pixie takes a hike (or, samplings of samplings)

I have a spindolyn sitting by almost every place I sit down in my cabin. I call them my little “head clearers”
They are “in progress” testing of two things, a sort of sampling and sampling. Some are sampling the spindolyn prototype itself, some are sampling the fleece or blend.

I like to make blends, blends of fiber even more than blends of color, and that is a lot. I am very blendy, I guess, and so could call my spindles “mind blenders”

Anyway, sometimes the samples become part of a big project, sometimes they become part of the little balls of fibery goodness sitting around in baskets, calling out wistfully as I pass my glance over them, “if there were only more of me, you could make a shawl or a sweater”.

And sometimes, I hear them singing in soulful voices “all of me, why not take all of me”

hmmmm.

So when all of me is not very much, you have to think small. Pixie size small.

So, here is a sampled blend of cotswold and jacob rump fleece for pixie hair and beard. A sampled blend of space dyed merino and nylon for the hat and a sampled blend of gray romney and overdyed gray romney for the little sweater.

This pixie himself is a hiker pixie, I carved his little face, and body (the body is cedar) and his arms and legs are a bendable wire armature and tennessee river cane. The problem is, he lost his hiking stick, so as time permits, I really need to take him out into the woods to find a new one.

Look what the stork brought!

Not really, but when you work on and work out a design that takes more time and revision than you expected, when it finally falls together it feels somewhat like a birth. Not all designs are like that. Some you say “yes, that is nice, that works, I like it” and some you say, “wow, this is precious” and you gaze fondly and proudly upon it like a newborn puppy. Ok, so that sounds a little extreme, but I love this new spindolyn design.

I had thought about calling it the “Rubato” staying with the musical theme, but then I reconsidered presenting it as a restricted “type” because I like this base the best and then it occured to me that it would be nice to offer all the bases and spindles mix and match. So I will be revising the website soon to reflect that…but back to the new spindle.

The base is called the cubio style, the spindolyn is the new “mezzo” it is a nice size and weight in between the tenor and the soprano, and spins lovely. They are seen here in walnut.

Unlike the other spindle base styles, which are lap only, and not table top. This new cube base allows you to use it on the table, at an angle. The angle is a trade off, it slows down the spin, but gives you a longer and more comfortable draft angle for your arm. This cube style allows you to draft out to the side, reducing arm fatigue and overhead clearance. The square base can be set at a variety of angles in the crook of your lap; straight up for faster spinning, at an angle for more leisurely spinning.

Wheeeeeee!!!