Well done to the person who placed the stickers on this work vehicle.
I appreciate a sense of detail. That said, my photo was taken at a stop light with my phone through a dirty windshield. Sigh.
Caught my eye
That’s it
My pumpkin vines have been merrily growing and spreading all summer. There was a setback in August with the high temperatures, but the vines persisted and continued to send out new trailers, but there has been no other production. No pumpkins. I get the start of a pumpkin, then it goes away.
I don’t think the patch gets enough sunlight for pumpkins. My basil is happy, there, though.
Different shuttle design
The shuttle I designed for my new inkle loom wasn’t working as well as I hoped. In Adobe Illustrator I designed a new one based on a weaving stick that I found digging through my weaving tools. I used my laser cutter to engrave a ruler and decoration and cut it out of 1/8” birch plywood. I then sanded the points and bottom edge to make a bevel so it was easier to slide it through the warp shed.
I finished the shuttle with butcher block conditioner and let it dry overnight.
I think the design needs some more refining. The upper part of the circles that hold the yarn also catch on the warp threads if I’m not careful. The holes are sized the way they are so the shuttle can hang on an inkle loom post when not in use. I’m not sure that functionality is worth the irritation of catching threads.
Spinning sticks
I made a dozen spinning sticks for my spinning class by cutting hardwood dowels, sanding them, then adding a small cup hook and finishing them with butcher block conditioner.
These are useful starting tools for teaching spinning wool. There is more connection for the student with the twist from turning the stick going into the fibers to lock them together and learning to control a long draw. They are also much less expensive than a purchased spindle or spinning wheel and very easy to make.
Retting attempt
I put a few canna leaves in a bucket of water and weighted them down with a rock with the intention of rotting away the non fibrous material. This process is called retting and is what is used in the process of getting linen fiber from flax.
I’ve read that flax only needs a few days of water retting, so after three days I dumped out the water (which was brown but not smelly) and rinsed the canna. There was no appreciable difference. Hm. It appears that canna needs more time than flax. Not surprising since canna is a much more robust plant than flax. I need that bucket, though, so I will find a different container to attempt to retting again.
