Strung out

When one has so many projects and hobbies, things are bound to get a little jumbled up and "forgotten" about.  I had to organize my stuff a few weeks ago, and I decided to use the vertical space to store some of the things that really didn't have an appropriate home. 

To make this, I used some hand-painted Lismore Sheep Farm Wool (one of my favorite places to stop on my way to visit my family), and crocheted it, using a large hook, so there would be plenty of space to hang or tie things to, inside the loop, so the things wouldn't slide down.

It is a great place to store my sample spinning, when I am trying to decide how I want a yarn to look while before I go ahead and spin 100g of it, and realize I am not happy with the result...do i want 2 ply, 3 ply, Navajo ply?  Do I want bulky, thick and thin, etc.  So there are swatches of yarns knit and still in the skein.  Next step is to start writing it down.  Right now I rely on my memory...it seems to be...wait, what did I just say?


This is a cashmere - merino blend, then a test on psuedo rolag spinning which is what I will post about soon, and some gotland, and another merino silk blend, plied with a thin single of alpaca.  These are baby skeins and barely weigh a gram each. 



inspiration and reminders

Here is a little weaving project , reminding me of the weather, the rain, the snow, the wind...the crisp sunrise...and some angora-merino on the spindle.  And some test knits of hand-spun yarns.



you call it blecky dust bunnies, i call it art-in-waiting

I don't throw anything out.  I save the scragglies that won't spin neatly, and put them in this bag for weaving, or felting, or making art yarns using a core-spinning technique.  Whatevs, there is a purpose for it (but I may be the only one who sees it like that).


I love my kids!

 Above, two of my favorite things...The spindle on the left was made by my eldest daughter for her 4-H demonstration on spinning wool.  She made the spindle and then used it to spin in front of her captive audience.  My middle girl spun two singles and plied them using one of these spindles.  It was a great first effort, and I hope she continues!  The spindle on the right is the spindle I made for my youngest daughter, and on it is her spinning.  I used most of what she spun in the weaving project:

So, there you go.  Inspiration from my kids, inspiration from the endless possibilities that is fibre art, and just a bit of organization.
Have a great day dreaming!