I finished single spinning the rest of my Teeswater wool roving from Pitchfork Ranch. I’ve been spinning with this fiber for a year, on and off, and it feels strange to reach the end of the bag.
My first two jumbo bobbins of wool were crocheted into a circle vest. This last bobbin I’ll use to make a page for my spinning journal. With that idea, I two plied the yarn on the middle bobbin, and chain plied the yarn on bobbin on the right to get some more examples to put in my book.
I hand hemmed a second pair of pants, this time one woven with stripes. They are straight leg pants, so I could line up the stripes, and they already had a small hem, which I used to hide the stitches completely with a slip stitch.
I love how the slip stitch is nearly entirely invisible!
The crochet blocks for Warm up America have become my favorite waiting room activity, and I really enjoy the diagonal block stitch (also called corner-to-corner (CTC)). It has just enough variation that it stays interesting, but I don’t have to watch a pattern.
I am also using up yarn odds and ends to make the blocks, which is why one block has an outlier. I ran out of cream colored yarn one stitch from the end of a block. I think next time I will rip out that last block for the color change. Hm. That gives me another idea for color switching.
I forgot to pack a yarn needle, so I wove in the ends when I got home.
In June 2018 I was in the height of my “eyes on rocks” painting period. This octopus eye was one of my favorites.
This rock was put out in the wild for someone to find.
The whip stitch is very useful for putting hems on finely knit items like t-shirts or soft pants. Because fine knits are difficult to unravel, you don’t need to fold over the edge twice, you can stitch over the cut edge, which also gives the hem a lower profile. If you are hemming a ribbed knit, lining up the ribs helps keep the fabric even and gives a nice gauge for stitch size!
I started at a seam, and hid the thread knot in the seam fold. Then I put the needle through the pearl side (indent) stripe on the inner layer, and just picked up a couple loops on the next rib of the outer layer. To keep the stitches at the right tension, after stitching a few I pulled open the ribbing to draw in the thread. This leaves the stitches loose so they won’t show and are less likely to snap when the fabric stretches. Pulling the stitches tight would result in a visible stitch line that would break the first time the fabric stretched.
Critters and Craft 