I love Spin-off magazine, but it does send me down rabbit holes! After reading an article, I usually look up the author’s blog, which is almost always full of more interesting things. Melvenea Hodges of traditionsincloth.com had a lovely shawl pattern in the magazine, then in her blog talked about spinning cotton directly onto little wooden spools. Well, of course I had to try. I did not have any spools that fit my tahkli spindle (yet), so I took an empty spool and used rubber bands to hold it in place on the button whorl (reaching new Frankenstein levels here). I’m not spinning gorgeously prepared cotton sliver (as far as I can tell, cotton sliver is similar in appearance to wool roving, anyway, it is prepped fiber ready to spin), in fact, I’m spinning cotton packaging from vitamin bottles, but the spool idea is fabulous. Enough so, that obtaining some prepped cotton and making some proper spools is tempting. Maybe after practicing some more with the bonus stuff.
Using a thread spool to hold the spun cotton singles (not my idea)
Spent another couple hours out at the lake. I spotted a different variety of grass by the edge and selected a few long strands near the mowed part to see how they behaved when woven. My weaving skills are still very rudimentary, however I’m learning so much about construction in experimentation. The basket started off as I’ve seen in pictures for twined baskets, but then when I started up the sides my spacing narrowed into more of a rough vase than a basket. (I will say that it was laid down many times for the baiting of the youngest’s hook.) I made fair progress and decided to continue the study at home.
Experimental weaving with lake grass
Since the weaving wanted to narrow, I went with it, changing the uprights to weavers, thus narrowing the number of uprights. When I was down to five uprights, I braided them to end the sculpture. (We are going to call it a sculpture since I tucked all the ends inside and it is non-functional as a vessel.) I also don’t speak basket, so my terminology leans to descriptive. (Even when I know the proper terms, though, they don’t always surface appropriately, so there we go.)
Now that the rains have passed and we are spending more time outdoors, I have been test twining various materials.
Bulrush (fresh) twine
At the lake, there are thick patches of bulrush. In the time between putting worms on hooks, I selected a stalk, split it into sections, and twined it together.
Twined basket made of bulrush
I took another bulrush stalk home and let it dry out, then rehydrated it and ran it through a pasta maker (because I don’t have a mangle, and this seemed to be the same concept), to flatten out the fibers. I did a small twined basket just to see if I understood the construction concepts. It is very rough, but at least recognizable as a basket.
Dried twine from grass
Weeding the front garden, the long strands of grass caught my attention, so I twined some. Some of the blades were too brittle fresh to take twist, but a different species was more supple and was easy to twine. When it dried out the strands separated (but it is still relatively strong).
Twined iris leaf
The irises in the front yard are starting to fade. I’ve read the wilted leaves make good weaving material, so I pulled some out and twined it. The supplest was easy to twine, but the leaves that had dried out more tended to break. Probably soaking them in water for a bit would bring them back (if I can believe what I’m reading).
Busy, busy grass spider’s web
The grass spiders have been particularly productive this summer and one attempted a web over a planting tray. Yes, I tried to twine it. I peeled up the web sheet (after making sure the spider had vacated), and twisted it up. It is a bit sticky and full of desiccated insect parts, which is quite gross, but I tried it.
Single twist of spider’s web
It is possible to spin spider’s silk, but the effort is Herculean. There is a stunning cape made of spider silk from Madagascar and apparently the crafters collected a million spiders and extracted the silk, rather than gathering webs. The project took over three years and numerous crafters. Here is an article.
I finished the plarn bag! Or maybe it is a basket. It can stand on its own, but is still flexible. Hm.
Nålbound bag made from plastic grocery bags
I changed connection stitches mid-bag (we’ll just call it a bag, yes?) because I was aiming for the tight braided look I’ve seen produced with the Finnish 2+2 stitch. I figured out my tension at the 2/3rd mark, and the stitches finally achieved the look I wanted, so I decided to also try some decorative work (since it is an experimental object anyway).
Woven bottom of the nålbound bag
It turned out quite functional and sturdy. The handles with the three rounds are comfortable, and I made it to be large enough to hold my longest spindle. I can tell where I changed connections (from M1 F1 to F2, note to self), and where I achieved even tension, but I’m going to claim them as design choices.
Nålbound bag made of plarn
Whether the finished project is considered a bag or a basket, it is done!
P.S. This took me three weeks to complete, working in bits and pieces. The magic of the blogosphere made it seem like a few days, but it wasn’t!
P.P.S. This bag used the plastic from approximately 43 grocery bags. (And it drives me crazy when I hit “publish” instead of “save as draft” on a post.)
Spinning green roving nearly the color of the trees
I have started a new spinning project for my morning walks. I succumbed to color a few months ago and purchased a hand-dyed Bluefaced Leicester (a type of sheep) and silk blend roving because the colors were amazing. The color way is called “Balsam”. I think if I lived in a coniferous forest full of balsam the colors would be spot on, as it is, I noticed as I spun that it was a fair match to the greenery around me. It is joy to be spinning up essence of the trees. Mostly. I am typically not a fan of dyed fibers, not because I don’t like color, but because I like the color to stay put. I’ve noticed the top of my spindle has taken on a green hue, and when I get home my fingers are tinted. It washes away, but I will have to be very careful in the treatment of the spun yarn and final project so that it doesn’t ever lay next to something light in color. Now the conditions of my spinning are not typical, since I am outside taking exercise and the fibers are exposed to more moisture than I imagine would happen spinning inside on a wheel. The walking and spinning is teaching me to be light with my fiber hand, as pressure, heat, and water together felt wool, and all those factors can be present in the palm of my hand.
