Whopper size needles

I was wanting to do I-cord with big bulky yarn-and didn't have a big pair of double pointed needles to use-never saw anything as big as I wanted for sale anywhere-soooo.... I had this old broom handle and figured I tool wood carving classes a long time ago-still have all the tools. I cut two pieces about 12 inches long and proceeded to Whittle the ends to a sharp point. All in all, I do believe they came out pretty good-one is a little longer than the other. I made 1 I-cord so far-it was from a very unbalanced yarn-but the needles worked just great. I'm trying to find something I could put on one of the ends so I could just use them as regular needles to make a scarf. I still have some of the broom handle left-I may just make a separate pair for that. We shall see......

"New" space

I totally rearranged everything and now have a bit more room for "studio" space. At least now I feel I can call it my studio. All my working stations are in there. I just moved my living area to the dining room, and spread out all my stuff in the living room. I just have to find room for all the small stuff, supplies and general junk I've got in that stash I can't throw out. Here's hoping that when the urge to create strikes I can now just go sit and get started, instead of looking everywhere for that one item I know I have somewhere.

Happy New Year!!

I spent the last night of 2011 playing with ATC's. I had this idea to use old magazine pages rather than throwing them all away. I cut out the brightest most colorful pictures I could find, cut them down to ATC size (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) then sewed them to several more pages to thicken them up. I was at it for quite a while-but doing it while watching movies made it go better. I'm finishing them up today , and hope to start using them to just slather some paint, glob some glue, and generally just have fun with them. I like that they have the colorful background all ready to get started. Now, off to play!

New Loom

Yesterday I was at it again-drilling lots of little holes and hammering tacks into my home-made 6.5' x 2' rectangle loom. I wanted it wide enough to make a shawl, but I plan to use it mostly for art yarn scarves. Using the art yarn as the warp, it really shows off the coils and bumps and wild stuff that was spun into it. I'm using the Stardust yarn I got from Hearthside Fibers (Johnson Creek, WI) as the weft and will weave it loosely. I've only got about 3 passes of the weft so far. I have to stop to go fight the crowds at the grocery store for a bit, but then plan to come back and see how long it takes to finish. I'm sure I'll be back to post pictures later.

Happy Holidays!

BIG BOBBIN!!

Well, I decided to try to fill the bobbin on "Maxine" and didn't quite get there-but made a huge 1 pound ball of yarn. From there I plied it with some homespun, some silk, and various fun fur and eyelash yarns. I had to go to the hardware store to get PVC pipe to make a bigger niddy-noddy to wind the skein. I ended up with 124 yards of big fluffy crazy art yarn. Now I need to decide what to make with it. Although, I may just leave it hanging around for inspiration.

OOPS!

Valuable lesson learned...be sure thread holding zillions of seed beads is strong enough to for plying with wool on new spinning wheel...otherwise...you end up with said beads all over the living room floor. Taught myself some new cuss words, too! I did manage to get some pretty yarn made before the break. Now to break out the vacuum cleaner.