(no subject)

[camwyn]

I'm not that much of a King reader, but after all the encounters with his fandom at milliways_bar, I must admit that I did some blinking this morning cleaning out one user's spam on our anti-spam service. Nineteen pieces of quarantined mail, and the topmost had the subject line "Re: new ka".

It was for Internet Viagra. But still.

In other news this morning the elevator tried to kill me. More on that later.

Comments

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Exactly nineteen? Wow. What are the odds?

[camwyn]

Eh- not as good as you'd think. This was after three days of me not touching the spam-cleanup screen. normally there'd be a lot more messages in his account.

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but still, that's some coincidence. Roland would be pleased.

[camwyn]

Right up until he saw the badly spelled attempt at asking him if he was disappointed in his erection, yeah.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Eddie, however, would be right there with a joke about how All Things Serve the Beam. 8-)

-- Lorrie

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Win.

[condotierre.livejournal.com]

Elevator? It better not make me hurt it because I have Rage and Aggression to spare in spades. With attack yaks. I like having an intact Og, thankyouverymuch stupid elevator.

[camwyn]

Nah, it's okay. I survived, all's well.

Also, I bought a drop spindle and eight ounces of dyed merino roving at the RenFaire. ANd got someone to show me how to use the damnable thing.

[condotierre.livejournal.com]

YAAAAAY! Ain't those things FUN? :)
*waves hers at you happily*

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Ah, the wonders of primitive tech!

I presume the roving's already carded?

The basic idea in spinning is to take a thin ribbon of roving and spin it round and round until the scales on the wool fibers catch, interlock and stick.

I'd practice this in small scale, with a smidge of roving and your pantsleg, before even assaying the spindle. You'll need 18-24" of spun stuff anyway, to prime the spindle.

Now, looking at your spindle, at least if it's like mine, you've got the spindle whorl (the disc) onna stick. The stick has a little bit sticking out of the bottom, and a lot sticking out of the top.

Tie your leader to the bit underneath the whorl, then lead it up, over the whorl, then over/through the hook at the top (hopefully your spindle has one, they help).

Now, while feeding the wool in a little at a time, you spin the spindle, which is attached to the wool, and spins the wool.

Remember, however:

1) It's going to be thick and uneven until you learn how to manage the tension better. Accept "extra bulky" and "artistically slubby" as defaults, with anything else being extra bonus cookies.
2) You will drop the spindle and cuss. A lot.
3) You will break the wool. A lot. When this happens, fray both ends, apply saliva (as far as wool is concerned, it's a wonder-glue), interleave the ends, and rub with vigor along your pants-leg until it's really and truly stuck together.
4) Try to keep the spindle always spinning in the same direction, to give your result twist in only one direction (S-twist or Z-twist).
5) If you get things fine enough that you can even contemplate multi-ply, spin the plies in the opposite direction from the way each ply is spun.
6) Wool wants to catch on itself, you're just encouraging its natural tendency. Remember this.

hyndla can practically spin thread, turning me quite green. I think she cheats. 8-P

[camwyn]

I kind of figured it was going to be lumpy as all hell; I'm just writing it off as the yarn for a Jayne hat, as it's precisely the right colour of orange. And hey, what better use for beginner yarn than a Jayne hat? As for dropping the spindle, I mostly stick it between my knees in between spins, so that helps. I haven't done the spit thing yet- I have no idea why it didn't occur to me- but all my spinning goes counter-clockwise, so the twists all come out nice and the same.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Good to hear! I looked at my learning curve for spinning, and found that while hyndla spins much better than I, I knit summat better than her, and therefore if I do have a Mighty Hand-Spun Need, I could just dangle pretty yarn, knitting lessons, or just plain knitting in front of her instead of breaking down and breaking out my drop-spindle--or, if in serious need of mass quantities, beg the lending of starfire6910's spinning wheel.

-- Lorrie

[tundra-no-caps.livejournal.com]

King's work can be seperated into three groups.

The Dark Tower books 1-4.

The Dark Tower books 5-7.

Others.