Unravelings

My latest work

2010-01-02T17:47:17-07:00

Dichroic earrings
Originally uploaded by charleneanderson

Don't these earring sets look like little jewels. This is my first foray into fused glass...Ron got me a Paragon Fusion 14 kiln for Christmas. I am very pleased with these earrings...I have a million ideas for more glass to use in my jewelry.

miniSpinner review, part 2

2009-12-30T14:46:25-07:00

The miniSpinner arrived with little fanfare. Packed into a relatively small brown box and delivered by the friendly USPS via Priority Mail, there was little to indicate what fun resided inside the box.

Included in my review package were the miniSpinner with the sliding hook flyer and three bobbins, an AC adapter, a cigarette lighter adapter, a handmade sterling threading hook, and lots of packing peanuts to make sure it arrived safely. My review model was made from beautiful maple. I covet one in Zebrawood (Kevin said he could make miniSpinners in custom woods) but I need to win the lottery before that dream will be realized).

My miniSpinner had been tested prior to shipment and the test yarn left on the bobbin, along with information about the fiber used in the testing and where one would buy more of it.

For my own testing, I used Polwarth fiber from Rovings in a colorway called Berries. I was up and spinning within 5 minutes of unpacking the miniSpinner. No adjustments, no fiddling, just plug in and go. I began by spinning sitting on a dining room chair with the MS on a chair facing me. This worked really well, as I could use the foot control to turn the spinner on and off to move the sliders on the flyer as the bobbin filled.

The miniSpinner can spin! I found the speed adjustment (which effectively adjusts the ratio) to adjust in minute increments, and the scotch tension was very sensitive. The combination of these two features made the MS a joy to spin on. I feel that it is actually more sensitive to adjustments that any of my traditional wheels. And there is no worrying about treadling speed; just power up and go. The bobbins are huge so you can spin for a long time without changing bobbins (which happens to be my least favorite part of the spinning process). Combined with the WooLee Winder (which I did not test) you could sit and spin for hours.

After my initial tests sitting in the traditional chair, I decided to move the MS to the bedroom (which houses my Tivo and flat screen TV) and see if spinning while sitting on the bed would work. I read in bed, so why not spin in bed? (Besides, I hear that is Vera Wang's favorite place to work so I am in good company.)

I disconnected the foot switch from the power cord so turning the MS on and off would be controlled by a toggle switch next to the speed control. This toggle switch also controls the direction of rotation. I leaned back on a pile of pillows, put the MS beside me at about hip level, turned on a Law & Order rerun, and started spinning. And darned if it didn't work perfectly. If I needed to stop the MS (to remove a bit of vegetable matter or a second cut) all I had to do was flip the on/off switch. Once the offending bits were removed I just flipped the switch and started spinning again. The speed adjustment dial was sensitive enough for me to quickly find the right speed for my hands and the kind of yarn I wanted to spin.

My husband commented that the MiniSpinner was actually quieter than any of my spinning wheels. I loathe noisy wheels so I keep my traditional wheels well lubricated and they are very quiet, but the miniSpinner has them beat. You can barely hear it at all.

Who would want an electric spinner? They are a few obvious answers, plus some not so obvious ones:

Someone with a handicap or other physical limitation that makes treadling difficult or impossible
A spinner with limited space (those who live in small homes or apartments, RVs, or boats)
Someone who travels a lot and wants to spin on the road (I would have loved to have the miniSpinner in my cruising days when I was aboard ship 4 months at a time)
Commuters (as long as you are not the driver) because the miniSpinner comes with a cigarette lighter adapter
A spinner who does a lot of plying...the huge bobbins and ability to make the MS spin fast without treadling your feet off makes it ideally suited for plying
A spinner who takes a lot of classes, or does demonstrations, and needs to have a wheel that is easy to move around

Stay tuned for part 3 of my review. If you want to learn more about the miniSpinner, check out Hansen Crafts.

miniSpinner review, part 1

2009-12-29T12:47:54-07:00

Small, portable electric spinners have been around for decades. I have tried almost all of them, and have never really loved any enough to part with my hard-earned cash. Most of them were ugly, noisy, hard to adjust and difficult to spin on. The closest to my idea of what an electric spinner should be was the Spin Tech, which may or not be in current production; no one really seems to know.

Enter the miniSpinner. I was intrigued when a brochure promoting it was part of the goodie bag I received at the Spin Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) in October 2009. I called the designer and builder, Kevin Hansen, and asked if I could review the spinner. Kevin was kind enough to send me one and I spent many hours putting it to work.

My personal thoughts about the miniSpinner will be the topic of parts 2 and 3 of this review; but first, a little history of the miniSpinner, direct from Kevin Hansen.

My wife Beth and I spent several years sailing in the Pacific. During that time, we stayed nearly a year in Tasmania, where Beth became interested in spinning. She started with a drop spindle and alpaca fiber. Not the easiest way to learn to spin, but if you can spin alpaca, you can spin about anything!

Now, you can only play with a drop spindle for so long before you want to move to bigger and better things. The only problem was, a conventional wheel was far too large for our boat. But, thanks to the suggestions of Tassie friend Charles Payne, the first miniSpinner, (now known as “Mark 1”) was conceived. My brother and I made it as a proof-of-concept in pine – really crude - but Beth spun away many happy hours on it.

After Tasmania, we moved on to New Zealand where a local friend became enchanted with Beth's spinner and wanted to purchase it. So, since I'd been thinking of producing these on a commercial basis anyway, we sold Mark 1 and I built a much nicer model, “Mark 2”, while onboard our sailboat in the Maharangi River on North Island, NZ. Several years (and many hours of spinning on Mark 2) passed. We finished our Pacific cruise and sold Red, our sailing home of nearly 10 years, and we moved on to design and build a home in Chimacum, Washington.

Once the house was mostly finished I had time to revisit the spinner project. I found an industrial-strength motor, designed a much improved microcomputer-based speed controller, made it prettier and more sophisticated, and in general turned it into a “real” product. Now I make them in production runs of 20 or more! It's been a lot of fun to design and build these, and I hope you enjoy using yours.

Happy Spinning! Kevin Hansen

You can find the miniSpinner at Hansen Crafts.

Monday morning musings: a most interesting character from Den of i-KNIT-quity

2009-12-28T09:52:55-07:00

Char Anderson – A Character of Olympian Proportion

Char is a woman for all seasons. To date, she has or still swims, scuba dives, rock climbs, snow skis, water skis, rides horses, plays tennis, cycles, lifts weights, and has studied karate and gymnastics. Char grew up in Hemet, California, on a Thoroughbred horse ranch. She raised pigs, sheep, cattle and horses for Future Farmers of America while in high school. Char majored in Animal Science in college. It will be far more interesting if she tells you herself…

from Foxy G's Den of i-KNIT-quity

Thought experiments

2009-12-28T09:22:00-07:00

I watched a biography of Einstein last night. In addition to having a slightly greater understanding to the General Theory of Relativity, I learned that Einstein came up with his greatest work while daydreaming. Except he didn't call it daydreaming..he called it "Thought Experiments." I love that phrase and am now adopting it for all my daydreaming.

Rick Sammons top 10 digital photography tips

2009-12-26T10:56:55-07:00

charleneanderson

Textured metal earrings

2009-12-24T12:02:39-07:00

charleneanderson

How to make cool bracelets out of computer parts

2009-12-24T11:24:41-07:00

By Ryan Dube One recent weekend, I decided that it would be fun for the family to work on some kind of fun project together. At the same time, I was thinking about the deadline I had coming up for another MakeUseOf article.

via www.makeuseof.com

Tips for flourishing in our new economy by Donald Clark

2009-12-23T12:50:06-07:00

Those of you who follow my monthly column (Just Ask) know my stance on pricing and selling your work. Everything begins with and is driven by the wholesale market, even if you never sell wholesale. Craftspeople typically don’t have the cash flow to justify spending large sums on marketing strategies and schemes that will strengthen their market share. The NYIGF seemed the perfect place to observe the wholesale marketing plans developed by the big companies to deal with the current slower financial stream.

via www.craftsreport.com

Hmmm...testing a Typepad feature

2009-12-22T14:47:29-07:00

There's always something more to do when it comes to managing your life online. For a long time I've meant to get around to integrating this blog with Twitter and Facebook. I'd done it partially, by having my Twitter posts appear in the blog sidebar and on Facebook, and for my Facebook posts to appear on Twitter, but I'd failed to set up this blog to post to Twitter and Facebook.

I'm a bit wary of having the same post out too many times (I'd like to think I'm interesting but I know I'm not that interesting) so I'm going to begin by feeding the blog posts to Twitter, which should the move them to Facebook. Let's see if it works!