Remember and honor

Photo description: headstones lined up at the Black Hills National Cemetery

Today we honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. Our flag is flying, and we remember.

Bold.

I hadn’t even finished putting new corn cobs on the squirrel-go-round when a squirrel came down to investigate.

Photo description: squirrel sitting on the corn feeder looking at the camera from about three feet away

This one has a notch out of the right ear. She may have earned herself a name.

Twining loom

I finally made myself a twining loom, after returning my neighbor’s to her. I tried other shorter methods, but having the warp hang freely makes it so much easier to twine.

Photo description: bag twining loom made from 1×4” boards and two 7/16”dowels

The boards were in my scrap pile and 18.5” long. I used my band saw to cut one board down to 1.3”, then clamped them together and drilled seven 7/16” holes, four on one side, three on the other so I could always tell how the boards line up. The wider board on the bottom gives stability. The multiple holes give me options on bag width. Ironically, the dowels have a slight bend, and line up with nonparallel holes. Hm.

Photo description: twining two colors around free hanging warp threads in twos

My eldest gifted me some pretty green wool blend yarn for Mother’s Day, so I thought it best to make something for myself. I can never have too many project bags, and I like twining, so I just needed a loom. I had some synthetic rug yarn in my stash that was a pretty rich brown, so I used that for the warp to maximize the variegated green yarn available for the twined weft.

This will not be a quick project, but it will still be an enjoyable one.

Another patch

I found a different patch of four-leaf clover in the yard!

Photo description: straight down look at two four-leaf clovers and two three-leaf clovers with sparse grass and brown leaf litter

And that’s what I have for today. We are rolling into summer which for me means a massive schedule change. There might be more plant and pet posts, or I might actually finish some projects and have something crafty to say. Hm.

Throwback Thursday: viking knit

In July of 2014 I was experimenting with making “viking knit” wire chains. I did a number of trials with different metals and gauges of wire. I stumbled across this picture that also showed the time it took to get a small section of work done.

Photo description: wood dowel with looped brass wire, a spool of wire, side cutters, needle nose pliers, awl, book, and ID card

I like viking knit chains, they have a nice feel and drape. The technique is looping, which years later I learned to do with yarn in a method called nälbinding. I still love nälbinding too. Neither are fast crafts, but they are satisfying.