My second work in pyrography is also a beloved pet. I’m quite pleased with how this one came out. Working with the wood burning kit is much like pointillism, nearly all the shapes are made with small burn dots layered upon one another. I have several more pieces of this particular paper to experiment with before I have to source more and hope the light and dark effect still works.
We originally put welded wire no climb fencing on the top of the chicken’s run to keep out hawks. It also works to keep out cats. Or as a platform for cat TV, depending on your perspective.
Done! I have finished my first knit along! It took me 15 days to complete (working in fits and starts), and I have learned a new knitting technique. The finished cowl is nice and squishy and quite appropriate for its intended use. The stitching is easier than I anticipated once I learned to recognize the brioche stitches versus regular stitches. The Field Guide 21 from Modern Daily Knitting is a good resource.
My stock tank garden really is a frog haven, with the little pond (old dish), shade (melon vines and basil), food (bugs that eat my melons), and rest areas (branches to lead the vines to the fence). I thought these two were quite cute.
I bought some beautifully dyed yarn from a hand dyer. In the dying process, the yarn is left in skein form, which is basically a large circle secured in several places with twists of yarn. To store the skein it is twisted and one end tucked into the other. The skein form is beautiful, and shows off the dye, but is not friendly for direct use. It must first be wound into a ball or cake to be nice for crochet or knitting. You can have one person hold the skein open on their hands, and hand wind a ball, if you have someone with extra patience. Or a swift does the job of holding the skein open, and there are many types. I have an umbrella swift (named thus because it opens like an umbrella). I also have a ball winder (sometimes called a new wool winder), that has a rotating handle and makes center-pull yarn cakes. The sound of the Swift and ball winder turning makes a nice swoosh and clickty clack I find soothing.
Critters and Craft 