I finished my Rambouillet wool fiber page. I had samples of three preparations of wool given to me: raw fleece, scoured (but not combed), and roving. I love this wool. I enjoyed scouring and combing it, and I love how the finished pieces feel. When I’m ready to buy a new raw fleece this is the kind I’m going to get. It cleans well, and spins beautifully. I love the woven sample with my first plaid pattern. I understand why this sheep is so popular.
Izzy the cat loves when I sew quilted things. I recently sewed my sister a quilted bag and Izzy spent most of the time laying on the quilted pieces and purring. Loudly.
I rearranged my craft room recently and am trying the folding table in a new location. She approves, and really appreciates that there is room for her fuzzy butt. Especially if she can lay on fabric as well.
Here is the finished project, modeled after one of my favorite totes, with two external pockets, two internal pockets (one with zipper), and a bonus pencil pouch. I went a little crazy with the padding, so I’ll wait and see how it functions in the wild before I post any patterns or instructions.
I am not a fan of dye. I like color, don’t get me wrong, but bleeding, unintentional splotching, and staining the wrong item irritate me. Still every so often, I try again. I made my youngest a dress for the holidays (she doesn’t read my blog, so I’m safe to post today). I could design the dress for spinning as requested, but I couldn’t find the right sky blue color, so I purchased a white cotton knit.
Because it is me making the dress, I included a pocket panel across the front. Three sides of the pocket are sewn in and there are two openings, so it is rather like a hoodie pocket, but concealed.
After the dress was finished and hemmed, I dyed it. First I did an all-over dye with RIT Aquamarine, following the instructions carefully.
I rinsed the fabric (for forever), and then while the garment was still wet, I dip dyed the bottom in a different dye bath of Royal Blue. I then rinsed again. Then I ran it in the washer. Then I ran it with color stay, then I washed it again before drying it.
From a distance the color came out as intended, but up close there are splotches and variations that were not evident after the initial dye bath. Hm. I’m still not a fan of dye.
My sister sent me an assortment of spinning fibers! There are preparations that I never knew existed! Squee! (This post already has an abundance of exclamation points. There will probably be more.) Banana? Rose? How facinating to learn that fiber preparations can be made from these sources! There is enough material in each sample bag for me to get a feel for spinning it, and to make my swatches for my fiber book. I also have the name of a new (to me) fiber store, which is nearly as exciting as the bags themselves! (See, more exclamation points. I warned you.)
Although my fiber page design isn’t terribly thick, the quarter inch drawer causes the pages to bow when the book is flat. The spacers provided with the photo album are too thin, so I made new ones out of quarter inch thick foam sheet from the craft store.
I cut the foam to match the old spacer using a large paper cutter, then matched the holes with a paper punch. The foam was remarkably easy to punch. Assembling my fiber pages in the book went much, much easier using these spacers and three inch posts.
Critters and Craft 