Tag: wool

Cat’s in the cradle

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft

Ok, not a baby cradle, but the cat is definitely interested in what is going on when my spindle is in the makeshift cradle formed by an upside down side table. I put my spindle there because it makes it easier to wind the yarn onto my niddy noddy. As I unwind the yarn, the spindle skips and jumps and makes interesting scritchy noises against the metal.

Photo description: Wooden drop spindle set into the curved legs of an upside down metal side table. Gray tabby sniffing the end of the spindle with one claw caught in the yarn.

Despite the extra “assistance,” I did manage to get all the yarn onto my niddy noddy. This is the multi-fiber blend from Anniewhere. I’ve wet down the fibers and set them to dry out of the cat’s reach.

Photo description: Several bundles of 2-ply yarn wrapped onto a PVC niddy noddy.

Cats and fiber arts really don’t mix, but it is remarkable how often they do anyway.

Wool nests

On By CarynIn Craft

I have some Baize Shetland wool that came as large batts. I’ve been tearing off strips to spin, but decided that it was inefficient to unroll the batts every time, so separated all of the batts into strips and wound them into loose “nests”.

Photo description: Separating a strip of near white Shetland wool from a batt, showing the approximately two inch strip coming away from the main batt, with a hand wrapped nest above.

To wrap the nest, I loosely wrap the wool strip around four fingers, then tuck the end in the middle. The nests stay together, and are easy to grab when it is time to spin.

Photo description: Eleven visible wool nests in a pile.

Needle felting

On By CarynIn Craft

I took a needle felting class! So cool, and much easier than I imagined. The instructor, Joyce Hazlerig, is phenomenal, and I came away with pockets overflowing with tips and tricks. In class we made cute little bearded gnomes.

My felted gnome from class

The neatest thing about needle felting is that it combines with all my other fiber crafts. I can add needle felted embellishments to anything felt-able. (Insert maniacal mad inventor laugh here. Do picture both hands raised in triumph as well.)

Peachy keychains

On By CarynIn Craft

I recently created a PDF pattern for a local yarn shop. It is the owner’s pattern, but they needed it taken from written shorthand to a sharable PDF. It is a cute little peachy amigurumi, and in testing the pattern, I made up 6 little peaches.

Peach amigurumi

The pattern is by Anniewhere at NerdCraft. I’m very excited about the wool yarn I used for the body of the peach, because it was locally spun and dyed by Texas Prairie Fiber Co. I love using locally produced supplies! The leaves I made from my own handspun yarn, that I spun from Blue Faced Leicester and silk blended roving dyed by Frabjous Fibers. This turned out to be quite the collaborative project.

Keychain peach amigurumi

I did make each one into a keychain by sewing on some chain and attaching a split ring. I used hand-spun alpaca scraps from a naturally brown alpaca (Aimee) to sew on the chain. So each peach has a little brown stem.

Walking entertainment

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft, dog

The Texas summer is ramping up, and I don’t like walking when it is hot outside. Luckily, I have a large kitchen counter with room to walk circuits in the house. To keep the kitten occupied, I tied a ribbon to a small clip and clipped it on the back of my shirt.

Ribbon tied to a clip
Kitten following the ribbon
Izzy also finds the ribbon enticing

The drier air is also better for my spinning, since heat, moisture, and pressure are the factors that felt wool. Missy the dog also thinks spinning time is kick the ball time, and it is amusing to watch her figure out the timing to drop the ball in my path so I can kick it before walking past. So yes, I walk the house spinning with a drop spindle, kicking the ball for the dog, trailing a ribbon for the cats. I am walking entertainment, but I’m getting in those steps!