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.

Digging discovery

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

Our driveway regularly floods when it rains, and takes awhile to dry out because of the angles and build up of silt and leaves. The silt gets slippery and we are having an unusually wet summer, so it makes the surface treacherous. I thought if I dig out the corner and place a flag stone, I might reduce the erosion. I stated digging and was quite surprised to find a drain buried under a couple inches of dirt.

Photo description: drain unearthed in the corner where the sidewalk meets the driveway

The drain connects to a similar drain on the opposite side of the driveway that I unearthed a few years ago. One mystery solved. Surprisingly, the pipe that connects the two drains is not plugged with dirt and water sprayed into the newly excavated drain goes out, under the driveway, to the other side. Now to figure out a way to keep dirt from building up and blocking it again. Hm.

Throwback Thursday: first ghost

On By CarynIn Craft

In October 2014 I made my first poultry wire ghost.

Photo description: shape of a young girl in a pioneer style dress shape with bonnet sculpted from poultry wire and standing in grass in a backyard

I had seen photos of wire ghosts and loved how the mesh looked etherial, especially at first glance in the dark.

Photo description: same wire sculpture installed in a front flower bed

One ghost led to two, as I wanted to make one larger.

Photo description: woman shaped sculpture made from poultry wire with the hands over her face

The idea to put the ghost’s hands over her face came from watching Dr Who and the weeping angels. It also solved the awkwardness of sculpting hands.

Photo description: weeping woman ghost in the front garden bed with a crown of leaves.

I had many requests for these ghosts, so I wrote instructions with tips and tricks, which has become my best selling item on Etsy.