Jan19

New Hobbies?

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New Hobbies?

Yeah. Like I need more hobbies. It all started with wanting to make paper then it just snowballed from there. Unfortunately (or fortunately) these things happen. Now I want to try bookbinding…making books. I think it would be interesting to try to learn. I never realized how much you can do with bookbinding. Here are some handmade books I found on Etsy. Please take a look at their shops. They have so many more beautiful handcrafted books and journals.

(Made by Teo Studio)

(Made by Medieval Journey)

(Made by Kreativlink)

(Made by La Paperie & Cozy)

So yeah. Amazing! I still want to make paper and if I do try bookmaking I think I’ll use my handmade paper. I found some sites with great tutorials on bookbinding. If you want to give them a look they are here and here. It’s easier than I thought it would be and with a lot less materials than I thought. In fact I’m pretty sure I already have most of them. I did find a place to buy supplies for the stuff I don’t have, Hollanders. I’m excited to get started…Lee, probably not so much. Maybe I can wrangle him into the paper making part. I’ve been trying to find a hobby for him. The search continues.

Jan5

My Mount Everest

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My Mount Everest

News from Spin Fusion:
If you don’t know how to spin but find something in the shop that you love I’ve added a yarn spinning service in the shop and I’ll gladly spin it for you. Check it out here.

I finally started working on my Shipwreck Shawl. I’m so excited. Its going to be my “Mount Everest” project for this year unless I find an even bigger project to take on. This one is 57″ in diameter and uses 1320 yards of yarn. For reference that’s over 13 football fields, a little over 3 times as tall as the Empire State Building or 3960 feet. I know this certainly isn’t the most yardage used in a knitting project but its definitely the most I’ve ever used.

Shipwreck Shawl

I bought 3 skeins of Malabrigo Sock in Alcaucil. The color is hard to photograph and its also hard to describe. Its sort of dark chocolate brown, nearly black, with faint hints of olive or army green. I decided on that color because it looks very pirate-y which I thought was perfect for a Shipwreck Shawl. Here is a good representation of it (not my photo):

I’ve wanted to make this for months and months and I even bought yarn for it about that long ago. I was hesitant to start it because I doubted my knitting ability but I’ve made a few more intricate items since then so I think I’ll be able to handle this. For those of you on Ravelry here is my project page.

 

Feel free to leave comments here on my blog, my Facebook Page or you can find me on Ravelry as spinfusion.

Dec17

Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm

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Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm

These three documentaries are very unique and interesting. They are about three experts: a historian, Ruth Goodman, and two archaeologists, Peter Ginn and Alex Langlands.

In the first of the series, Tales from the Green Valley, Ruth, Peter, Alex and two other experts live like the people from the year 1630: they dress like them, cook and eat like them and farm like them for an entire year. In the second of the three, Victorian Farm, Ruth, Peter and Alex live like people from the Victorian period, specifically 1885. The last of the three is Edwardian Farm where they live like they did in the very early 1900s. All three series take place around Britain at different farms from those eras. They also made two shorter side documentaries. One is called Victorian Pharmacy where Ruth helps run a pharmacy like they would have in Victorian times with remedies and “miracle cures”. The other is Victorian Christmas where the three make preparations for the coming winter season.

These documentaries are a lot more entertaining than you would think. If you get a chance and if they sound interesting to you here are some playlists I made on YouTube. Feel free to watch!

YouTube Links

Tales from the Green Valley
Victorian Farm
Victorian Pharmacy
Victorian Christmas
Edwardian Farm

Dec11

Adventures in…Homemade Goodness.

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Adventures in…Homemade Goodness.

Its been so long since I posted. I’m the worst when it comes to blogging. Usually its because I don’t ever have anything to blog about. I’ll try to come up with something more often and hopefully this post will be a little more than boring.

My dad bought me my very own sewing machine for my anniversary (thanks again, dad!). I’ve been sewing like crazy. I’ve started making project bags for knitting/crochet/spinning or they can be used for anything, really. Jewelry, makeup, lingerie bags…whatever. They are for sale at Spin Fusion.

I’ve also finished a t-shirt quilt top that I think turned out nicely.

I like how the blocks came out wonky. Here is a picture of it in progress. I was watching Tales from the Green Valley (A documentary for BBC. A historian and two archaeologists live like farmers from the early 1600s for an entire year. I’ll write more about this series later.)

I’m also making another quilt in a 9 square type pattern. The fabric is very shabby-chic. I’m almost done with it. I just need to actually quilt it together. No pictures of it yet but when I work on it next I’ll take some.

After watching Tales from the Green Valley I was inspired to do some baking and such. I made an apple pie from scratch, a loaf of bread with my bread maker (not so much from scratch but still really good) and a small block of butter from scratch.

There is nothing better than homemade butter! I remember making butter with my grandma when I was younger and they still had a milking cow. Her name was Melanie. She was a jersey and she looked like this:

(photo: http://naj.usjersey.com/TheJerseyCow.aspx)

I guess that’s all for now. I’m going to try to blog more because I figure I’m paying for this domain name so I should either use it or get rid of it. I’ve had it since I was in high school so it would be sad if I let it go so I’ll try to validate keeping it.

Jun16

Wizard of Oz Spin-Along Shipped!

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Wizard of Oz Spin-Along Shipped!

Its been a little over a week since I shipped the SAL packages. I figure everyone received theirs by now…hopefully even the one that went to Australia! I think its safe to post photos of the batts and extras.

Here are the batts. Clockwise from left: Flying Monkeys, Lollipop Guild, Wicked Witch, Ruby Slippers, Glinda, The Good Witch, Emerald City.

Here are the extra goodies I made:

Magnets

Stitch Markers

I’m excited to see what everyone’s batts will look like spun up. The spinning deadline is July 31st for those who are participating in the Tour de Fleece this year.

The Summer Batt Sale is still going on at Spin Fusion. 10% OFF Faux Fusion batts and 20% OFF regular batts. Sale ends June 30th.

May19

Loops!!

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Loops!!

We went to Tulsa today and I was able to go to Loops north. Its smaller than I thought it would be and its the first time I’ve been to a yarn shop but it seemed to have a good selection of yarns. They had a lot of popular ones like Debbie Bliss, Noro and Malabrigo. I wanted to get some special yarn for the Shipwreck shawl. I’ve been wanting to knit it for a while but I didn’t want just acrylic yarn from walmart. I found the most perfect Malabrigo sock yarn. The color is very “pirate-y” so its going to be awesome for a pirate-ish shawl. I’m posting this from my phone so pictures to follow.

Apr6

Adventures In…Dyeing And Processing

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Adventures In…Dyeing And Processing

I’ve wanted to order some cotton noil (rhymes with oil) which is tiny slubs of cotton to blend into my batts. I finally got some and, first of all, it looks like oatmeal. Its strange. Second, its surprisingly soft and fluffy…its cotton, after all. I’m not sure what I expected.

Anyway, I dyed it up today and they came out pretty…

…but the red…wow…and not in a good way. It looks like uncooked meat.

It looks like a human heart in that picture.

I was inspired to make a little comic strip about it:

 

I bought a pound of white huacaya alpaca and a pound of light grey and white shetland fleece. All the alpaca is washed and half of the shetland is washed. I’ve already earmarked a lot of the alpaca for a project and a lot more is being blended with merino so it can become this months Phat Fiber samples and full size versions.

Here’s the alpaca:

Here’s the shetland:

Its a lot of work processing raw fleece. Not the alpaca, so much, because it doesn’t have any lanolin. Its mostly just dusty…very, very dusty. The wool is dirty, greasy and has a lot of grass and hay and other things (I found a lady bug once) and sometimes its so tight and crimpy I can’t open the locks until I wash it. When I’m done my hands have a layer of black grease and dirt on them but I love the finished roving. Making yarn from wool right off the sheep is very fulfilling and satisfying. Its hard work but its worth it.

Mar12

Bored.

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Bored.

This isn’t going to be a great blog post because I’m writing this from my phone. I just haven’t written anything in a while and Lee is using my laptop for game time with the guys. Anyway, I’m in the process of spinning 100% chocolate alpaca yarn. Farm fresh and local. Not really sure what I’m going to do with it…give it to a friend, use it as a giveaway item, put it in the shop, keep it? I just don’t know. Its gonna be two ply and around 9 WPI. I guess that’s it for now.

P.S. The yarn turned out to be 90+ yards.

Feb3

I’ve been weaving…

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I’ve been weaving…

I’ve already woven two scarves. One for me and one for Lee. I’m trying to use up some of my yarn stash since its taking up too much of my tiny craft room.

Here’s my scarf:

Here’s Lee’s scarf still on the loom (its finished now though):

Now I’m working on what might be a small dish towel. I’m not sure how well cotton crochet thread will work for a towel. I know it will be scrubby, at least. Maybe it will be good for cleaning counters or the stove or something like that.

I’m also entered in a tournament called Nerd Wars (lol) on Ravelry. There are 14 teams, each dedicated to a nerdy subject (i.e. Star Trek, Babylon 5, video games, Harry Potter, etc.). I’m on Team Precious which is dedicated to Lord of the Rings.

The tournament lasts 3 months and during each month there are five challenges extended to the teams, each in its own category. In the challenges the team members must knit/crochet/weave/spin something that fits in one of the challenge categories. The challenges are supposed to last for one month and in that month the members of each team can do how ever many of the challenges they want. At the end of the month the team members post pictures of their finished challenge item(s). Points are awarded to the teams for finished projects/partially finished projects/team spirit and there’s also bonus points. The team with the most points at the end of the three months wins. There are prizes but they haven’t announced what they are yet. People have been donating things for them.

There’s also dissertations which is the same as the above but its one big project that takes the entire three months….that’s what I’m doing. I chose to do something on my loom since I knew I would only want to play with it for a while and not knit or crochet. I’m spinning the yarn for the weft and probably going to buy the yarn for the warp (since I will need like over 1,000 yards!) then dye it all. My idea is to make  a small shawl that a female hobbit would wear so the pattern is plaid but with more feminine colors.

It may be hard to tell but its greyish purple, orange and green. I wanted to do a shawl that I would actually want to wear. I didn’t want to waste all of my spinning and three months of work on something I would just hang up and look at. It will be an interesting experience.

Jan27

Uh Oh, What Have I Started?

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Uh Oh, What Have I Started?

I’ve tried to avoid it. I tried to not get involved. It happened anyway.

I bought a weaving loom.

Yep. Because I really need a new hobby (sarcasm). I’ve wanted to learn to weave since high school, though, so I didn’t just jump into it.

This is what I bought. Its a Beka 24″ rigid heddle loom.

Its amazing the things you can weave and the patterns you can make! I found a weaving program that lets you make digital drafts (a draft is a pattern for weaving). Its really awesome and I’ve already made quite a few. Its fun to just play around with. Its called Weave Design. Here are a few designs I’ve made.

Plaids

Flowery

My loom should be here next week, hopefully. I’m going to practice with my commercial yarn stash before I move on to my handspun. I did buy some silk hankies to spin and maybe use in my weaving somehow. Anywho, that’s all for now.