In June of 2016 I was experimenting with the 3Doodler, a pen shaped device that extrudes hot plastic, like a 3D printer, but hand driven rather than computer driven. I decided to make a walleye fish, for my Dad, to experiment with construction.
The biggest frustration with the project was the tool. The version of 3D doodler I was using needed more breaks than I did, and I would have to walk away and let it rest, which is not ideal in the middle of a creative storm.
The favorite scratching post in the house needed a fix-up.
When I last rewrapped this post, I took some of the carpet off the top to provide a higher area for scratching since I have longer cats. From the picture, it really wasn’t necessary, even the big cats scratch the middle of the post. To rewrap this time, I purchased 160 feet of 1/4 inch jute rope.
My future self is not going to be pleased with me, because as I wrapped the rope, I stapled it down on the back every few inches. Last time, I only stapled the top and bottom, which made it easy to remove, but I believe shortened the time of use. The last wrap lasted slightly less than a year.
The most helpful thing this time around was that my eldest held the rope above the scratching post, so it was easier for me to wrap the post from the bottom up smoothly.
The new rope, while marketed as 1/4 inch, has a smaller diameter than the old rope, and a tighter twist. It will be interesting to see if it holds up better.
I went into my photo app and searched New Year’s Day for my throwback today. I found a quirky little project I did back in 2016, where I was experimenting with small alternating blocks of Tunisian crochet.
I think the variegated yarn and Tunisian crochet made some interesting pooling variations. When I washed this swatch, though, it puckered and buckled aggressively, so I did not pursue the technique farther.
Happy New Year, may your year be filled with successful experiments!
I spun up three more bobbins of single spun Teeswater wool and plied them into a three ply yarn.
I think I have enough Teeswater roving to do one more jumbo bobbin of three-ply yarn, which means I will have to transfer yarn off a jumbo bobbin as I only have two. It will take me a while to spin though, so I don’t have to transfer yet.
I designed a couple variations of minimal wallets by starting with paper mock ups.
After getting my dimensions figured out with paper, I designed the leather cut out in Adobe Illustrator, and used a blue diode laser cutter to cut and emboss vegetable tanned tooling leather.
I stained the leather and let it dry, then applied a coat of resolene, which will make it water resistant.
I wanted the insert to have RFID blocking capabilities, so I used spray glue to adhere cotton quilting fabric to faraday fabric.
My favorite part of this project was learning a new-to-me edge stitch: triple loop lacing. It took a few tries on scrap leather to get the hang of it, but it was worth it. I love the braided edge look with the heavy waxed thread.
Critters and Craft 