What did you do in the shop today?

[BillyBones]

18 hours ago, Frosty said:

That's a "Rod Dog."

Thanks. That is actually what i was thinking its use was. When i first pulled it out i thought pipe bender but just did not look right. That is when i figured some sort of clamp. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

As George N.M. said a knitting bowl holds the yarn and keeps it from rolling all over the place as it unwinds and becoming a cat toy.

[alexandr]

I took the chairs to their place.  A staircase in the same room, I did a couple of years ago.

[Dax Hewitt]

Alexander, you sir are a true craftsman. Stunning work as always. 

[ThomasPowers]

What a cunning plan: make your work so good it's addictive so that people keep coming back for more!

[Dax Hewitt]

13 hours ago, George N. M. said:

How does your brother feel about vaccinations now?  I'm glad to hear that he is doing better.  I just hope that he doesn't have any lingering side effects.  IMO too many folk are making medical decisions based on things other than medical criteria.

 

A pal of mine just got back from 8 weeks off work with Covid, 2 of those weeks were in hospital on Oxygen. Not the full they knock you out and force it in job fortunately. He was double vaccinated 3 months before catching it. I got my jabs as soon as I was eligible but it seems you can still get a bad dose of Covid. 

In the UK they are starting a third booster jab for those over 50 very soon and those under 50 with health conditions so I will be getting that as soon as I can too. 

On the flip side we have a dyed in the wool anti vax bill Gates puts chips in the vaxination etc guy who tested positive 2 months ago, all he got was a slight cough for 24 hours. Now I wouldn't wish him dead but I did hope due to his stance and him believing every thing of Facebook as fact that he would have had a hard ish time of it but no, catching covid with little to no symptoms has just confirmed his belief that its all a government conspiracy to control the people. 

[JHCC]

2 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

people keep coming back for more!

In the furniture shop, we used to say that a customer isn't REALLY a customer until they place their second order. That means that everything up to and including delivery and actual use of their first order went well.

 

[ThomasPowers]

That's the thing with statistics---they don't really care what your beliefs are for or against; but the smart money bets on the peak of the bell curve!

My second jab was  March 3rd and I'm hoping to get the third as soon as they OK them.  I'm diabetic and my wife is 75 and we have 4 grandsons an hour north of us for vectors...

[Buzzkill]

1 hour ago, Dax Hewitt said:

catching covid with little to no symptoms

This is what makes it tough.  The result of infection with the virus ranges from no symptoms at all to death.  That's pretty much the maximum range possible.  It's like viral Russian roulette.  I tested positive and had relatively mild symptoms last December.   Others my age in my area have perished from the virus.  For me this is no different than any number of other safety related issues.  Each person should assess their personal risk based on the information available and protect themselves and those around them accordingly.  

However, you cannot use logic to help someone out of a position they didn't use logic to get into in the first place.

[George N. M.]

John:  I like your spiral knitting bowl.  I will have to give it a try.  Do you calculate the amount of stock you will need or do you just start off with a long piece and cut it off when the bowl gets large enough?  Also, do you use a spherical mandrel or just free hand it?

Thanks.

GNM

PS Even knitting derives from ironwork.  Besides knitting yarn bowls you can have steel or bronze knitting needles, shears for the wool, blades to carve wooden knitting needles, wool combs and carders, etc..

" By hammer and hand ALL arts do stand."

[George N. M.]

PPS Maybe flint knapping doesn't use metal tools but most everything else since the bronze age has metal somewhere in it's ancestry somewhere.

[ThomasPowers]

I was figuring ways around needing to shear and card/comb; but that was what they were, ways around it.  Recently  I was reading about a Peruvian group where the men are judged by their skill at knitting. It mentioned that they originally used cactus spines as needles but have moved up to bicycle spokes.

[JHCC]

The starting stock for the bowls is anywhere from 6’ to 8’ long, depending on its width and how tightly you coil it. This particular piece came from the drop bin at my steel supplier already tapered from about 3/16” to about 5/8”. The shaping is done completely by eye. 

Regarding knitting, it’s actually Neolithic. The earliest known examples (at least of the older single-needle variety known as nålebinding) date to about 6,500 BC, well before the Bronze Age where they were found in modern-day Israel. In this case, the needles were probably made from antler, wood, or bone rather than metal. At that time, wool would have been plucked rather than shorn, so no need for shears. 

[ThomasPowers]

I don't know if I would consider nålebinding as knitting; perhaps a precursor and sprang is right out!

[jlpservicesinc]

Alexandr, Beautiful as always.. 

[George N. M.]

I know an area in the Colorado Rockies where you can pluck off the bushes the wool the mountain goats have shed.  While doing it I felt down right Neolithic.  Gathered a couple shopping bags full in an hour or so.  It spun up to very soft yarn.

"By hammer and hand (almost) all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

While carding is the better method you CAN hand pull raw wool to align the fibers and twist it into yarn with your fingers though a drop spindle is pretty easy to make. 

You can pick Qiviut (Muskox fiber) from brush and fences in the spring but it's illegal unless you're an Alaskan Native. Qiviut doesn't have much crimp so it's easy to pull by hand rather than card. Spinning it takes a delicate touch for it's lack of crimp. Knitted Qiviut is the warmest fiber out there, warmer even than polar bear under coat. 

Spinning is a really handy craft, the process is the same for sewing thread and hawser or steel cable. strands twist left handed, ply yarns right handed. Same same.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Or, you can spin right handed and ply left handed, just as long as it is opposite.  Left and right handed are referred to as Z and S spun depending on which way the fibers lie.  Historically, some cultures spun one way and other cultures the opposite.

I'm not a spinner or a weaver but knowing one for 40 years and being married to her for 25 had the result of a fair amount of information rubbing off.  Since she has been gone for 7 years I don't get to exhibit the knowledge much any more.

"By hammer and hand (most) arts do stand."

[Frosty]

I recognize the terms and remember different cultures spin left or right handed yarn. I had experience with rope as it effected my work drilling and got to know the lays.

If you use right (common) lay rope on the safety hammer it tends to unscrew the joints. Left lay doesn't unless you have to use the hammer to break the sampler or penetrometer rod loose so you can pull it with the hydraulics. 

Counter rotating rope has a left lay core and right lay sheath. 

I got into rope, somewhere in my boxes of books I have "Rope" the book. 

When Deb started spinning I discovered I knew yarn. Not spinning but yarn. It was an eye opener. 

Otzi the Ice Man, cir. 3,500BC woven wore wool fabric.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Fun fact: when the first transatlantic telegraph cable was being constructed, it was discovered that the two companies that had been entrusted with making the cable itself had twisted the strands in opposite directions, making a conventional splice impossible. 

[ThomasPowers]

Some fibers have a built in direction and so Should be spun that way.  Others it doesn't matter.  A bit of "kitchen magic" sometimes used in Europe/UK was to include a bit of yarn spun the reverse way in a clothing item you were making for your love. It was supposed to bind them to you...

Once my wife gets up I can get a list of fibers and the way they need to be spun; Z or S.

[alexandr]

22 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

What a cunning plan: make your work so good it's addictive so that people keep coming back for more!

Guys, thanks for your appreciation of my work!

I have been working with this customer for several years. In the same house there are 3 round beds, furniture, lamps.

[ThomasPowers]

Wow; my grandfather had a round bed in his house on his farm in rural Arkansas back in the 1960's and 1970's; I haven't seen one since! (I remember it was hard to get fitted sheets for it back then...)

[Frosty]

I don't say much anymore Alex, I've run out of ways to say how spectacular your work is. I especially appreciate how you've designed your work so only you know how to match it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gandalfgreen]

Absolutely amazing all I can say.