Smatterings

  • change in the weather

    Thanks for your comments.  Sounds like spinners are a pack of whackers, or a whack of thwackers or…

    After weeks of clear blue skies, the grey days are beginning in Northern New England.  Freezing rain and snow are forecast for the next couple days, a nor'easter.  The thought sends a  shiver down my spine. I guess I'm never ready for this change in the seasons.  This year in particular.  Don't get me wrong.  I love winter and I love snow.  Not yet.  Lots of trees still have their leaves.  Snow on top means bent trees, snapping limbs and, please no, power outages possible.  The change in the weather signals that the time has come to gather up my projects for the dark days ahead.  Let them circle my chair, a wagon train rounding the campfire. 

    I'm taking note of books that other bloggers are reading.  Stocking up.  With both us at home waiting for our feet to repair and the television blaring the financial news, I've had some time to read.  It has been a relief to plop myself down somewhere else and lose myself in a book.  Here are some I'd recommend:

    Finding Nouf 
    – Zoë Ferraris
    I heard a review of this book early in the summer on NPR.  It was in the library system with a short wait.  Good mystery set in contemporary Saudi Arabia.  Wonderful depiction of family and in particular, life for women in the Middle East.

    The Sparrow
    -Maria Doria Russell
    Carole sent me this recommendation.  Thank you.  Science fiction rolled in with religious philosophy as are many of this gender.  Wonderful character studies.  I found myself waking up thinking about some of the descriptions and ideas in this book.

    The Red Tent
    -Anita Diamant
    I may have been the last person I know to read (I listened to this one) The Red Tent.  If you haven't, do so. 

    The Fire
    -Katherine Neville
    Twenty years ago I read The Eight, twice.  This is the sequel.  So far, just as good.  Historical mystery, mysticism, chess.

    9 responses to “change in the weather”

    1. Cathy

      I haven’t been over to the not so local bookstore in ages. Now I have a list to take with me.
      Hope both feet are healing well.

    2. Carole

      I’m glad you enjoyed The Sparrow and The Red Tent. Thanks for the other recommendations.

    3. claudia

      I hope those feet are healing up quick. Snow and ice + boot casts = bad.

    4. Chris

      A whack of thwackers! Love it! Thanks for the read recommendations. I just started Water For Elephants and love it so far.

    5. elizabeth

      Thank you for the book recommendations! I have several on my Amazon wish list for xmas gift ideas, but most of those are from writer interviews I’ve seen on Colbert, so I need some juicy novels to balance out the list.

    6. Jean

      I too, am a thwacker. We just have rain right now (and all last night) but it’s supposed to turn to snow this evening. I can *not* believe it. I’m not ready either. We’ve just begun enjoying Fall!

    7. Laurie

      Katharine Neville wrote a book after The Eight that was entertaining, not quite as good, but worth a read. And Maria Doria Russell wrote a sequel to The Sparrow. I haven’t read that yet. Thanks for letting me know about the Eight sequel. LOVED that book.

    8. diane

      Read Red Tent and Sparrow, putting the others on my to read list. Weird, but, you’ve given mye a thwacking guage to go by, ha. 🙂

    9. Teresa C

      I recently downloaded the Red Tent and it is on my short list. Wait. I don’t have a short list, just a long one.

  • whacking wool

    P1050425
    Is "whacking" a technical term?  or "thwacking"?

    Are you a wool whacker?  Or.. do you coddle your washed skeins, handling them gently as you hang them up to dry? Do you wash your skeins by hand to set them, or  put them in the washing machine? 

    I've been giving these questions a bit of thought lately.  Somewhere, in the back of my mind, is that article from Spin Off last year by Judith MacKenzie McCuin*, where she suggests using a toilet plunger while washing handspun yarn to set the twist.  It had sounded rather harsh to me.  But, that was before I met her and found her to be a very reasonable person.  Keeping this in mind and still not sold on the plunger idea (mine is relegated to plumbing only), I've begun whacking my woolen yarn.  After a not so gentle wash in scalding hot water with a bit of shampoo, I rinse, again in hot, hot water.  Then, I toss it into the washer on the 'spin only' cycle.  This saves hours and hours on the drying.  Then comes the whacking, or the setting of the twist.  My basement has a metal column, a lally column, in the middle of the room.  If I remember correctly, it was once covered in some sort of red carpet, probably shag if it was the match for the rest of the house when it became mine.  Twenty years ago, I striped it off (delivered it to the dump) and scraped the column, never getting around to painting or covering it.  Today it is my whacking pole.  Not only do I find that the yarn does seem to even out from the mistreatment, but I find it rather satisfying.  Who'd 'a thought?

    I'm not suggesting that this treatment should be used for everything.. it most certainly should not.  These days, I'm collecting tools.  This is a good one.

    P1050429

    This brings the total number of skeins I've spun and whacked for the Rhinebeck Sweater to four, just over a pound and nearly 800 yards.  It is heavy stuff.  Spinning as I go has been fun and a treat for my hands.  All the changes in hand motions have kept my wrist from getting too sore.  Even the knitted pattern was easy to switch out.  Rows 1&2, the k2, p2 rows, were knitted English. Rows 3&4 were stockinette, and knitted Continental.     

    Now, for the fun part.  This is what I found in my button box.  I love the larger buttons.  They look blue with the sky reflecting in them this morning.  Gorgeous day.  They are a dark brown, nearly the color of the darkest brown in the yarn, with light brown dashes.  They'd be a strong statement.  The smaller pewter buttons mimic the stitch pattern and are sized well for the sweater.  They are bright against the dark wool.

    P1050432 

    hmmmm….. ?

    *Summer 2007  on wet finishing yarn

    23 responses to “whacking wool”

    1. Lynn

      Only occasionally do I whack. I do full however, but without a plunger – I spin semi-woolen mostly (carded prep, worsted spinn technique) and then scrunch and manipulate the skeins in the hot water a lot, plus lifting them into the cold air and back into the hot water 5 or 6 times. No science or real knowledge involved, mostly just following instinct.

    2. Manise

      I “whack” my yarn too on my bathroom counter. During the warm months I put a thick bath towel on the deck banister and do it there. Two or three times on each end of the skein. It is usually preceded with squeezing excess water out of the skeins by rolling them up in a towel and stepping on it. Then I swing it over my head like a helicopter blade to pull out the rest as needed. Of course the latter is done outside. I’ve never done the plunger method, though Margene has and blogged about it too. Love your sweater. I wonder which buttons you’ll choose? 🙂

    3. AnnaMarie

      Good timing! I just finished up some spinning for a lady who was an international teacher and need to bath the yarn. I’ll whack it when I’m done and that should be that.
      After winding the 4 skeins on the Niddy I’m also really, really, really wanting one of your skein winders. Soon…. just gotta get a few more $$ saved but I’m sooo tired of the Niddy.

    4. Steph

      I love whacking my wool.
      I love saying that, too. So obscene.
      But really, I do thwack mine against the tiled wall in my bathroom (after washing the skeins in the bathroom sink & squeezing them out). I hang them looped over the knob on our towel rack, weighted by a hanger either in the bathroom, or, if it’s sunny and I am home for the day so I won’t forget them, on our deck off a deck chair.

    5. Carole

      I whack ’em too!

    6. Luise

      Not that you asked, but … Depending on when you think you’ll wear the sweater (everyday workhorse, special occasions), I think the pewter buttons will be the easier ones to live with in the long run. Happily, you can’t go wrong. Enjoy choosing.

    7. Anne

      Yep – I’m a whacker as well. I think it helps soften and even out the yarn after a wet finish.

    8. Marcia

      Judith specifically uses the whacking when finishing woolen-spun yarns and when dealing with exotic fibers like qiviut, yak, bison, camel. Her procedure is the very hot soapy water (with plunger), then into ice cold rinse, back into hot, back into cold. With the exotics, this does full the yarn and make it more cohesive. Now, she has changed her tune in the past few years when it comes to worsted yarns….she didn’t used to treat those so harshly but said in the class at Rhinebeck that she now does. There just isn’t as much of a difference in the finished yarn! I never think to put my washed yarns in the washing machine to spin…I just take them outside and whirl them madly around over my head, further convincing the neighbors of my lack of sanity! Anyway, I think whack the softer, woolen-type yarns, but not anything worsted.

    9. Carrie

      I need to spin more so I can whack stuff. It sounds very therapeutic. And MAN, I want your buttons!

    10. margene

      I read the article too and find it does finish a yarn nicely. It’s fun to whack it about and have a beautiful yarn in the end.

    11. Jeanne

      Holy cow! You should all be arrested by the wool police for fiber abuse. I’ve treated all my skeins with TLC. You mean I’m missing something????? Is it possible that fiber has a secret sadistic side?? Maybe I’ll give it a try …. to a small skein …. just in case ….

    12. Valerie

      I’ve been “whacking” my yarn since seeing Judith’s video on exotic fibers (a number of years ago). After squeezing out excess moisture by wrapping the skein in a beach towel and ‘dancing’ on it, I pick up the skein at one of the ties and wack it against the deck railing or the side of the house. I move to the next tie, whack again, doing this until I have held the skein at each of the ties for a whack.
      It does seem to even out the twist and cause the fibers to move into their best resting place.
      Your sweater is looking good!

    13. –Deb

      I whack against my tub wall …

    14. cyndy

      Great post!
      I first whacked years ago when I started spinning my Angora..it really works well to make the yarn bloom….and yes, there is something very pleasing about a good wet thwack of the wool! (don’t have a clue why!)
      I don’t think I would whack a worsted, but I may be missing something here…

    15. Ruby

      Woven silk fabric often is stiff after washing and pressing, and will need similar thwacking or whapping to soften it.

    16. Chris

      I whack away – really helps angora yarns. And I love that you have a whacking pole.

    17. Paula

      I read the article about the toilet plunger treatment, too, and thought I just could not bring myself to do it, nor have I ever whacked. However, I do throw my skeins into hot water with Eucalan and mush them around a bit before leaving them to their half hour soak. I also use my washing machine on a regular basis, always being sure that I have turned the water off before running the spin cycle. Somehow I cannot imagine myself spinning the yarn over my head when I have a perfectly good mechanical centrifuge in the laundry room. 😉 Might try whacking sometime, though. K just installed a big lally column under the deck…

    18. Cathy

      I’ve used the washer to soak and spin out my skeins and have whacked my yarn for decades.
      I was surprised that so many didn’t.

    19. Laurie

      I whack against the side of the tub enclosure. I am going to get a plunger dedicated to yarn, because I think that the tub whacking isn’t enough.

    20. Marlene

      For everything I spin I do a hot soak with Dawn detergent, hot rinse, spin cycle of the washing machine, and then at least 4 good thwacks against a very sturdy door jam rotating after each thwack. Hang to dry. I don’t weight the hanging skeins.

    21. Cheryl

      Okay, I’m weighing in a little late on this, but I do whack my yarn. And in our SOAR class where there was no plunger to use (well there was, but it was the bathroom plunger of the hotel which would have been pretty gross) Judith used a bar of soap and rubbed the yarn really hard against it before dunking it in and out of the water.
      After I abuse and whack mine I stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Makes it dry faster and plumps it up nicely (this is for woolen spun yarns, of course. For worsted I just do a few hard whacks and that’s it).

    22. JessaLu

      I’m a whacker/thwacker. I beat the crap outta my yarn every time – and it is very satisfying. ;o)
      Your Rhinebeck sweater is going to be gorgeous!

    23. lisa blier

      This whole whacking thing sounds great. Can i use a human to whack! Lol. Judy i love the wool and the stitch pattern on the whacking wool swrater pic. It looks like a greige color. See you in NH….love to get that stitch pattern then. Hugs good luck next weekend!

  • little bits

    P1050423d
    One morning at breakfast, Judith MacKenzie McCuin asked me what I  planned on making with all of the little sample bits of fiber I had accumulated at SOAR.  Good question.  I was at a loss.  Actually, it was something I'd briefly thought about, and more or less scoffed at the idea that they were much more than samples to play around with.  "Some people make a project with them" she continued. "You probably have a lot of fiber".  I'd taken her class Creating Silk Blends the day before.  She knew I had samples.  Truth is, I do have quite a lot of fiber to think about.  During the three day class I'd taken with Deb Menz, Creatively Carding with Color I'd accumulated bags, ounces of blended colorful bits of roving.  SOAR Vendors had put more little samples of fiber into the Goodie bag that participants received.  One night we found small baggie of lovely Suri alpaca at out place at dinner.  Sometimes I use these bits of things to sample on my spindles.  It seems like a good way to get the feel of a particular spindle.   I don't have a firm ideas for this yet.  Or, I guess, whether I'll even do a project.  I figure the best way for me to begin, is to start playing with / spinning some of it.  Maybe it will let me know what should be. 

    P1050422
     this = that

    This little ball of roving is one half of the ounce of roving in our Goodie bag.  The cop on the spindle, the other half.  I divided the ounce of roving by splitting it length wise. I'll spin them inthe same order then ply them together. 

     Notice the way the yarn is yarn is wound onto the spindle?

    P1050423

    I used the same method you would to wind onto a nostepine.  If you were to slide it off the spindle, it would be a center pull ball.  Don't try it with anything spun fine.  Guaranteed it'll be tangled mess where the ball collapses in on itself.  But, the thing is about winding on this way… it maximizes the amount of fiber that you wind on each rotation.  Less winding, less time.   Something was said in Abby's class that made me want to try that. 

    That's the great thing about classes and gatherings .. there are so many little things that you pick up.  

    4 responses to “little bits”

    1. elizabeth

      Hmmm, I didn’t get an ounce of fiber in my goody bag. And I didn’t win a door prize. Wah! But I had fun and I got to meet you, so that makes up for it!

    2. diane

      Hi Judy! I guess some fiber’s ultimate purpose is to be a learning tool and not a wearable object. Takes the pressure off when I think of it that way. What a polished spindler you are:)

    3. Laurie

      I remember Abby said that, but I can’t get the hand motions. Must work. I really like the idea of spinning all the fibers together. Do you think you will blend them, or just spin end to end?
      So missed you this weekend. You have always been a part of my Rhinebeck.

    4. cyndy

      Beautiful examples of spinning and winding.
      For now, it seems to be content just to be admired~ but someday who know? There may be a project in it somewhere…

“Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

copyright 2025 Judith Jacobs – All Rights Reserved