In May of 2014 I crocheted a rather large owl basket for my Mom.
It stands up well when it is filled with towels. I like the spiral eyes as a choice. I believe I used a wool yarn that I had in my stash at the time.
For my North Carolina grown cotton fiber page I had enough hand spun crepe yarn to twine a small pouch. I used a square of sanded eighth inch plywood as my form and twined until I was about square. To finish the bottom, I ran the warp threads up the opposite side of the bag.
After I wove in all the warp threads, I realized a probably should have knotted them, then wove them in. Since this bag will only be on display in a book, it won’t see heavy use, but it is something I need to remember for next time I twine a bag. The picture of the pouch looks skewed because there is a bias twist in the fabric. I noticed when I started twining that I was actually untwisting the ply, so I switched my twine direction, which reinforced the ply, but gave it extra twist energy. It should even out after blocking.
I was so excited about learning to weave baskets that I bought a pound of #2 round reed made from rattan palm. As I prepped stakes and weavers from the coiled bundle, I had shorter lengths left over. My weaver friend told me how to make coasters, so I saved the “waste” reed and used it as the stakes for a small weaving.
These coasters use shorter lengths of reed for the stakes or spokes, and one long weaver that weaves around the middle. It starts the same was as a double walled basket, but stays flat. They don’t take as long to weave as a full basket, and they seem to make excellent little mats for coffee or tea.
I’m spinning Southdown wool on a 3D printed Turkish style spindle. I decided to weigh my yarn turtles so I can match them (as much as possible) to make plying easier. I started with the weight of the spindle and the single spun yarn.
Then I removed the yarn and weighed the spindle for reference.
Then I weighed the yarn turtle.
I forgot that if you stop winding part way through a layer on a yarn turtle, the layer peels up. It really needs a full wrap to stay neatly in place while in storage, so I removed the unruly layer, used it to start a new turtle, and weighed again.
I have about 113 grams of Southdown roving, so I should get four turtles, if I track it carefully. It will take me awhile, I’m spinning during my walks, so only spin a bit at a time.
Our dried corn cob holder for the squirrels broke, so I found a replacement. It has screw eyes to hold five cobs on a rotating hub.
The lightest corn cob is the easiest for the squirrels to strip off kernels, as it is right at the top of the wheel. Then it gets more challenging to get at the kernels on the other cobs. The squirrels figured it out, though, and cleaned off every cob. They did shoot me annoyed looks.
Happy Mother’s Day to all that get the eye roll from those you nurture.
Critters and Craft 