I finally made a wooden Lazy Kate. I had grand schemes to make something fancy and practice making dovetails, but alas I need more practice and on something smaller and softer than the 1” cupped oak plank I tried! Still, I managed to salvage the wood, which is nice and heavy, to make a functional tool. A Lazy Kate is used to hold spindles full of single ply yarn so the spinner can ply easily. It really should be a Genius Kate, or a Work Smarter Not Harder Kate. Poor Kate. She and Susan probably have some grievances. Anyway, I cut notches in sides of the top and bottom pieces and then cut pegs that fit in the notches for the sides. The holes for the spindle shafts are at a 5 degree angle because I saw another design that tilted the spindles. I used the largest section of wood for the base for stability, and glued the whole thing together.

When the glue was dry, I did apply some wood filler to the gaps, and when that was dry sanded the whole thing first with an orbital sander, then by hand with 120 grit sandpaper. Before applying finish, I tested plying with it. I have seen another style with a loop to feed the threads through, so I tried that. Turns out it is easier not to use a loop. I also put a rubber mat under the base to keep it from sliding, which isn’t a bad idea, but the weight of the wood did a good job keeping it steady.

This is the best Lazy Kate I’ve made so far. It made plying easier as I didn’t have to fight the tool the whole time. The angle of the holes worked great, letting the spindles spin, but not spin out of control (I’ve seen other designs that use elastic or wrapped string to provide tension). Since it passed its test, I’ll give it a nice polyurethane clear finish!

For my next yarn color it was time to use Donna Bella’s fleece (a fawn colored alpaca from Alpacas of Aledo). I was not planning on blending this round, but as I was carding I noticed a distinct color difference in some of the rolags (the roll of fiber that comes off the carder). So I separated the lightest and darkest colors and will spin them separately. I’m also going to reduce the number of rolags I spin per spindle to 10 to lighten the weight when I ply the last bits. (I used 12 rolags per spindle for the dark brown and fawn blend.)

Time to ply again! My spinning production took a dramatic downturn with the onset of the stay at home orders, which seems strange. Turns out that it had nothing to do with staying home (although with two kids and crisis schooling I have much less time for my crafts), and everything to do with not wanting to knit. I changed my plan for the yarn to a crochet vest, with motifs rather than a large solid piece, and suddenly I have motivation to spin again. I don’t know why, but even though I can knit, I don’t enjoy it as much as crochet or nålbinding. I like the stretch and feel of knit, I just don’t like ripping it out (which ALWAYS happens). I thought about nålbinding the vest, but that would be a two-year project, which also makes me go “ugh”. So the current plan is to make crochet motifs and join them together into a vest (note: this may change!)

Any who, I am still looking for the best plying method for me, and have been researching what works for others. I’ve seen many wooden contraptions, in many different styles. I like working in wood, and I have scrap wood in the garage, but before I render anything in wood, I thought I should try it in cardboard first. So I took the box that I tried a sideways method to hold the spindle shafts, and poked holes in it and tried an upright method. This worked better, but needs a weighted bottom. I actually think a slight angle on the shafts also works nicely. Now to think on how I want to make a wooden one.