Toy top the first

On December 28, 2021December 22, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

Since the lathe has been set up, I’ve been itching to attempt turning toy tops. After having my burl explode, I decided to try something small and happy. I used a bit of maple wood and secured it in my four jaw chuck with the jaw flipped around, and used my new roughing gouge to get rounded, then refined with my old skew chisel. I made little bumps because they made me happy. Making the stem made me nervous and I didn’t get it as thin as I wanted, but it spins!

Then, because why not, I painted the bumps with acrylic paint so that when it spins, there is a gradient.

Blue and red acrylic paint applied to the top

Top spinning, showing the gradient of mixed colors

I finished the top with several coats of tung oil.

Exploded burl

On December 27, 2021December 22, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I attempted to make a bowl on my lathe with my four jaw chuck. To say that I am still climbing the learning curve would be most accurate. I did use my band saw to trim the block close to round and remove the sharp corners, but I couldn’t get it set solid in the chuck, it kept slipping out of round. So I used four small screws and attached it to a face plate instead of using the chuck. That worked much better for this piece of wood. I was able to rough in a bowl shape, but then things took a turn for the worse. It turns out that the burl block had a fissure running through that split as I began to hollow out the bowl. (The turning puns will probably continue, just so you know.)

I probably stood there with the bits in my hand for a good five minutes assessing the damage. Then I carefully removed the piece from the lathe, stored the screws, and put the burl halves in my wood bin. I cannot currently conceive of rescuing a bowl from the wood, but burls are precious and can be beautiful, so maybe there will be some future turnings that can be salvaged. I think it is time to try something else for awhile, and let the trauma of an exploded burl rest.

Testing the hook

On December 24, 2021December 22, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

Rather than send an untested tool off to my Mom, I tested my newly made S hook on a third skein of yarn. What to make? Well a hat, of course. I love making hats because they go fast and I have the pattern memorized. It took me a few goes to get the hat started; the yarn and the hook are so big, I was getting lost in the holes. I’m not quite sure I agree with the “S” size designation on the label. With a double crochet stitch, such as I use in my hats, it leaves quite large holes.

But the hat was really comfortable and a good size. What do do? Maybe a decorative stitch? Sure. I took some more yarn from the skein and did a simple chain stitch through the mesh, starting at the top and spiraling down to the brim. I needed to add a few chains to the crown as I went around, so as not to tighten the hat, but it did a great job filling in all the holes. It did however, use the rest of the skein of yarn. The resulting hat is quite floofy, but much warmer.

I did all the testing of the hook prior to finishing, in case I needed adjustments. It wows me that the hat took a whole skein of yarn. If it doesn’t work as a hat, the cats will probably love it as a bed.

Really big hook

On December 23, 2021December 22, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I found some lush purple yarn at the store that I thought my Mom would love, but it needed an S hook. Wha…? An S size crochet hook is 19mm in diameter below the neck, which is a very large hook, not quite to broomstick handle size (which is 1 inch or 25.4 mm), but still quite sizable. Hm. A hand made crochet hook would go well with gifted yarn, yes? I selected a nice length of big leaf maple wood from my hoard and turned it on my lathe. When it was a pleasing shape, and the neck and head were the right diameter, I removed it from the lathe, trimmed the ends, and cut in the hook. I found that a wooden nål, with its tapered tip, makes a really excellent sanding block to shape the hook. I worked mostly with 120 grit sandpaper to get the shape, then refined with 220, then 320, then 400 grit.

Using a nål as a sanding block to refine the hook shape

I used acrylic paints to write the name of the wood and put the “S” designation on the end, then sealed the wood with many layers of tung oil.

Tessellated Möbius scarf

On December 21, 2021December 17, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I made an infinity scarf with my hand spun alpaca sari silk yarn and my tessellated Möbius pattern! I meant for it to be able to slip over the shoulders, but as the pattern progressed, it tightened up considerably. If I make another I think I will add about 10-20% to the base row. After I wove in the ends, I wetted it down and laid it out to dry (blocking), which opened up and evened out the lovely hole pattern.