All you need to spin your dreams
Here is the latest addition to our family of weaving products, the Majacraft Circular Loom. It is 275mm in diameter (10.8″) and is made from a 4mm thick plywood. It was developed in conjunction with the Golden Fleece fibre creativity course (although they have a […]
We have recently arranged with our plastics supplier to produce a limited run of plastic bobbins for the holiday season. If you are interested in some very special and unique bobbins for your Majacraft wheel that will REALLY stand out, then contact your dealer quickly. First in, first […]
As the title of this post suggests, I have indeed been thinking – and I am hoping for a bit of feedback on this too please.
So here goes… Bobbins, people often measure bobbins by the weight of yarn they hold. For example, “I can fit 250gm of yarn onto my large bobbin” or similar. This is not making sense to me because there is so much potential inconsistency. Different fibres have different densities, different yarns have different densities, spinners can pack the yarn tighter or looser on to a bobbin. So if my bobbin holds 250gm of fibre, is it lace weight or something really lofty, is it Romney or Angora rabbit? There are so many variables in measuring by weight!
My thoughts are that measuring the volume of a bobbin makes more sense – the volume of yarn that can be contained on the cylinder shape made by the bobbin.
The primary issue with this is that volume measures are in cubic centimetres or cubic metres or the equivalent imperial measure. I personally find these hard to visualise (what size does 1cm^3 look like?). I thought that measuring in liquid units might be better, I can picture a litre or a pint.
I did some measuring of our bobbins and came up with the following numbers:
LACE BOBBIN – 0.25 litres or 0.5 pints
STANDARD BOBBIN – 0.5 litres or 1.0 pints
JUMBO BOBBIN – 1.0 litres or 2.0 pints
So what do you think? Is this a useful way to measure bobbin capacity? If so what units would you use (particularly in countries that use imperial measures)? Your feedback would be very valued thanks 🙂
Andy
Here is the press release about an exciting project that we have been invited to be a part of – The Journey to the Golden Fleece Fiber Creativity Course. This has been developed by Arlene Ciroula (SpinArtiste) and Suzy Brown (Woolwench). More news and pictures […]
We now produce a blending board! Yay! The standard information you will firstly be interested in is the cloth. We have used 72 TPI cloth that measures 210mm (8.3″) wide by 300mm long (11.8″). The kit comes with a blending board – of course! […]
For those who are fans of Facebook and are interested in the new Majacraft Dynamic Heddle Loom, you might be interested in checking out “Manic Dynamic Majacrafters“. This is a page set up by three of our weaving heroes, Donyale Grant, Esther Rodgers and Suzy Brown. It is dedicated to weaving on the Majacraft loom. People are posting their work, using it as a forum and taking part in the challenges offered to build a very cool community.
Here is a small selection of pieces being created:
As I have mentioned before, I feel very proud to have been able to have a little part in the amazing things that talented people from around the world are creating – so thank you all. I can’t wait to see what you do next!
You can visit the page here Manic Dynamic Majacrafters
Andy
Lately we have been following the progress in USA of our friend, Michelle Snowden , aka Wooldancer. Michelle hails from Australia and is teaching her particular brand of woolly goodness – Spin to Wear – to enthusiastic spinners around the country. She started at […]
As many readers are likely aware, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and Princess Catherine) recently had their first child. New Zealand presented a gift of a merino shawl to the new family. We were very excited to see this news as the […]
So this is what they mean by being behind the 8-ball! Needless to say I have been rather busy recently simply helping to get products into boxes and into the postie’s van. There has been a bunch of news to share so here goes.
Yes, we have a Facebook page finally! It is being managed by the lovely Donyale Grant as our resources in the factory are already tapped out. Included on the page are tidbits from the workshop as well as inspirational resources, people and ideas from the wide world of the internet. You are welcome to come and join in the conversation!
Patsy Zawitoski and her husband Rich visited us recently at the workshop and we had a lovely time sharing spinning…stuff 😉 with them both. You can read about their international adventures on their blog here or alternatively go straight to the Majacraft bit here.
As more of our very unique looms make their way around the world, we are seeing some very interesting and creative work coming from different artists. If you are keen to see some of the amazing stuff that weavers are making, try visiting these web sites
Rather than edit this post for days getting it just so, I think the wisest choice is to publish it quick to let you know that we are indeed still alive at Majacraft! Hopefully I will get back to the blog real soon and maybe I will be able to share something about the progress of Blue Sun.
Andy
Recently we had the opportunity to engrave another custom wheel, this time a Rose for our friend Anna Josefsson. I was very pleased with how it came out, particularly the little frog on the handle nut! This was the first time we had tried engraving […]