Every knitter or crocheter has their own preference for the form of their yarn. My friend prefers to wind her yarn into balls before she gets started. With purchased yarn, I dig into the middle and pull the yarn from the inside, then wind the remains as cakes on a winder, or nostepinne style balls. I have a whole bag of remnants that are balled and I am rewinding them as cakes.
Photo description: yarn bowl with hand wrapped ball of yellow yarn going to a Royal ball winder clamped to the counter
I tried using my ceramic yarn bowl, but it isn’t up to the speed produced by the winder, so I dropped the ball into a basket so it didn’t roll around on the floor.
Photo description: calico cat sitting on crochet made with wool
Izzy the calico cat has been trying to lay on the wool vest I am crocheting for weeks. She finally found me distracted and cuddled in. I did continue to work on the piece and just rotated her as I went. She still stayed put. Purring.
Back in October of 2016, my kids were taking horseback riding lessons. My youngest had trouble keeping her hands forward, and her instructor had the idea of having a stuffed toy sit in front of her on the saddle and she had to keep her hands in front of the toy. She chose one of her baby dolls, and of course baby had to have a helmet if she was riding horseback, so I crocheted a helmet with black yarn.
Photo description: crocheted riding helmet with straps and a button closure on a baby doll toy
I don’t have any pictures of my youngest riding with the doll, but her hands are forward with the reins in all the pictures after, so something clicked.
I played my mandolin for a little while, until my fingers started to hurt. The top strings are thin and feel sharp. To deal with it I need some calluses.
“Calluses develop from repeated friction, rubbing or irritation and pressure on your skin.” (Cleveland Clinic)
Traditionally string players develop calluses from playing their instruments; one recommendation is to play for 10 minutes multiple times per day, rather than one long session. I would love to this, but my schedule doesn’t always allow for that, and I am easily distracted. I started to look for other ways to apply sharp pressure to my finger tips. I tried several home grown things, a block of wood wrapped with old guitar strings, a hand strengthener wrapped with wire, but they did not fit easily in my pocket and so would not be readily available throughout the day. I ended up making a triangular stick.
Photo description: two lengths of flame maple cut with a profile of right triangles, sealed with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax
I squared up a small piece of flame maple to 3/4”, then cut it down the middle to make two triangular shaped sticks. I sanded them to 320 grit and sealed the wood with feed-n-wax. I made two lengths, one to sit by my chair, and the shorter one to go in my pocket.
Photo description: gripping the triangular flame maple stick
To get the edge of the triangle to bite into my fingers, I place my thumb at the wide base and my fingers on the apex.
Photo description: grooves in my fingertips from gripping the wood, which are similar to how my fingers look after playing a string instrument
It takes a month to develop proper calluses, so I will update y’all later on the efficacy of this method. I can say that in the past few days I do pull out the stick (I need a better name) and use it several times a day. Even if calluses don’t develop, it makes a useful fidget.
In October of 2016, I painted ping pong balls with irises and pupils and glued them on a wreath frame decorated with short lengths of dark red glittery ribbon and mounds of black netting to make a Halloween decoration.
Photo description: front view of eye wreath made of ping pong balls and ribbonPhoto description: closer side view of the same wreath
This was a short-lived wreath. In storage the acrylic paints rubbed off the ping pong balls, and the hot glue released its hold. And while it was interesting to play with different iris colors, it didn’t take long for painting that many ping pong balls to get tedious. If I were to do it again, I would look into making the eyes more realistic, maybe with some clear epoxy, since the true impact of this piece is achieved on closer inspection. There would be fewer eye balls as well!
Critters and Craft 