My Review of Ashford Student Top Whorl Spindle

Originally submitted at VillageSpinning & Weaving

Ashford Student Top Whorl Spindle Reasonably priced and ideal for teachers needing spindles for teaching. . . or for a beginner who wants something inexpensive. Approx. 2.8 ounces, approx. 3'' whorl d

Ashford Student Top Whorl Spindle

An excellent spindle for beginners

By Crochet Lady from Torrance, CA on 12/14/2012

 

5out of 5

Pros: Powerful, Durable, Good Design, Safe, Easy To Use

Best Uses: Home Use

Describe Yourself: Avid Do-It-Yourselfer

The only fault I had with it was that we had to cover up the spinning wheel design on the top of the whorl because we were using it in a re-enactment, but most people wouldn't use it for that. I've used an Ashford student top whorl twice to teach people to spin and I'm very pleased with it.

(legalese)

Detangled!

The yarn is all untangled, the warp is neatly chained and ready to travel! The blue threads are the string heddles.

OKAY!

I am so happy this is done. I still have to put the heddles onto a rod, make spacer chains for front and back threads, and hang the weights.

Most instructions have you weight the warp after you've sewn the warp to the beam. This is followed by making a spacer chain. The final step in the instructions is attaching heddles to a bar.

This is fine if you don't have to schlep the loom anywhere. I, unfortunately, DO. For this project, 44 weights at 10-ish ounces each, makes the beam come in at about 30-ish pounds. The beam itself is about 6 feet long.   When I'm carrying it (without weights), I have to be careful not to hit anything or anyone in a "Three Stooges" type maneuver. When fully weighted, it is difficult for me to carry for a long distance (like half a block). Yeah, I'm wimpy. So what?

If you've made a mistake in your threading, or missed a thread and already put the spacer and the weights on, then you have to untie the weight or weights affected, and unchain the spacer...essentially re-do the whole sett, which is a total, complete royal PAIN in the behind. If you put the heddles on first, the problem is easier to correct.

These are my steps to warping and setting the Warp Weighted Loom:

1. Measure the header band warp. I made this project 4 feet long, with 20 threads, because that's how many slots there are in my warping paddle. I measured the yarn by placing two of my dining chairs back to back with about 4 feet of space in between them and winding the yarn on them.

2. Measure the warp pairs. Again with the kitchen chairs, only this time I placed the chairs 10 feet apart. See post from 10/22/11 if you want to know about warp pairs. *Chain the threads until you are ready to use them. I chained them in groups of 10.
*When I say that you chain the warp, you chain stitch a bunch of threads using your fingers, instead of a hook. If you don't know how to crochet, learn the chain stitch. There are lots of free videos and instruction books on this.

3. Thread the rigid heddle (or warping paddle) and weave the band. I tied each end of the warp to a kitchen chair, stretching it taut. I then unchained a braid of warp threads and wove the band. The warp threads are very long, so when I finish 10, I chain them to keep them tidy.

You can make a band using an inkle loom or using cards/tablets. Look up Inkle weaving, and Tablet or Card Weaving, if you are interested in these methods. It is possible to make a band with a nifty pattern this way.

When you have the length you want, untie the end where the warp paddle is, first.
Next, slip the warp paddle off the threads.
Make an overhand knot to keep the band from unravelling. Untie the other end of the band and do the same. You can hemstitch the band if you want to, or wait until the project is finished to deal with it.

4. Sew or attach the warp band to the beam. I sewed the band directly to the beam. You could also whipstitch it to a dowel rod and suspend that from the beam, Navajo weaving style, if you aren't concerned about doing it "period".

5. Make string heddles for the back threads. For a first time project, keep it simple. Simply divide the number of total warp ends in half and you will have the number of string heddles you will have to make. It might be a good idea to make a few more than you need in case one breaks while you're weaving.

It is possible to do more than 2 "shafts" on a warp weighted loom, but it's a lot of work. If you are going to attempt a 4 (or more) heddle pattern, use a different color for each of the 3 (5, 7, etc.) heddles, or alternate colors (i.e. blue for B, red for C and white for D, etc.). I made my string heddles using a wooden dish rack I got at the 99 cent store and a ball of size 3 crochet cotton. (See the 9/29/12 post).

I used cotton for the string heddles. I wanted something that would stand out from the feel of the wool warp. I also wanted something that would not stretch and would not abrade or stick to the other warp threads.

6. Attach the string heddles to the warp. I made a lark's head knot around a warp thread. I attach the other end of the string loop to the bar in the same way. You don't have to hang up the beam for this step.

7. Hang up the beam, and divide the warp into front (A) and back (B) threads.

8. Crochet a spacer chain for the front and back sets of threads. Tie each spacer to the uprights on either side. I use a yarn or thread with a similar gauge to the warp yarns. I use cotton or linen instead of wool for the same reasons I explained in point 5. I use a crochet hook in the size that is recommended on the label of the yarn, or the same size that is recommended for the warp yarn.

9. Hang or tie the loom weights. As I mentioned in a previous post, if you are using a medium to heavy "worsted weight" yarn, use between 8 and 12 ounces per weight.on each group of 10 threads. The weights should not touch the ground. If the warp is too long, chain it up and then tie the loom weight to it.

10. Weave. If you are outside, and it starts to rain, snow, or if there is a lot of wind, move the project inside. Detach the loom weights (if you are storing the beam), untie the spacers from the uprights. Put a tarp on the ground and carefully roll the tarp and the project up together, jelly roll style. Tie up the rolled warp in a few places so it won't come undone. Bring the beam inside. The loom will act as a sail if there are high winds. This can be dangerous. Plus, if it gets wet, it will take a couple of days to dry completely.

Tangled Webs and Cardboard.

Weaving class is over--for this quarter, anyway. I got the string heddles done and put on the loom.

The  warp beam has been residing in the back of my van for the past two weeks. I had to move it when the family went out to dinner on Friday. I had the boys put it on top of the washing machine in the garage. I did laundry today, so now it's in the front room.

I've been trying to untangle the bottom part of it. I got the old spacing chains from last year off. That was a major hassle in trying to untangle things.

You are probably now screaming at your monitor "Why is it so tangled? How did she let this happen? Didn't she know it would be an Herculean task later?" Angst, angst, angst!

(Since you're probably reading this because I posted the link on my facebook page, you may NOT be yelling things at the computer and are getting the glazed eyeballed stare of impending death from boredom. If you are related to or are well acquainted with me, asking the above questions is kind of pointless, isn't it, because you know the answer is "Because it's Audrey!")

For all two of you who may not have known me since kindergarten and before, I will answer the questions in the form of a prescription for rolling up the loom with a work in progress. But briefly, Yes, I did know it would be this difficult later when I rolled up the beam the way I did last year.

Last year, at the end of the last night of Journey to Bethlehem, it was fixing to RAIN. Hard. I got the beam down and took it up to the props room, somehow. I don't remember that exactly. I packed up all my things, and then got my son to help me roll up the beam very quickly, so we could get it to my van before it started raining. It was starting to sprinkle as we walked to the car. Not just sprinkle spray, nope, it was slooooow, BIG, fat, drops of water, picking up speed with each succeeding drop.

If you are doing a warp weighted loom for demonstration someplace, a renfair, an SCA war or a re-enaction event, you will have to disassemble and move the beam and the loom with an unfinished project on it, unless you are a blindingly fast weaver.

Put a tarp, canvas, or a large piece of corrugated cardboard flat on the ground in front of the loom. Take down the beam, and place it just above one end of the tarp. Roll up the beam the way you do when you are rolling the woven cloth onto a modern floor loom with the cardboard.

Cardboard isn't period at all, unless it's late 1800's, in which case, you wouldn't be using a warp-weighted loom. It would be difficult to wind a sheet of cardboard on the beam because of the way the loom is configured. I suppose you could use sticks, but then you risk snagging the fabric. If you are rolling it up to move and "historicity" is important, then you could use a canvas, or maybe one of those bamboo mats like they sell at a hardware warehouse store in the garden department.

By the way, when you started weaving did you know that you need to have a refrigerator box worth of corrugated cardboard for both beams? I didn't know this. What is more, I haven't come across much on this important little tidbit of information in any weaving pattern, magazine, or book I've seen. Of course, it's possible I may have missed something. I haven't read absolutely everything there is out there on the subject and I usually only read English language publications.

You get this information from another weaver, and it's usually an offhand, "oh, roll some cardboard in between the layers on the threads and the cloth beams so they don't stick to each other."

So what did weavers use before cardboard was invented? Most likely they used sticks. I've seen that  mentioned, once, fairly recently in a magazine article, I think. I tried to Google this and was unsuccessful in finding the topic. So if you see this and have any historical information on it, please comment and let me know.

Ricotta 2

Making Ricotta again! 

This time, I'm doing things a little differently. I made a half batch, that's a half gallon of whole milk and two cups of buttermilk. I'm checking how long it takes to get from fridge temperature to the required 180 degree mark.

At 10 minutes in, the milk was at 100 degrees, according to the candy thermometer.

At 17 minutes, it is looking  "cottage cheesy" and resembles the ceiling texture in most of my house. The temperature was 150.

It has now reached 180, and that is at about 20 minutes. Now to ladle it out and let it drip for an hour.

It's easier working with a half batch.

Plans and spacer chains and heddles! Oh, my!

It occurs to me that you might be interested in my warp weighted loom plan. I need to give credit where it is due. The plans I have used are mainly from the old Early Period Magazine. It was an SCA publication, I think. It has not been published in quite some time, but here is the link to the archives: 

http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ 

The articles are in Issues 2 and 3, Making a Warp Weighted Loom and Warping Your Loom, respectively. These plans have been THE most helpful to me, mainly because there are drawings to look at. If you want to use the plans from these two issues, send the people who run the website an e-mail and ask for permission. I'm sure they will give it--when I asked, they were very nice--but it's better to ask first.

When I began researching this topic, there wasn't a lot of information out there. There is more now, including some particularly good videos on YouTube by a young man who was doing a college project. I have not found any plans that are the equal of the ones from Early Period Magazine, which was the first set I came across. The videos give additional visual impact, but merely add to the information already presented. What I'm doing here is relating my experiences with warp weighted looms.

Some plans I came across call for "sizing" the warp. Sizing means putting a mixture of glue and water (or starch) on the warp threads so they will be stiff and strong while you are weaving them. You have to wash it out of the project when you're done. I don't think this is a necessary step for the time period I'm working in (1st century BC-AD). I also fear that if I tried to do this, it would result in a huge sticky mess. It also assumes that you are using crochet cotton for the warp. I don't really want to think about trying it on wool.

The sizing recipe calls for 4 to 5 pints of water per one pint of Elmer's school glue. You mix it up and toss the skeins of warp into it, squeeze out the excess and hang it up to dry.

If you don't have a wide-ranging primitive or small loom background, such as a familiarity with backstrap, rigid heddle, tapestry or inkle looms you may have problems with some aspects of the Warp Weighted loom. When I started this, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or getting into. I had woven two projects on a table loom in high school some 25 years ago (30 now!). You may be far more ahead on this than I was.

As I mentioned before in the post of September 29, 2012, entitled Making String Heddles for the Warp Weighted Loom, I have trouble making the continuous heddles. Another blogger here on blogspot used a netting shuttle to make her continuous heddles, but she has experience with backstrap looms. (I, on the other hand, had to look up what in tarnation a netting shuttle was!) On my current project, I've decided to make loops. The author of the Early Period articles covers string heddles in much more detail than anyone else, including diagrams of how to make a continuous heddle and spacer chain. If you have trouble interpreting a static image diagram, such as stitch illustrations for crochet or knitting, you will have difficulty interpreting these, also.

My loop string heddles.

I do my loom set up before Journey to Bethlehem opens. Weeks before, in theory, but sometimes life happens. I don't do it in costume and I don't use period correct tools; I use scissors, crochet hooks and a tape measure. During production, if anyone is interested, they can weave a couple of picks.

Another thing to consider is spacing the warp with a chain (I crochet mine, that's the easy part) and your eyesight, if you are using weaving threads. You don't have to crochet it, you can make the chain using just your fingers (that's in the House Barra archive, too). Crochet is not period (1800's I think). Unless you are doing the set up as part of the demonstration and need period accuracy (and there are people around who will KNOW the difference and will take points off or something) or you don't know how to crochet, I wouldn't worry about the anachronism.

This is a spacer chain on a previous project from 2006.

Either use the same type of thread you are using for the warp, or at least the same or smaller weight or ends/wraps per inch for the spacer chain. My current project uses a wool yarn warp and weft. If I were to use the same yarn, then it would stick together. I'm going to use a blue cotton/bamboo size 3 or 5 crochet thread for the spacer chain and heddles. This is so I can see and feel the difference the chains and heddles from the project in the dark, since our production times are always at night.

If you are crocheting the spacers, use the crochet hook recommended for the gauge of the thread. For example:size 5 to 7 steel crochet hook for a size 10 bedspread cotton. The larger the number on a steel hook, the smaller it is, whereas it's the opposite for the aluminum and plastic ones. Why does it depend on the gauge of the thread? Because I used a plastic M or N size hook, once, when I had a warp that (if crocheting) normally took a size D or C hook. The spacer made the warp too wide for the weaving width and I had to re-do it.

This post is a bit disjointed and skips about. I'm sorry for that. I may come back at a later date and redo all of  my posts on the Warp Weighted Loom, but not right now. Thanks for reading!

Warp Weighted Loom Update

So last night was Tuesday and weaving class. Someone at class mentioned that I should take pictures to document what I was doing. So I will do that next time I'm at class and post them here.

Last week, I had counted the warp threads and slip knotted them by groups of 10. The final count was 440! This week during class, I spent the time separating the front and back threads. I used a weaving sword or pickup stick (whatever) and lease sticks.

Here are a few terms for you if you are new to weaving (I can feel eyes glazing over):
A weaving sword or pickup stick is a long, thin, flat, slat of wood that is pointed at one or both ends. Its purpose is to slip in between the threads so you can lift or pick up all of the warp threads at once in order to weave.

A lease stick is also a long, thin, flat slat of wood, with the ends rounded, not pointy. It is slightly thicker than the sword. Lease sticks are usually included when you buy a modern floor loom. A lease stick should be slightly longer than your warp. If you have a place that sells lumber, like one of the warehouse hardware stores, they would be cheap and easy to make. Lease sticks must be sanded smooth so the warp won't catch and snag or fray.The purpose of lease sticks is to keep the cross of the threads.

The cross (weaving, not Christianity) is where the front and back threads cross each other so you can pull the back threads forward in order to weave.

In order to make things a little easier, I am going to refer to the group of warp threads in front as the A threads. The warp threads in back will be the B threads. With a warp weighted loom, the front and back threads are divided by the bottom brace, and weights are hung on the warps instead of wrapping the warp between two beams as in more modern looms.

Now that we have definitions of terms, we can proceed. I picked up every other thread in a group of 10, and slipped it on top of the sword, so that I had 5 in front and 5 in back. When I was done, I stuck a lease stick in the shed.

Next, I took the back threads and brought them forward through the front ones, and slipped the sword in between them. I did not finish this part by the end of class. I only have a few more bundles of 10 to do, though, so I am happy with my progress. Besides, next time, I will bring my camera so I can take pictures!

The bottom stick is a lease stick and the top pointy one is a weaving sword.
The threads in front of the bottom stick are the A threads..

Taking a group of threads and dividing them.

A pair of threads: A and B.
A is on the right.

I slip the A thread to the front of the lease stick.
Note that both threads are to the front of the weaving sword.

Now the A thread has been slipped behind the sword.
The B thread has been slipped behind the lease stick and to the front of the sword.

Note: It is much easier to do one set of threads (A or B) at a time. The reason I'm doing them at the same time is because I messed up. I skipped several when I was slipping them from the sword to the lease stick.

The blue thread on the counter is a loop heddle.

I still have to make more heddles. I have 10, so far, so that's 430 more to go! Ha. I also have to make more weights.

Loom Weight Re-design

This is a step-by-step how to on the re-designed loom weights.

I needed something that would be around 8 ounces for this warp. 6 ounces was not enough to hold the bundles of 10 warp threads taut and under tension.

Some friends of mine found some very large washers about 4 inches wide. Two of them put together weigh around 8 ounces, maybe a bit more.

This is one pair of washers after I glued it together.

I used Glue dots in line form to glue them together. 

You can see the line on the right side of the washer in the photo.

This is a glued weight. I'm wrapping it using brown florist's tape or stem wrap.

Here is the finished weight.

Two down, 34 more to go! :)

The one thing that concerns me is that the ends of the stem wrap don't stick very well. I wonder how they will hold up to a weeks' worth of clinking and friction. I may want to make yarn holders for them like I did for the clay ones, so that the yarn is not rubbing on the tape and getting sticky.

Making String Heddles for the Warp Weighted Loom

I've started making heddles. I'm making loop heddles because I'm not sure that I can make a continuous string heddle to a consistent length.

Some years ago, I bought some wooden dish drying racks at a 99 cent store with the idea of using them to wind warp crosses. There are too many prongs to do that right, so they've been sitting in my garage for several years. I have a problem throwing things out, especially wooden ones. I decided to use a rack to make string heddle loops.

I am making two sizes, one using all 8 pegs on a side which makes it about 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and one using 6 pegs which makes it about 4 to 6 inches. I made a loop using 4 pegs, but I decided that would be too small.

This is the 8 inch loop. I decided to use this one.

There are two options with loop heddles.

The first is to just "fold" the loop around the warp thread and slip the heddle bar through the two ends of the loop. This is the method that is set out in the Schact Tapestry Loom instruction manual. You can   look this up online at http://www.schachtspindle.com/instructions/weaving/tapestry-loom.pdf. The heddle instructions are on pages 5 and 6.

The second option is to make a slip knot with the loop around the warp and a slip knot around the heddle bar, or just stick the bar through the other end of the loop.

Putting the string heddle around the warp thread.

This is what the larks head should look like around the warp thread before you pull it tight.

The back threads, with the heddles attached. The threads are to the "front" because I was creating the "cross" with the flat sticks you can see.

I will probably use this second option, because it gives more length on the heddle. The shed depends on the angle of the loom and the amount of weight you have on the warp strings. Because the warps are attached to weights, and not to a beam or to the loom itself, the shed width is not predetermined, like a modern floor loom, tapestry, or frame loom. This is why all the instructions on making and warping a warp weighted loom deal with the heddles last and are not very specific about the length you need.

A third option, if you are not concerned with "authenticity", would be to make or use a frame or harness or rigid heddle. Another blogger I read did just that, but her loom project was more concerned with getting children to weave than with having a period working loom. She made a rigid frame heddle out of popsicle sticks.

To my knowledge, using a rigid heddle on a warp weighted loom is not period to first century AD, but I'm not an expert. Who's to say that it couldn't have developed? As far as I know, there is no documented period evidence for a harness-type heddle used on any warp weighted loom. If anyone finds any evidence for this, I would love to see it. I'm sure anyone else who has studied this would, also.

Weights, warp and very tangled threads!

Well!

Note to self: 

When you are gluing things with superglue you only need one drop! I did not know this, so I had to pry the prospective loom weight off the kitchen table. Some of the finish on the table went with the loom weight. Oh well.

The florists' stem wrap tape worked very well to cover the metal weight, but it isn't very sticky at the ends. It does the job, though. Maybe I just got some old tape, or something.

I started back at the T.U.S.D. adult school with the hand weaving class again! Yay! This class is a super deal! You can weave whatever you like on any loom and you just supply your own yarn. This session, I'm trying to figure out a better way to rig the heddles on the loom.

The class started last week. I spent the whole class trying to untangle the threads and unroll the weaving. I got most of the weights untied last week. 

This week, I got it unrolled and re-grouped the threads in tens. I have 440! What was I thinking!!!! I will have to mix the weights, but I think I have enough to put the heavier ones on the back threads and the clay ones on the front threads. It's the back threads where the weight matters. Most people will see only the front weights, if they notice them at all.

I need to get a cone of butcher or kitchen string, or something and make a variety of sizes of loops. I think I will try 8, 10, and 12 inch loops. That should give me a 4, 5, and 6 inch pull...I think. So, I will sett a 1-3 twill, to practice the loops and see what works. That way, I will only have to make around 110 of each loop, and only make 330, because the front ones don't need them.

A couple of other notes about loom weights: The heavier the warp, the more weight you need to create the proper tension. With a lighter or finer warp, you need less. How much is missing from most of the instruction material I've examined.

Here's what I think:

For heavier, "normal" (i.e. worsted weight) yarn that you'd buy at a craft store (like Joann's, or Michael's, or your local yarn shop), you'd need between 8 to 12 ounces of weight per 10 to 12 warp threads.

If you are using a lighter yarn, like a sport weight, then you will need between 4 and 6 ounces.

If you are using weaving yarn like an 8/2 or smaller on the warp weighted loom, then you might only need 2 to 3 ounces per 10 to 12.

You should also seriously question your sanity, in that case. Of course, since you are going to set up a warp weighted loom, you're probably already halfway there, in the minds of your friends, relations and significant others.

Why? I'll spell it out for you: a fine warp and weft are harder to see. It is easy to miss threads. It also takes longer to weave yardage on your project. It becomes what is known as a character-building, educational, bonding experience. ("no discipline seems pleasant at the time, etc...").

Now that's not to say that you can't do this, it's just more difficult to do. It is possible to use a weaving-type yarn for the warp and a thicker one for the warp. That was and is done quite a bit. You could, for example, use a linen warp and a wool weft, unless you are terribly concerned with shatnez, or intend to actually wash the resulting cloth with modern machinery instead of, say, pounding it clean with some rocks, or something.

I would not use a warp heavier or bulkier than the "worsted weight" yarn. A bulky-chunky yarn would have you up to about 12 to 16 ounces per 10 and that may be too much weight for the beam, altogether. You could make a thicker beam, if you wanted, I suppose. I wouldn't.

I'm about 5' 2". My beam is about 5 to 6 feet long and 4 inches in diameter, it's wood. As I mentioned above, the current project has 440 wool warp threads. I can not carry the beam very far when it's weighted and have serious problems lifting it into place.

The more ends per inch, the more weight you're dealing with. It's not just the loom weights, either. There's the weight of the beam, yarn, heddle rod or rods, as well as any sticks, cloth or cardboard you use to put in between the woven layers. This is something you need to consider when you are making your loom and warping the project. Do you have help to lift the beam, or is it just you? Don't go giving yourself a hernia.

New idea for loom weights

I got hold of some very. large. washers, not the laundry kind. (Thank you Bill and Alice!) These washers weigh about 4 1/2 ounces each. I'm going to put two together and see how that works as a loom weight. Now to buy some fabric tape.

What I did with the ricotta (and spaghetti sauce)

If anyone was wondering what I did with the two cups of homemade ricotta, your angst is over. I will relate what I did. Are you ready? Are you sure?

Okay, okay! Enough already.

I made lasagna. I used a jar of spaghetti sauce, fried up a pound of ground beef and onions and then layered that with the no-cook noodles and the ricotta. I topped it with some mozzarella and Parmesan. Except for the ground beef, I pretty much followed the recipe on the Barilla package.

I always add fried ground beef (with a chopped up onion) to my spaghetti sauce and then zap the whole thing for 10 to 20 minutes in the microwave. Okay, if you want to use the fancy French word, then I sautee the onion and the beef. I'm not sure what the difference is between sauteeing and frying, if any. I'll have to ask my husband what the difference is--he speaks French. I have low moisture cookware and usually don't add any fat to the things I'm cooking.

If I'm using frozen meatballs (for spaghetti, not lasagna), I just dump the meatballs and the spaghetti sauce in the casserole and stick it in the microwave.

I don't make my own spaghetti sauce. I don't have access to loads of free or dirt cheap tomatoes. I have to buy them. Buying enough to make it worthwhile to do spaghetti sauce from scratch would be cost prohibitive, here in Southern California. I like chunky spaghetti sauce that has lots of veggies in it, and then I add the beef. If you're out of lettuce or your family won't eat salad, you've got meat, veggies and carbs all in the one dish. If you have picky eaters, you can whirl the sauce in the blender so they won't know the difference. I add seasoning, of course, but I don't measure it.

Back to the lasagna. I think it came out very good. I liked the ricotta with it. When my mom made lasagna, she always used cottage cheese. It's more runny that way and you have to sit the baked lasagna in the refrigerator for a day if you want it to set up and not run all over the pan when you cut it.

I stored the whey in the empty whole milk jug in the fridge. I've been using the whey instead of milk or water when I make bread. There was about a half gallon or so of the whey left after straining.

Making Ricotta Cheese

My mother-in-law gives me inserts, coupon pages, comics, etc. from her daily paper. Last week I found a recipe for making ricotta cheese in one of the inserts. It called for a gallon of whole milk and a quart of buttermilk. You cook it until it reaches 180 degrees, and then you strain it through (what else?) cheesecloth for an hour or so.

I've never made cheese before. I always thought it was very complicated. I thought you had to have scads of immense copper kettles and a bunch of big brown jersey cows in the backyard. I lack both. It has been easy, so far, I just kept checking the temperature every 10 minutes.
I found a bread recipe that uses the whey. There's A LOT of whey. I should be able to make several loaves from what I've got left. Now to find a recipe for cannoli...that uses ricotta cheese for the filling, doesn't it?

The cheese finished cooling to room temp and I put it in the fridge in a plastic bin about half an hour ago. I had a taste and it's kind of buttery, and very mild.

Scouring Wool with Borax and Sodium Carbonate

I had previously tried scouring--degreasing--with just sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate is also known as soda ash, washing soda, and by the ancient name of natron. Another thing I found out is that natron does not always show up by itself, it is often in combination with other chemicals, one of which is borax.
Sooooo...
Today I am scouring about a pound of wool with a combination of 5 gallons of 180 degree water, 1/2 cup of borax and 1/2 cup of sodium carbonate. I bought the sodium carbonate in the grocery where it was cleverly disguised as a generic equivalent of OxyClean. I put the chemicals in the spider tub and then added the hot water. It foamed nicely, and then I added the wool which was in a mesh laundry bag. I left it in the natron bath for about 20 minutes, poured out the tub into the planter, and rinsed the wool with 2 baths of regular hot tap water. The wool bag is now in the washer on spin. Sodium carbonate is also used in the making of fertilizer, so I'm not too worried about pouring it on the ground. Besides, we just have a lot of weeds growing in it, anyway.

I'm also flicking the locks of the same fleece I've processed earlier.

I put out some more fleece to cold soak for the rest of the day. It gets rid of a LOT of ick, which can just be poured into the planter (more fertilizer). The batch I'm scouring today was cold soaked first. Although the first wash did turn yellow brown, it was not as disgusting as batches where I just straight washed without previously soaking.

Scouring Update

So. The wool I scoured in the soda ash solution is now dry. It does not feel greasy. It smells like a sheep (duh!) and there are still bits of VM and BM stuck in it, which will flick/comb/card out.

I am cold soaking a larger batch on the pool deck now. For this batch, I will use a half cup each of borax and sodium carbonate. I'm going to increase the amount of hot water on this to maybe 3 or 4 gallons on the wash and the rinse, which means using the spider tub.

According to what I've read, ancient natron deposits are not composed entirely of sodium carbonate. Borax and other salts of volcanic origin would be present as well. Natron has been used in a variety of ways from extremely ancient and prehistoric times. I am confident in the historicity of using it to scour wool. The only problem would be whether a particular culture group would have been able to easily obtain the soda.

Scouring with Soda Ash

So...I've been sloooowly scouring (washing) the wool we bought for J2B last year.

A few minutes ago, I put some wool I'd cold soaked out by the pool into a hot tap water bath (2 gallons) with 1/4 cup of soda ash (courtesy of our pool supplies.). I've set the timer for 20 minutes. I don't have any means of weighing the wool. I think it was less than half of a pound's worth...I'm going to say 1/4 pound. We'll see what happens. The wool is in a zippered mesh lingerie bag

We have the house on a water filtration system, so we have soft water running through the pipes and in the pool.

Cold soaking with no soap appears to work fairly well to get rid of the dirt. If I set the tub out in the sun, it gets warm, too. I put this batch of wool in two consecutive cold soak baths of about 5 gallons of water, each.

Ding!
Okay! I just now took the wool out of the soda water and ran a hot tap water bath and put it in to rinse for another 20 minutes. The water from the soda bath looked like very weak tea. Obviously, the cold soak did not get all the dirt out of the wool. Depending on how icky the water looks after this rinse, I may put it in for another 20 minutes on a warm soak and then spin out the water in the machine before hanging it to dry on the back deck.

I picked the wool up off the cement around the pool deck and moved it to the table because the kids are going swimming.

I put half of the remaining wool in the spider tub (it has a spider decal on the side) to cold soak and I changed the water a few minutes ago. Yuck!

A few things I learned this past year

I've started scouring the fleece I bought last year to scour at Journey to Bethlehem. Yes, I know it's March, already. I need more time to let things settle in my mind and get into routines. I've also been sick.

Here are a few things I've come up with that I need to do for next year.
Warp Weighted Loom:
#1. Break down and use 12 ounces per warp bundle for the yarn I've got. I'm going to need 36 soda cans, I guess. Figure something else out for J2B, but just put a can in a plastic grocery bag each, out back.

#2. Find a way to do the heddles quickly. It doesn't have to be period, because very few will know and they won't be able to see it, anyway. I'm thinking texsolve cloth and stringing it to the rods.

J2B:
#3. Know my limitations. I can't do the wool washing. Someone else will have to do that.

This is some of the wool I'm scouring

Scouring wool

The fleece I bought to scour at J2B (and ended up not scouring) is REALLY dirty. Bits of poo and vm. It's the sheep dudu that bugs me. I can't get all the ick out just by washing it.

I have not found any documented way to comb it out that is period correct. The answer back then was probably to throw slaves you don't like or misbehaving children at it. The poo and vm needs to be picked out by hand in order to not mess up the lock structure.

I don't have slaves (darn!). My children would not be able/willing to pick out the ickies without tearing the wool up. If we are going to scour wool at J2B (probably not) then a fleece that has been blanketed should be obtained. If I have to pay money for a fleece to scour, then I want to be able to USE the wool.

For the fleece I have, I'm going to want to find a drum carder. Maybe Judi has one. Or I could borrow her wool combs.

In rinse bath #3

It would be easier to dye the wool at J2B. Only one tub of water, with the dye in it, just let it sit on a disguised hot plate until the dye is exhausted, hang up the wool/yarn to dry.

Clean, dry, and flicked!

So for now, I'm scouring the wool. I think I will dye some (using Kool Aid...yes, soooo not period...) but I want to experiment (cheaply!) with color changing mordants, like iron, alum and maybe some copper (pennies).