been secured with a drop of glue. 

The hook is a staple. This choice of hook was demonstrated by theEthiopian woman who brought the spindles. She was demonstrating at her office, and simply stuck in a staple. Easily replaced.

[koniknits]

two spindles full — eine Saite

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

My inordinate pride in the two full spindles reminds me of being in Qatar with Umm Hamad, when she was plying yarn one day. She had made massive plying balls, wound in courses, and after loosely plying (loose because the yarn would be dyed,) the spindle was hugely full. I was trying to catch a photo of this cop which must have weighed a couple of pounds, but she hardly paused before winding it back off into a skein for dyeing. She was just doing what she does: spin, ply, skein, dye, weave - and had no need to show off how much she'd done at any given stage. It was one of those moments (need to coin a good name for them) when I realize the true difference between my spinning and traditional production spinning. I get all excited about a single full spindle, and for handspinners in Arabia, Ladakh or the Andes, it's just a step, not a celebration.

[cavedraconem]

Public holiday yesterday, so a good day to pull out the dyepot!

I experimented with adding two colours of dye (Ashford peacock and turquoise), and pre-soaking the fibre in acid before adding the dye.

I was expecting stronger colours at the points where the dye initially hit the fibre, and hoping for a left-right difference between the two colours. Not exactly what happened: instead, the fibre developed a much darker colour on the bottom where it was fully immersed, and a lighter colour on top where it was floating.

Still pretty much the colour combo I wanted!

[aeide]

test weaving of penelope's tapestry on the chiusi skyphos:

reference:

there are some adjustments I need to make for tension, but I'd like to make the next version into a header band for a warp-weighted loom so I can try weaving the whole pot, including telemachus and penelope.

[aeide]

progress?

the proportions on the header band have improved, but I think I maybe should have doubled the weft threads for the warp.

also if anyone wants to knit the heddles for me, please be my guest. the last time I tied on heddles, I put the bar in the wrong place and had to redo the whole thing.

[aeide]

in true penelope fashion, I may need to unweave and start over, but at least now I've got the loom weights and heddles in place.

I started weaving the spear, penelope, and the right border via double-weave with the intent to leave the remaining warp threads unwoven (as they would be on penelope's loom on the pot), but predictably this is giving me tension problems. I either need to increase the loom weights or just weave the black layer and leave the orange warp threads unwoven, and then switch colors once I get to the heddle bars in the drawing, with the black warp threads floating on top. (I guess weft-faced tapestry would be a third option, if I add a ton more tension.)

either way, this is going to take me the full three years of penelope's stratagem, or perhaps the entire twenty years of odysseus's absence, primarily because clearing the sheds takes a monumental effort each time with this double-weave setup (which I'm not even sure is how it's supposed to be done, I kind of set it up based on vibes and what I thought made sense from floor loom setups).

[aeide]

I have 999 problems and warp tension is 997 of them (the other two are my selvedges).

[aeide]

row by row she grows

[aeide]

so close . . .

next up, filling in some line work details and then using the remaining warp threads as the weft for the bottom tablet-woven border.

and then probably using the lessons I've learned from my trials and errors to do the whole thing over again. is this why they call it an epic cycle.

also just for fun, here is what the reverse looks like:

I'm doing this via double-weave pick-up, so you get a fun negative mirror image on the other side.

[cavedraconem]

I did a little colour study by blending green wool with different colours of silk on my hand cards. The original wool is at the top, then from left to right it's blended with:

Orange - Yellow - Leaf green - Forest green - Indigo

Really interesting to see how the different colours interact with each other! You can do a lot with a single base colour and relatively small additions.

[nahaldnin]

Happy start of TdF! Everyone keeps posting their amazing plans for this year so I thought I'd share mine

I'm going to do some spinning

[birdstudies]

June 18, 2026 - Red-crowned Parakeet, Red-fronted Parakeet, Kaka-wairiki, Kawariki, Porete, or Powhaitere (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae) Found mostly on offshore and outlying islands of Aotearoa (New Zealand), these parrots live in forests, grasslands, and shrublands. Often foraging on or near the ground, they eat mostly seeds, buds, blossoms, and fruit, along with some invertebrates in the spring. They nest in cavities in trees, cliff banks, rocks, the ground, or under dense vegetation. Females incubate clutches of four to nine eggs and brood and feed the chicks for the first week or two after they hatch while males bring them food. Both parents then feed the chicks.

[whimsigoth-femme]

Anyone else doing Tour de Fleece on drop spindles? Not that it really matters, I’m just curious bc most posts I’ve seen are spinning on wheels this year! Also joining spinblr for the duration of TDF this year! I’m so excited to see everyone’s work 😋

[cavedraconem]

I use spindles, and I try to spin a bit most days anyway - but will make an effort to spin every day for the duration of TdF!

[spoonybird]

Birds of Aotearoa

[cavedraconem]

Fun(?) or perhaps elucidating discovery I have made: if I'm spinning something very thin on my supported, I have to put way more twist into it than I think, and consistently all the way through. Otherwise, the moment I put the reverse ply twist in, it just falls apart! Especially if it has sat around on the spindle or in the ball for a while.

Brought to you by some very frustrating plying experiences...

[cavedraconem]

This dyeing attempt was better than the previous ones, but I don't think I've cracked the code yet... Does fibre have to get rougher and more difficult to draft after dyeing?

In this case it's ok for me to dye after spinning, but I'm annoyed that I have to.

[littlebirdinagarden]

Some fibres handle the dyeing process better than others, that being said I do have some tips for you!

1. Dyeing in a braid/chain preserves the fibre better than dyeing as a noodle

2. Dyeing in a double boiler sort of setup preserves the fibre even better, e.g. having the fibre and dye in a big glass jar and then heating the glass jar in a pot of water (but be careful to heat up the jar slowly or the glass can crack and it’s a kind of scary experience spinning yarn that was dyed with broken glass)

3. Cold process! Leave you fibre and dye in a lidded plastic tub to set over a few days (or less if it’s hot where you are). Always a good idea to steam afterwards just to be sure it’s fully set

And some ways to handle fibre that you’ve dyed that has become kinda annoying

1. Floof it up. Pull apart the fibre slightly between your fingers down the length of the fibre before you start spinning. It’s kinda like a pre-draft, but I do this with all the fibre I dye and sell just to make sure it’s looking its best and is as easy as possible to spin from

2. If it’s really compressed and floofing it would be difficult, try steaming it. That’s a good way to open up the fibre

[cavedraconem]

https://www.tumblr.com/littlebirdinagarden:

#extremely good dyeing tips!#I would add that buying one of those cooking thermometers that you can clip to the side of the pot/pan whatever you're using#and then looking up exactly what temperature your dye needs to set#and just keeping a close eye on the thermometer and making sure to adjust your heat source if it's getting too hot#is super helpful#especially because once you do it once with a specific dye pot/heat source set up you can just#make notes about how long and at what temp things should sit#so you don't have to babysit it so much next time#basically gotta find that fun balance between not getting it too hot (fiber will felt) and not getting it hot enough (dye needs to set)#ALSO super important#make sure your fiber is FULLY cool before rinsing it or moving it around at all#I let my wool sit overnight to cool down before I touch it at all after immersion dyeing#wool is easier to felt while it's warm#and temperature shocking it by rinsing it in cool water too soon can cause issues as well#it can seem overwhelming at first but it all boils down to#don't get it TOO hot and don't move it around WHILE it's hot#once you figure out a system that works for you it's smooth sailing#reblog#wool#spinning#dyeing

Thanks for the tips!

[cavedraconem]

This dyeing attempt was better than the previous ones, but I don't think I've cracked the code yet... Does fibre have to get rougher and more difficult to draft after dyeing?

In this case it's ok for me to dye after spinning, but I'm annoyed that I have to.

[littlebirdinagarden]

Some fibres handle the dyeing process better than others, that being said I do have some tips for you!

1. Dyeing in a braid/chain preserves the fibre better than dyeing as a noodle

2. Dyeing in a double boiler sort of setup preserves the fibre even better, e.g. having the fibre and dye in a big glass jar and then heating the glass jar in a pot of water (but be careful to heat up the jar slowly or the glass can crack and it’s a kind of scary experience spinning yarn that was dyed with broken glass)

3. Cold process! Leave you fibre and dye in a lidded plastic tub to set over a few days (or less if it’s hot where you are). Always a good idea to steam afterwards just to be sure it’s fully set

And some ways to handle fibre that you’ve dyed that has become kinda annoying

1. Floof it up. Pull apart the fibre slightly between your fingers down the length of the fibre before you start spinning. It’s kinda like a pre-draft, but I do this with all the fibre I dye and sell just to make sure it’s looking its best and is as easy as possible to spin from

2. If it’s really compressed and floofing it would be difficult, try steaming it. That’s a good way to open up the fibre

[cavedraconem]

Thanks for the tips! I'll try some of these out next time I'm at it.