Month: March 2024

Throwback Thursday: Thor

On By CarynIn Cats, throwback

Thor the cat is a year old, if we estimated his birthday accurately (we are probably fairly close). So for this Throwback Thursday, I present a recreation picture of Thor on the day he ran in front of my car across four lanes of traffic. I caught him by reaching into a thorn bush (Thorn was his name for a while), then confined him in a soft car crate that I hastily emptied. He was filthy, scared, and tiny.

Photo description: small gray tabby kitten with wide eyes and long whiskers in a soft crate.

He is now nearly 15 pounds, very clean (he bathes himself even more than our female cats), and quite comfortable with his cushy life. He had a good time sitting in the old soft crate for his photo shoot.

Photo description: Thor the gray tabby cat at one-year-old laying in the same dark gray soft crate. He has grown into his fur and whiskers.

Clear origami crane

On By CarynIn Craft

Many years ago I learned how to fold paper cranes. It is my go-to fidget when I’m waiting and there is paper available, mostly a situation I encounter in restaurants. My cranes have become smaller and smaller as my kids grew and the paper available diminished. I went from coloring sheets to sugar packets. My favorite so far has been a minuscule crane folded out of clear plastic.

Photo description: clear origami crane folded out of a plastic wrapper. Penny for scale. Sitting on the surface of an iPad.

Soybean fiber

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve finished spinning the singles for my soybean fiber. It has quite the halo. I think if I had used water to wet it as I spun, as is done with flax, it might have less fly away fibers. I’ll mark that as a future experiment.

Photo description: Soybean fiber before spinning, the fibers really like to expand and float.
Photo description: Soybean fiber after spinning, wrapped nostepinne style around a prototype Phase Spindle. Many fuzzy ends visible along the edges of the yarn cop.

Soybean fiber was developed by Henry Ford around 1937 in his push to promote soybeans in the marketplace. He also developed a soybean plastic and produced a limited number of soybean cars, with plastic body parts and soybean fabric door panels. The fiber is now gaining in popularity and obtaining soybean combed top for spinning is easy. It is also referred to as vegetable cashmere, which fits with that soft fuzzy halo I obtained with my yarn.

Big boy

On By CarynIn Cats, dog
Photo description: gray tabby cat laying on the floor near a shaggy black dog.

This is a picture of a 15 pound cat and a 50 pound dog. Angles and perspective make it look like the cat is nearly the same size as the dog. Thor the cat is a big boy, but not that big. Griffin the dog is being quite tolerant of the cat. Thor is just now a year old; Griffin is ten, approaching eleven.

More 3-hook i-cord makers

On By CarynIn Craft

I ordered replacement hooks for a knitting machine, which are essentially latch hooks without a handle. I made handles from flame maple and deer antler horn and mounted three hooks in each handle using epoxy in holes I drilled with a drill press.

Photo description: four 3-hook cord makers, the far left and middle right handles are made of deer antler, the far right and middle left are made of flame maple.

I sealed the flame maple with Howard’s Feed and Wax (I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love this stuff!)

They work! I spread the tines a little more on these, which gives a more flexible i-cord than my first i-cord maker.