Category: Equipment

Our new Octi-Spinner Floor Frame

5/3/2014

NEW!!!!!!!! - Octi-Spinner Floor Frame

Easily turns 360* on a Lazy Susan device to access any part of your rug. Large working space of 20" outside and 16 1/4" inside measurement. All hardwood construction, sturdily made.

Comes with a free flannel cover (value $36.95). Top part slides off and can be used independently as a lap frame.

Adjustable height and tilt knobs. Base folds up for travel. Padded feet to protect floor. Made in Nova Scotia. Click for pricing:
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/frames.html

4 Comments

We're just a bunch of pan handlers!

9/30/2013

2 Comments

This is what you call heads above the rest....I couldn't resist!

At Encompassing Designs we like to work smarter, not harder, so we’re always looking for ways to cut time from a job and minimize waste while continuing to offer quality you can rely on.   For years I’ve said I should have been an efficiency expert, if such a thing exists, but I don’t hold a candle to my son Shane.

Give him a job and he will come up with a way to make it easier and faster....things I've never even considered. I’m impressed that the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree and proud that he can beat his momma on a few things.

Shane does the dyeing for the shop, draws patterns and does arm-long lists of jobs that might not be seen on the surface but keeps the place running like a well-greased wheel. Everything he’s touched has been altered to work faster. I heard a saying once “Give a job to a lazy person and he'll find a way to do it faster”. Now Shane isn't lazy so that really doesn’t apply, but it could read, “Give a job to a genius and he’ll find a way to revolutionize the process.”

Different dyeing techniques call for various timing for prep and execution. Scrunching wool in a pan to spot can be labour intensive because the secret to the overall appeal is the tightness and height of the folds which of course, takes time to place.   Then the uniformity of the various colours can depend on how you place the dye over these folds. Too high or floppy folds mean dye won’t seep to the bottom and you have to spend more time digging out between the flaps to find the white spots. My son has the spot dye down to a science. I'll admit his scrunching is superior to mine.…momma doesn’t have as much patience, so there’s more chance of being sloppy…the dear boy's words, not mine.

Spot dyes require proper pans and we’ve looked for them in yard sales and hardware stores. We've tried glass, enamel and steel all with varying results. I guess that would make Shane and I just a bunch of pan handlers.....   Most large open-faced pans come with areas around the perimeter that are lower than the center of the pan, a trough along the edge for drainage when cooking I guess. After my father passed away I found two large pans in his panty that have served us very well over the years but I have never seen another pan like them so we pray they have a long life.

These stainless steel vessels hold a half yard of wool comfortably and although they still have that channel around the outer perimeter I have found it can be useful to create a slightly darker edge that can be used for a bit of shading. so if you have a grassy green spot and need a bit of a shadow under a bush, the darker edges are perfect!

Most of the enameled or glass pans we found weren’t quite the right size; the glass was too elongated and the enameled one was overall too small to make the right kind of folds needed to support all the different colours in the spot. So we toyed with the idea to have a few pans custom made and as we worked out the pros and cons the idea struck to have one fabricated large enough to hold an entire yard of wool and flat bottomed for even distribution of dye.

So we contacted a local welder and requested a pan with the dimension of the inside of our oven.   As big as we could go without touching the inside walls of the stove. It worked like a charm. Of course everything had to be doubled, the formula and the water to sufficiently cover twice as much wool. We don’t use it often, Shane says that it takes him more time scrunching the wool into the tiny folds in the larger pan than he is able to process in two ½ yds ones, but I beg to differ and there might have to be a spot "dye off" to see which one leads the race.  Even though it may take more time preparing the wool for the big pan, it does cut down on the energy spent in oven heat and that kind of efficiency saves money and, more importantly, dyes twice as much for the wool racks.

So for all you dyers out there that sell wool, having a pan made to order can cut down on the time you are slaving over a the spot dye.   The pan cost $30.00 to have made and that was paid for with the first piece of wool dyed. One thing we didn’t take into account was that the two older stoves we work on might not have the same dimensions inside the oven so the pan we had made only fits the one stove. Who’d of thunk?   Even genius can learn from experience! We had a second pan made and now we're covered.

One thing I will caution about. Make sure the pan's inside corners are smooth. No areas where dye can settle in and later ooze out to stain the next piece of wool. Explain to the person making up the pan that there can't be any areas that leave gaps or where dyed water can get in.

The pan to the left is the normal size we would use to dye a 1/2 yd piece of wool.

Look at all those folds of delicious colour! Grass and foliage, here I come!

The dye formula used for this demonstration was Kermit. See it on the site by clicking the link:
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/dyed-spots.html

2 Comments

Wool Widget

1/6/2013

6 Comments

This is a dip dyeing tool hubby made for me a few years back.   Holding the wool with just my fingers meant scalded digits and I didn't like using tongs as they were too awkward to handle and kept slipping so the wool would fall into the dyebath, plus you need two hands and two pairs of tongs to hold the wool open and vertical, so he came to my rescue yet again.

Tah dah! This little Wool Widget works well.  There is a knob handle for safe holding, the wood floats if you want to lay it in the water and you don't care if it gets wet. The brass hooks hold the wool nicely along the salvage edge and you can wrap it around once or twice, depending on the size of wool needed.

Simple to make and easy to control when dipping the wool up and down in the water.   Maybe I should have these made for the shop?

6 Comments

Hooking with gripper frames!

10/26/2012

7 Comments

To be fair one has to cover both sides of the coin so I'll spotlight the gripper frame inext.   She is a very lovely girl and in a perfect world we would all love to have one but there are pros and cons to this as well, although nothing to shed any tears over, unless of course you're bleeding!

Don't we love our gripper frames! So easy, so slick to move your backing around.   Not all gripper frames are created equal but today's designs usually tilt and turn 360* which is what you want to look for. The older style stationery frames were high in the back and slanted lower in the front with open areas on the sides and front to get at our work. But if you wanted to hook in a circle you have to keep adjusting the backing or learn to manipulate your wrists. Frames that turn 360* allow access to every part of your work with a quick spin.

There are lap frames, sit on frames and floor frames. You can decide what suits your hooking lifestyle and some of us have more than one frame to cover all our needs. A smaller, sit on or lap frame for scooting about to hook with groups or at a friend's house and the floor frame at home for comfort in front of the TV.

Poor granny had to strap down her pattern to a room sized dinosaur that didn't allow any moving of the backing without a great deal of time and effort.  The stationery frame did not allow movement so she ended up hooking in straight lines back and forth. She would have loved the flexibility of a moving frame, would have thought thought she died and went to heaven! Today we like portability, visiting friends with hooking in tow and we also like hooking in wavy lines, circles and diagonal lines. Thanks goodness for evolution of the rug hooking species!

Cons
1. Deadly spikes that scratch our skin and tear our shirts. Who hasn't bled on their project please stand! No one? Didn't think so. Putting the backing on and taking it off is where you are likely to be scratched but leaving it sit around with out a flannel cover, you can accidently brush up against it for a little abrasive contact.
2. More cost although that isn't a deal buster if you want one.
3. Gee, can't think of another negative thing to say!

Pros
1. You can leave your work in a gripper frame for as long as you like. Seeing your project out and ready you are likely too hook more often.
2. Easy to move your pattern around to get to all areas.
3. You can make or purchase a gripper frame cover to protect you while you work to stop or minimize injury.
4. Solid hardwood framing means long life.
5. Grippers never wear out.
6. A lot of the gripper designs have a hand rest bar that stretches across beneath the backing.
7. Usually all gripper frames come apart for travel, will fit in a bag or a suitcase.
8. Patterns with very little edging can still be put on a gripper frame and pulled tight to work.

7 Comments

Our new Octi-Spinner Floor Frame

We're just a bunch of pan handlers!

Wool Widget

Hooking with gripper frames!

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Our new Octi-Spinner Floor Frame

We're just a bunch of pan handlers!

Wool Widget

Hooking with gripper frames!

Archives

Categories(Click on the categories for past blogs)

Categories
(Click on the categories for past blogs)