I’ve two plied the angora yarn I spun.
The yarn is still quite thin, so I think I will ply it again to make a four ply cable yarn. The bumpy texture of cable plied yarn will complement the fluffy nature of the yarn, I think.
Plying angora
Category: Craft
Angora rabbit fur
I finished spinning the angora rabbit fur I purchased from a Texas rabbit farmer. I didn’t wash, card, or comb the fiber, just took it out of the bag and started spinning, which resulted in a more uneven spin, but was worth the experiment.
The next step is to ply the yarn. In preparation, I wrapped the yarn into a center pull ball.
Unexpected cat
This is not my usual lap cat. Sophie, the outside cat that adopted us and moved inside, has decided that laps are warm and cozy, especially with a fuzzy blanket. She has not learned knitting etiquette yet, though, and thinks the yarn is for play. We’re working on it. Right now it is a balance of encouraging lap time and gently discouraging yarn gnawing.
The new project is a meditative piece using yarn gifted to me by my youngest. It will be a wide scarf done in garter stitch, so no pattern lines to follow, no perl stitches, just knit and turn.
Hot Sauce holster
My Dad has been experimenting with making hot sauce. I thought he needed a hot sauce holster for either sauces or spices so they are easy to grab, so I made him one from leather. I started the design process with card stock, so I could get the sizes and shapes right.
Once I was comfortable with my design, I used Adobe Illustrator to lay it out digitally, including engraving and lace holes. I included a “test” rectangle, which was very helpful and something I will include in future design projects, because I was able to use those elements to test my laser cutter settings before committing to larger objects.
I rinsed the leather with water to remove the soot and smoke marks, then dyed it with leather dye.
I used waxed linen to sew the pieces together. I absolutely love how even I can laser cut the holes. Neat stitching is 90% hole placement.
I’m had some space at the bottom of the holster and thought that places to hang things are always potentially useful, so installed a gold hued metal grommet. I finally bought a pair of grommet pliers for this size, and it makes installation so much easier than hammering dies together.
The holster is designed to hang from a belt, and since it is wide, I separated the belt loop into two sections so it can accommodate a belt loop if necessary.
Throwback Thursday: paper flowers
Back in February 2013 I was volunteering at my youngest’s elementary school library, shelving books and decorating their bulletin board. I really wanted to use my CRICUT cutter to make giant flowers and thought they would make a neat wall display.
This is now a rare sight, because paper with that much dimension was deemed a fire hazard and it had to be taken down. The rest of my designs had to be 2D.
Critters and Craft 