Crafting Update to the last three months. maybe august too

[unicornduke]

listen. time has occurred.

August goals

• spin things! - I have spun things! I have still been making slow progress on cotton spindling. I spun up 8oz of something white and shiny from stash, needs to be plyed. I am 5/6 of the way through a six color spin on my electric wheel. it's too messy to spin in bed. I pushed my current wheeel project, over a pound of brown alpaca destined for a blanket to the side to get this spin done. also finished a red, green, grey spin that took me ages, no picture because I just didn't take one and it's across the room.
• knit sweater - worked on it, I've got both sleeves picked up and am working both at once! and paused to knit a hat for a gift
• weave sample and get the main project warped - samples woven, project adjusted, woven and most cut off the loom and washed. I did a time tracking on this project for fun and it took me 1 hour to wind and weave 8 bobbins of yarn, which made 27 inches of fabric on the loom. solid. so I really whipped through the weaving on this.
• twist fringe on pink shawl for sale - gave up on this
• finish the waistcoat - Finished! Will get a separate post soon
• work on great wheel - lol no
• woodwork a few things - pegs for great wheel, tall storage thing for weaving supplies - did make tall storage thing out of wood, works great
• other stuff done: wove a tablet band, wove a little message band for a friend, have another on the loom, cut and sewed a bunch of tablet woven bands into keyfobs, participated in the weaver's guild show and sale, washed one fleece, sewed a very comfortable giant hoodie, repaired my slippers, mockup of a purse done for my mom's christmas gift, started cutting fabric for the real one, started a mockup for a fancy coat for myself

something white and shiny from stash. I don't remember what it is, I think pencil roving from a local farm. maybe romney/wensleydale? I can't remember and my notebook with the info is across the room. 8oz, still needs to be plyed



Weaving. This is 3lbs of warp Jaggerspun 3/8 in some nice blue, I got some for christmas last year and picked up two more cones. expensive but oh so pretty. I'm glad I sampled it because it needed to be much narrower than I originally thought and thus my warp length shrunk, so it was only 8 yards. I woven all of one cone in a nice light blue and then all of another cone in dark blue. that was 6.5 yards. the last 1.5 yards will be a rug using rug yarn from stash. it fulled beautifully in the wash, just a little and I can cut into it without any fraying at all. it is all destined for sewing projects to sell, possibly bags if the one I'm making for my mom for christmas goes well

light color

dark color


These were easy to make! 11 inches long band, cut, fold the ends over around the key ring and then hand sew. Some of them sold at the sale, but not a ton. that's okay.



thing I made to hold weaving supplies. it's tall, it holds them well and fits right next to my loom



Washed fleece. this is from Stewart, a lovely ram I met at the fair last year. beautiful crinkly fleece in varying brown colors. absolutely wonderful



giant hoodie I made. it's so comfy. I'm wearing it right now. I went two sizes up using this pattern and cotton fleece knit fabric that I bought at mood fabrics when I was in NYC in august. the hood is enormous and it feels very elves of LOTR when I put it up. the bottom cuff rolled up when I first wore it as seen in this photo but I've washed it a couple times and it has relaxed.

December crafting goals

• finish the color spin I've got and get back to working on the alpaca. spin some other stuff
• finish knitting the hat
• crochet a dice bag for my sister
• sew the purse for my mom
• work on coat mockup
• weave rug
• process fleece

Comments

[ranunculus]

I really like the woven fabrics. Usually I would say I like the dark one, but both (sides?) are lovely.

[unicornduke]

They turned out really well! I wove all of the light color first, then the dark color, so I have a fabric that is half light and half dark. The light color when washed has faded the pattern in, so the diamonds aren't really as visible anymore. but it's got a good texture.

[graydon]

That is an impressive hoodie!

And quite a lot to get done, time occurring or not.

[unicornduke]

I was surprised how many things I did in the last four months once I typed it all up especially since a lot of it got done in November. The hoodie is so cozy!

Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Alpaca is sooo soft.

Re: Go you!

[unicornduke]

It is! I've got a bunch of alpaca fleeces I've been working through and the brown will be paired with a white to make a nice blanket.

Re: Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Whole fleeces? Wow!

I'm a big fan of naturally colored wool/fiber. There's the range of white through gray to black, and off-white through brown to coffee-black. Then there's a few offshoots, like how some animals have a fairly bright yellow or a russet that is frankly orange. I've seen alpacas that are pumpkin-spice colored. :D

So then, you take 2+ of those natural variations and choose a pattern that will show off the colors, anything from patchwork squares to Fair Isle. Sadly I'm allergic to wool, but I can wear some things like silk-angora.

Re: Go you!

[unicornduke]

I've got many fleeces in my life haha, they're fun to work with! I also love natural colors and have done some projects using the natural colors, like my plaid cloth I wove from handspun Navajo Churro second picture here.

I've got a range of alpaca colors since I bought 14 fleeces from someone who kept them as pets, so I've got white, black, deep brown and fawn. I haven't washed up any of the fawn to see if it lightens up, which might put it more of a cream if it's really dirty. The lead time going from fleece to project is really long haha. I'm working on things that I bought the fleeces two or three years ago now.

I haven't done much knitted colorwork to be honest, I'm a very slow knitter but maybe one of my next few projects will be colorwork.

Re: Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>like my plaid cloth I wove from handspun Navajo Churro<<

They are fascinating, and very climate resilient. So many European breeds do very badly in hot weather.

>>I've got a range of alpaca colors since I bought 14 fleeces from someone who kept them as pets, so I've got white, black, deep brown and fawn.<<

\o/

>>I haven't done much knitted colorwork to be honest, I'm a very slow knitter but maybe one of my next few projects will be colorwork.<<

When you've got all those natural colors to work with, it's worth considering -- even if you just do something simple like stripes or block-patchwork. It doesn't have to be as fancy as Fair Isle to look good.

Stripes:
https://www.barenakedwools.com/cdn/shop/products/RuffStripesLap838_1500x2000_97dca235-0607-4014-83ed-c1f636f4ebf3.jpg?v=1723053324&width=1500

Simple knit colorblocking:
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/76/9e/25/769e258abfed2a4b10109376b37342d0.jpg

Crochet colorblocking with different stitches:
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/bc/a0/a0/bca0a08f433ae32d29b49a6b233562f8.jpg

I like the play of natural colors. Plus if you're using a neutral palette in a room or outfit, creating patterns or colorblocks gives it more visual interest. Much as I love bright colors, not everything needs to be dyed to look good.

Re: Go you!

[unicornduke]

Color blocks are a great idea. I've also enjoyed the Rings of Change crochet pattern, which makes a wonderful blanket, which I did in a brown alpaca yarn that I got on discount and then finished with some alpaca yarn that I spun up in black, it's very pretty and dramatic looking.

Re: Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Color blocks are a great idea. <<

I'm happy I could help.

>> I've also enjoyed the Rings of Change crochet pattern<<

Wow, that is spectacular, both in rainbow and neutral versions. :D

With crochet, consider granny squares. There are a zillion patterns and they piece together easily. Some have raised textures.

Re: Go you!

[unicornduke]

I've been crocheting a long time and I very much dislike granny squares. They just don't make sense for how I make things and I don't like the look of them.