I love this picture. Thor found the side sleeper pillow I threw onto our vintage wood chair and posed quite regally. The curve of his whiskers follow the curve of the carved back of the chair, and it gives me a giggle that it looks like the Old Man is licking the cat’s head.
For my fiber study, I’ve been making fiber pages that have a small amount of fiber, then examples of spun, plied, knitted, crocheted, and woven fiber. I designed a small drawer for the natural fiber with the idea that it would protect the fiber from getting flattened and felted, but would still allow access to touch the fiber. It was a neat idea, but didn’t function the way I hoped. The drawer was too tall even at a quarter inch, and the stack of drawers took the brunt of the pressure and crushed, flattening the fiber. Hm. So I switched out the drawer for a plastic bag. The fiber can at least still be seen, and if necessary, the bag can be opened for closer examination of the fiber.
The advantage of the plastic bag to hold the fiber is that the pages lay nicer when stacked. The thickness of all the samples is similar and the pages lay flatter.
I secure the bag to the page with brads. By keeping all the connections mechanical and avoiding glue or adhesive, it should give the pages a longer life.
I kept the foam spacers at the post side, and also added space for a 12×12 sheet after each fiber page, where I plan to put a description of each fiber, and some of the blog posts I wrote when spinning each fiber. This is definitely still a work in progress.
In August 2015 I finished a crocheted doll for my youngest.
It wasn’t difficult to make, but did not end up being a very popular doll. It sat with the rest of the stuffed animals in a bin. I personally think these look better with thinner yarn and a tighter stitch, but if I were to make another soft doll, I would use fabric for the face and body because it is smoother, then crochet accessories.
I’m spinning Southdown wool on a 3D printed Turkish style spindle. My eyes aren’t quite calibrated to estimate same-sized turtles when one is on the spindle and the other is off. I had a difference of 4 grams. That may not seem significant, but I can visually tell the difference when they are both off the spindle and it means the one on the right has several yards more yarn. I’m planning a three ply yarn with the singles, so need to spin another turtle. I’m aiming for the 22 g size to minimize leftover single spun yarn. Even three turtles of my hand-spun yarn that weigh the same won’t have the exact same yardage because my spin has some variation, especially across different days, but it a reasonable estimate.
I don’t often rip out my needle work, I usually find a way to make it work either for the original purpose or by pivoting to a new use. For example, a hat that is too narrow for a head becomes a drawstring bag. I have to be deeply unhappy with the work, or really be in love with the yarn. In this instance it was both. I found a pattern for a dragon scale crocheted blanket that looks fabulous with color changing yarn. I love the idea of dragon scales and tried it with my hand-spun Jacob’s wool yarn. The pattern completely disappeared in the marled yarn, the fabric was heavy, and was tedious to crochet.
So I ripped it out.
I later did rewind the yarn cake and started on a new crochet pattern with a more open stitch.
This is a post to prove that I indeed do rip out on occasion.
Critters and Craft 