Elastic Dressguards Prototype

Please excuse the crappy cell phone picture, but I thought I would share a teaser. I've been working on 2 designs for dressguards made from elastic bands. One is just many strands, like what is pictured above, and the other is netted. I'm still testing out materials, but so far I am quite happy with both versions. More to come in a few days, so stay tuned!


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My Other World

2011 Fiber Fair at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.




Here is a glimpse into my other world. The bobbin part of Bobbin and Sprocket. Today was the annual Fiber Fair at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park in Elizabethton, TN. I only got to be there for the last hour of the event. Usually I'm there for the whole day demonstrating handspinning (the REAL, practical spinning. Not this silly indoors in a gym on a stationary bike "spinning" nonsense), but since I now work on Saturday mornings I couldn't make it out there until almost 3pm.







Here are friends of mine participating in a "Fleece to Shawl" demo that we do every year. Basically there are several spinners and a weaver. The spinners have to keep the weaver supplied with yarn. There are several spinners spinning single strand yarn, and one spinner who takes those single strands to ply them into a 2 ply yarn. That then gets passed along to the weaver who weaves them into the shawl. I missed getting a picture of the shawl before we all had to pack up to go, but here are some Alpaca:




And some big bags and piles of wool:







I also ended up bringing home the park's spinning wheel to work on. It hasn't worked properly in years, and I could use a third (yes third! I own two spinning wheels and that still isn't enough) for my class that I teach there.




Here it us hanging out with my newer wheel. Didn't have space in the living room for all three.
So, looks like I've got a different sort of three speed to wrench and get running before next Sunday. :)

Yesterday's News

Yesterday I was on Let's Go Ride A Bike answering some questions about bikes and their accessories! It was fun being interviewed and sharing my experiences with them. Go check it out!

DIY Thumb Shifters

After the Flacon thumb shifters failed last week, I had put stem shifters back on. I found that I missed thumb shifting, and looked around for some more but I'm impatient. I wanted them back NOW. So I made some. :)

Well, I guess I didn't actually make them. But I did take the original stem shifters and put them on the handlebars. I reversed the levers (the left lever on the stem became the right lever on the handlebars and vise versa) and I used two stem clamps (the original and a matching spare clamp for the other side). I bought some new cables and housing, and some screws and put together something that works.

Actually, they work better than any shifting setup I've had on this bike!

I've had it this way for about a week now, and have had no troubles. I like that the levers are a bit longer than what you typically find on thumb shifters. I suppose in a way this is kind of like a po' folks Paul Thumbies set up, only with using stem levers instead of bar end levers.

Shock to the System

Wowzers! It got up to nearly 70(F) here today! People have been breaking out the tee shirts and flip flops, the dudes across from me ditched their shirts to blind us all with their pasty torsos, and I finally didn't have to ride in barn boots!




No socks too! Everyone was out enjoying the warm spell.
















It really is kind of a shock to the system. I guess that's why ye olde ipod (which I still want to call a Walkman. Does anyone else do that?) coughed up Billy Idol's "Shock to the System" first thing today.

Shifter woes

My poor mixte, Hedwig, seems to be plagued by shifter problems. First it was her original Shimano Altus stem shifters that just wouldn't hold the cable anymore.




I replaced them with some Falcon thumb shifters, which I really liked. Until today when part of the plastic housing broke and allowed the cable as well as it's housing to be pulled into the shifter when I would try to shift. This got all mangled and just wouldn't shift anymore.

With it being such a beautiful day out today, I just couldn't pass up on a ride so removed the thumb shifters and replaced them with another set of stem shifters that were graciously given to me not too long ago (thank you!).

Everything went smoothly, and I was on my way out to the barn when I started having trouble shifting again. I limped her the rest of the way there and discovered that the cable had started to fray apart at the shifter!




So, I reluctantly called my husband to come rescue Hedwig and me. At that point there was nothing I could do anyway.




Now, I've come to really like thumb shifters, but am wary now of buying cheap. So, should I just replace the cables and continue using the stem shifters, or go ahead and buy good quality thumb shifters? I'm leaning toward investing in good thumb shifters.

Don't leave home without it.

It being your headlight. Today I left mine at home.




I had unclipped it from it's bracket in order to tighten down the screw that holds the bracket together, then completly forgot to clip the light back on before leaving for the barn. Doh!




Lucky for me my husband was able to bring it by before I had to ride home blind.