I did decide to cable ply my angora hand spun yarn to go from a two ply to a four ply.
I am going to let time set the twist, so wrapped the final yarn into a center pull ball. This is yarn spun from raw angora rabbit fur, not carded not combed, not washed. I’ll created my swatches for my fiber book before water touches the fibers, just to see what happens.
I’ve two plied the angora yarn I spun.
The yarn is still quite thin, so I think I will ply it again to make a four ply cable yarn. The bumpy texture of cable plied yarn will complement the fluffy nature of the yarn, I think.
I finished spinning the angora rabbit fur I purchased from a Texas rabbit farmer. I didn’t wash, card, or comb the fiber, just took it out of the bag and started spinning, which resulted in a more uneven spin, but was worth the experiment.
The next step is to ply the yarn. In preparation, I wrapped the yarn into a center pull ball.
This is not my usual lap cat. Sophie, the outside cat that adopted us and moved inside, has decided that laps are warm and cozy, especially with a fuzzy blanket. She has not learned knitting etiquette yet, though, and thinks the yarn is for play. We’re working on it. Right now it is a balance of encouraging lap time and gently discouraging yarn gnawing.
The new project is a meditative piece using yarn gifted to me by my youngest. It will be a wide scarf done in garter stitch, so no pattern lines to follow, no perl stitches, just knit and turn.
My Dad has been experimenting with making hot sauce. I thought he needed a hot sauce holster for either sauces or spices so they are easy to grab, so I made him one from leather. I started the design process with card stock, so I could get the sizes and shapes right.
Once I was comfortable with my design, I used Adobe Illustrator to lay it out digitally, including engraving and lace holes. I included a “test” rectangle, which was very helpful and something I will include in future design projects, because I was able to use those elements to test my laser cutter settings before committing to larger objects.
I rinsed the leather with water to remove the soot and smoke marks, then dyed it with leather dye.
I used waxed linen to sew the pieces together. I absolutely love how even I can laser cut the holes. Neat stitching is 90% hole placement.
I’m had some space at the bottom of the holster and thought that places to hang things are always potentially useful, so installed a gold hued metal grommet. I finally bought a pair of grommet pliers for this size, and it makes installation so much easier than hammering dies together.
The holster is designed to hang from a belt, and since it is wide, I separated the belt loop into two sections so it can accommodate a belt loop if necessary.
Critters and Craft 