January crafting update and February goals

[unicornduke]

January crafting goals

• finish weaving yarn inventory - spreadsheet already set up and entry started - entry all done except for two cones that I found well after the fact and still need to enter
• get loom into crafting room - done! and started putting a project on it already
• spin! and ply the two things I've got languishing - I have been spinning, but no finishes. I've done three bobbins and almost done with the fourth of the big spin on my CPW. Also been working on spindle projects
• knit the sweater, maybe try and finish it? I've got two crochet projects that I want to make - ugh, I was making progress on this until I hurt my finger
• finish the coat?!?!?! - okay, this was ambitious, but I'm now working on buttonholes, so I'm getting clsoe
• hang some art on the crafting room walls - hung three pieces of art!
• other - wound an 8 yard warp and have been tying it onto the previous warp that I left on there so I can just pull it through the heddles and reed. My tensioning sucks on this warp, so I'll have a lot of adjustments to make. But I'm mostly done tying on and I'm getting very good at the knot.

Weaving yarn inventory! This was really good to do. I found a bunch of things that are very similar and I can use together in projects and a bunch of weird stuff that I might give away. I took each item, weighed it, figured out fiber content, yardage or estimated yardage, yards per pound, and recorded some other useful information (handspun, where I got it, haloing, etc). I had to burn test some cones since there wasn't labels and there's a bunch where I estimated yardage because I couldn't actually tell what weight yarn it was. But I can now sort by color, ypp or anything else and get a bunch of yarns that are very similar. I also tagged them all with numbers and sorted them into two boxes, one of synthetic yarns and one of natural yarns. I also included a bunch of lace weight knitting yarns in here because I'm not going to knit or crochet with lace weight. Probably not. So they would make a great weaving project all together is my guess. Total number of weaving yarns: 73. Technically more since I haven't entered the current projects yarn but shhh


Coat progress, I attempted to use the buttonhole setting on my sewing machine and it did so badly on this wool. It just did an absolutely trash job. Not really its fault, the wool is really thick. So I'm sewing them by hand using Vincent Brigg's tutorial here. I need to figure out what color yarn I'm going to use for the stitches and then I'll be on my way with those.



Weaving! I got my loom into my crafting room with only one assist needed from my mom to lift the loom into the back of my truck. I was only to get it onto the porch and into the house all by myself. I left the previous project partially on the loom so I can just tie the next project directly on and can draw it through the heddles and reed without having to re-thread them. It is a time saver if I were faster at tying, which I've finally gotten there I think. The weavers knot takes some practice to do fast. I did run out of the green yarn, so I substituted two sections of gold on either side. My tension on this will be atrocious, so I'll have to weight a bunch of the warp but it's wool and I'm willing to work with it so it should be okay.



Decorations! My crafting room is now fairly organized, I'm getting used to the things I need to move around or change to use my sewing table and things. But I'm very pleased with it. I started hanging some art, very slowly using command strips. I figured this would be the best way to actually make sure things were secure instead of trying to put nails or screws into the plaster and lathe which only works so so. I won't say I'm great at hanging art, I tend to do functional rather than beautiful. But it is on the walls and that's what matters. The loom is pulled forward right now so I can work on the back of it, so I shuffled things around so I can use my sewing table where my crafting chair is. It's all a little cramped for my taste, but I'm hoping I can work through some of the backlog of things sitting around. Like, there's some fiber sitting around to be spun or processed that won't fit on the shelves. Things like that.





February goals

• hang up more art
• weave!
• finish coat?
• spin - finish the big project? ply and clear some bobbins, I need to free some up for big spin.
• Knit sweater
• fix blanket that my aunt wants me to fix, big problem is that none of the yarn I can find will color match it and it is 50 years old.

Comments

[graydon]

Hurrah for getting art on the walls!

That spreadsheet is impressive.

The stack of buckets is not entirely dissimilar to some local accumulations of stuff, let me put it that way.

[reedrover]

Congrats on all the progress, settling in, inventory, etc. And yay for art!

[ranunculus]

What a great relief to finally get a craft space set up again. That was a ton of work to do.

[unicornduke]

I'm very pleased with my spreadsheet, I can put things together that I never would have planned to, so I'm pretty happy. Plus I now know my stash much better!

My bucket stack, it sure works to hold fleeces safely but sigh. I wish it wasn't a bucket stack. There's two big tubs behind the sewing table full of fleeces, plus the ones stacked on top. I'm not thrilled with it but if I can hold off on purchasing more stuff, then I will work through all this someday. I'm trying my best to get through it! At least my shelf is organized! I'll have to post a picture of it with labels.

[unicornduke]

Getting things done is so nice and I'm very pleased with my setup as it is, small improvements to continue from here out.

[unicornduke]

It was a lot of work! But fun work! And I can have projects sitting around to work on them at any time which makes it far easier to actually make progress on them!

[graydon]

Even clean fleeces are inherently obnoxious to store. I think the buckets are an effective choice.

Old-school leather wool sacks would be more aesthetic, but I doubt it'd be as little as ten times the price.

And this is (at least so far as I know) what you do for fun! you aren't responsible to anybody who isn't you for getting through it or anything.

[annofowlshire]

Okay, maybe you didn't do everything you planned to do. But you did so much!