Tag: wool

Twined bag

On By CarynIn Craft

I have a crafting friend who taught me to twine a bag! I’m borrowing her wood frame, made by her husband, and using jute twine and her hand spun wool. Below is the picture of the progress I made on our crafting morning.

Photo description: wood loom with jute twine and orange hand spun wool twined around the upright poles of the loom with one stripe of natural jute and one stripe of orange finished

The warp is attached with larks head knots to a circle of jute at the top of the frame. Two longer strands are then twined around two hanging threads at a time, with one twist between each pair of warp threads. I love the open ended warp technique; it is so much easier to twine than on a loom where both ends of the warp are fixed in place. I also love twining, but to this point have only made cordage. This is the next step in my twining journey.

Twining is found historically around the world, and this type of twining with the open ended warp was used by Native Americans.

My friend also has a great book called “Twined Bags: A Historic finger weaving craft of the Native Americans” available from Livingston Press, written and signed by Monica Newman Moore. It is a very comprehensive book with instructions on the basic twining as well as tips on patterns.

What a wonderful rabbit hole!

Finished: 10 second rule

On By CarynIn Craft

I stopped knitting and bound off my rainbow brioche scarf months ago, but there were errors at the beginning when I was still getting used to the brioche knitting with multiple colors techniques. I thought I needed to rip out the first few inches and rebind, which is daunting, so I stuck the project in a bag and tucked it into the back of the closet until I was ready.

Months later, when I was on a finishing kick (see yesterday’s post), I figured I was ready to work on the scarf again. I pulled it out of the bag, in all its squishy soft amazing length, and couldn’t find the spots that bothered me before. I looked again and did eventually spot the small errors, but it definitely took over 10 seconds. I have a 10 second rule, that if you can’t see the mistake in 10 seconds, the item passes. If someone else wants to examine an item that closely, they deserve to find something.

I wet the scarf to block it, and noticed that the colors bled.

Photo description: rainbow scarf in blue tinted water in the sink

I rinsed the scarf until I could not see any dye in the water, and hung it up to dry.

Photo description: rainbow brioche scarf hanging from multiple towel racks

The dye colors were taken up by the white yarn as the scarf dried, but it doesn’t distract from the piece. I’m glad I didn’t add fluffy clouds to the ends, they would not have stayed white.

Photo description: finished scarf laying artfully on a leather chair

The scarf now has a happy home, two years after I started it.

Jacob roving

On By CarynIn Craft

I also visited Sweetgrass Farm in Michigan, met some of Peg’s Jacob sheep, fed them animals crackers, and picked up three colors of roving.

Photo description: two wound balls of dark gray and light gray roving, and a bump of white a gray separated color roving
Photo description: Jacob ewes, the one in the middle showing four small horns and a beautiful multicolored fleece of white and black

Jacob sheep are in the Threatened category according to the Livestock Conservancy. They were “park sheep” in England in the 1700s and were bred for hardiness, four horns, and spots. I love the color variation in their wool and their eye catching horns. Here is more information from the Livestock Conservancy.

Photo description: Jacob ram with breed typical four impressive large horns
Photo description: Jacob ram with recessive trait horns that look more like a Big Horn Sheep

I’m really looking forward to spinning this wool and am already playing with ideas on what I can do with the lovely variations of natural color.

Teeswater roving

On By CarynIn Craft

When I was up in Michigan I had the opportunity to visit Pitchfork Ranch and pick up some Teeswater roving.

Photo description: one pound of Teeswater roving with Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em sticker and Pitchfork Ranch business card

Teeswater sheep, according to the Livestock Conservancy, have a critical status. Because of preference for other longwool sheep, Teeswater nearly became extinct in the 1920s. The long lovely curly locks of Teeswater are often used in needle felting projects that retain the curl. I intended to spin most of the fiber, so was pleased that Pitchfork Ranch had roving available. To read more about this longwool sheep, here is the link to the Livestock Conservancy page, which has a detailed writeup.

Photo description: Teeswater Ram in a pasture with fence and woods in the background, photo credit to Pitchfork Ranch, used with permission

Wool goblin

On By CarynIn Cats
Photo description: Thor the cat with three articles of doll clothes in front of him, all made from wool

Thor the cat really likes wool. Awhile back we moved the gate keeping dogs out of the cat area and inadvertently removed the gap on the side that Thor used as a pass through. The gate was no problem for our two leaping female cats, but Thor is not a leaper. He can jump up, but for some reason doesn’t get that he can jump over. So he was blocked from the upstairs and our youngest’s room, which is full of wooly goodness. My eldest fixed his access by putting a stool on one side and a box on the other, giving him treats to entice him over. He learned, using supports, to get over and regained access to the treasure trove of doll clothes. He goes up, selects a wool item (always wool, never acrylic) and brings it downstairs. In the picture, the brown doll jacket in the middle was his latest prize, I threw the green doll shawl and pink doll sweater that he had previously brought down next to him for the picture. I could probably use him as a wool finder for fabric with unknown animal hair content.

P.S. he looks like a chonk, but the vet says Thor the cat’s weight is in the normal range.