Trail cameras

On January 3, 2026 By CarynIn Wildlife

Ooo! My folks gave me two trail cams! My old camera died after seven years of use, and I haven’t had a peek into the wildlife in the back woods for a while. I set one camera up by the back of the coop, and the other where I was getting deer pictures before, a little ways into the woods. I set the cameras on the trail setting, which I love. Mostly what I am getting is pictures of the meadow cats, the semi-feral outdoor cats that hang out between my neighbors’ house and mine, but I did get an interesting time line of a couple of opossums.

Then sequence of photos shows a larger, lighter opossum approaching a smaller, darker opossum. The first thing my eldest noticed on seeing the photos was that the opossum on the left doesn’t have eye shine on its left eye, a possible injury indicating blindness in that eye, maybe? I’ve seen both these critters on the new trail cam individually. Opossums are reported to be solitary, only coming together to mate in late winter early spring, so it is unlikely these two are buddies. I am interested to see if I get any more glimpses of the two together.

Lollipop for cats

On January 2, 2026 By CarynIn Cats

I found a lollipop made for cats at the pet store. The kind I found was made of freeze-dried chicken pressed into a heart shape on a paper stick.

Photo description: large gray tabby licking a partial chunk of freeze dried chicken on a stick

Thor the cat enjoyed the lollipops the best, he actually licked it, then bit it. When he did bite off a chunk he swallowed it whole, which concerned me because they weren’t small chunks. Izzy the calico was not impressed. Sophie the dilute calico couldn’t be bothered with licking and just chomped hard through the whole lollipop.

Throwback Thursday: New Year’s Day

On January 1, 2026December 29, 2025 By CarynIn Craft

I went into my photo app and searched New Year’s Day for my throwback today. I found a quirky little project I did back in 2016, where I was experimenting with small alternating blocks of Tunisian crochet.

Photo description: four squares of Tunisian crochet connected as stitched, sometimes called “sew as you go”, made with red, green, and white variegated cotton yarn

Photo description: nine square swatch with a crochet border

Photo description: same nine square swatch, but labeled with the order number and if the rows were done from the right or left

I think the variegated yarn and Tunisian crochet made some interesting pooling variations. When I washed this swatch, though, it puckered and buckled aggressively, so I did not pursue the technique farther.

Happy New Year, may your year be filled with successful experiments!

Jumbo bobbin two

On December 31, 2025 By CarynIn Craft

I spun up three more bobbins of single spun Teeswater wool and plied them into a three ply yarn.

Photo description: three full bobbins on the bobbin storage shafts built into the Ashford Traveller wheel

Photo description: small bobbins depleted, one empty, two partially depleted

Photo description: three ply yarn on two jumbo bobbins, the left was done previously, the right recently plied

I think I have enough Teeswater roving to do one more jumbo bobbin of three-ply yarn, which means I will have to transfer yarn off a jumbo bobbin as I only have two. It will take me a while to spin though, so I don’t have to transfer yet.

Minimal wallet

On December 30, 2025 By CarynIn Craft

I designed a couple variations of minimal wallets by starting with paper mock ups.

Photo description: paper mock ups for two wallet designs, the bottom left has an angle access and a traditional quarter fold insert, the bottom right has a scoop access and an accordion fold insert, top middle is a credit card mock up

After getting my dimensions figured out with paper, I designed the leather cut out in Adobe Illustrator, and used a blue diode laser cutter to cut and emboss vegetable tanned tooling leather.

Photo description: leather with embossed design after cutting with a laser and rinsing with water, the folding

I stained the leather and let it dry, then applied a coat of resolene, which will make it water resistant.

I wanted the insert to have RFID blocking capabilities, so I used spray glue to adhere cotton quilting fabric to faraday fabric.

Photo description: cut cotton fabric glued to faraday fabric using spray glue on the back of the cotton

My favorite part of this project was learning a new-to-me edge stitch: triple loop lacing. It took a few tries on scrap leather to get the hang of it, but it was worth it. I love the braided edge look with the heavy waxed thread.