Needles & Nilbogs

 We are BACK!!  I acquired blackberries this morning -- maybe half a pound, max -- and decided since they're (frankly) not great for eating, they're perfect for dyeing. So I started figuring out container acquisition, which led me to spend some time poking around the backs of dining halls, digging through recycling bins for any useful containers. An hour, five dining halls, one dorm, and two bruises later, I had a giant  jam jar and empty can of ketchup that wasn't going to cut my hand open.  The supplies  [id: supplies laid out on a desk, including a giant can and giant jar, a mug, a bowl of blackberries, various fibers, a measuring cup, and salt] Beginning the process! [ID: the same supplies as before, arranged on a blue towel and without the fiber, which is being mordanted] The ketchup can was my mordant container: seven cups of hot water to a large amount of salt, which helps with colorfastness for berry dyes/stains according to various internet sources...

 Well, it’s been a while. I’ll spare you the excuses, except for the fact that I’ve done a lot of writing (college essays and fanfic) and some crochet, and that’s about it lately. So here’s the Christmas presents, and I’ll talk about the writing soon. (read: I’m doing a few things tonight and scheduling them for various days over the next few weeks, while I attempt to get back into at least saying Something on a semi-regular basis.) I made Mom a rainbow scarf for Christmas, and finished it on December 27, instead of several months later, which happens unfortunately often. This is it in the sink, all scrunched up. An early process picture of the rainbow scarf; it’s broomstick lace, 30 stitches across with an H hook (it’s some red heart yarn that isn’t unforgettable but seems pretty similar. I have a Thing for single ply rainbow ombrés.) and worked around my 1 inch ruler in groups of 3.  More of the scarf blocking The scarf all laid out on towels; it’s Long.  Close up of it...

 Hello from the state fair, where my Forget-Me-Not Table Topper placed first in class (16-18yo) and best in division (youth fabrics and textiles)!!! That’s all, now a brief photodump of all the cool stuff I saw.  My piece These are all the cool crafts. 

Happy first week of the Tour de Fleece, annual spinning adventure! This is my first year doing it, and my goal is just to spin every day.  I’ve already completed one skein and have another ready to ply, and while they’re not large skeins, they’re something. I’m a little behind on picture taking and on Ravelry (this week has been A Lot with a couple of things so I haven’t had as much of a chance to do that stuff) but here’s pictures! The white is the first completed skein and the honey-colored one is about to get plied.  Plying ball, ready to go! Winding the plying ball Finished! (Terrible lighting here) The official color name for this is Golden Hibiscus, but I think it’s more of a honey yellow. Photo from the spinners guild meeting, where I was the youngest person there by 20-30 years, as usual.  Day 1’s progress. Only day I’ve managed progress shots so far. 

Today I’m working on the thing I’ve been mentioning lately — two RPG projects at the same time, and one is almost done. Like working on the layout and trying to find beta testers almost done. Let me know if you want the link for the current draft or if you want to playtest it, I could use the testers and I just want a little feedback.  In the meantime, have some spinning! I went to my guild meeting on Tuesday and someone showed me how to properly use my supported spindle, so I’ve been working through that. She also gave me a lovely cotton roving to use because “the cotton from pill bottles is hardly spinnable.” And I finished a skein of (pill bottle) cotton that measures a whole 18 yards, which is a new record!  I got to try a EEW Nano 1.1 at the meeting too, and it was really cool. I’m trying to figure out whether I could afford one of the new ones, cause that was super easy to use and I liked it. No pictures of that though.  Lastly, I signed up for the tour de fleece, t...

 Too busy to write, studying for APUSH, scribbled this out last week and meant to get this out earlier but forgot.  I wrote myself a calc practice problem or two, all yarn related. How many can you solve? 1. The circumference C (in stitches) of a Pi Shawl is defined as a function of its radius r (in rounds); C = 2r. The area of a circle is pi*r^2. At the point where the circumference is 4, the radius is increasing by 3 rounds/hr. What is the rate of change of the area with respect to time? (Area is measured in rounds^2)  2. The rate at which a knitter adds stitches to a blanket, in stitches per hour, can be modeled in terms of the number of stitches in the blanket (unrealistic, but still): dS/dt = 1/5(500 - S), for 0 ≤ t ≤ 25 . At time t=0, there are 10 stitches in the blanket. a) Find the rate at which the knitter adds stitches when there are 250 stitches in the blanket. b) Find S(t). c) Will the blanket be completely done (S=500) after 25 hours? How many stitches did th...

 Continuing on from the past two posts, this is the final part of a 3 part series dealing with textiles and traditions in fantasy worlds.  Today, I’m going to give a few examples of textiles in RPG worlds that I’ve built, but first I want to briefly talk about working these into a game. Working worldbuilding into an rpg plot is a complex subject and requires a lot more effort than I can give right now to cover comprehensively, but specifically for textiles, one thing I do is to describe what clothes people are wearing. This is especially useful if clothes denote something special in society, but even if they don’t, “light brown linen robes” and “neon yellow polyester raincoat” come from two very different cultures and textile traditions, and imply two very different levels of technology. Beyond clothing, consider dropping in household items — a “woven rug with geometric patterns” can give a good setting to a scene and reinforce bits of culture, or a tablecloth could be made ...

Shut up, it’s still Thursday. I really like historical textiles, and I like fantasy worlds, and I like world building. So let’s talk fantasy textile traditions, for your default fantasy d&d-ish world. I have a bunch of ideas, and so I’m going to present a guide to developing a complete textile tradition for a fantasy culture, using examples, and also a list of things I’ve done that anyone can steal and drop into a game, because I have a lot of those. That’ll be the end of this three part series. This first bit is mostly about researching and coming up with general ideas, next week will be about making specific traditions, and the last week will be a list of ideas that you can use to build on.  I want to note that this is going into a lot of detail, and most people aren’t going to use this level of detail. I actually often start with specific traditions rather than a general thing, but I have a lot of preexisting knowledge that I can use to develop the general ideas more quickly...

 Alternatively, call this blog entry The Frugal Dyer. I’m doing natural dye things this week, inspired by the huge amount of oxalis pes-caprae in my yard. I thought I’d share how to dye with plants without using more than some hot water, possibly a strainer, and a few glass jars to process them.  This is O. Pes-caprae. It’s really common in my part of North America, and it’s an invasive weed here so I don’t see a problem with picking some to dye with. Check your local regulations on picking things, though. You can use any plants with high tannin contents or that are acidic; they shouldn’t need mordants but do your own research. I like onion skins, oxalis, or avocado pits.  Find some yarn, fiber, or fabric. Wool is best, but cotton or linen might work. You really don’t want to use synthetics because they won’t take the dye well.  You’re also going to need access to hot water (boiling helps but it’s not necessary), a glass jar or two, a couple small rocks, and some way...

 I’m busy this week so here’s pictures. Mostly spinning. Haven’t done Christmas presents as much as I should. I’m missing materials anyways. Roving I loosely put together and spun. Wool.  White cotton-ball cotton (more on that at a later time) and the roving above. Both about fingering weight, chainplied.  Chainplied cotton from a ball I dyed a while ago  Wider shot of the dyed cotton More pictures of finished things Cotton on the spindle Wool ready to be plied