Pet bed

On March 23, 2021March 19, 2021 By CarynIn Cats, Craft, dog

Awhile ago I bought a pet blanket I intended to go in the car. It was fuzzy and water resistent, and I thought it would entice Griffin, our older dog, to the back seat. Well, the thing had two layers and wasn’t quilted, so was crazy slippery. Not good to cover car seats! Flash past the initial purchase, the failed attempts, and the months of no car rides (we are easing Missy back to the car rides), and the blanket and some left over egg crate foam were taking up space in my craft room. So I used the blanket to make a pet bed. I cut the foam to make two layers, cut enough fabric to cover, sewed velcro to close (next time I’ll do a zipper, which is easier to sew than velcro), and sewed the open seams. The pets now compete to lay on it.

Izzy on the new pet bed, and Missy very confused

Sophie on the new bed, Missy just watching.

Oh yeah, and it is National Puppy Day! I don’t think the cats got the memo.

Gimp yarn

On March 21, 2021March 18, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I read about gimp yarn in Spin Off magazine, and thought it would be good to practice making different thicknesses of yarn. Gimp yarn uses a thin single and a thicker single plied to make a bumpy looking yarn.

Two yarns, thicker and thinner, rinsed, dried, and wound into a cake in preparation for plying

I transferred the singles from my spindle to a niddy noddy, rinsed them to set the twist, then let them dry before winding them into cakes. I did all this rather than plying from cops because I wanted a smooth center pull for plying. To ply, I tucked the yarn cakes into an arm bag that I made long ago for carrying crochet yarn. They fit perfectly! And it is easy to feed the two singles from the bag and ply. I have also discovered that it is easier to get my spindle spinning counterclockwise if I flick the bottom instead of the top.

Plying yarn from cakes tucked in to the arm bag

My singles don’t have an extreme difference in size, but it was enough to get the effect (which reminds me of my grandma’s rickrack trim).

Left over thin single, and two cops of plied gimp yarn

Spindle bumper

On March 20, 2021March 18, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

Now that I’m getting more comfortable spinning and walking I tend to drop the spindle more. With any luck, even more practice will reduce my tendency to skitter the spindle down the road, but in the meantime I put a bumper on the bottom of the shaft. A pencil eraser works well to cover the end, and protects the wood from sudden impact!

Pencil eraser as a make shift spindle bumper

Weaving on a wire jig

On March 17, 2021March 12, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I had a small amount of two-ply hand spun merino wool left. Not enough to weave on my frame loom, but if I could rig something up a little smaller it might work. So I tried weaving on one of my wire jigs.

I used my smallest pins to hold the warp threads and a tapestry needle to pass the weft through to make a plain weave. As the weaving progressed, I had to hold down the pins as they tended to pop up out of the jig. On the whole, the idea worked, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience since the pins were only loosely set and it was difficult to do the final passes. Mark that up as a nope.

Watch of merino wool woven on a wire jig

Nålbinding swatches

On March 16, 2021March 12, 2021 By CarynIn Craft

I did some crochet, some knitting, and now it is time for nålbinding! I only had two ply and four ply yarn left, but I tried using a tapestry needle as well as a hand-made nål on the two ply. Sizing the loops to the tapestry needle was much too small and much too tight, but the 25mm diameter nål made a nice fabric for both the two ply and the four strand cable ply. I stitched in the round, then cut the tubes open. The swatch does not unravel when cut! Although a few tiny bits of yarn do fall out. Of the three methods of fabric construction, nålbinding is the slowest, but I enjoy it the most. The process is soothing and the resulting fabric is nicely stretchy (at least with this stitch).