Rip repair

On February 15, 2020February 12, 2020 By CarynIn Craft

I tried a new method of rip repair on my eldest’s pants. It always seems to be the back pocket the pulls apart at the corner. Probably because this is where she puts her phone! I’ve tried a whip stitch, which looks bad and pulls apart, a mattress stitch, which also pulls apart, and reweaving which is effective but visible. I had the idea this time to use the weaving method, but only pick up fabric threads from the wrong side of the fabric. So I sewed back and forth across the rip rather than along the rip. The hope is that I caught enough fabric to support the thread, and the thread will hold the rip closed.

Repair barely visible from right side of the fabric

The idea came from browsing all the beautiful embellished repairs on Pinterest. However, my eldest likes subtle, so didn’t want me to use rainbow thread on the outside! I can report that at the end of the day, the stitching still held. Hurray!

Spinning Rainbows

On February 14, 2020 By CarynIn Craft

I spun up my rainbow rolags! The big fluffy rolags were nice to spin; the fibers pulled out smoothly and the color variation came out well. (And it was very pretty on the spindle!)

I strung the finished single on the PVC niddy noddy, rinsed it in cold water, and let it dry. The yarn seems to have set well.

I took the rainbow hank off the niddy noddy and used my swift and wool winder to make a rainbow cake.

The resulting yarn cake is 53g and about 78 yards. Not enough to make a hat. Hmm. But I have some ideas…

Hank to cake

On February 12, 2020February 8, 2020 By CarynIn Craft

Hank of black merino wool single ply yarn

Last we left it, my single ply black wool merino yarn was drying on the niddy noddy. Oh that works!! It took less time to dry, and it came off the niddy noddy easily (the caps were too tight, but I could get one arm off the niddy noddy easily). The yarn is balanced (which means it doesn’t get twisty), and seems strong (although I really do need to work getting an even thickness, but that should come with practice).

It is a little bitty cake (just 53 grams), but since it was a proof of concept experiment, that is fine.

I liked it so much I made one for me.

On February 10, 2020February 7, 2020 By CarynIn Craft

I liked the way my husband’s matte black decal came out so much that I made one for me. Not a castle, but a celtic knot dragonfly that I designed years ago.

I found that leaving the white backing on, but having the transfer paper exposed around the edges allowed me to have wiggle room when lining the decal up on my window. It was much easier to adjust, then when I liked the position, I left one edge stuck down, peeled off the backing, then smoothed the whole decal down. It is good to learn new things.

Speaking of learning new things; that transfer paper is no joke. The tan texture in the photo above is the top layer of the wooden stool I was using as a table. Oops.

I really like how these are subtle!

Rainbow rolags

On February 9, 2020February 6, 2020 By CarynIn Craft

I’m practicing with my wool carders! Carders are wooden paddles with wire bristles, like a large brush. You use them in pairs to prepare fiber for spinning. I have a beautiful bundle of rainbow colored merino wool roving my Mom gave to me, dyed in a repeat pattern. I decided to pull the colors apart and make a continuous rainbow yarn. This gives me a chance to not only use the carders, but to practice blending colors as well.

Pulled apart sections of roving, sorted by color

To blend the colors, I loaded the carder and tried to spread out the color to reduce streaks. Since the staple length (the length of the hair) is longer than the sections of color, most individual fibers have more than one color so it was impossible to completely separate colors and maintain the integrity of the fiber. It worked out well, though, because after carding I ended up with nice blended colors! I carded each section three or four times before rolling the fiber up to make a rolag.

There is an art to carding fiber. Most of the instructions I’ve read stress not letting the wire bristles touch. I didn’t understand that at first. Then as I worked with the carders I saw that as you draw one brush across the other, the fibers pull out. It is possible to brush the fibers to pull them out and lift them from the other carder without touching bristles and without burying the fiber into the bristles. I’m still working on the technique!

Once I had the colors blended sufficiently, I rolled the bat of fiber up, making a rolag.

I’m really pleased with the color blending. Now it is time to spin!

Critters and Craft

Category: Craft