Needles & Nilbogs

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. 

I’ve been reading a lot about antique/vintage crochet lately, so I’m going to review one of the books I’ve been using as reference. The book is Civil War Ladies: Fashions and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860’s , and it’s a collection of articles from Peterson’s Magazine, coming mostly from 1861 and 1864. I got it from a friend of my grandfather’s, who was also very fond of older patterns and craft history.  Overall, my general impression is definitely good; it’s very clear that the patterns are not reproductions, they’re original. This does mean the patterns are hard to understand sometimes, and they occasionally look odd to my modern eyes, but I can follow most of them.  The subject matter is mixed. Peterson’s published patterns for all sorts of fancy work, alongside poetry, songs, and fiction (mostly cut out from this book). There’s embroidery, patterns for sewing, knitting, crochet, netting, the occasional tatting project, and some that are unclear or useable for multiple craf...

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...

I had all these ideas, but somehow I just have no motivation to write this week. I have a thing, a gaming thing. It is almost done, but I don’t know how to get to the point where it’s done. I am so close. It just doesn’t want to be finished. So today, I’m going to whine about discuss the DMC numbering system for floss colors, and complain about all the better options explore ways that it could be easier to remember.  First, the DMC numbering system is a means of organizing their vast array of colors. They have at least a thousand color codes, all of which define a very specific color and shade. These codes don’t have any relation to the colors they represent, and there’s no rhyme or reason to the codes. Some related colors are near each other, like 971 Pumpkin and 970 Pumpkin Light, or 796 and 797, both dark blues. But 815 is a dark red and 818 is light pink, and some shades (mostly ecru) don’t have a number even. It’s frustrating, hard to remember, and usually easy to mix up the...

 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

We’re going off on a road trip in a couple weeks, and I get basically one crafting project. Because even though we have a minivan which should be big enough to hold everything, we’re going to be gone for two weeks, and we need to pack some supplies in the part of the car where people sit. So everyone gets one shoebox-worth of space for activities, and one small bag for books. 

I don’t have much of a budget for yarn or rpgs. In fact, most of the time, my budget is best described as nonexistent, for a handful of reasons. In addition, I have highly limited space. These two things combined mean that I rarely buy things, and if I can, I will always try to make do with what I have. However, though it may seem like a bad thing, I actually love my situation (most of the time). The budget, and the fact that the budget is not easy to stretch, has taught me a lot of lessons about myself and my crafting and gaming.