Foster Mom

Well, I'm trying my hand at being a foster parent-no-not a real kid.  It's an antique spinning wheel that belongs to my BFF (Yup, Carol, that's you).  I talked her into letting me take it home to see if I could get it working. Well, I polished it up, oiled it, made a new drive band and had it going in no time.  One problem was a horrible screechy squeak-with my windows open, I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard, and wondered if I was strangling a cat.  Oil didn't do it, so out came the candle wax.  I applied it about 5 times before it finally quieted down.  But, the squeak sounded like it was saying the name Judith Anne-so with Carol's okay we named her Judith Anne-I call her Judie.  Once I figured out the ins and outs of double drive I spun up some Egyptian cotton I've had packed away for a couple years, did some lace weight wool for a shawl I want to make, and-I bought some flax and started to spin that.  I had to make a distaff for it-parts of it were missing. So I dug up a couple dowels and fashioned a usable distaff.

Flax-interesting stuff.  I researched every website and Youtube video I could find.  It is very different to spin.  Not especially hard-just different.  I can get it pretty thin without it breaking, but I don't think it will become fine linen.  More along the lines of rope.  Oh well, at least I can claim to be a pretty well rounded spinner now.

It Sounded Like a Cool Idea

Ice dyeing-sounds cool-hey?  Well...not so much.  First I had to go shopping to get some ice cube trays, cuz who knows what happened to the ones I had?  Then I made lots of ice.  I put some wool (soaked in vinegar and water first) in the bottom of the bin to soak up the run off, and then some in a wire basket and topped it off with all the ice.  Then I sprinkled several different colors of dye all in the purple blue and pink family.  I covered it with plastic and set it out in the sun to do its magic.  Notice there is no finished dyed wool in the picture.  It did not turn out.  Soooo...I divided up the water on the bottom of the bin and the wool into two pots on the stove and did some boiling instead.  I added some dark purple to one of the pots.  I haven't taken pictures of those colors-but I got a lavender from one pot and dark purplish/burgundy from the other.  I didn't get the results I hoped for-but still got some pretty color.

Paper is fiber, too!!

I discovered a new technique for making some pendants and earrings from several layers of watercolor paper and good old Elmer's glue-all. I made some simple shapes and glued them together.  The top layer of most of them is watercolor paint randomly drizzled here and there on a sheet of paper.  Then I just picked out the nicest areas to cut out a shape and glued that to the tops.  A couple of the pieces have a top layer of some handmade paper I made a while ago.  None of them are quite done yet, they need several layers of high gloss varnish.  I'm really liking how this process works.  I learned it all from here:  http://watercolorjewelry.com/blog/2012/02/18/making-watercolor-paper-earrings-simple-and-beautiful/

I hope to finish them this weekend, then use some hand spun yarns and copper wire for the "chains".  I'm anxious to get these finished and see how they turn out.

Marathon Spinning

I decided to just keep adding all my batts to see how much I could squeeze on to that huge bobbin on my Country Spinner-well, 14 batts later-at about 1 to 1.5 oz per batt it is still not full.  I still have more batts to go to keep on spinning for the Tour de Fleece.  It will be interesting when the time comes to wind them off.  My plan is to wind them all off into separate balls.  I have to get at spinning up some of the alpaca and llama I have sitting here, too.  I'll use my other wheel for that.

Happy Spinning!

Saori Book

I spent most of the day making a cute little book.  When I added the weaving to the front it made the book perfect. (for me, anyway)

Pretty in Pink

I decided to dye some more pinks.  I used koolaid for the paler pink, and a mix of beet juice and madder for the darker shade.  The wool is Coopworth.  I hope to get this processed before the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry starts this Saturday.  I plan to spin a bunch of skeins of art yarn.  "Plan"  That's a big word.

I also received a gift from a friend.  She thought it was fiber related.  I think so, too.  But-I don't have a clue what it is.   It's too big to be a drop spindle,(it's about 15" tall)  and it doesn't seem to be a niddy noddy.  Anyone have any clues?

My Flower "Garden"

I got on a kick of needle felting flowers.  Most of them are fantasy "lollypop posies".  I added pin backs to them and plan to use them as scarf pins for some smallish neck scarves I hope to make (soon).  They are quite fun and easy to make-and I have enough wool to make a ga-zillion more.