Spin Patterning project update

Spin patterning project update...

I've spun about 1000 yards of Z twist singles from the Falkland top. They are wet finished and dried on the niddy noddy to keep the active twist tamed for the moment.   I am pretty sure that I'll size them using double strength gelatin because that is the process I've used successfully with wool singles before, but I'm still thinking about it.  They are very evenly spun, the twist is consistent and they seem to be quite strong, so I might not bother with the sizing.

I've started on the S twist singles, which look pretty much the same from a distance.  Except for the way the bobbin spins, and the way you need to twist the thread when you want to thin out a slub, it all spins the same.  Because of this sameness, I am spinning some Blue Faced Leicester sliver on the Sonata, just to switch things up.   The funny thing is that it's off white, so still white but it's destined for a dye pot, so it feels different, even though it isn't.  

I almost wound off the partial bobbin to free it up and start spinning some cotton for a demo day at the Marr shop at Westfield Heritage Village.  I'd started the process and put it back on, deciding it wouldn't matter.  Wouldn't you know that over half the visitors asked about cotton and it would have been the perfect teaching opportunity.  I spent the day spinning with Cat, who grows and processes flax.  She's really interesting and great fun to chat with. 
I put a narrow waffle weave project on the loom.  There are 2 threading errors.   I noticed them almost right away, while I was testing in the first inch of weaving.   However, I realized that I'd have to re-thread 3/4 of the heddles.   I looked at my timeline and decided that I really didn't want to spend 2 more days redoing the heddles and then rethreading the reed, thereby having to rush the weaving and finishing of the project.   These need to be woven off, wet finished, hemmed and turned into decorative bunnies before next Friday.  That timeline means my kids will get bunny shaped face cloths with threading errors.  The waffle weave should hide them pretty well though.

I'm reading some textile books at the moment, Ann Richards' Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves, which is really interesting and Susan Faulkner Weaver's Handwoven Tape: Understanding and Weaving Early American and Contemporary Tape, which is just a little dryer but still really interesting, and finally an old copy of American Woven Coverlets by Carol Strickler which is my "easy" read for sticking in my bag when I have to sit around waiting for any reason.