Samoyed Fiber Page

On By CarynIn Craft
Photo description: 12×12 pink card stock with, clockwise, the words “Samoyed Sugar”, single spun and chain plied yarn on paper bobbins, crochet swatch, woven swatch, knit swatch and nålbound swatch, and shed fur

My fiber page for Samoyed dog fiber is what has me thinking hard on my page design. The precut design worked well for a while, but I now think each page needs its own layout and not be forced into sameness. This was my last precut page, so now the adventure begins anew.

Samoyed fur is one of my favorite fibers to spin. I combed all the fur for this spin, but I didn’t wash it until I blocked the swatches. It repels dirt, has almost no odor, and takes twist beautifully. There are guard hairs, but the bothersome ones pull out easily from the finished work without compromising structure.

Throwback Thursday: crocheted dog vest

On By CarynIn Craft, dog
Photo description: Griffin the dog wearing a crocheted striped dog vest

In October of 2015 I crocheted our dog Griffin a sweater because we thought he would be cold outside with his single coat of fur. I made stripes and crocheted in the round. It came out a little snug and getting him in and out of it wasn’t fun for anyone. Turned out he didn’t care about the cold at all. I always meant to make him another bigger sweater in Gryffindor colors, because that would be funny, but he was just as happy without.

Yeah, scrolling through old pictures was a kick in the gut this time. Lots of pictures of pets that are no longer with us.

Mini spinning kits

On By CarynIn Craft

Here are my mini spinning kits! They have description cards with as much information as I could legibly fit on a 4×6 card double sided, as well as a QR code the leads to a video. They each also have a 4 inch bamboo toothpick that is the mini spindle. There are two versions, wool and cotton, and the kits have a small fluff of that fiber, enough to fill the spindle with thread. I did one animal based and one plant based since allergies are a concern with natural fibers.

Photo description: front and back of a 4×6 plastic bag containing mini spinning kits for wool, Corridale carded
Photo description: front and back of a 4×6 plastic bag containing mini spinning kits for cotton, Texas coop grown combed top

I gave these away at my recent spinning demonstration. I started with 60 and ended with 7, so the idea of spinning fiber was spread!

Ah ha moment

On By CarynIn Life Hack

It hurts sometimes. I’ve been struggling with my printer for longer than I care to admit, trying to maximize paper use and minimize waste. I try lying out a print double sided so that I can then cut them apart, but the printer doesn’t print consistently and the double sided is off set at best, or unusable.

After a particularly frustrating waste of 20 sheets of card stock, I walked away from the problem for a while.

Photo description: using a paper cutter to cut double sided 3.75×5.75 inch cards, card on the left is useable, but offset so that the text is right on the edge.

I don’t know why I’ve never considered cutting the card stock first. First. Then feeding it into the printer, which can handle small stock. I tested it the next morning, and had a 95% success rate. Much better than the 20% success rate of printing first. Bonus, I can get cut three 3.7×5.75 inch cards from a single letter sized piece of card stock. That is one extra per sheet than if I printed (which with my printing tolerances would be impossible to achieve).

Yeah for ah ha moments.

Toothpick spinning videos

On By CarynIn Craft

I put together two videos on how to spin thread using a toothpick, one for wool and one for cotton. In my mini spinning kits, I will have a QR code that links to these videos so anyone taking one of the freebies (or had access to a stick) can review the steps on spinning thread.

Photo description: video still of my hand holding a bit of wool and a 4 inch bamboo skewer

I say spinning thread because the toothpick can’t hold much of any yarn thicker than thread, but it can hold a decent amount of thread. Spinning thin is also easier than spinning thick.

The next step is to design the insert for the kits.