One of our favorite teacher gifts to make is bookmarks, and special book marks need tassels. I don’t know why, but they do. (Even though the cat usually finds the tassels and pulls out the bookmark!) I have to look up how to make tassels every time, and every time I don’t like the tutorials I find. So here is the process I used this year, so I can find it next year, and maybe the information will benefit someone else as well.
On a walk at a local park, I stopped to take a picture of thistles. I love the look of these thistles! The leaves are silvery, and I like the tassel; yes they are prickly, but at a distance that has its own kind of charm. I ran the photo through the iNaturalist app to figure out what kind of creature was sipping nectar, and it suggested thistle, and two very different insects. Huh? Then I looked closer and there are two insects in the picture! The bee fly on the bloom to the right, and the back end of a flower scarab in the bloom on the left. I have not documented either creature, so it is quite the exciting picture!
I have finally added an “About Me” page, accessible from the menu on my page ofchickensandcraft.home.blog. It rather highlights my fractured nature, but if you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you have probably picked up that I am easily distracted and try many things!
In reading more about weaving, and actually watching some videos (not in their entirety of course, I don’t have that kind of attention span), I noticed the warp yarns were further apart than my warp yarns. I grabbed a bag of variegated cotton bits and this time I tried skipping a peg between warp threads. I also used some tissue in the first two rows as spacers, and found a method for getting the sides more even by pulling the end warp thread away against the weft of each pass. I still have a little hour glass shape, but the tension across the whole piece is much, much better.
With the wider warp, which I think would be 4 ends per inch (epi), I was able to pack down the weft (back and forth passes of yarn) to cover the warp (up and down) yarn. I get stripes instead of the interesting color play, but the finished fabric is so much softer and thicker. It was easy to pull the warp threads through the piece for the fringeless method of finishing, and easy to weave in the ends. (I actually enjoy weaving in the ends, but it is basically sewing, and I like needle work.) The colors are interesting; it is obvious that I’m working from leftover bits of yarn, but my youngest thinks the pink and rainbow is awesome. So there we go.
Well, attempted egg thievery. I went out to check the chickens around noon and found a 4 foot long Western Rat Snake in a nest trying to eat an egg. I ran back to the house to get my phone, turned on the video, with light, and she (?) still didn’t care I was there. The egg was too big, though. I called for my eldest to bring the snake grabber (yes, I went into the house for my phone and not the grabber), and we gently removed the snake from the nest and relocated it outside the coop.
I think the snake slithered in the coop door during the day. I was afraid of squishing bits with the grabber and dropped it a couple times and it didn’t seem to have a bolt hole. But that may be another factor in our decreased egg collection. Although, honestly, a few eggs is a good salary for something that keeps rats and mice away. This guy will need to grow a bit before it can eat the eggs. Maybe it was stealing the 44g eggs and couldn’t take the 46g.
I had some more of the variegated cotton yarn, so I attempted another weaving with my mini loom. I am not particularly fond of variegated yarn for crochet or knitting (I’ve had this cone of cotton for probably over 10 years), but I quite like the effect using it for the warp and weft of weaving.
I gave myself more room on the loom this time, going for a smaller washcloth. I’m still having trouble with tension, but it is getting better. I tried some areas of linen weave, but I don’t quite have my head wrapped around the technique yet. More practice is required. It was easier to pull the weft through the work for the fringeless method to finish off the washcloth, so working smaller was a good choice.
I still have the loose edges issue, but it is better. I think I have some more variegated yarn around here somewhere…
Critters and Craft 