Be Mine, Crafty Valentine

Happy half-priced candy day! I hope all my lovely readers enjoyed their day of flirtatious frivolity (Or grump, as you prefer.) With all my Valentine cards delivered I can now them share with you, so here's the highlights from this year's collection of very punny crafting cards.

Because we all know, a crafter's first love is the fiber! (Or string, or paper, or wood, or whatever we made things from...) Happy V-Day!

WIP - Handsome and Handspun

My yarn stash, as always, overfloweth. After another year of spinzilla, my bin of handspun was getting rather tight! I have always sold the majority of my handspun yarns, but over the last few years there have been a number of small experimental skeins, special purchased fibers, and the leftover small skeins from a big batch that's been divvied up.

And so, I have decided to create a blanket using up all my handspun bits! Some are a true mini-skein or a wee ball, some are simply an orphaned skein with no other plans. All of them are being crocheted into the biggest square they will make (Well, no bigger than 12" or so, extras become little squares.) and will become a blanket! I've got two sizes of hook on hand, and anything too small gets doubled up to make a good thick fabric.

I'll update when I've got a big enough pile to lay out and begin piecing, in the meantime the bin of yarn is becoming a bin full of squares, and I'm realizing that I've got some favored colors...

Spinzilla 2015!

It's a monster! Well, it's been long enough for me to fully recover from Spinning all week, now I can actually sit back and think about what to do with the yarn! I spun 8255 yards, beating last year's tally of 6756! But, last year I ate through 7 lbs. and this year only 5.5 lbs. was eaten up. I spun a bit thinner and more efficiently!

But, sadly, my improvements were not enough to carry the team to victory... We spun less than last year and only came in at 4th place. (Well, top five is nothing to sneeze at, there were more than 60 teams!) 

The top spinner was also an impressive show, over 48,000 yards! No, I did not goof and add too many 0s. We did the math, spinning 14 hours a day, all week long, that would be an average of 5 inches of yarn through the orifice per second! (And people thought I was being weird and crazy with it...)

It's never too early to think about next year. I've been wanting to do a re-build of my wheel for a few years now, and hopefully get it tuned into a maximum speed spinner! I also think I need to plan my fiber. I've been moving through the stash to use up materials, but I might have to actually but roving just for spinzilla next year. The dye pots will come out. The carder will be set up. The fiber must flow!

In the mean-time, I guess I just need to start knitting...

Wednesday WIPs

 It's that time again! Let's review all the projects I still haven't finished...

First and foremost is another four-seasons embroidery. This one is to be an offering piece for Midsummer, so it's got to be done by then! (I've got a good track record of completing this sort of piece on time, the Gods don't like a WIP IOU.)

I'm liking it so much I think I'll make myself a permanent version.

 I've been working through an alpaca fleece that was gifted to me. Actually, it was two fleeces, each is a mixed brown and white. I've separated the locks into brown, white, and mixed. Hopefully after spinning I'll have three tones of alpaca. I'm also trying out the scotch tension on my wheel, which is making a veeeery thin thread!

 I pulled the Laminaria back out, it's on the final color of yarn, and the border of the pattern. It's also about 700 stitches across, so it's a bit of an investment to get involved in a row. Fortunately my moth control measures seem to have prevented any more damage, but I will need to do some complex lace darning before I can even wear it >.<

I did, however, complete one thing! The lopi dickie for my father is done, just in time for hot weather. I love the way the colors came out, I had to switch the dark green for blue halfway through as my LYS ran out of that color. It's just the top of the sweater, enough to keep the shoulders and neck warm while skiing. AKA, this is the fun part of the sweater and no way in hell I'm knitting straight stockinette for 40 inches. Did I mention that this is, in fact, one size BIGGER than the largest size in the pattern book?

There it is, my lousy fiber output for the last two months, enjoy my shame. Fortunately, I expect to be able to do some stash busting on the long plane flights. I will NEED to do some stash busting, as I'm sure I will buy some more yarn over there...

What are you working on?

Finds - May Flowers

April showers bring May Flowers, so they say. We've had flowers for weeks, and rain at the same time, so I'm not sure which came first! Here's some bright choices that Are getting me through my cold and rainy days.

A dapper choice for a clean Spring time look! Flowered bowtie from TrendyGents, perfect for a picnic or brunch.

A dainty bit of decor in May's flower - Lily of the Valley. Fantastic stitchery from ConeBomBom, perfect for a Victorian tea, or a wild day in the park!

Perhaps it's a good day for spinning? It's been raining here for a week (It's Colorado, that never happens!) so I've been staying in and crafting. But this bright roving will be cheery on the greyest day! Hand-dyed by SpunDreamz.

And do you need a fancy spindle? The magic of 3-D Printing means that a sweet, colorful, exciting spindle is super affordable too! TurtleMade for your spinning enjoyment.

Then, having spun and plyed your yarn on your fun little spindles, get knitting! (Yes, let's pretend you did this all in one day, and you have all the free time in the world, ok?) Adorable spring time yarn bowl from GlyntPottery.

Right now, in my Etsy Shop, grab yourself some May Flowers (or Trees, or Birds or...) and get FREE SHIPPING with coupon code FLOWERS. Enjoy the blooms of spring!

A Very Personal Offering - Hair Art

WARNING - This post features the traditional art of making things with human hair, you might be totally grossed out by this. I don't really care. I like it.

When one thinks of Hair art, usually the Victorian Era comes to mind. While they raised the act of creating with human hair to a high art, and obsessively traded in momentos of human body parts (teeth, for example), the Victorians did not invent the art. A number of old folk traditions use hair in the making of charms, spells, sigils and the like. Both for protective and harmful magics.

 I collected hair for several months, straight from the brush. Note that it has not been cleaned, as hair is actually stronger and easier to work with when it has a bit of natural oil. I spun it up with a drop spindle, and plied each lump from a center pull ball. It spun fairly smooth and fine, with the occasional little lump or tangle.

 I then made a bias woven strap. This is a simple technique that needs no set-up nor loom, one could start it without even the pins with a little dexterity. After laying out the threads, I started on the left and wove across the other threads at a diagonal. The next thread follows the first, but alternating over and under. Thus, each thread starts with an "over and ends with an under, then wraps around to hang downwards for the next pass. Each thread moves to the left with each row, and eventually gets to be the active thread and return to the right!

It didn't take all that long to weave a few feet of this ribbon (Sewing scissors for scale.) Some of my bundles of hair yarn were longer than others, so I trimmed off the long bits to use for future projects. (It is, also, not as if I will stop growing my raw materials.) I used it to wrap a lovely bundle of flowers destined to be a very special offering. A little piece of me, carefully prepared, going back to the earth!

Happy Spring everyone!

Turning Red

I'm preparing to do a teardown and rebuild of my spinning wheel this season. She put in a whole lot of hours for spinzilla, she deserves some pampering. In addition to the wood spa action, I was considering spiffying up the old girl. I intend to stain it a new color, and add some wood burning.

 First, is the making of the stain. (Of course I'm making it, that's how I roll.) I used alkanet as the dye stuff, alkanet it a root with a rich crimson color, but the dye particles are only soluble in oil or alcohol. Traditionally it has been used to dye wines a darker red,  color wood, and in cosmetics. So, basically for making stuff look like other stuff (buyer beware!).

I added the dried root to olive oil, and heated it in hot water. It sat overnight and then I strained it. The gentle heat helped the herb infuse without breaking down the oil. I then added beeswax, broken up and grated. Can I just say that grating wax is the smartest thing I ever saw in a Pinterest post...

After the mix cooled, it became a very soft paste. I found an object to test on - an old spoon that has never satisfactorily seasoned. I gave it a light sanding since it was already lacking in a good finish, and polished it with generous blobs of the oil/wax mixture. 

As you can see, the results were less than mindblowing. The polish has brought out the grain, and given the spoon a much needed protective layer. But it's not really all that red...

I did some more reading, and will try adding the rest of the alkanet, ground to a powder, to infuse into the polish. See, not even a Craft Bitch gets it right the first time!

Spinzilla

Spinzilla... it's a monster! RAWR!

This year's Spinzilla challenge was much tougher than previous years'. No, the objective was still to spin the most yards, but now we had a baseline. Goals were set, records prepared to be shattered. Strategies and preparations were made, we got hyped up. While I was going thru my fiber stash I found this little gem, the first yarn I spun on this wheel! It's random wool that came with the machine, and I still haven't knit with it... (let's not talk about my stash problems.)

Since Team Fancy Tiger won last year, we had the pressure to repeat our victory. There was shit talking, well as much as some nice crafting ladies and gents can do...

 My first bobbin, and about my largest! I discovered that my bulky flyer can hold about 13 oz. of sock weight singles, which is way too much for our counting helpers to handle at once! After this I would give smaller bobbins over to them for winding off...

For the most part I was spinning thru a bunch of alpaca given to me by Mr. Crafty, some Gotland greys from New Zealand, and the mystery wool I bought in Ireland. Thus, that pile of finished objects is pretty plain in color. But I did have a few colorful braids given to me!

My final total was 6756 yards, 7 lbs. of fiber. 7 breeds, 2 species, 3 countries of origin, 5 natural colors. Half of the fiber was hand processed by me. One spinner who is looking forward to knitting for a while...

Team Fancy spun over 171,000 yards, which is almost 100 miles of yarn. We have our work cut out for us next year!

Schacht - Can You Dig It?

A few weeks back I took part in a marathon crafting extravaganza known as Spinzilla. We spun for seven days straight, and Team Fancy Tiger created a total of 171,492.6 yards of yarn, that's 97 miles in case you're wondering. That's the distance from Denver to Vail, New York City to Philadelphia, and (so my military historian partner tells me) the range of large artillery.

On the last day of the challenge Schacht, a local spinning and weaving equipment company, sponsored a spin-in and the Denver Art Museum. Between the camaraderie and the shit-talking we struck up conversation with some of the folks from the factory, and they invited us to come have a tour!

Dipping the wood pieces in an oil finish.

Racks of wheels ready to be assembled.

Does this count as a wheelwright? 

Machines neatly cut out flat pieces with very little waste. Some parts are cut from plywood, some from hard-wood planks.

Everything is very carefully sanded to make smooth tools.

The factory is always open for tours, just call ahead first! If you're a fiber artist, and you're in the Boulder CO area,  it's a fascinating experience. Even for the non-spinning-inclined the smell of sawdust and danish oil can't be beat. I personally love seeing how things are made, and many of these skilled workers are a joy to watch at work. Have any of you ever been to a factory?

Wooly New Zealand

 While the scenery and cultural attractions are spectacular in New Zealand, we all know what I really came for - WOOL.

 Following a tip, we rolled into Tally Ho Ranch, which is unique in hosting a number of different breeds, many are colored. The typical field here is filled with Merino, Corriedale and Rambouillet. Here, Gotlands, Cheviot, and others made for a more diverse flock. Also, Look at that cute wittle sheepy! Look. At. It.

Not pictured, but definitely also cute - newborn (like 3 hours old!) Shetland ponies. There was a lot of Daaaaws to be had.

 They also had a classic old carding machine, here the owner was demoing making a fluffy alpaca batt that will be used to stuff a comforter top.

 Aaaaaand this is the wool storage barn. Makes my craft room look pretty empty... I guess I'll buy some more fiber!

 Ooooh, look at that silver and charcoal Gotland! Hey, don't look at me like that! I spun up a pound and a half for Spinzilla, I have room for another Kilo... right?

 Yea... I know you're judging me little merinos...

 We also stopped into the town of Milton, following rumors of a mill and mill ends shop. Notice the angled roofs? That's to allow light in at certain angles. Where the wool is stored and sorted one wants indirect south light (southern hemisphere remember?) for a clear view of the fiber, and of course too much direct sun can damage the wool after a while.

 

In the Mill End shop there was a corner dedicated to being a museum, photos of the mill works and products from the early days up to the modern era were pegged up on boards. Old tools and machines were displayed. There were even old sample books showcasing the fabrics being produced there from the 30s to mid-70s.

 Even this hardened veteran of dozens of fiber museums saw a novel piece - this device "used to measure the twist of yarn".

The mill was Milton's main industry for almost a hundred years, and so the town remembers its "King". Many people who settled in this area were of Scottish descent, so the get-up is probably meant to harken to the olden days in the homeland.

And naturally, I sampled a range of their products! All these little balls are true "ends", leftovers from the weaving, plying, or skeining process. They were very cheap, and so cute, and I got a whole bunch, and... don't look at me like that! Several were actually very tough "Carpet Wool" that I will use for slippers.

 Our next little fiber stop was a total surprise, stumbled across in the small town of Hokiteka. The Sock Knitting Machine Museum and Shop. An entire wall lined with old machines of various makes and models, and a looping video of the owner demonstrating knitting machine techniques.

 Turns out the shop is manufacturing new machines, when we were there one was being tested before being sent to Switzerland! (Is there no where closer to buy a knitting machine I wonder?)

 The shop in fact had it's own little mill set up, carders, spinning machines, sweater knitters and more. An entirely self contained little venture, which seems to be capable of making o good deal of product in a fairly small space. My entrepreneurial mind was much intrigued.

 I indulged in some possum yarns there, and at a larger yarn shop. Possum are an introduced pest, and there is a bounty on killing them as they devastate native birds. The dead possum are skinned, and the fiber shaved off. It's a short, fine fiber that is hollow like Alpaca, and thus very warm. All four of these are hand-dyed and super soft, a blend of %20 possum with %80 merino is standard.

I also chanced to visit the Turnbull family (That's my Father's side) Wool Store (That's storage to us Americans, a warehouse.) My cousin showed us various samples, and explained wool grading. Each fleece is classed based on micron thickness, staple length, color, cleanliness and crimp. The far left clump is 'junk' wool destined for carpets and quilt batting. The middle pieces all variations on the finest grades, they were so fine the individual fibers almost disappeared when held up to the light. The final piece is the only bale of colored wool in the whole place... looks like us handspinners are the only ones interested in natural colors.

 I also kept my needles moving the whole trip, if I could only knit as fast as I buy yarn! Those purple pieces are Irish wool from my last trip, perfect for a global wool experience.