Creating A Home... Free Thread Holder Tutorial

One of the most popular posts on this blog concerns a thread holder that my sweet DH made for me a few years ago.  It's made of wood and is really good for use with a side table.... However, if there is no side table and you have to either hold the thread/yarn in your lap or on the floor, this may not work too well.

 Jim, from Creating A Home , has posted a wonderful tute using the most basic thing on the kitchen shelf... a coffee container.    I had to make me one.  I use it not only for crocheting, but also for needle tatting, holding the thread/yarn when I am warping my Kromski Harp, when I'm measuring thread/yarn for my tablet weaving loom..and any other time I need to pull a continuous length of thread/yarn.  Love it...

I think the heat has finally pushed my bad mood buttons.  Been a little funky for the last few days... my poor sweetie..sigh  So I think in response to the cold wave pushing through that will bring the temps down to 97° (we can only hope) today, I will be looking around and appreciating all that I have... my sweet DH, those warm snuggles in bed in the mornings, even the gray in my hair.. ;o)  Soooo.... for a few days we will be playing Pollyanna around here... it never fails to make me realize that bad moods are just that... not even a reality... just a passing fancy...

Have a really good day.. ;o)

Thursday, 07/30/2009

I just realized that I haven't blogged about the new picture I put up as a header. This is a Bottlebrush plant and while I have read about them many times, this was the first one I had ever seen. It was growing in front of the elevator that we took to get to our room in El Cajon while we were on vacation. It was so big, it tipped the 3rd floor and was in full bloom. I want one... ;o) If you click on the link, there is a picture of the hotel and the bottlebrush plant in front of the blue tiled elevator.

There's not been a lot of hobby-ing in the last few days except in the evening. Since we had to take the curtains down anyway, I decided to cut them down. While the "puddle" look with fabric on the floor might look ok, it's not too great at keeping the dust and dirt off the curtains...not to mention the bugs out here in the semi-country. No.. I'm not drinking 2 or 3 cups at a time.. lol The coffee cups are to hold the fabric down...

As an aside... Now that DH has assisted with cutting the window film and the curtains, he has decided that he needs one these cutting mats to use in his shop. He cuts the glass for the picture frames he builds and this would sure help to line it up straight. Wonder what they'll say at JoAnn's! lol

Isn't it great to have gardening friends? ;o) DH came home yesterday with this batch of wonders. Today they will be peeled, sliced, blanched and dipped into corn meal to be frozen. It's a shame I can't eat them right now... sigh But... I'm 10 pounds down on my diet, so there's no stopping now.

Tuesday I found that I had finished spinning the chocolate merino, the Cotswold and the bamboo. I dyed the Cotswold blue and tried to dye the chocolate Merino, but there was no way. I think if I want to dye it I will have to use acid dyes or some other type professional dye instead my old stand by Kool Aid. Since it has been raining the drying was time was quite long, so it wasn't until last night that they could be rolled into center pull balls.

Have a good day... ;o)

"What you see is evidence of what you believe. Believe it and you'll see it." ... Dr. Wayne Dyer

Breezy, Blustery Day

Fall has arrived... The trees are now that non-descript cross between brown and dirt colors with a little pear yellow here and there. The leaves are piling in the yard in between mowings and the sun is shining. Temps remain in the high 80's most of the time with a few cooler days. While I am looking forward to the cooler weather I am not a fan of the drabness of autumn and winter in this part of the country. Or maybe I'm just in a mood today... ;o)

The breeze today makes it a really good day to wash and dry the woven scarf and the finished yarns of the past few weeks. These yarns have not been dyed and I'm in love with warm natural colors .. the lightest being mixed wool, the darkest warm brown is Merino Lamb and the honey color is a mix of Romney/Merino. I'm in a hurry for these to dry since I can just see them mixed together in a pattern on my loom and making warm scarves.

And It's Red..& Blue.. & Green

Yesterday was dyeing day for all the Corriedale homespun.

I had the green in a pot that was so deep that the center did not get much of the dye.. parts of it not any at all, but it is spread out enough that I think I will call it variegated instead of re-dyeing it. I love the way the reds and blues came out. I think that perhaps I have enough for an afghan.. perhaps small, but an afghan at any rate.

It's the Magic...

I've had several people watch me spindling or spinning (or doing whatever hobby I'm working on at the time) and say "You know.. you really can buy that stuff." And I readily agree.. I could. And it probably would be cheaper in the long run... I guess it's like fishing.. buy the boat, the rods, the reels, the bait.. then catch a couple of fish.. how much would those couple of fish actually cost per pound?

I was discussing this with a friend the other day... her answer... "It's the Magic!" And you can't buy that. So it feels like magic as I work with my homespun and have begun a shawl with my green. I guess I am still new enough with the spinning wheel that I am awed by the fact that this yarn was spun and dyed by me...lol It is definitely "Magic".

From Roving to Pouch...

Well, here is the first thing I have completed using my hand spun since I had the spinning lesson. I can't begin to describe how much softer and how much easier this yarn is to work with than the first yarns that I was spinning. Wonderful. Hand dyed yellow yarn.

It is naalbound using my oak needle that I made from a scrap of oak in the shop... The pouch is made using the Oslo stitch with an edging at the top using the blanket stitch. The drawstrings are twisted cording from the same yarn.

I have about 800 yards of handspun and am working toward having enough for an afghan. But.. couldn't resist making something small because the yarn felt so yummy..grin And I wanted to see how it would work up in naalbinding. Love it....

First Batch Dyed...

It took me a while to work up the nerve... but here it is....

The picture is "antique" looking because my camera is acting up a bit... These skeins are....from left to right.... orange, lemon-lime, pina pineapple kool-aid dyed. The picture just does not do it justice.. the yellow is so perfect, the green is variegated a bit, and the orange is soft enough to be lovely. I can hardly believe it actually worked..grin ...

My Kromski Spinning Wheel Is Here!

It came Thursday... It had included with the wheel an extra bobbin and a Kromski niddy noddy. (Ask me if DH didn't get a lot of mileage out of that name! grin) We spent the afternoon putting it together...a 30 minute job (grin) Anyway, finally got it together and you should see my first 10 yards or so of mess.. ( I won't be posting pics..grin)

Ask me if I love it! DH tells me I have to be able to chew gum and walk to use it..lol Finally got it semi figured out yesterday and managed to finish the 4oz. of practice roving that came with it. It's the blue that is on the niddy noddy. The yarn is triple plied using the Navajo technique. I ended up with just over 50 yards not counting the 10 or so yards that I messed up in first try.

The yarn is not so great. Too much twist. I've seen someone on the net trying to get the effect I got with the twist on the single making a spiral after it is plied...grin If I try to do it again, it'll never happen.

We had company yesterday morning, waited around for someone who never showed up and finally gave up and went to the book store. I found several James Patterson novels (Alex Cross .. only!) that I didn't have. I looked for anything spinning, naalbinding or yarn related... not a single book in the whole store! (Half-Price Books) Anyway, finally got to work on my spinning in the evening.. I think I have found a new passion...

I'm Finally Back...

Hello again after the longest blogging pause I've had yet. There is much that has been going on, but will take a while to get it all up here.

These are the lovely fabric postcards received from the Art We Mail group of very talented ladies. These are from different points around the country and a couple from New Zealand. Mine have been sent and alas, I did not think to get a picture of them before they were mailed.

This is my dowel rod and wooden toy car wheel spindle. With a little help from my wonderful DH (drill press for starter hole in the cuphook end), it was done in about 15 minutes or so. A little sanding along the sides and voila! we're off! Well, the first roving (needle felting roving from Hobby Lobby) was pretty bad, but it was good enough for me practice the basics. Took a little while to figure it out, but is much easier than I thought it would be. This is the 3rd usable yarn that I have spun, the other two being a bulkier yarn that is being knit into scarves. The current roving I am spinning and the previous roving (now being knit into scarves..grin) are Blue Faced Leicester wool that I ordered from Funky Carolina Etsy shop. (What great service and wonderful roving!)

More tomorrow....

Monitors, Dopplers and Yarn

First, we went to the doctor yesterday. DH went into the exam room with me and the discussion and exam ensued. I feel like for the first time since the stent placement in October he is taking it seriously. Today will be a trip to Denison for the 24 hour heart monitor...again. Then another trip next Wednesday for another doppler of the carotids. In the meantime, I guess the trip to Stonewall is off until after next Wednesday. Bah...

On to other things... Since I took up naalbinding, I have wanted to have some homespun to work with. Naalbinding needs just a bit of felting to close the stitches. Now you know why I took up spinning...grin

Just before we left to go the Steve's graduation, I took the blue spun yarn off the holder and tied it, soaked in warm water and hung it over the bathtub spout and left it to hang dry until we returned. When we got home I rolled it into a small ball and found that the places where it was spun very tightly did not hang loose... now that tight twist continues to want to twist back on itself. I wonder if I there is any way to save this yarn, as it did not work well when I tried it to see what it would do.....