Fiber experiment

On December 1, 2019November 24, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

Sophie likes to sit in my plant pots.

Although she is cute pretending to be a plant, I don’t want to encourage the behavior so eventually I can actually have green plants in there. I bought a cute woven hyacinth basket and filled it with straw, but she was unimpressed.

I have a large amount of “big yarn” which is really just roving.

There are many posts and videos about arm knitting using this kind of fiber, the problem is, we spin fiber to make it more resilient and give it strength. Fiber that is only combed has neither quality. So to do a first-hand test, I crocheted up a round mat of the fiber using a P crochet hook.

Crocheted round with “big yarn”, wrong cat interested

Although I was able to crochet it (the P hook was on the small size for comfortably crocheting), it was already shedding fiber before I even finished.

Fiber separating from the body of the work

My hypothesis is that, although the stitching looks beautiful now, and it went together quickly, it won’t take much for it to look like a matted mess.

Crocheted round set on a layer of straw in the hyacinth basket

However, Sophie thoroughly approves. So she will be my tester and we’ll see what condition the matt is in a few months.

Wreath part 3

On November 29, 2019November 24, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

When cleaning my craft room, I found some wooden acorns. In keeping with the use it or lose it mentality I am approaching with my crafts, I decided to use these on the wreath.

Wooden acorns painted gold with spray paint, with Sharpie, and plain

I wanted some bling, so I tried to color the acorns gold with a Sharpie. This is doable, but takes awhile. So I found a partial can of gold spray paint and sprayed the other acorns using a cardboard box for a spray guard. I used up the paint too! One less thing in storage, yay!

I used a small gimlet to drill holes across the tops of the acorns, then used gold colored aluminium wire (because it is light and very malleable) to make picks. I have more precise control of the gimlet. A drill press or hand drill goes faster but I usually slip at least once. For just 7 holes, the gimlet was perfect.

Wire threaded through the hole at the top of the acorn

To complete the picks, I twisted the wire. Here is a demo.

With the picks complete, I tucked them asymmetrically into my wreath. It does add a little shine.

Space!

On November 27, 2019November 22, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

The final frontier…. oh wait no. Extra space in my craft room, which is infinitely more exciting to me. I turned my storage bins 90 degrees and increased the shelf space by 30% or so. That there is space gold.

The middle space on the shelves is new (and already mostly filled)

And yes, I am a serial crafter. I’m working on it, really. I have plans for stash busters, and I’ve been going through the bins, removing partial projects that I won’t go back and finish. There are some interesting things tucked away in those bins. Things I obviously stuck in there because there was room and I didn’t have to think about what to do with it at the time. Storage is both a boon and a curse. I filled a garbage bag with bits and bobs and each thing that went in there went with the thought “Why in the world did I keep that?!?” And the answer in all cases was that I could.

Wreath part 2

On November 26, 2019November 21, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

I decided to make some plastic globes with my 3Doodler Create. I’ve had the kit for a year, and I need some more interest on my wreath, so I decided to give it a try (and I’m avoiding cleaning.)

The kit has latex balloons and a clip so you can hold the air in the ballon to make a sphere form, then easily let the air out when the form is mostly complete. Love it. I doodled enough to get the sphere, removed the balloon, added a pick, and closed up the hole. I think they turned out nicely.

The pick on each globe slides easily into the vine wreath and stays well even when the door is opened and closed. I started with the globes arranged relatively evenly around the wreath. Eh.

I rearranged the globes to be clustered around the bottom, but off set. I like this better. And it was easy to rearrange. This is becoming a living art project, as I can’t usually walk by it without adjusting something!

Wreath part 1

On November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 By CarynIn Craft

I love making things, but I didn’t get the decorator gene. Strange, no? I can make rooms look OK, but staging a room doesn’t float my boat. I prefer comfort and utility (although, seriously, if you are selling a house, stage it, regardless of comfort, it really does make a difference). I’ve tried my hand at making wreaths, but they never turn out quite right. It doesn’t stop me from trying, though.

In that vein, I picked up a $6 grape vine wreath at the hobby store. Could I have made one? Yes. Would I? Maybe. But I was at the store for other bits and bobs, so I gave it a go.

So I rather like the grape vine wreath all on its own, but I also like the smell of pine wreaths. I didn’t really want to cut my cedar trees, but my rosemary bush was overgrown, so I cut some branches and threaded them into the vines (which is surprisingly easy, by the way).

It smells nice, but still looks a little plain. Maybe I can can find something else to go on there. Hmmm.

Critters and Craft

Category: Craft