It is a mystery

January Crafting Goals

• spin alpaca and finish plying the stuff sitting around - worked on the alpaca, plyed a bunch of yarns and skeined them. started a new spin
• Figure out what to do with all the samples I've had sitting around forever that I'm not looking at - I think singles and maybe 2 ply will be weft in a weaving project, 3 ply will be some kind of wild colorwork, but they all got packed away for the move
• Knit sweater - made a bunch of progress on the sleeves while I was at my parents since it was the only project i brought
• Finish woven rug and warp new project - finished the rug including knotting fringe. Decided not to warp new project and just get the loom ready for the move
• process fleece - I've been working on this daily while at home and it's going well!
• work on coat mockup - sewed a fucked up double welt pocket but I'm making progress
• sew other projects - made myself a bag for the SCA event including weaving a strap - very last minute
• Secret project - made myself a blue linen tunic and wool overcoat for my first SCA event

Plyed yarns skeined and drying, these were mostly spun and discussed in the December post



( Read more... )

February crafting goals - most of my supplies are packed up and at my parents but I still have spinning fiber, sewing supplies and a fleece to work on plus I should have less time for crafting in the next two months. plus the sweater

• spin whatever I want! alpaca or wool or cotton or all of them
• knit sweater
• process fleece
• Work on coat mockup
• Sew something else?

December crafting goals

• finish the color spin I've got and get back to working on the alpaca. spin some other stuff - finished the color spin, spun another 14 oz of yarn and finished a bobbin of the alpaca, plyed some things too
• finish knitting the hat - finished!
• crochet a dice bag for my sister - crocheted two!
• sew the purse for my mom - did it! she loves it!
• work on coat mockup - got it all cut out, interfacing attached, just about started piecing it
• weave rug - worked on it!
• process fleece - worked on it!
• Other - sewed a bag for my SIL, mostly wrote the waistcoat post, wove three tablet woven bands, two for the bags. Prototyped my Dad's gift of ratchet strap bags and made gift bags out of fabric for all the gifts

Color spin! It was 2 ounces each of six color of roving from Green Goat Ranch in their A Midwinter's Nights Dream colorways, which are grey overdyed to make the colors a bit muted which I loved. I don't know what I'm doing with it yet, I think some kind of weaving project, but I didn't spin it for weaving as a single, so I'd need to ply it if it was to be used as warp and I don't really have a ton of it, so I'd need to add some other yarn which I don't have. So it's taking up bobbin space right now and I need to figure something out.


( this is a ton of stuff and pictures )
Whew, that was a lot.

January Crafting Goals

• spin alpaca and finish plying the stuff sitting around
• Figure out what to do with all the samples I've had sitting around forever that I'm not looking at
• Knit sweater
• Finish woven rug and warp new project
• process fleece
• work on coat mockup
• sew other projects

July goals

• Spin the CVM - done! Just finished it on the 30th, it took me about a month to spin 3oz. Started another spinning project that is 4oz of combed top to spin on my electric wheel around. Also just started 8oz of Romney roving on the CPW. Did some Tour de Fleece spinning, where my goal was to spin every day, which I did, mostly on my spindle spinning of cotton
• Knit sweater - worked on it a tiny bit
• twist fringe on shawl for guild sale - did the yellow one, working on the pink one, bought a fringe twister because it was getting tedious
• finish weaving on the loom and start warping next project - finished! Got the sample for the next one almost on the loom
• work on tablet weaving - cut the project off the loom, it really wasn't working, don't weave with upholstry thread, wove three other little bands
• Sew the waistcoat - almost done! just buttons to go
• wash a fleece? - nope
• process fleece - worked on it
• engage in shenanigans (already happening >:) I went out and collected some nettles and invasive phragmites from the swamp this morning) - no more shenanigans but I might do this again soon. And I acquired a great wheel :) :) :)

The fluffy clouds of 3oz of CVM that I combed, I bought it from Clemes & Clemes Good Clean Fiber. It's just got a little bit of variation of color, which is neat although it's really only noticable in the yarn. Spun extremely fine which was kinda fun even though it took all month. Don't have yardage yet, I'm going to put it on a cone for weaving to see what kind of fabric a singles finewool will make. 64 wpi.


( so many pictures! )

August goals

• spin things!
• knit sweater
• weave sample and get the main project warped
• twist fringe on pink shawl for sale
• finish the waistcoat
• work on great wheel
• woodwork a few things - pegs for great wheel, tall storage thing for weaving supplies

May crafting goals

• spin! currently 4oz of Romney on the wheel, maybe I'll do another weaving yarn, high twist for warp? (write about cotton spinning) - I spun the 4oz of Romney, started 6 oz and finished 3 of it of blended Wensleydale/Angora for warp. Cotton!
• ply, skein and wash yarns sitting around - done! They are finishing drying today and I'll put their labels on and put them away
• knit sweater - worked on it! making progress, just seamed the shoulders together and will be starting the sleeves shortly
• start a crochet project? - nope
• wash a fleece? - nope and picked up four more during shearing season
• process fleece - worked on it a little
• work on tablet weaving project and get it off the warping board - haha no
• Get weaving! - warped, got the warp on the loom and am weaving!
• muslin of waistcoat - needs to be done before weaving finishes so uhh - done! also in sewing related news, I picked up a bunch of sewing yardage from an out of business tailoring company, so I can use that for fancy things!

Cotton spinning! This was my first time spinning cotton and I started with 25g of Egyptian cotton from Hearthside Fibers Plant based sampler. I spun it on my supported spindle and I really enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. It's definitely similar to long draw wool in some ways but it's so short and fine that you need a lot of twist to make it go right. This was also very slick, so I had to either card it into punis or make tiny "punis" by hand, by taking a bundle of the top, ripping into into little 3/4 inch long, stacking them up and pulling them out sideways and rolling them a little. Now that I've started another cotton spin, I realized that this was perhaps learning on hard mode.


( more photos )
June crafting goals

• Spin! finish the 6oz spin, and spin something else
• knit sweater
• start a crochet project?
• get the tablet weaving done, it's just sitting
• weave! get it off the loom?
• Buy sewing supplies
• Wash fleece maybe with a new setup?
• process fleece

February goals

• Spin mohair - three bobbins done, all around 5oz, so I might be halfway?
• crochet mittens - allllmost done, just need to bind off the top of the mitten and do the thumb
• knit sweater - making progress, split at the sleeves and now knitting the back section flat, I have remembered how to knit with both hands, so I don't need to turn it which is nice
• finish weaving project - DONE
• start processing alpaca fleece - started!
• spin more samples - I think I spun all of them!
• Cone winder alpaca, masham, skein rainbow, label - decided to wash the alpaca before cone because it was dirty, I didn't do a great job washing the fleece. Skeined it and gave it a hot wash with soap and it looks waaaay better. Now I need to figure out how to get it onto the cone since I don't have a swift. Probably drape it over my knees and wind it onto my electric wheel, probably good to give it a tiny bit more twist in some areas. Washed all the other skeins and they're now drying
• start sewing jersey - muslin? or just go for it? - made a muslin, working on real pullover now
• tablet weaving project darn it - someday I'll do this

The cloth! It is very heavy, around 6 pounds for ~7.5 yards of fabric that is 30 inches wide. It will become a coat someday, potentially even a really neat fancy one. I have no idea how I'm going to wet finish it, it's so long and heavy. I'm very pleased with it.


( more pictures )
March goals

• spin mohair, finishing it would be a stretch
• finish mittens
• knit sweater
• cone up alpaca
• process the rest of the brown alpaca fleece?
• sew pullover
• tablet weaving - make a loom for this?

Hot water was restored on Monday to great excitement in the household. First task: run the dishwasher. Dishes were the most annoying task to do without hot water. Showering cold was not that bad. I am appreciating hot showers right now.

Yesterday and today, good long work days, one taking seed cleaning equipment out and about and having a field meeting and harvesting potatoes today. I forgot my bag of potatoes in the back of my coworker's truck which is very sad for me.

I spent two hours on Monday and two hours tonight working on the quilted jacket pattern that I got. Sewing clothing is fairly tedious and I can't believe that I decided to actually make a muslin. I have to do this again with the actual planned fabric. Now, I've chosen extra tedium by having a quilted jacket because it requires each thing to have 3x cutting for a single thing. Outside, batting, inside. Ah well. I think perhaps this is a pattern not to do with my current amount of handwoven cloth as I don't think I have quite enough for even the outside of the jacket. Sleeves take a ton of fabric. But I could probably do the vest version with my current handwoven with some other store cloth as the lining. Parts of a jacket: front left, front right, back (in one or two pieces), two sleeves, two pockets. Next step is quilting all the pieces together. I nearly ran out of fabric and I had to cut one of the sleeves off the grain of the cloth to have barely enough fabric. Shh, don't tell anyone, besides, it's a muslin.

I need to focus on weaving though. I have one idea to weave a written phrase onto something that will probably be long enough for a belt, but could just be decorative. But that means I need to actually get started on that if I want it to be done for F's birthday in mid-December. So that means I need to weave and clear my current test letters project off the loom.