Our temperatures recently plummeted (along with most of the country), but here it brought a dry snow, the kind that doesn’t stick, but whirls in the wind, dancing as it gets caught in the currents. I have not seen this kind of snow before in Texas, and it took me back to Colorado, which snows below freezing often. The flurries started on our way home, and we decided to take a less crowded back road. This barn was nestled in the curve of the road, and despite the temperatures, I had to get out and take a photo. (It wasn’t a completely deserted road, I was asked by a passing motorist if everything was OK.)
We made cinnamon star bread from a Raddish Kids crate recipe. This is a keeper. Pretty and delicious. The preparation is on par with cinnamon rolls, so not difficult. It involves layering four circles of dough with butter and cinnamon sugar, rather than a rectangle of dough, but the shaping is rather fun.
I am not a fan of dye. I like color, don’t get me wrong, but bleeding, unintentional splotching, and staining the wrong item irritate me. Still every so often, I try again. I made my youngest a dress for the holidays (she doesn’t read my blog, so I’m safe to post today). I could design the dress for spinning as requested, but I couldn’t find the right sky blue color, so I purchased a white cotton knit.
Swing dress in white
Because it is me making the dress, I included a pocket panel across the front. Three sides of the pocket are sewn in and there are two openings, so it is rather like a hoodie pocket, but concealed.
Pocket!
After the dress was finished and hemmed, I dyed it. First I did an all-over dye with RIT Aquamarine, following the instructions carefully.
Dress in a dye bath on the stove to maintain temperature
I rinsed the fabric (for forever), and then while the garment was still wet, I dip dyed the bottom in a different dye bath of Royal Blue. I then rinsed again. Then I ran it in the washer. Then I ran it with color stay, then I washed it again before drying it.
Blue ombre dress (it is difficult to photograph blue)
From a distance the color came out as intended, but up close there are splotches and variations that were not evident after the initial dye bath. Hm. I’m still not a fan of dye.
My sister sent me an assortment of spinning fibers! There are preparations that I never knew existed! Squee! (This post already has an abundance of exclamation points. There will probably be more.) Banana? Rose? How facinating to learn that fiber preparations can be made from these sources! There is enough material in each sample bag for me to get a feel for spinning it, and to make my swatches for my fiber book. I also have the name of a new (to me) fiber store, which is nearly as exciting as the bags themselves! (See, more exclamation points. I warned you.)
Although my fiber page design isn’t terribly thick, the quarter inch drawer causes the pages to bow when the book is flat. The spacers provided with the photo album are too thin, so I made new ones out of quarter inch thick foam sheet from the craft store.
Old cardboard spacer (right) used as a guide to make a new foam spacer (left)
I cut the foam to match the old spacer using a large paper cutter, then matched the holes with a paper punch. The foam was remarkably easy to punch. Assembling my fiber pages in the book went much, much easier using these spacers and three inch posts.
Spacer installed between pagesSpine of album with spacers, without coverTop of album showing better page separation with the spacers
Critters and Craft 