Monday was Mike’s and my anniversary – celebrating 7 years of wedded bliss. It’s been eleven years since we got together, and I love him more with each passing day. I’m so happy we met!
To demonstrate one part of why Mike is the best husband ever, the night before our anniversary, he presented me with this:
It’s a cone winder that he made for me. It uses two parts that I bought from a guy in Russia, and is based on some photos of working cone winders that the fellow in Russia sent us, but the actual design and construction comes from Mike’s ingenuity and mechanical skills.
And it is FABULOUS!! It winds skeins onto cones twice as fast as I could do before (I was using a double-ended electric bobbin winder with cone adapters), and creates beautiful, neatly wound cones. No more having loops of yarn flying off the end of a cone! This will massively speed up my dyeing process. And it’s a lot better than anything I could possibly buy. I think it’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten.
(That’s not why I married Mike – I married him because he is kind, generous, trustworthy, creative, funny, and thoroughly lovable (among a host of other reasons!) – but gifts like these are a nice bonus.)
Here are photos of two cones that it wound:
As you see, they’re wound as tightly and neatly as a commercially wound package of yarn. The purple cone is 3300 yards of fine silk; the tan one is 1650 yards. About 10 minutes to wind the tan cone, which is super fast.
I’m backed up on blog posts at the moment, so you’ll get one more tomorrow. The next one will be about a “quickie” I am weaving for a San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles fundraiser – a handwoven image of part of the Mandelbrot set. I wanted to create something that showed off the beauty of mathematics – and this one promises to deliver! Here is the original image (created by Professor Wolfgang Beyer, found on Wikipedia, and used under Creative Commons license):
Some of the detail will be lost in translation, but I think it’ll be beautiful.
Finally, for those who asked about Fritz and Tigress – don’t worry, they are up to their usual antics. Here’s a video that shows Tigress going “undercover” to pounce on Fritz.
To say that some of the detail of the Mandelbrot set will be lost in the weaving is a bit of an understatement. 😉
I consider myself a beginning weaver, though have been at this for years, but my long hour work week as a physician is a challenge. I determined that my slow point is winding the warp (a little bit each night) and wished for a cone winder so that I could wind ten warp threads at a time without buying 10 cones! I remembered your blog and have just ordered the Magical Adapters (still around) but wondering if Mike will go into the cone winder making business! 🙂 I am sure there is a need…or maybe sell the plans? Though I am not sure I could find the parts in Russia that are needed ;). Thanks for the inspiration!
Deborah
Hi Deborah,
No plans to sell cone winders or the plans…but if you know a handy person, you can find the parts at http://gsn-knit.ru/winder/wool_winder_en.html . Good luck!
Thanks Tien! I am going to start with the ‘Magical Moons’. Happy Thanksgiving.
Deborah