Category: Craft

Shetland lace, take 1

On By CarynIn Craft

I have been plugging away at my hand-spun Shetland wool yarn, learning how to make Shetland lace. It is full of mistakes, but I think for future projects it will just take some practice, and making sure I’m not distracted while I knit. Blocking the lace (getting it wet, and pinning it in shape to dry) made a huge difference.

Unblocked lace (left), compared to blocked lace (right)

Since I didn’t have enough yarn to make a long scarf, and I would rather start over than continue on this one, I sewed the ends together to make a cowl.

Shetland lace cowl

Alas, the wool is too itchy for my neck, but it does OK as a head cover. I think I put too much twist in the singles. When I spin the next batch, I will go a little easier on the twist. I rather like spinning fine, and that goes well with lace knitting, so is worth pursuing.

Sit and spin

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft

I did another stake out to trap feral cats, but during the day when my eldest was at school. I set up a bench on the opposite side of the meadow, and brought my spinning with me because stake outs are boring spiked with moments of adrenaline. I ultimately had to abandon the spinning because the cats could see me across the meadow and get spooked. If I sat still, even staring directly at them, they wouldn’t care if I was there. I did eventually trap one, and a feisty black one at that. My eldest came home and trapped a second. She actually trapped two, but the first one was a repeat offender (her ear was clipped, so we’d already taken her in for sterilization). There are at least two more black cats in the colony, and they are definitely the most feral. These poor things will probably go back to their buddies and tell of alien abductions.

Spinning in the meadow (purple arrow points out the live trap)
Very scared black kitty

Muddle

On By CarynIn Craft

mud·dle /ˈmədl/ verb

  1. bring into a disordered or confusing state.
  2. mix (a drink) or stir (an ingredient) into a drink.

I like both of these definitions of muddle from Oxford Languages, but today we are specifically talking about muddling an ingredient into a drink. To muddle, it helps to have a muddler, which is a hand-held specialized pestle for gently crushing ingredients in a glass. I made this muddler out of a blank of ash wood by turning it on my lathe. First, I did a sketch of my desired profile, then roughed out the blank, refined it, and sanded down from 80 grit to 600. I used the parting tool to separate the muddler from the blank (which is nervous as this is done while the lathe is turning). I did need to sand the ends to remove tool marks.

Muddler sketch, with turned muddler
Muddler rinsed with water to raise the grain and get an idea of the finished color

This muddler needs a few coats of tung oil and some curing time, then it will be ready to send for testing.

New to me publication

On By CarynIn Craft

New reading material! On a branch in one of my internet rabbit hole dives I found mention of “Wild Fibers” publication. It is now sitting next to my chair along with my Spin Off magazine.

Photo of the cover of “Wild Fibers” Vol. 16 Issue 1

So much fibery goodness.

Clun Forest

On By CarynIn Craft

Ah, I bought more wool. I saw that one of the breeders participating in Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em had four ounce bags of Clun Forest Roving ready to ship. I haven’t spun any of that kind of wool. I caved. Even though it has been washed and carded, it is still spending a couple weeks in the freezer, just in case something hitched a ride. Along with the whole alpaca fleece I haven’t yet processed. Hm.