The importance of yarn

I read in a book* once that the very first yarn you spun was important, and that you should hold on to it - no matter how weird, bumpy, or uneven it may be. Granted, it was a fantasy novel, so the string turned out to have magical potential, but I still thought that it was a very nice sentiment.

The first yarn I ever spun was on a friend's drop spindle in Ireland. I was using white wool that I ordered online, and trying to figure out the wool, spinning of the spindle, drafting of the fibers, and what felt like a million other things at the same time (other spinners will appreciate this feeling - also somewhat similar to first learning the violin, with your hands needing to do such different things). It was a very lumpy, probably over-twisted single with an unintentional and uneven thick-and-thin texture.

Since I didn't own the spindle, I had to wind that bit of yarn off the spindle and onto an Altoids tin - the handiest thing we had at the time. It stayed wrapped there through my travels home, a year of college, and my move across the country.


* Sandry's Book, by Tamora Pierce

Several weeks ago, I came across my first yarn again, as I was sorting out and organizing all my crafting supplies. I figured it was a shame, letting it just sit around (but unable to throw it away), so I set about coming up with an idea on how to turn it into something useful so that I could keep it for sentimental reasons, but didn't have to feel bad about cluttering up the very tiny apartment.

Enter the chunky bracelet and some buttons from my stash. 

I actually really love this bracelet. Usually I hate big/wide bracelets, because they overwhelm my small hands and wrists, and are just plain uncomfortable. But this one is nice and lightweight, and since it's a knit, it stretches easily over my hand but doesn't at all feel like it's going to fall off my wrist. It's soft and fun, and a little bit bohemian. 

I'm in the middle of making several more, to sell on my Etsy shop, but I'll share the pattern/process (such as it is) here for those who would like to make their own. 

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First off, I've only used singles so far, but they're all fairly chunky, which I think works best for the look. You can use any sort of yarn (handspun or not), but thicker is better. It's also a great way to use up those last bits of great yarn that didn't fit into a project, but you just can't seem to get rid of because they're just so soft/colorful/pretty/unique.

The pattern is really very simple (also not really a pattern) - Knit a rectangle appx. 2 inches wide (mine was 6 stitches), and 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch longer than the circumference of your wrist, on whichever needles are comfortable with the yarn you're using. I did mine in a stockinette stitch, but any stitch pattern you like would work. Stockinette stitch also requires blocking (because of the curl of the resulting fabric). I'm sure this isn't the 'right' way to do it, but my blocking method for these smaller pieces involves getting them wet in warm/hot water, wringing them out, and pinning them out flat on my dress form (the only stationary pinnable surface I have).

Once your rectangle is dry, take it and wrap it around your wrist to get the exact amount of overlap necessary to make the finished bracelet fit. I know that it looks like the bracelet buttons closed, but that's a lie. I sewed the two ends together (carefully so as to hide the stitches from the outside), and then played around with the placement of buttons until I liked what I saw. Sew the buttons on, and you have a new bracelet!

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In other (related) news, I've been taking some spinning lessons on how to use my new spinning wheel. It's very exciting, and such a cool experience! My first wheel-spun yarn, however, is *very* different from the first yarn on a drop spindle. 

I used a bunch of odds and ends to spin two bobbins of singles out of different colors, types of wool, methods of preparing the fiber (and even some silk and linen!). This made for some odd-looking bobbins, and then even odder-looking finished yarn when I learned how to ply them together....

There's all sorts of color and texture in there, including some glitter fibers, and a few curly locks (of different colors). The thickness ranges from a heavy worsted to maybe fingering or sport weight. Most of it is 2-ply, but some I used the Navajo 3-ply method to experiment with that.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this stuff, but I'm leaning towards a simple scarf, and then deciding whether or not I'll wear it (or how frequently) depending on how it looks!

Purchases from the Rose City Yarn Crawl

This post is a little belated, seeing as how the yarn crawl was at the beginning of this month, but I thought I'd go ahead and share my finds. First off is my wonderful spinning wheel, which you can see a not-so-great photo of on my Facebook page. I was very lucky, and happened to be in the right spot at the right time, so I am now the (very) proud owner of an Ashford traditional. I've already done a  little spinning, and am in the middle of lessons to teach me how to do everything. Further posts and pictures on that subject coming soon.

I think that one of the most interesting shops on the tour was Yarnia. It's a fascinating place, and I certainly plan on going back sometime. They have pre-made yarn in all sorts of colors and fibers, on cones ready for you to mix and play with. You pick the different yarns you want, and they wind them together onto a cone for you (in the amount you want) for a unique color and/or fiber blend for your use.  Since I was trying to *not* buy stacks and stacks of supplies over the weekend, I settled for selecting a few cone ends of pre-blended yarns to try it out. 

Of course no fiber weekend would be complete without me buying some new colors of roving to play with in my needle felting. The pictures aren't great, but you can see the colors pretty well - a range of purples and a raspberry to expand my stash.

Most of the yarn stores had displays, demos, and trunk shows throughout the weekend. At one of the stores (I can't remember which one) the wonderful One of a Kind Buttons was there with her beautiful handmade ceramic buttons, pendants, and pins. They were so beautiful I had to get a small set, even though I don't have any specific plans for them yet.

In other news, spring has sprung here in the Willamette Valley! For a week or two now, many of the apple and cherry trees have been full of pink and white blossoms, and daffodils and other flowers are popping out of the woodwork. Even one of the trees out our window is starting to bud, and what a lovely sight it is. This photo was taken a few days ago, and it's even greener now.

Happy Spring!!

Onion birds

Next up: assorted anthropomorphic squashes!!!!


purple onion bird
yellow onion bird

Catching up

So this post is for my grandma (hi!!), who reminded me that I haven't been posting lately. I just moved, and then didn't have internet for two weeks while we waited for the tech to come set it up, but even when I was back online, I was so busy catching up on other things that I kept forgetting to work on my blog.

As a result, this is going to be a random mess of things that I've meant to share over the past month or more (i.e. I'm going through my camera and picking out photos to explain!)

Look! Rainbow eggs!!! We got them from my (other) grandmother, who got them from a friend of hers who has chickens. I knew about brown eggs, but I'd never seen a green or blue one before! Plus, all the browns were different shades. It was beautiful, and the fresh eggs were the most delicious I've ever had.

 Here are some pictures of wool roving that I used to make some wrist warmers. The roving started out like on the left, and then I teased (drafted) it out until it was longer and fluffier like on the right. Then I (carefully) used this as a yarn - as is, without spinning - to crochet with. The idea was to create something with the loft and cloudy softness that roving has (you lose a lot of it when you spin it into yarn). That part certainly worked, but they keep losing bits of fluff everywhere, so I don't think it's so good for a general idea.

 

Here's a very poor picture of the wire skeleton I used for a needle felted Irish Elk. For anything larger than five inches, and anything that will be standing/ needs special shaping, I start with a wire frame for support. Depending on the item, it also allows for poseability (I don't think that's a word, but I like it!) in the finished product. You just have to be careful not to hit the wire too hard with your felting needle. I also seem to get the tip of the needle stuck in the wire twists sometimes, which can be a pain.

One morning quite a while ago we had a freezing fog in the morning that came and frosted everything before dawn with these amazing crystals. This picture of some mushrooms was taken after the sun had come up and everything had started to melt.

 And here are some photos of more dwarves I've made:

You can see more pictures of Bofur here, and Thranduil on his ceremonial moose. The moose is actually an Irish elk, and what I used that wire skeleton for. Also there are two more pictures of Fili on the tumblr page of the girl I made him for.

And here's a bit of a peek at some posts I'll be doing soon. Having just moved (and into a studio apartment), I'm having to be very careful and organized about my storage. I have SO MUCH stuff, it's not even funny. Probably 80% of it is crafting stuff, and it doesn't help that I like to do so many things, so I have to have my felting and spinning supplies, sewing things, yarn for knitting and crochet, beading, photography, painting, drawing, watercolors, doodling, etc. 

ANYWAY *cough cough* I've been doing some organizing, and once it's all done, I plan on posting some images and ideas here, which will hopefully help other poor artistic souls who don't have the storage space they would like.


Also, my current needle felting project is veggie animals!!  Stay tuned... :)

The Hobbit

I saw The Hobbit a while ago, and really enjoyed it. There were some parts that confused me a bit, and I'm certainly looking forward to the next two installments to complete the story. I enjoyed most of the characters, and was just happy to be back in the New Zealand version of Middle Earth.

I was intrigued by all the very odd beard and hair-braiding that the dwarves had going on, and was inspired to needle felt sculptures of them. First up was Bombur, as I particularly enjoy his loop of beard-braid that defies the Laws of Hair.

He was lots of fun to make, and very adorable. Since I had him sitting down, I was able to make him all out of wool without any internal support. Next on my list is Bofur, who is in progress at the minute. Since I wanted to try him standing up, and I had problems with that on my abominable snowman, I decided to try a wire skeleton to make him sturdier. It seems to have worked very well for overall stability, but he still doesn't like standing up on two legs - so I'm making him his weapon to provide a third point of support.

Right now Bofur is almost all done - just his hair and hat need to be added, so I should be able to post some photos in the next day or two.

Anyway, M posted a picture of my Bombur on tumblr, and it completely took off! It's been less than 24 hours, and there have been over 100 new views to my Etsy site, and several more people following me. It's quite exciting, the power of the internet (especially when fueled by fans!)

I already have a commission for a sculpture of Thranduil riding his moose, which is going to be fun! I forgot to take pictures of Bofur's progress, so I will be documenting the making of moose-riding Thranduil and putting it up here as a tutorial of sorts. I promise.

Hopefully I won't forget again.

Animation

Yes, I know I'm doing three posts in the same evening, even though I haven't posted for days and days.

But hey, I'm on a roll right now, and I figure it doesn't really matter so much. Especially since I'm pretty sure the only person who reads this blog with any regularity is my sister (hi! I love you!). Plus I might as well break it up subject-wise, for those who find me through search-engines.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at animation this evening for the first time. I was a little tired of sewing, and had been wanting to try this out on my new tablet for a while now. So I downloaded the free animation program (which is, sadly, rather limited) and came up with this:

It's called 'Roving Hedgehog Meets a Cow'.

Also, I apparently can't make it any bigger. :(

So it's really short, and very sketchy, because doing animations is very very hard. I have an increased appreciation and respect for all animators out there (note: I was already very impressed by all of that). It's hard to sit and draw the same or similar thing over and over, especially if you're not naturally a very patient person (or if you're also watching TV and drinking wine to celebrate your partner getting a job). And I am not a patient person, at least not when it comes to computer things.

I hope that sometime soon I'll come back to this idea, and spend more time on it. Until then, you can see this very poor first attempt, in the spirit of being open about things and sharing successes and failures.

Shrinking sweaters for felt

So about a week or so ago, I came across this post on Etsy. The mention of using old wool sweaters to make felt intrigued me, so I looked into it a bit further, purchased some sweaters from the local Goodwill, and felted them in the washing machine. I won't post a full tutorial here, since there are loads of good ones already on the web (just google 'felt sweaters' or something similar). But here are the most important points/tips I found:

1. Definitely put your sweaters in pillowcases or some sort of bag - they shed A LOT. I read that tip a couple places, decided to use it, and was very glad I did ( the pillowcases had lots of fuzzy bits inside after it was done).

2. Consider going to a laundromat, as it says in the Etsy post - I'm not sure, but I figure they run a bit hotter and faster, and might felt the sweaters quicker (it took a couple few times for mine to felt properly).

3. Pick thinner sweaters - I had one that was a Christmas sweater with images, and it was thick from all the colors of yarn. It felted, but didn't seem to go all the way through the way some of the thinner knits did.

4. Ribbing doesn't felt well, even if it's 100% wool (unless the tags were lying)


So, now for photos. Here's a couple of the sweaters before I felted them:

And here's some things I've made so far. I've been enjoying needle felting designs for iPod/cellphone/camera cases - it's something different from needle felting 3-D objects. And it's easier to sew stuffed animals/figures with felt, since the edges don't fray. To put it simply, I'm loving working with felt, and I love felting old sweaters, since I get all sorts of fun and unique textures, colors, and patterns.

Sorry for the blurriness - it gets dark so early, I ran out of time for daylight photos, but I wanted to post these today. Better photos and posting on Etsy coming soon.