All through this my sweetie is helped by the snoopervisor, helper kitten Kevin, who stoically sits on the provided step stool, watching the sanding process. When he's within close enough distance, he' reach out and whack my sweetie on the nose, with just velvety paws, to remind him he's there. Once in a while he'll try to actually help with the sanding, which I've been told is no help at all!
Natural Dyeing, Spinning, Weaving, Other Fibre Arts, Gardening, Cooking, Costuming, and...
December 28, 2012
The Mud Room
All through this my sweetie is helped by the snoopervisor, helper kitten Kevin, who stoically sits on the provided step stool, watching the sanding process. When he's within close enough distance, he' reach out and whack my sweetie on the nose, with just velvety paws, to remind him he's there. Once in a while he'll try to actually help with the sanding, which I've been told is no help at all!
December 26, 2012
Christmas Day Hike
I'll bet this arbor is spectacular when it's leafy and green. |
One of the few places where the trees didn't arch over on both sides. |
Odd formation on an ancient tree. |
Looking out across the fields with a dark, looming sky. No precip. though, just grey. |
December 24, 2012
Christmas Eve photo ops, not...
I wanted to take a photo of the finished mitts, but they're packed up in pretty paper and under the tree. It would have been an interesting bit , as when I went to block those mitts, like the Grinch's heart, they grew 3 sizes that day. It took a whirl in the washer to full them up to a useable size.
I was going to take step by step photos of making a steamed plum pudding but it's steamed, cooled and wrapped up, waiting for tomorrow's dinner and my camera stayed in it's bag the whole time! Even the rather wonderful gluten free Christmas cake experiment, which turned out awesomely is wrapped up letting the brandy soak in. I could do a photo montage of what is happening in my mud room right now, but necessary renovations showing the horrors beneath the previous decor doesn't seem to be a suitable post for Christmas Eve.
However, between all the baking, cleaning and dragging the kitten from the tree, I've been spinning. I can say Happy Christmas to me as I have finally spun some cotton that I've found truly acceptable to my standards. It's not incredibly delicate, sexy yarn, but it's consistent and I spun it without any issues, while watching The Sound of Music, no less. I'm over the world happy about it as it's been a bit of a long haul on this one. Now, can I reproduce the results?
Despite the lack of photos of my activities, there is still the sweet Kevin in the tree. He's stopped climbing it, but any ornaments on the bottom 3rd of the tree are fair game for cat toys. That mistakenly purchased box of red plastic globe ornaments has come in very handy this year! Most of the special and vintage ornaments stayed in their boxes, just to be safe.
Happy Christmas!
I was going to take step by step photos of making a steamed plum pudding but it's steamed, cooled and wrapped up, waiting for tomorrow's dinner and my camera stayed in it's bag the whole time! Even the rather wonderful gluten free Christmas cake experiment, which turned out awesomely is wrapped up letting the brandy soak in. I could do a photo montage of what is happening in my mud room right now, but necessary renovations showing the horrors beneath the previous decor doesn't seem to be a suitable post for Christmas Eve.
However, between all the baking, cleaning and dragging the kitten from the tree, I've been spinning. I can say Happy Christmas to me as I have finally spun some cotton that I've found truly acceptable to my standards. It's not incredibly delicate, sexy yarn, but it's consistent and I spun it without any issues, while watching The Sound of Music, no less. I'm over the world happy about it as it's been a bit of a long haul on this one. Now, can I reproduce the results?
Caught in the act! |
Happy Christmas!
December 18, 2012
Playing with wool
The first scarf was a sample. I wasn't sure of my sett and doing a bit of twill, it made me a little more unsure. I unwove the twill, and did the 1st scarf in tabby. I didn't like the results - I just don't like most of the tabby weave that I've ever done and it didn't have a nice drape, so the next 3 were done in a 2/2 twill. Scarves are a pretty easy weave. Sometimes having a fast and fun project to just whip off is a way to get back to being productive. Since that poor loom has been a cat climber for the past few months, weaving off the scarves felt really good. The blue one is with a handspun, woad dyed weft. the two grey ones, I'm not sure about. The weft was an unlabelled ball of wool singles, which could have been handspun or a bit unevenly spun commercial yarn. I lightly plied it before weaving with it. I am going to have to get better about labeling! All 3 of these will end up being Christmas presents.
Then I started a pair of mittens. This is commercial yarn that I dyed with walnuts. I think it's Patons
On the wheel? - commercially processed cotton sliver. While I can spin the cotton fairly easily now, I'm still working on consistency. It's awfully easy to get these micro thin spots in an otherwise decent yarn.
Lesson of the week - it's way easier to start and finish a project when you actually decide what to do!
Labels:
cotton,
knitting,
natural dyes,
using handspun yarn,
weaving
December 14, 2012
More on the Cotton Experiment
When I brought the cotton plants indoors at the end of the summer, they had both been in a small, south facing room. It gets a lot of sunshine but it is hardly heated at all, so gets quite cold in the winter. Cotton likes hot weather, so I had moved one plant to the warmer room, which gets a little less sunshine as a comparative experiment. It was a short lived experiment as the kitten decided it was an exciting new toy. I woke up one morning to find the poor cotton plant strewn around the living room.
However, the two bolls had just started to open, so I let them dry out. This is as far as they got. Finally, I actually noticed that the outer husks were dry and hard. Last night I cracked them off and had this tiny handful of fibres. I brought them to my spinning wheel and tried to spin them off the seed. I've done that before and it's actually quite an easy way to spin cotton bolls. You just set up the wheel with a really fast whorl and loosen the brake tension so it just draws in a bit. This allows lots of twist into the cotton fibres. The fact that they're attached to the seed slows down the whole process and it's really one of those miraculous "aha" sort of moments.

I wasn't sure how my cotton was going to spin. It was obviously not quite like what you see in the photos of fully developed bolls. It was very soft, softer than the cotton I have been spinning. However, a lot of it was shorter than short. Despite lots of twist, there were places it would just fall apart when you looked at it. Nothing worth saving from this bunch, just a rather huge volume of seeds for such a small amount of cotton.
There is still one plant left. It is green cotton. I know that as there was only one white cotton seedling when I planted them. The one boll on it that survived is getting huge. It should be opening soon or I hope since it's been there for almost 4 months. The plant has a bunch of new buds about to develop. The current quest is to find out if they can be hand pollinated or do they have to have wind or bees? From what I've read, cotton has a rather short window of opportunity for pollination. I can try to simulate the wind with a fan, or use a little paint brush to pollinate but can't do the bee thing in late December or January around here!
You'd think that this might be classified as a failure and I'd figure that growing cotton in the Great White North is not going to happen. However, I've already got some ideas to try for next summer. It will never be a big crop, but having enough cotton bolls of my own would be rather fun.
However, the two bolls had just started to open, so I let them dry out. This is as far as they got. Finally, I actually noticed that the outer husks were dry and hard. Last night I cracked them off and had this tiny handful of fibres. I brought them to my spinning wheel and tried to spin them off the seed. I've done that before and it's actually quite an easy way to spin cotton bolls. You just set up the wheel with a really fast whorl and loosen the brake tension so it just draws in a bit. This allows lots of twist into the cotton fibres. The fact that they're attached to the seed slows down the whole process and it's really one of those miraculous "aha" sort of moments.
I wasn't sure how my cotton was going to spin. It was obviously not quite like what you see in the photos of fully developed bolls. It was very soft, softer than the cotton I have been spinning. However, a lot of it was shorter than short. Despite lots of twist, there were places it would just fall apart when you looked at it. Nothing worth saving from this bunch, just a rather huge volume of seeds for such a small amount of cotton.
There is still one plant left. It is green cotton. I know that as there was only one white cotton seedling when I planted them. The one boll on it that survived is getting huge. It should be opening soon or I hope since it's been there for almost 4 months. The plant has a bunch of new buds about to develop. The current quest is to find out if they can be hand pollinated or do they have to have wind or bees? From what I've read, cotton has a rather short window of opportunity for pollination. I can try to simulate the wind with a fan, or use a little paint brush to pollinate but can't do the bee thing in late December or January around here!
You'd think that this might be classified as a failure and I'd figure that growing cotton in the Great White North is not going to happen. However, I've already got some ideas to try for next summer. It will never be a big crop, but having enough cotton bolls of my own would be rather fun.
December 09, 2012
On the loom again...
The local guild has an amazing resource of a studio room, packed with looms of various sizes. Most of these are available for the use of the guild members. I've not taken advantage of this before because most of the projects in the past were individually organized and they weren't my cup of tea. However, this year, the project structure has changed and it is member groups putting together projects which are exciting and fun. They've been playing with shadow weave, plans for huck projects and this rather big experiment - blankets.
A group of us got together to make blankets on the 60 inch loom. It was decided to put a neutral warp on and we could use whatever weft we wanted. I wasn't able to come help with the dressing of the loom, so it was a bit of a guess as to what I should use as warp. I held up two cones of yarn and hubby said "that one", which is how the green was chosen. As well, the warp leftovers were in a basket under the loom and I was able to use a bit of the ends to make nice stripes on the blanket. I think it made it look much more interesting than just the plain green. I was worried that the blanket right off the loom was a bit too sleazy, but after wet finishing, it is absolutely perfect.
It must have been interesting watching me throw the shuttle. My arm reach is just barely 60 inches. There was no fly shuttle, just lots of stretching and leaning. If you threw the shuttle too quickly it either caught threads, skipped threads or fell through threads. It took a bit longer to weave off than I'd hoped because of that.
I am thankful for the fringe twister. I think I spent about 3 hours twisting fringes. Kevin decided they were toys and it was became an interesting and some what slow process. All in all though, I'm really happy with this project. As well, it sure was nice to sit down at a loom again and weave.
It must have been interesting watching me throw the shuttle. My arm reach is just barely 60 inches. There was no fly shuttle, just lots of stretching and leaning. If you threw the shuttle too quickly it either caught threads, skipped threads or fell through threads. It took a bit longer to weave off than I'd hoped because of that.
Kevin's first introduction to a Christmas Tree. |
December 02, 2012
A Foggy Start to December
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)