Category: Craft

1×1 colorwork

On By CarynIn Craft

I have been fascinated with Wool & Pine’s “Seaglass” series of knitwear patterns and have been collecting patterns, but haven’t tried knitting them, until now. A friend gave me a bag of skein ends, which are all the same yarn size, but a variety of colors, which was perfect for the pattern.

Photo description: start of test piece of 1×1 color work laid against photos of cardigans from Wool & Pine

I am currently randomly choosing two colors for each row. The original pattern was in the round, but for the cardigan they have a clever way of knitting and cleaning up the edges. Here is a link to the pattern. My test piece is a good opportunity to test my understanding of their method and play with color to see what I like, and what I don’t. I already know that for me I need to not stack similar color intensity, or have rows with the same hue, even if they have different shades.

Fixing paper tears

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack, music

The roomba ate a page of my kid’s guitar lesson book. I’m not sure how the book ended up on the floor, but I suspect a cat.

Photo description: classic guitar lesson music with multiple messy, wrinkled tears

I ordered document repair tape, because I didn’t have any, and regular transparent tape applied at this magnitude would put further stress on the paper.

The hardest part was getting the tape away from the liner the first time. The box is conveniently set up to dispense the tape and manage the separation process. Getting is started is just a little tricky.

Photo description: paper repair tape set up with the box as the dispenser, with the tape on the left and backing on the right

The tape doesn’t look transparent, but when applied to the paper the ink and pencil marks show through clearly. The tape is also thin, which is why it needs the backing, but is nearly imperceptible when applied. I made sure the tears lined up and where the paper split, that the ink side was visible. To reinforce the repair, I put the tape on the back of the page as well. The damage to the page was extensive, however, I was able to get it stabilized and usable, but not pristine.

Photo description: repaired page with all notes intact and readable

Overall, I can recommend the document repair tape for quick repairs on paper that is referenced frequently, or eaten by the robot vacuum.

Throwback Thursday: arm bag

On By CarynIn Craft

In July 2016 I made my first arm bag using my favorite fabric.

Photo description: vines and floral fabric bag with very wide “handle” that fits over the forearm and can hold a small skein of yarn

I have made many of these bags, and I love them. It is a way to keep my yarn close and still allow me to move around. I first needed it following kids around the house and playground, later I found it worked well for walks, and travel, and waiting rooms. I make mine reversible, and have added small pockets in later versions.

Yarn turtle #4

On By CarynIn Craft

Here is my fourth yarn turtle spun on my 3D printed Turkish style spindle using Southdown wool.

Photo description: thin single spun yarn wrapped around the arms of a Turkish style spindle, asphalt background as I was walking

I was hoping to make a three ply yarn from the Southdown wool, but I think I have enough roving for one more turtle, which will give me 5 turtles, which is not easily divisible by 3. I could chain ply, but I find that difficult with turtles, especially toward the end. I could two-ply, then cable ply by plying the two-ply together to make a four ply, which gives an interesting texture and results in very little waste. I could weigh the yarn and rewind it all into three even amounts. So many choices.

I think, when the spinning is done, I shall do some small lengths of each type of plying, to help me decide what to do over all.

Coloring sheets

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My youngest loves coloring books, but it is difficult for her to find uncolored pages in the bound books after a while. I took my heavy duty guillotine paper cutter and cut off the spine of the coloring book, freeing the pages so they could be sorted into colored and uncolored.

Photo description: 400 page capacity guillotine paper cutter with a deconstructed coloring book, with a colored page and uncolored page pulled out of the stack

My youngest was pleasantly surprised with the fresh stack of ready-to-color sheets, and I was pleased with how fast and clean the cutter worked. Tearing sheets out of a book is often messy and frustrating. By cutting a 1/4 inch off the spine, the pages are freed from the glue easily.

Once my concept was proved, my youngest agreed to let me process the rest of the books. Any book that only had one or two colored pages I left alone, but the books that were mostly colored were cut and sorted.

Photo description: hanging organizer with coloring books at the top and individual coloring sheets at the bottom

I now also have a stack of colored sheets that can be displayed and scanned easily for posterity.