Apparently, I didn’t clean out my fiber bag thoroughly before loading it with cream alpaca fiber. I have shadows of pink and green in the spun singles. Hm. It will be interesting to see if it shows up after plying or in the final piece.
I finished the small bag I started. The initial ball of yarn was spun on a drop spindle using scraps of green colored roving from my Mom’s old stash. After spinning the single, I doubled it to make a 2-ply, fingering weight yarn (about 20 wraps per inch). I started with the opening using a single crochet, made ribbon holes by alternating single crochet and chain stitches, then the body of the bag is made of five chain lace with some picots. It only holds an apple, but its worth is more in the process, which showed me that my handspun, even with rougher wool, does fine as lace. And I still enjoy crochet.
Crocheting in a hammock while my youngest plays in the sunshine is a rather nice way to spend a spring afternoon. We’ve been cooped up for awhile, and the weather was great, so I grabbed a ball of yarn I spun a while ago and a crochet hook as we headed out the door. The plan is to make a small bag, because there isn’t much wool, using crochet lace stitches, so I can experiment with more lace.
I made up another batch of student spindles. These are made from dowels, wooden toy wheels, and cup hooks. The only thing I work on is the dowel; shaping the top to friction fit the wheel, drilling a pilot hole for the cup hook, and this time, shaping a head on the other end so the whole thing can be flipped and used as a bottom whorl spindle or a top whorl spindle. Oh, I did also put a notch in the wheel because I read that helps beginning spinners, but my first student using one of these didn’t need it. Maybe another will.
The student spindles weigh in at under an ounce, which is much nicer than the behemoth top whorl spindle I made the first go round with a post oak whorl that tips the scales over two ounces.
I keep a stash of these spindles so that if I encounter someone that shows interest in learning to spin, I have something they can practice with right away.
I spend a chunk of money on sketch books, both for me and my kids. I want them to practice their art skills, and they enjoy it, so it is a worthwhile sacrifice of paper. But purchased journals are usually heavy as well as expensive. To help lighten up my youngest’s backpack, I made some simple blank journals from printer paper, card stock, and upholstery thread.
Critters and Craft 