DIY Wool Tumbler

(Being edited...)
I never heard of a wool tumbler until I saw a video recently on youtube and thought...WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Wonder how much that would cost?

TOO. MUCH.

And so I went to work putting one together that would cost a fraction of a commercial one AND be treadle powered.

Since putting this together I have continued to improve it. I've ordered 5/16 enclosed ball bearings to add to the posts, and to the wheel I am adding. More photos of that when it is done. If I can find a used motor, I can upgrade it even further! Need to visit Baraboo for that one.

Original Supplies used:

2 - 2x2" posts
2 - 4ft, 1/4" x 2, oak moldings, cut into 2 ft lengths (Used two short leftover pieces from a previous project to add braces to the cross)
2 - 6" 5/16 hex bolts
8 - 5/16 nuts
16 - 3/16 lock washers
4 - 1 1/2" wide, 5/16 ID washers
Approx 5ft of plastic fencing material, 3/4" or 1" mesh
4 - 1/4 Universal Hex Nipple (air tool supply)
Twine
Pipe cleaners
Size 10 D Sinker nails (2 7/8" long)
2 - 1" x 4 ft pine boards (stabilizers)
1 2x4 cut into 2ft sections
4 - 3/4 x 36" Square dowels
1 - 3/8" x 36" round dowel
8 - 3", small diameter, Hitch Pins (wish the receipt said which size they were, I can't remember)
Bailing Twine or other strong string

(3 - 5/16 Sealed Ball Bearings)
(1 - 10" wheel)

Tools:

Power drill
Scroll saw
1/4 bit
3/8 hole drilling bit
Hand planning tool
Gater bit
Clamps

Video
Oak Moldings (Click to magnify) Take the 2ft oak moldings, find the center, drill 5/16 hole for bolt. Drill 3/4" holes on both ends of all four, for the dowels to sit in.
Cut out a piece of the plastic mesh to fit on the ends of the cross-arms, extending just a bit. Secure with pipe cleaners. I marked the center of mine so I could easily line it up again after being disassembled. Place a 6" 5/16 bolt through the mesh and center of moldings, adjust the arms so they are about equal distance from one another, in a cross. Add one wide washer, one lock washer, one nut and tighten. Set Aside
Hitch Pin Take your 3/4 square dowels and shave down the ends with planer until they are tapered enough to fit through the holes in the oak molding and extends about an inch outside the molding. Then take a 3/32 drill bit and drill a hole through the side of the newly rounded ends. This is for the hitch pins. Take two of the dowels and drill holes just big enough for your nails, 3" apart along the entire length. Glue in place with Gorilla or wood glue.
Posts About 2" down from the top of the 2x2" posts, find the center and drill a hole big enough for the Hex nipples, one on each side, and add them to the post. With the scroll saw, cut out a place for the posts to be inserted into the 2x4 feet, in the middle. Insert into feet and secure with bolts or glue if needed.
Insert dowels into the ends of the moldings, secure in place with hitch pins. It will be very flexible and wobbly at this point. Insert the ends of the bolted cross-arms into the posts. Secure with one wide washer, one nut, one lock washer, another nut and tighten. Don't over-tighten as it will need to be able to rotate freely. (this may change once the ball bearings arrive) Repeat for the other side. Add crisscross stabilizer bars on to posts underneath the barrel, one to each side.
Take plastic meshing, secure to one of the dowels and rotate to measure out meshing. Allow a 3-4" overlap. Secure opening with 3/8 dowel by weaving it into the mesh once at each end. Secure meshing to the dowels with pipe cleaners. Sew the ends of the mesh to barrel using a whip stitch and string/yarn of choice. I used hemp, it's what I had on hand.
Make sure the dowels with the nail "tines" are angled slightly inward. Be sure to turn the barrel so the wool is impaled by them, left or right depending on which way you decide to angle them. They are easily readjusted.
This is the wheel I cut from the old bookcase I got rid of. It's about an inch wide and I am slowly carving out a channel for the drive belt, which just happens to be an old bow string from my stick-bow. It's perfect! It's got grip and strength.
The width of the wheel on the shaft of the tumbler is about 4 1/4" It's a wheel I made some time ago for a DIY, cigar box, Book Charkha.

Upon further research and meditating on how to smooth out and improve the overall function of the tumbler and treadle, I bought some ball bearings off Amazon. They haven't arrived yet but I will update when I have them installed.

I recently got a new bookcase to replace a wobbly one, and I reused the old one to cut a couple 10 inch wheels from. I am in the process of turning one into the main treadle wheel. Since it's particle wood, it's been fairly easy to carve out a grove for the drive-band, which just happens to be an old drawstring to my stick-bow. Yes, I have a stickbow, and a recurve. I've also made my own arrows to shoot at the local SCA. Unfortunately I am no longer strong enough to draw either one. LOL! Working on it!




Until next time...
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It's a stay home sorta day...

I am staying home this weekend. I have lots of new fiber to clean and I want to get the rest of the yarn spun up for Mum's Wing of the Moth Shawlette. I saw a super cool pattern for a shawl in the Fall issue of Creative Knitting, of which I bought JUST for that pattern at the LYS down the street. I also bought three Cherry Tree Hill patterns that were on half-off that I had been wanting for the longest time. I bought Swing Coat , Sugah Set (I wanted the caplet pattern), and Autumn Grace stole. For some reason the last two are not listed on the Cherry Tree Hill website. *shrugs* Normally $5 each I bought three of them for $7.50, Yippie!!

I am nursing some sort of cold I got yesterday when I did a stupid thing. I took a puff of the inhaler I have (OTC because I cannot afford prescription inhalers) and went out right after to bike down to the LYS. I got sharp upper chest pains and my esophagus burned! That was not pleasant for every time I breathed in the burning intensified! Had I known this would happen I would have not taken the inhaler just before leaving! Apparently, I need to wait ten minutes for the inhaler to take effect before I begin any intense exercise. Who'd a thunk?! As a result of this, I developed a cough and fluid has settled into my lungs. Overnight, it moved up into my head so now my sinuses are filled up and I have a slight bubbly cough. *sigh* Wonderful. I am taking Zicam to alleviate the symptoms but I HATE the taste of it and leaves a nasty film in my mouth and upsets my stomach. NASTY stuff, but it works! I take an inhaler before I exercise because that is when my lungs tighten up but I had no idea I needed give it time to settle in and work before I workout!

I knit up another demo for the LYS and it knit up quickly. It was a simple pattern for a small felted baggie.

That same LYS propositioned me to work on Saturdays twice a month! The only problem I have with working there is the dress code. I cannot wear jeans, sorts, or T-shirts and that just about sums up my wardrobe and I am not a dress wearing gal!! So we decided to wait a couple weeks till I could buy some better work clothes. I have worked in a casual work environment for so long that I stopped buying fancier clothes long ago. Now since I have lost weight I need to buy smaller clothes anyways as I have dropped a size!! Hurray!! All my 2X T's just hang off me and are not that comfortable that way. I have a few 1X's to wear, but not many. My shorts are so much looser and I am enjoying that! I won't need new shorts or jeans until they start to fall off my ass-I think that is a long ways down the road, but that day is coming and I am so looking forward to getting smaller pants!! At the moment I wear 24's which are a bit bigger than I need because I don't like tight fitting pants. I think I could go down to 22's if I really wanted, but I think they would be a tad too tight yet.

I am really dissapointed in the Llama fleeces I purchased off ebay. Even though the listing says they were profesionally sheered, I am finding that hard to believe because of the amount of second cuts! One fleece had bits of hoof and I wonder about the health of the animal it came from. One was just riddled with guard hairs that I spend a good amound of time Thursday plucking. I haven't touched the third one yet as I am too busy with other, better, fleeces. I bought 2 pounds of raw Targee (OMG what a wonderful fiber!!! SOooooo soft, compairable to Merino!) and 2 pounds of raw uncoated Merino. I am washing them both today. I am having trouble carding the Merino as it keeps coming out with lots of nibs for some reason. Must be the finess of the wool. I'll use it anyways as I don't think the nubs will be all that noticable in a worsted yarn.

Until next time...






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Mail call! Solar dyeing, and new punching bag!

Does anyone remember that spell for the return of positive karma just a few months ago? WOW, did it ever work!
A lady who saw my instructional spinning videos sent me a box full of fleece Dorset/Romney cross meat stock but the fleece is sooooo fine!! Thank you so much!! I am also helping her to get her buisness online in return for her generousity.
Then I gandered over to a garage sale in my neighborhood and found an army green duffle bag that can be easily converted to a punchin bag for $4!! I had been wanting one of those! I just have to rip the side pocket off because the metal button would not be fun to punch...YOUCH.
All my Monarchs have pupated so I do not have to gather anymore milkweed. My Polyphemus cats are doing well and growing now. I have 24 more eggs coming my way...YIPPIE!
The grocery had seedless watermelons on sale so I bought me one. OOOOoo so goood!!
And I built myself a solar oven to try solar dying in. The plastic jar in there was actually a container full of plaster but I put the plaster in a plastic bag so I could dye a large amount of Shetland fleece at once. Within ten minutes the temp inside was well on it's way up and already above 100 degrees (oven thermometer). The temps are supposed to rise outside today near 90 with no wind. Perfect day for solar dying.
Today is ending up being a fantastic day. I have dishes starring me in the face waiting to be washed but they can wait for now.

Until next time...






***All content is Copyright year and date of posting to C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. Reproduction without permission in any form is strictly forbidden. Violators will be shut-down.***

Use unwanted fleece to control garden pests!!!

I have found, by sheer coinqidink, that the fleece I would normally throw away due to being soiled or with heavy VM can be used in the garden. The benefits are three fold.

One is that it helps keep moisture in when laid down thickly so that it eventually creates a felted mat. That felted mat in turn helps control weeds and other invasive plants from growing OR sprouting from seed.

The Third , and the best part is, placing your unwanted fleece around your veggies keeps the pests at bay! I found this out by sheer accident when I was simply using it as mulch. The slugs and other various nighttime leaf munchers of my beans ignored the ones that had fleece around them and instead attacked the exposed beans.

I placed some fleece around a bean that had it's first set of leaves completely eaten, but the plant is still able to survive because the growing nub in the middle of the stem was untouched. By putting the fleece around the plant, the pests never bothered it again. WOW.

So now when my veggies sprout, I get some of that unwanted felt, fluff it a bit, poke a hole through the center of the fluff, place it around the seedling, and lightly push it into the surrounding soil to anchor it in place. When it rains again, the newly placed "fleece ring" will felt and cling to the soil around it keeping it firmly in place. Amazzzing! Do I sound like an infomercial yet?

It seems that ants and pill bugs get stuck in the fleece and die.

In other news, seems that the bus company I work for is having finacial issues. I went to fuel up the work van and they told me the account for the company was on hold and no one is able to get gas. Wow. So much for job security-that just went out the window. I heard a rumor that my former employer (whom I like better and has more experince in this field) may be getting the school routes back next year. Oh Goddess! Say it is so! I miss them so much. I miss the benifits, the quirks, the extras. They know how to treat thier employees and make them wanna stay there-unlike my current employer who refuses to give raises, uphold senority, does not have road support (so if our vans brake down, we are so SOL), and no extras as an incentive to stay. I am better than that! I have a perfect driving record and I deserve more than this!

Until next time...






***All content is Copyright year of posting to C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted.***

Adopting Lotti: a Merino/BFL lamb!

Her name is Lotti and I hear she is quite the character. Lotti is the black yearly on top of the hay in the photo. Forget the crowds, go to the top of the mountain! She has a Merino Mum and a BLF father so her fleece should be soft and crimpy!! I've never delt with natural colored fleece before so this will be something new for me to try. Her adoption fees are $15 a month, or $150 for the year and this includes washing of the shorn fleece and shipping! Wow!

I was a little late on the adoption so there were not many sheep to choose from that live at a local fiber farm, Windridge Farm, here in Wisconsin. Turns out the farm is only about a half hour away, so I can pick up the fleece and save on shipping come sheering time! The lady who I was talking through email about Lotti says she always could use an extra hand, so there is something I have yet to try! So I offered to come out sometime during spring break to help out. I've never worked on a farm before so this will be interesting! Another adventure...another year! YIPPIE!

Until next time...

Mohair and I won another book!

I'm getting mohair fleece! I'm getting mohair fleece!! Yearly to kid grade (I guess it is inbetween) in white. YAY! It was priced special so I had to skip the new years resolution of use what I have, for this fantastic half off sale (which is over now, SORRY!). I'm getting a five pound fleece. Sweeeeeeet! Major fleece p0rn coming your way!! Keep an eye on my youtube.com channel (link on side bar). I plan on spinning fine thread from it and using it for card weaving if it is too course for knitting with because it takes color so well.

And, I won another book! How lucky is that?! I participated in the Unwound podcast listeners poll, and every month she puts everyone's name in a hat who calls, and draws out a lucky person to pick a book! I got this months and I picked Victorian Lace Today. Doing this lace wing of the moth shawl has wetted my appetite for more lace! This is a nice book too. My knittin friend purchased it at one of the local guild meetings and I looked through it with her. Pretty stuff in there.

I cannot find my handspun, knitted socks ANYWHERE! They've dissapeared! I could use them now that the temps are much-much colder, and there is lots of snow on the ground. I need new shoes, but I am not a shoe shoper. I hate braking in new shoes. Would rather wear what I have till they literally fall apart than brake in new shoes.

The brine shrimp seem to be thriving! I hope they keep growing! I need to clean out another container for the daphina coming. I think I will put the two surviving guppies in a new tank and use that take as the daphnia tank since it is full of algea. Then, when the new guppy tank as oodles of algea, I will switch them back to thier old tank...which should be spotless by the time the Daphnia are done with it!

Until next time...

Fleece P0rn

Did I ever post the fleece p0rn video I did? I don't think I did! Come on youtube....load! Load! Load damned it, load!! Gods, it is super slow today. *taps foot impatiently* Humph!

It's a little dark, so I upped the RGB values to 100% to get SOME contrast. It was a dark and dreery day that day.

Until next time...

Fleece! Glorious Fleece!

OMG I am in fleece heaven! This is the best feeling fleece I have bought yet!

This is the white Shetland Crossed with about four different other breeds...but it is soooooooooo soft, billowy and a joy to handle and fondle (fleece p0rn?). It cards up sooooooooo easily!

I love Photo Shop...I fixed my newly formed, very red, pimples, and added a tan. Ta-DA!

Until next time...

Fleece cleaning, Frog p0rn??

HA-ha! Gotcha! Nibber was sitting on the whale ornament kind funky like...and BF being the dirty-minded man he is (I say this affectionately), noticed it and said I should take some photos. It is really funny! The first photo I put my finger over the flash in order to try and lesson the glare from the glass...and I got a "Red Light" district look. LOL-LOL!










































After hitting Target and getting some more Dawn dish soap, we came home and I got to work on the other fleece that I got yesterday. This one is much cleaner, with less poo in the fleece. YAY! This is my skirting "table". It's actually the cage that surrounds my garden to protect against wondering hungry mouths (living by the woods...there are plenty of raccons, possums, mice, squirrels, one ground hog, and rabbits). It doubles nicely as a skirting table! Second cuts and VM falls through into the garden. Perfect!






Here is some of the fleece that I have discarded for mulch next spring. Someone said that raw fleece repells slugs. Perfect! I always have an abundance of slugs as I much with leaf litter throughout the growing seasons.




















And here is a peak at how I clean larger amounts of fleece. M-Mmmm, look at that water! First wash is always muddy looking. I wash twice, letting the fleece sit for 15 minutes each time, pull the bags out to drain and replace them so that they can "rinse" again as the water drains. Then I repeat those same times and actions for two rinsings. The fleece is not squeaky clean and some grease remains, which is good for the fleece...and hands.

The day in the life without TV...one can get a lot done!

I took the BF to the coffee shop further down our street, Java Cat. They are a fair trade organic coffee house. They have some goooooooooooood coffee!! OMG....better even....then Starbucks I dare say!

Until next time...

Cable is out, alternative activities-Spinning, fleece cleaning

So we turned on the tellie this morning and found nothing but snow...would rather have that on the ground, not in the TV. Upon calling Charter, the CS rep goes through a list of "Did you" questions. Did you move some funiture and disconnect the TV? Come on, I am not cenile! Is the TV hooked up to a VCR or switchbox? Is the VCR on or off? Is the switchbox in the correct position....on and on and....
Then when they could not find an issue, they told me they could not get someone out to check the cable until Tuesday afternoon between 1 and 5!!!! Okay...working lady here! I will not be home then! I told the lady that the cable box is not inside, so they should not need access indoors. TUESDAY! Come on now, just because we only have basic doesn't mean we are paying piss-poor basic-basic customer service! *smacking forhead* I find that to be completely rediculous. WHen another cable company comes into town, we are soooo switching! The only channel we can get is a local channel, and even that is really snowy. I think someone has tried to hook into our cable service because if we didn't have ANY service, we would not be getting just that local one. You'd think Charter would be concerned over that idea. Nope.

So, here is what I have been doing to occupy myself. Who needs TV when you are a Crafting Goddess!



This morning I met with the lady who brought the shetland up from an Indiana farmer. Here is a picture of some of it all cleaned up and drying. Droooool! It is soooooo soft! Nothing like what I got at the sheep and wool festival. That's the next picture under the yummy one. THAT is one horrible ass fleece. Very course, very nasty looking, very useless.


























And I finally got around to plying up the alpaca and silk. This is a before dyeing picture as it soaks in some synthrapol water. Yummy!

I also got a bunch of BFL carded into rolags and have begun spinning that up. I dunno which I will be sending to my Spin me a Treasure pal....HUmmmm....shetland....BFL? Shetland.....BFL? Both??

I ordered some ladder yarn from Knitpicks.com yesterday as it was on sale for $1.99. I want to make the blue wrap that can be found in Ribbon Style...of which I also ordered from the bookclub (crafterschoice.com) as they have a promotion of no pay till March. For once the place has something I actually want! It's a rarity with them. I think they are a closeout kind-of-club because they have some of the worst crafting books around, usually. I have a bunch of fat blue ladder yarn already, I just need some of the smaller stuff. For $1.99 a ball...that can't be beat!

Payday was really nice this time around. That extra work I had been doing really paid off. I was able to put a nice chunk of it back. If I am able to keep doing that same bit of extra driving, I may just have a drum carder by the end of the year! If I can manage to keep my grubby hands off my savings stash...grrrrrrrrr *slap-slap*-No-NO!

LMAO!

O! I heard from my Spin me a Treasure secret pal person today! YAY! I was beginning to wonder if perhaps the person they assigned backed out. NOPE! Hurray! I was just thinking about contacting the hostess to inquire about it today while I was cleaning the fleece. Luckily it slipped my mind and there was an email from her! She's reading my blog too, she says. *looks around...supsiciously* Who could she be? OOOo exciting!!!!

Until next time...

Spin-Me-a-Treasure has begun!

I finally got my buddy information (shhhhh! Tis a secret!!)

I've got soem loverly new fleeces that I am purchasing this weekend. The lady was kind enough to send me samples AND send the fleeces I wanted with a friend to the city I live in so I would not have to pay shipping!! Wonderful woman that Charlotte from Indiana is!! That way I am able to get twice as much fleece than I would normally because shipping is so much these days. The sellers can't help it, shipping costs keep rising. They keep raising the postage stamps every year now. *sigh*

Anyhoo, I cannot wait to get my hands in this new fiber!

Until next time...