Tag: yarn

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Cat yarn

Autumn

I brushed one of the cats, then as I cleaned the fur off of the brush, I wondered if I could…

So I did.

I spun cat fur into yarn.

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Finished Skirt

Autumn

Add some crochet, and voila!

It’s a micro miniskirt!

But I’m letting my 2-year-old wear it instead.

This has been another episode of Weaving Is Fun.

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Rigid Heddle loom project #2

Autumn

I got some different yarns to experiment weaving with, which is turning into a huge amount of fun and I can totally quit whenever I want. #JustKiddingI’mAddicted

This one is mercerized cotton, which has been treated to have a shine.

Wait a second, and let’s backtrack.

I forgot to mention that I bought white yarn and dyed it a speckled peacock blue and hot pink. Basically, after soaking it in soda ash, I sprinkled the blue dye powder over one half of the skein, and the pink dye powder over the other, and let it set for a couple of days before washing.

On the loom, the mercerized cotton naturally wove with lots of spacious gaps between the yarn, so it almost looked like a type of netting. However, after I washed it, all of those gaps disappeared and I got a decently solid fabric:

Now I need to figure out what to do with it.

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Rigid Heddle

Autumn

Back in January, I got an inkle loom for weaving straps, and fell madly in love with the whole process. A month ago, I got my hands on a rigid heddle loom.

I’ve been going through my stash of acrylic yarn on practicing, experimenting, and learning, and finally decided that I was up for using my handspun on the loom. The result is pictured above.

The kids have claimed all of my earlier pieces for themselves and their toys, so only heaven knows when I’ll see those again, ha ha. I guess they make some pretty good doll blankets and shawls.

Weaving actually has a therapeutic effect because of the repetitive motions of passing the shuttle from one hand to the other, combined with the feeling of accomplishment at making something. I like to joke that maybe it will help get me out of my massive feelings of disillusionment towards humanity, but really, it’s best to be honest with ourselves and accept the fact that the disillusionment is here to stay. The past couple of years have been playing out worse than I expected, and here I thought that I was a cynic before 2020 — now I realize that I had been an optimist.

I’m pretty heavy into the “just one more pass with the shuttle,” as an hour goes by. My husband once took the loom away from me so I would actually go eat. It draws me in, and I love it so much. Weaving makes me happy in a way that knitting and crochet never did — I’m even starting to make a sizeable dent in my yarn stash.

When I don’t have a bunch of small children running around, I’m probably going to end up with one of those big shaft looms.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all the cloth I’m making.

About Me

Posture

Autumn

I’ve dun gone and murdered my foot through slovenly treadling at my spinning wheel.

Okay, so it’s mostly fine, but every now and then I get a stabbing pain if I step wrong. That would be the tendons screaming at me.

As a Millennial, no one ever impressed the importance of posture on me during my childhood. Quite the opposite, actually, since I was told that I held myself unnaturally straight, and was therefore uncomfortable to be around. In an effort to “fit in,” I taught myself to slouch.

Now that I’ve realized the reasons why people historically cared about posture, I regret doing that. Unfortunately, childhood habits like that tend to creep in the moment I stop watching. I wish that just one person has said, “Good on you,” back when sitting straight was easy, so I wouldn’t have felt like a freak for it. Could’ve saved myself from a lot of pain.

Anyway, I wasn’t paying attention to my foot on the treadle of my spinning wheel, and now after a mere year and a half of using it, the bad practice has caught up to me. I need to correct my errant ways.

Though in my defense, my learning materials never mentioned anything about peddling with your entire foot.

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Fiber of the Month – April

Autumn

Paradise Fibers’ fiber of the month club

Cherry Blossom

Tea and Crumpets

Yes, I am way behind.

For those who don’t know, I had a baby at the end of April, and this was the first yarn I’ve spun since. Honestly, it probably wasn’t the best choice to get me back into the swing of things, and I had a difficult time controlling the nepps and mixed fibers in the roving. It’s … um … very textured.

But, thankfully, I can always call the yarn ‘artistic’ and use it anyway.

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Fiber of the Month – March

Autumn

Through Paradise Fibers

I’m moving pretty slow these days for some strange reason … XD

For March, Paradise Fibers sent out neon merino wool. All of my kids were just as excited about this one as I was, and we agreed that the colors were delicious enough to eat, lol.

So rainbowy and beautiful. 🙂

About Me

Fiber of the Month – February

Autumn

Through Paradise Fibers

Bubblegum Surprise and Twirl

My phone picked up wildly different lighting with the pictures, and I’m too lazy to act like a professional photographer and care.

The fun part is, I’m now pregnant enough that there are very few activities that don’t result in something starting to ache. I can only sit at my spinning wheel for so long before my back needs a rest. 🙂

I’m including a link to a video on how to spin the bubblegum surprise roving into self-striping yarn. Personally, I like the blended colors better and adore the “candy cane” effect that you get with spinning multiple colors together, but it’s interesting to see how the same roving can be spun in different ways.

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Fiber of the month – January

Autumn

The fiber of the month club through Paradise Fibers

I know, I’m late for a number of reasons.

In January, Paradise Fibers sent the Humbug Merino, and the Silver Glitter Merino. I decided to ply them together for lots of sparkly silver yarn.

Aiming to make a lace shrug out of this, so hopefully I’ve got enough yarn to pull it off.