End of the Year Tasks

In the last couple days I have checked off some things from my "finish before the end of the year" list.  A few nights ago I finished spinning the last of the singles from the Polled Dorset fleece.  Now I have several storage bobbins of singles in various colors, and I will need to make a final decision about how I want to ply them, but the wool takes up a lot less room this way than it did as balls or piles of fluff.  

The project I most wanted to finish was the Christmas socks.  These were toe-up, plain vanilla, fish lips kiss heel socks in the colorway Candy Cane from West Yorkshire Spinner's holiday sock yarn collection.  They are done and will be ready to wear next year.

I also had one last skein of handspun off my wheel.  This was Leicester Longwool from Ross Farms.  I had spun this breed at the very beginning of my spinning journey.  It was part of my first 5 breeds for Shave 'Em to Save 'Em and I quickly made it into rope on my spinning wheel.  At the time I was still thrilled that I was making something that resembled yarn, but as my spinning improved and my knowledge increased, I felt like it might be a good idea to experience those first few wools again.  I think it is good to experience any breed of wool multiple times to get a real feel for the variety it can have and the difference prep can make.  This summer I was in Hudson, Ohio and was able to stop into the Ross Farm mercantile and there I was able to get my hands on more Leicester Longwool.  This was a roving prep.  I spun it on my Flatiron, on my lowest ratio I have available on it right now which is 10.4:1.  If I had the slower whorls I would probably have gone lower.  I did a SFD with it and plied it with a 60 degree twist angle.  I definitely spun this thinner this time than I did last time.  I feel like it might make a good warp, but I don't know what I would weave with it.  Anyway, I didn't really expect to get it finished as quickly as I did, but I was happy to get it off the wheel.

At that point, both my wheels were empty so I was able to spend some time doing a "spa day" treatment with them.

For my Flatiron, I have only had it for 3 months now so it did not need a lot of attention. Mostly I cleaned off fluff and debris, wiped off old oil, and reapplied new oil.  The polycord drive band and brake string and spring are still practically new and did not need replaced.  I also don't know how much use they are going to get because I am developing a strong preference for spinning in double drive on the Flatiron.  I plied in double drive for the first time with this most recent skein, and so I tied on a new driveband to spin S twist when I did that.  Afterwards I tied it up around the front leg where I have the polycord secured and I tied on a new Z twist driveband.  I replaced the leader on the bobbin on the wheel while I was at it.  

My Kiwi received a little more TLC.  I have had my Kiwi 3 for nearly three years now so I've given it the "spa" treatment several times now.  I find I like to do a basic version of this at least every few months, especially if I've recently spun something with a lot of dirt and/or vm in it.  This is my process for my Kiwi, please keep in mind some of these things are just what I have found works for me and aren't necessarily recommended, so anything you do with your own wheel should be done carefully and at your own risk.

1. I start by taking off all the parts that come off easily.  I remove the flyer, the bobbin on it, plus any on the built in lazy kate, and the whorl.  I also undo the drive band, loosen the brake band and untie it from the springs if I am replacing those, and remove the orifice hook.
2. I use a paper towel to wipe all the oiled areas first so I am not spreading dirty grease around.  
3. Then I use a microfiber cloth to dust the surfaces.  
4. The treadles, specifically the right treadle, really gets dirty.  This is one of those things I experimented with but should be approached with caution.  The thing I find works best is to take a new magic eraser and get it damp (wring out the water so it isn't dripping) and gently wipe the surface of the treadle like you might wipe down a table or counter top.  I don't scrub, I don't saturate the wood, I am just surface cleaning.  I find it removes most of the dirt quickly.  Then I immediately take a dry cloth and wipe it again so the wood doesn't have moisture sitting on it.
5. Back to the oily places like the front and rear maiden- I use q-tips or pipe cleaners to remove any additional excess oil and also pay attention to where the footmen attaches to the crank.  The one pops off for folding the treadles up, so that is easy to clean.
6. Next I take that allen wrench and check if any of the screws need tightened.  There are a few phillips head screws too to check.
7. When I bought my wheel it was unfinished.  I used tung oil on it initially, but now I maintain the wood with Ashford's finishing wax polish.  I give the wood a good once over with a little on a rag, I especially concentrate on the treadles.  
8. I give some attention to all those parts I removed: the flyer, bobbins, whorl, orifice hook, tension knob.  I avoid doing anything to the grooves beyond running a dry microfiber cloth around them once or twice to remove and dirt or fluff.  
9. The next step is replacing anything that needs replaced.  This time I put on a new driveband, and new brake band and spring, and I replaced the flyer hooks.  This is the first time I replaced the sliding hook and I did because I had noticed that over time the plastic was developing grooves in it.  I also replaced the metal hooks on the orifice end of the flyer because they were getting loose easily and showing wear and I had new ones in the maintenance kit bag anyway.  I put them in and them seem more secure and less likely to twist around.
10. I didn't need to do anything this time, but this seems like a good place to discuss the Kiwi's tension knob.  The brake band for the Kiwi is nylon, essentially a 30lbs or higher fishing line I think.  It works well in the potion that goes over the wooden bobbins, but I found it didn't always stay put in the section between the spring and the tension knob.  I replaced that section with cotton drive band (from the maintenance kit) and have been much happier with my ability to control the tension.  Also, last winter I found that with the indoor humidity so low the wood wasn't tight enough and the knob wasn't always staying put as a result.  My solution (again, caution) was to take a kettle of boiling water and open it up to allow steam in the area and on the tensioning knob for just a couple seconds.  That brief burst of humidity helped immensely.  
11. The last thing is to return the bobbins and flyer to the wheel, so this is the point I oil everything again.  I've started using white lightening lithium grease on the flyer shaft.  I still regularly oil with the Ashford oil, but using the white lightning lithium grease initially when I put on a new bobbin has really helped decrease some of the noisiness of the wheel.  Then I tie on a new leader and I am good to go!

The wheels are ready for another year of spinning