Why buy a wool winder

On By CarynIn Craft

Even if you don’t spin your own yarn, I would argue that buying a wool winder should be the next purchase for the new yarn crafter, after yarn and needles or hooks. Why? Because of exploded skeins like the one below.

Photo description: exploded skein with the yarn in a state of mess on the left, neatly wound yarn cake fresh from the winder on the right

Can you wind your own balls of yarn without a wool winder? Yes, of course, but it takes more time and two hands. The wool winder gives me some extra holding power, so I can gentle tease the yarn from the snarled mess into a neater form without said form rolling off the table and onto the floor.

Photo description: plastic Royal wool winder mounted on the back of a chair

Having a wool winder also opens up more yarn buying opportunities. Many yarns in local yarn shops (LYS) or fiber shows have some beautiful yarn sold in hanks, large circles of yarn that must be wound off before use. Most yarn shops and fiber shows also have people manning a winding station and will wind off your yarn for free or a small charge. But what if you forget to stop at the station? There are choices, but an inexpensive wool winder is a worthy investment. Plus, it is satisfying to see the yarn build up on the winder.

After the winder, I recommend some kind of yarn swift, to hold the hank open. You can use a willing set of hands, or the back of a chair, but swifts are also a fulfilling basic machine to watch at work.

Squirrely Squirrels

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I didn’t really know how many squirrels visited my feeders until I moved the post. I thought I had four, but no, there are more than four.

Photo description: back porch with stone stairs, a feeding pole, corn wheel, and many squirrels

I count seven squirrels.

Photo description: same photo with squirrels highlighted with purple

Here is a short video.

I do like watching them, the sassy little things.

Happy Father’s Day to all those that nurture.

Cat window

On By CarynIn Cats

We broke down and purchased a well engineered cat door for the window to the catio. It keeps out the weather and more importantly, flies.

Photo description: Calico cat looking out the new cat door, plastic lock door propped up over the right window because it doesn’t open

The cats are used to going in and out at the right side of the window. The first solution was cutting a flap in the screen of the window. In winter, that was very cold. The next solution was to replace the screen with flexible vinyl, with a flap cut in. With a heavy curtain in front of the window, it was better than the screen, but the window still needed to be closed during a rain storm.

Photo description: dilute tortie looking out the window with the door lock in place

The door insert fits right into the window channels and reduces the air leak to almost nothing. We could even take away the curtain and get more light. The cats were not impressed. We tried just poking them out the window, but the magnetic click at the bottom scares Thor, the gray tabby, my 17 pound baby. We tried holding the flap open, but that lets in the flies. We decided to just let the cats figure it out.

Photo description: large gray tabby looking out the window

Izzy the calico was the first to figure it out.

Photo description: calico cat seen through the window, sitting outside by her own choice

Thor has still not braved making the window click. He will sit on the windowsill looking mournfully out, but won’t let me near him (poking him out the window was traumatic, the door lock clattered in a scary way). It has been a week and he still won’t go out. On the plus side, we see more of him when he doesn’t spend his whole day outside eating bugs and frogs. He might loose some weight without all the extra wriggly snacks too.

Calculating yardage

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve wound my handspun 3-ply Jacob’s wool yarn into center pull balls. But how much do I really have?

Photo description: two cakes of yarn and two center pull balls of yarn in different shades

Hand woven magazine published an article about yarn balances. I followed their instructions to make a balance and used acrylic yarn of a known weight per yard.

Photo description: yarn balance with known acrylic yarn on the left and unknown yarn on the right

Because of my scientific background, I have to do my math by using the factor-label method (here is an explanatory video). I know that the yarn on the left is 142 grams per 241 meters, so my 120 cm weighs 0.071g, a weight I would not be able to measure with a kitchen scale. My hand-spun yarn that balances measures 97 cm. I now have the weight per length and can calculate yardage. (Oh yes, I completely mix my metric and standard measurements, but as long as all the labels cancel properly, we’re golden.)

Photo description: scratch pad with hand written yarn math for all four shades of yarn

To see how accurate the calculations are, I measured the lightest ball of yarn by laying out a yard with tape on a counter. I measured 29 yards. I put a section of the yarn on the balance, did my calculations and predicted 33 yards. This is a 12% difference in weight, which I find an acceptable margin for error. When planning a pattern, you should have at least 10% more yarn than what is called for. In the case of my hand spun yarn, I will pick a pattern that needs at least 12% less than 530 yards I have.

Photo description: silver ball of yarn with scrap paper hand written math

This was an interesting exercise, and confirmed what I felt when looking at the yarn: it isn’t enough to make a vest. It may be enough the make a hat or two.

Throwback Thursday: the process

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

I found a picture from December 2014 that shows how the creative process sometimes works, or doesn’t. I was trying to develop a simple, repeatable wire dragonfly shape and went through many, many iterations.

Photo description: twelve partially formed brass wire dragonfly shapes on a green table

I still wasn’t entirely pleased with the end result, although I did make a few more like the shape in the bottom left.

Sometimes my ideas work right off the bat, but more often they go through a series of trials, with mostly errors. If we aren’t willing to have a few gnarls in the thread, it is hard to achieve much of anything.