Thor the kitten was very interested in going out into the catio. The problem was, he is too small to jump back in the window. Hm. I grabbed a length of hardwood, wrapped it in outdoor fabric, secured the fabric with heavy duty staples, and screwed the end of the board to the catio structure. Now he has a ramp.
Kitten ramp
Like all good accommodations, this one can be used by everybody (well, every cat body), or easily by-passed by the older cats.
Thor using the kitten ramp.
Thor took a very long afternoon nap after spending time exploring the catio. He is relegated to the bottom layers until his muscles develop and his limbs get longer to make the big jumps possible, but that is OK because it gives Izzy the adult cat a place to escape.
After finishing spinning the single, I made a two ply yarn from my hemp sample. I transferred the yarn to my niddy noddy, then tied it in four spots and removed the skein.
Hemp yarn off the spindle onto the PVC niddy noddySkein of 2-ply hemp yarn, before finishing
The next step is to boil the yarn, which still gives me trepidation. It will happen, but I need to sneak up on it.
My youngest gave me a box of yellow to orange dyed merino wool and I decided to spin it up separately rather than blend it (so many choices with these bundles of colors!)
Spinning during a walk
I like the small bundles of wool because they transport easily; I can walk with the roving loosely around my fiber hand, or I can pop the fiber into a container in my purse so I can spin while waiting.
Fiber and spindle stash in my purseSpun and unspun Merino wool
Every year I make bookmarks for my youngest’s teachers. The teachers love them, and my youngest gets enthused about ideas. This time she wanted herself flying through the sky, so we took her picture laying on a bench, and I Photoshopped her onto a sky with fluffy clouds (since she chose to wear her fluffy cloud sky shirt). But what to do for the tassel? I went digging through my stash, looking for white felt, but instead found some poly batting. I could work with that. To make the clouds, I cut out a oblong of batting, then melted the edges with a candle flame to reinforce the edges and make it more cloud-like.
Melting the edges of poly battingPoly batting “clouds”Bookmark with cloud tassel
I attached the “clouds” to the bookmarks with a length of pearlized cotton. For this blog, for safety sake, I blurred out her name and face. The bookmarks that went to the teachers were not blurred!
I found another thing to do with my woven bands: bracelets! I chose to sew leather ends on to reduce bulk, and I had the materials.
Materials to make the bracelet
I cut a strip of goat leather and stained it dark brown, then sealed it with an acrylic clear coat. I cut two smaller rectangles from the finished leather, cut a length of leather cord, sealed the ends of the woven strip with clear glue, selected a shell button, and sewed using waxed nylon cord.
Attaching the eyelet
To form the eyelet for the button hole, I folded the leather cord in half, then bent the ends outward at a 90 degree angle. I secured it to the end of the woven band with waxed cord, then cut off the excess. To cover the end, I cut a slit in one leather rectangle to slide over the eyelet, then sewed the leather to the band. The nylon thread was thicker than I wanted visible, so I separated the three strands and just sewed with one.
Sewing the leather using a clamp
My wooden book clamp serves well as a leather stitching aid. I used wax paper to keep the newly finished leather from sticking to the wood. (I recommend waiting 24 hours before sewing, but I was impatient.)
Finished button hole end
For the button end, I sewed the button offset on the other leather rectangle, using cord scraps to space the button off the leather. If the button is sewn tight to the surface, there isn’t enough room for the eyelet.
Button sewn using a cord for a spacerButton end sewn using a wooden clampFinished hand sewn leather button clasp
I’m pleased with the finished bracelet. Although I would have preferred the leather ends to butt together, the gap actually makes the bracelet more comfortable to wear by giving more flex. The bracelet is easy to button one handed, and is light.
Critters and Craft 