Category: Craft

Aging paper just a little

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My eldest needs a journal as a prop for a play. The play is set in the 1920s and we didn’t want bright white crisp paper in the leather bound journal (I’ll get to the assembly of the journal in another post). I searched the internet and only came up with tea and coffee stains (and one that recommended burying the paper in the ground for two weeks). I needed eighteen sheets of paper aged; and the paper won’t hold up to handling when wet (we tried the tea method, no go). We also tried using a flame to slightly singe the paper, which was also time consuming with spotty (literally) results. I remembered a science experiment with invisible ink made from lemon juice. Could that work to slightly brown the paper? Yes, yes it can.

Aged paper folded into signatures (left) versus original paper (far right)

The method I found that worked best was to heat the oven to 350 degrees F, put a large cookie sheet in the oven, lay one piece of paper on the cookie sheet and mist it with a 50/50 mixture of lemon juice and water, and leave it in the oven for 3 minutes. I then flipped the paper over, misted again, and baked for 3 more minutes. An eye cleaner spray bottle works great for mist. The technique also wrinkles up the paper, so I needed to give the sheets a quick iron to get it to lay a little more flat. The results were exactly as I hoped! Now to finish the cover so I can assemble the journal.

Just keep spinning, spinning

On By CarynIn Craft

I dropped my spindle and it broke again, in the middle of a walk. Luckily it cracked and didn’t completely snap off, so I was able to wrap the yarn around the neck and finish spinning the roving I had in my bag. After I came home and removed the ball of spun yarn, I put some wood glue in the crack and clamped it up tight.

Cracked spindle and spun singles ball

This ball of yarn is another go with adding bits of color to alpaca fleece. When I was carding the fibers for the rolags, I found something suspicious. In the bag of “100% silk” sari thread waste were strands of metallic gold. Hm. Probably not silk. So I did a burn test on four different colors. I was surprised that two of the colors (pink and neon green) were actually silk despite the vast difference in texture. When I burned them I got the characteristic balls of ash that crushed easily. (My sense of smell is terrible, so I need to rely on other physical signs.) The metallic gold, not shockingly, just melted in the candle flame. Then I tested some black fibers that burned even when removed from the flame (silk does not) and produced fine gray ash with no ball. This may be rayon (here is a good article on the burn test). If you do a burn test yourself, use tweezers to hold the twisted fibers to the flame. The black fibers flared and burned faster than I could say “ouch”. (I did use tweezers, but the ferocity of the burn was surprising.) So I will have to say the yarn I am making uses mixed fiber waste.

Results of burn test from top to bottom: green silk, pink silk, metallic plastic, black maybe rayon and the embers are still burning

I love my concrete countertops.

Bit too much

On By CarynIn Craft

I tried adding some more colored sari silk waste to my cream alpaca fleece and went too far. Instead of touches of brilliant color I have a muddled pastel mess. Hm.

Sari silk waste added to the carder
Rolag with extra color
Spun alpaca and sari silk single

I did learn that trimming the silk threads down to about the same length as the alpaca fiber helps with carding, but gives more loose ends when spinning. Time to try again, maybe with trimmed silk, but less volume.

Bits of color

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve started a new spinning project. I read about using waste sari silk threads in spinning and had to order some.

Sari silk waste threads

To get the color to pop, I chose the lightest color fleece I have, which is a light cream from an alpaca named Sugar Plum. I carded a small amount of the sari silk with the alpaca before rolling up the rolag.

Alpaca rolag with colored silk theeads

I’m spinning this up on my favorite drop spindle as I walk the neighborhood. The bits of color are nice, but I think I need a bit more.

Spun alpaca and silk single

Oh how joyous it was to get back to walking and spinning!

Back to it

On By CarynIn Craft

My tapestry loom has been sitting on the kitchen counter, idle, for months, with a partial project strung on the bars. I’m determined to get the project finished so I can reclaim the counter space, but it is slow going. Originally I intended to make a scarf as long as I could on the loom, but in the interests of finishing, ever, I think I shall shorten those aspirations and aim for material for a bag. Current optimism suggests a spindle bag, but even that might prove too much as we cycle into fall and it is much nicer to be outside.

Weaving in process. Original title: identity crisis scarf

My current ranking of fiber crafts has spinning on a drop spindle in firm first place, followed by nålbinding, which is slow going but very satisfying. Crochet probably comes next as I can make projects quite quickly with a hook, but I’m not as thrilled with the texture. Knitting makes a nice fabric, but ranks below crochet for me because it is so easy to drop stitches, and too hard to stop mid-row. Weaving currently occupies the bottom rung. I have the hardest time getting to work on these projects, both because it is stationary and it has a similar feel to color-by-number projects, even when I have full design control. I’m glad I live in a place and age where I can try all these things, and not be stuck in a single craft.