Category: Craft

Corralling end caps

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

It drives me crazy trying to find the end caps for my knitting needles. I take them off to knit, and when I set them down inevitably one slinks off to hide somewhere. So I tethered them. I pushed safety pins through the flared edge of the end cap, then clipped the pin to a hair band. When I’m ready to knit, I slide the hair band on my wrist. When I’m done, the little rascals are right there.

End caps tamed with safety pins and a hair band

My safety pins are a little different; they came with a knitting kit, so may actually be stitch markers. They have a nice sharp point and will go through the end cap material. A standard safety pin would work as well. I do recommend using a stretchy bracelet type object, so there are no clasps to undo. I don’t recommend using one of those silicone bracelets with the friction clasp, because the clasp is likely to pop open as the bracelet is pulled off and send the end caps on a merry flying trajectory across the room. (Yup, experience.)

Even out the twist

On By CarynIn Craft

I have finished spinning the singles from my Clun Forest wool roving for the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em campaign by the Livestock Conservancy. I’ve been spinning this wool on a drop spindle during my walks through the neighborhood over the past two months.

Single spun wool transferred to a spinning wheel bobbin

I decided to chain ply the singles to get the finished yarn mostly because I only had one bobbin available and I wanted a three ply yarn. The plying only took a couple hours, and made the yarn much fluffier.

Three ply Clun Forest Yarn

I’m still getting used to the spinning wheel, and the twist in the ply was inconsistent. To even it out some, I put out two chairs and wrapped the yarn around the backs of the chairs so the twist could travel. It worked well.

Yarn wrapped around two chairs to even out the twist

It was also easy to wind the yarn onto my niddy noddy from the chairs.

Yarn wound onto a PVC niddy noddy

The next step is to wet the yarn to set the twist, then let it dry!

Double knit waiting project

On By CarynIn Craft

I’m back to knitting for my next “in the car” project. I bought some beautifully dyed fingering weight merino wool by Bashful Armadillo and wanted to do a double knit project.

Bashful Armadillo yarn wound into cakes

I tried a cast on technique that makes a knit transition on the edge, but I couldn’t keep track of the edge; it kept twisting. So I did a two color double cast on instead. I uploaded a short video, mostly so I remember how I did it, because the edge was easy to handle and came out nice and stretchy.

The pattern I drew out on graph paper. I had to make some adjustments after the first round of dots because I was thinking in rows, rather than spirals. Depending on how it comes out, the finished double knit tube will either be a cowl or I’ll make it into a bag. Options.

Start of double knit polka dot project in the round

I’m pleasantly surprised how easy this project is to pick up and put down, essential qualities for a waiting project. I put markers every 24 stitches, and the pattern repeats within that frame, so figuring out where I am is fairly easy. When it is time to stop I don’t have to get to the end of a row, I just pop on a couple end caps and put the project back in the bag.

Dissapearing reappearing ink

On By CarynIn Craft

We’ve had Pilot Frixion pens in our house for a few years because they were recommended for my youngest as something that makes an easy dark mark, but is erasable. (We keep a stock of #1 pencils as well.) I recently found out that it is the friction heat from the eraser that “erases” the ink, and microwaves can make the ink disappear as well. Time for an experiment!

Test paper, with marks from a standard Pilot G-2 pen, and six different colors of Pilot Frixion pens
Test paper, with “Pilot” erased with the attached Frixion eraser
Test paper after 1 minute on high in the microwave (the red and orange were positioned in the center of the microwave turntable)
Test paper after a night in the freezer (I forgot about it!)

The regular pen ink behaved as expected, with no change after exposure to heat or cold. The Frixion ink does disappear when “erased” with the attached eraser, but also when subjected to 1 minute on high in the microwave. We found 1 minute to be the minimum time required. The best part is that when the paper is placed in the freezer, all the ink reappears! There is some fading, but it is all quite readable. I have cycled the paper four times through the heat/cold process, and the writing is still visible after a couple hours in the freezer.

I have been using these pens to write on greeting cards because I can erase. Hm. If mailed a card to the north during the winter, I guess those mistakes come back. Good to know.

Gilding tip

On By CarynIn Craft

To add a little pizzazz to my greeting card, I ran an oil-based silver marker down the edge of the card stock to gild it. It gives a little definition to the edge, and a flash of sparkle. It worked well, though one pen only covers the front three edges of about 12 cards. This collection was a custom order, but I did a few extra and uploaded them to my Etsy site.

Gilding a greeting card with oil-based silver marker