Category: Craft

Attempted Rick Roll

On By CarynIn Craft

I think “Rick Rolls” are hilarious. I loved Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” when it came out (bass!), and it amuses me that it is now a cultural prank to deliver the ear worm in a sneak attack. I saw that someone used Minecraft blocks to build a QR code that went straight to the YouTube video. Nice. Since I have potholders on the brain, I thought maybe I could weave a QR code if it was a small one, like a Rick Roll. I didn’t want to buy black and white loops for an experiment, so I used the darkest and lightest loops I had on hand.

Photo description: Pro pot holder loom woven with brown and cream (and a couple of orange) loops into a QR code pattern

To get the right color options for each square, I strung all cream for the warp and all brown for the weft. There were some very, very long floats (floats are sections of weft that aren’t woven over under each warp thread). That made for a messy weave, and to lock in the sides I twisted the last loop. It didn’t really matter, the long floats made a messy grid and the picture didn’t scan. Bummer. When I took it off the loom the whole weave collapsed in shame at the audacity. (Ok, so not the impudence, it was the long uneven floats. I’m not a fan of floats.)

Photo description: potholder off the loom that has become a tangled mess due to the uneven and long floated weft loops

I did recover the loops for another project. The idea of weaving a QR code is not dead, I have some ideas on how to attempt future dastardly ear worm traps.

Recycled bobbins

On By CarynIn Craft

The only sugar container available at the store was a plastic bin. Sigh. Since it was a last minute run to the nearby market, to pick up what I forgot to put on my list, I bought it. All is not lost, though, since the flat sides of the container could be cut to make yarn bobbins.

I like these bobbins for knitting and weaving and holding scrap yarn. They don’t unwind far and don’t need half hitch knots to hang from a project. They are made from recycled materials that would otherwise go in the trash. Win. (And yes, I wrote about them last year too!)

Photo description: plastic sugar container cut into sections and marked with a bobbin pattern
Photo description: 10 bobbins cut from one sugar container

Egyptian cotton swatches

On By CarynIn Craft

I made my swatches for my fiber book from the Egyptian cotton that I spun on an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel.

Photo description: knit square in moss stitch with size 2 Prym circular needles
Photo description: crocheted round coaster made from Egyptian cotton with a size B Clover crochet hook
Photo description: 3 salvage twined swatch with knotted tassels

I still love the twining weaving technique with open ended warps. This was my first swatch, but the sides are less wonky than my other weaving attempts.

Throwback Thursday: Terrarium build

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In January 2011 my husband and I designed a terrarium in a 25 gallon tank. I painted a faux stained glass mural with special plastic lead and translucent glass paint on the outside of the tank. We built a clear acrylic planter with a pass through for water circulation and covered the pump with a hand sculpted and water safe painted rock formation made of styrofoam. The bottom section was for fish and two red bellied newts, who would presumably also venture onto the land. The newts had the best story, because they would somehow escape the enclosure and roam the house. We are pretty sure a cat found one, but the other crawled onto my husband’s foot one morning startling him and sending the newt flying. Newt-imer survived the flight and my husband returned him to his enclosure where he lived until 2015. We had to re-home him after a house fire when we all had to find new accommodations for a while.

Photo description: hand painted terrarium tank with custom clear acrylic structures
Photo description: same tank filled with rock and dirt with faux rock pump cover and skull decoration

While the designing process was interesting, and there were lessons learned, the cleaning and maintaining of a fish tank is not something either of us want to bother with again.

Chain plying mint top

On By CarynIn Craft

My single spun mint top fiber has been sitting on my drop spindle for awhile. I spun it so thin I really was worried about it breaking during the plying process. I finally took a deep breath, got out my homemade spindle holder, and chain plied with my vintage Befra Willy spinning wheel.

Photo description: oak stand with drop spindle full of single spun mint top fiber which is a cellulose fiber infused with mint
Photo description: Befra Willy flyer and bobbin with three-ply mint infused yarn
Photo description: three ply yarn wrapped onto a PVC niddy noddy

I wet the yarn on the niddy noddy to set the twist. I’m still not feeling and “coolness” from the mint infused fibers. Maybe that will come once the yarn is made into fabric?