I ordered a blend of white and gray Corriedale wool from Mohair and More for my spinning class. Corriedale is an easier fiber to spin, and the mix of natural colors makes it easier to see the twist, which makes it a great fiber for learning. This is my first time spinning Corriedale as well (I started with difficult fibers, because I didn’t know), so I spun up my own ounce of fiber for my fiber book. I used some passenger time on the road to get it finished up on one of my new student spindles.
I have discovered a new method for making wood crochet hooks that I quite like. I flatten the middle of a dowel using a spindle sander, and flatten the end perpendicular to the middle with a band sander. This sets up the grip and the head of the hook at a comfortable angle. I then thin the neck to the size hook I need, and shape the head.
The bulk of the work goes into hand sanding the final shape. I use sandpaper rolled into tight tubes to access the inside of the hook, and flat sandpaper to smooth the outside shapes. I then use several grades of sandpaper until I’m down to 600 grit.
I’m teaching an amigurumi class that uses blanket yarn to make marshmallow animals. The blanket yarn calls for a larger hook than is in most hook sets, so I’m making the hooks the students will use. The next step is to finish and make them nice and shiny so they slide through the yarn loops.
I have been collaborating with a local 3D printer, X of All Trades, to design a spindle that can be used as a supported spindle or a drop spindle, adjustable weight, and a body which acts like a nostepinne to make center pull balls as you spin. The challenge has been the narrow neck breaking, so we have been experimenting different materials. The last round of prints using bottle plastic looked promising, but the filament printing isn’t precise, and tended to bubble and create rough edges. Then they found Tough Resin. 3D printed resin can make much more precise and smooth objects, but tends to be brittle, as I found out on our first printed rounds. Tough Resin fixes the brittleness and with some tweaking of the head and neck of my model, X of All Trades has printed a lovely tool that so far has not shattered when dropped.
I couldn’t wait long to test the spindle. I was pleased that it still spins well with the head changes, and I really like the black resin, which has a prismatic effect along the print lines.
I have put in an order for a small production run, which is quite exciting.
With our great room switch this summer, I have decided to move my crafting hoard into the spare bedroom. The kids’ rooms have been painted and moved into, with just a few extra projects to be done, and now I can get started on this last room. We fixed the holes in the walls, painted, touched up the ceiling, and painted the trim. It is a very long room, the picture above only shows about half the space, but the other half is where I shoved the painting paraphernalia so I could take the potential picture. Now is also the daunting part: going through my craft supplies and figuring out new ways and places to store things. I will have a couple tables out all the time, rather than just as needed, which is exciting. My husband is looking forward to having a master bedroom closet again, rather than just a corner of the closet (in my defense, the “closet” is 10’x10’).
I had the idea of heating up a metal stamp and burning a letter into a wood crochet hook to mark the size.
I tested several times on paper before trying to burn the letter on the wood. It works OK, but I’m not sure if I actually burned the wood, or just stamped on some soot. Either way, it is marked, but for future hooks I should be able to find a more elegant way.
Critters and Craft 