He’s hiding

On By CarynIn Cats
Photo description: gray tabby cat hindquarters and tail visible under the pulled down sheet beside the bed

It is a good thing he is cute.

Sock progress

On By CarynIn Craft

I cast on a new pair of socks the day after I finished the previous pair (that took me 13 months to knit). This time, though, I’m using self striping yarn, and an after thought heel to minimize fuss. I knit the toes individually with a solid color yarn, then I set them up on two circular needles and joined in the self striping yarn. Now all I have to do is knit, well, and some purls since I want some ribbing on the arch and top. When I get to the heel, I’ll knit in a piece of scrap yarn, then finish the sock. The heels will be last and knit individually.

Photo description: two striped purple socks partially knitted on two circular needles

I’m already making better progress, and I avoid the project less (although I’m not completely all in, I do have a few other projects in process.)

Finishing Jacob’s wool

On By CarynIn Craft

I transferred all my three-ply hand spun Jacob’s sheep yarn to my PVC niddy noddy.

Photo description: four shades of three-ply yarn on a very full PVC niddy noddy

I like the PVC niddy noddy because I can rinse the hanks while still on the niddy noddy. I usually let them dry there too, but I put too much yarn on and the noddy niddy came apart when I twisted it to dry, so I had to hang the hanks instead.

Photo description: large hank of hand spun yarn hanging on a circular drying rack

I am pleased that the yarn is well balanced. There are no kinks or twists, it is all laying nice and straight.

Photo description: closeup of hanks of all four shades after drying

Plying Jacob’s wool

On By CarynIn Craft

All the singles I spun with my Jacob’s wool from Sweetgrass farms had sat on their bobbins for a few days, so it was time to ply! I put a makeshift brake on the bobbins on their stands on the wheel. I used a cotton string and applied enough tension so that the bobbins will turn, but not spin freely. This saves me from future tangles.

Photo description: three bobbins full of spun singles on an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel
Photo description: jumbo Ashford bobbin full of three-ply Jacob’s wool yarn
Photo description: left over dark and silver marled yarn with the middle bobbin empty
Photo description: three-ply yarn made with two dark singles and one silver single
Photo description: left over yarn from round two of plying
Photo description: four bobbins of three-plied Jacob’s wool yarn in four colors

I used the silver single spun with the remaining two bobbins of dark colored singles, then when the dark ran out, chain plied the silver. I ended up with two jumbo bobbins full of three-ply yarn, and two regular bobbins half-full of yarn.

I need my bobbins free, so this yarn doesn’t get to let time set the twist. Next up is the niddy noddy.

Expresso paintings

On By CarynIn art

I bought expresso from The Full Cup coffee and book store back in August with the intension to paint more coffee art. Life happened, and the expresso stayed in a bottle in my fridge for nine months. I finally pulled it out and did some paintings on cotton fiber paper.

Photo description: four expresso paintings, all including a coffee ring made from a coffee cup

I digitized the paintings and made greeting cards that I took back to The Full Cup to sell.

Expresso has a more intense color than American drip, and works similar to water colors. I can “erase” by adding more water, and everything looks different when it dries. The image below took many cycles of painting and drying over several days.

Photo description: Brown-eyed Susan flowers painted with expresso

My plan is to have a whole series of these small paintings, which will be digitized for greeting cards.