Episode 9: Holiday Speed

Finished Objects

Erica has a mostly finished and a totally finished object she shares on this episode. Erica plied one of the advent calendar yarns over the holiday break. While travelling in Helsinki, Erica twisted the fringe on her handspun scarf and wet finished it when she returned home. This scarf contains many of her color management study.

Michelle finished separating and carding a Jacob fleece. She didn't think it would be that difficult to separate, but it turns out that the divide between the white and brown isn't distinct. She ended up with three colors, but for now is planning to spin the brown and white separately and then ply them to get a barber pole yarn.

Works in Progress

Erica is has made fairly good progress on both socks. Though the socks for TJ had one heel that ended up with twice as many stitches as the other. She is going to try doubling the decreases on the bigger heel and see how that goes. These socks are being knit from Gynx Yarns Merino Worsted First Bloom yarn. Unfortunately, Gynx Yarns is no longer dyeing and selling yarn. Erica has used several BluPrint classes to learn to knit these socks. Erica has used both My First Socks and Knit Socks Two at a Time!

When we discuss the oddities with these socks, we discuss some of the differences with the Portuguese style knitting. Erica learned this style, which finally clicked for her, also on BluPrint.

The other set of socks will probably be for Oli, Erica's husband when finished. She is very close to finishing the second main sock, then each sock just needs the afterthought heel. These socks are being knit from Gynx Yarns Fingering weight yarn, mostly on DPN's. Erica is knitting these toe-up, one at a time. She has tried using DPNS, magic loop and two circular needles. ?Thus far dpn's seems to be the fastest method. As she's just starting sock knitting there are a lot of explorations to go! Erica has learned to knit these socks from My First Toe Up Socks class on BluPrint.

Erica did some more spinning on her Advent Fiber Calendar of the breaks. She is also planning to ply these yarns with semisolids in the sane/similar hue families. So she has started spinning this Polwarth/Mohair/Silk semisolid yarn for plying the yarns that are in the red hue family.

Erica has finished one of the two motifs she is weaving on this first piece of Damask! She is weaving two motifs and some extra to send to a friend who will bead it and make it into a 7th C Persian headdress! Erica hopes listeners enjoy hearing about this project because there are at least 7 more meters to go to be woven into cloth for a robe and a Sasanian cowl!

Erica also talks about identifying her mystery yarn from this summer! This is Finn dyed by Crafty Jaks for a Wool N Spinning Breed Study.

Erica ordered a "reading buddy pillow" it's more like a lounger buddy pillow! :)

Erica's sunroom is still in the progress of being set up. Here is a photo as it is right now! There will eventually be one couch in the sunroom. :) These photos were taken about 11, so you can see in January how much sunlight comes in before midday to the sunroom. 

We did leave one corner (photo below taken from this corner) without windows, to allow for a space to store things that should not be kept in direct sunlight. 

Michelle is also working on her crafting space, but she's pretty sure this will be a work in progress for many years as she continues to tweak it.

She did recently get rid of a bench she had in there, that had been there when she moved into the house. Removing it was an adventure, but it wasn't a good crafting space because drawers made it difficult to sit at. It was also very big.

She has replaced it with a table that she can sit at to craft, so now she has a "messy craft" (resin, clay, paint) work space and a fiber/clean craft work space. She's still working on organizing shelves and work spaces, but she feels like this is a huge step.The bookshelf on the right is between her crafting spaces and will be used for supplies. The one on the left will actually be used for books.

As part of her craft room progress, Michelle has decided to send all of her camelid (alpaca, llama) fibers to the mill for processing. She currently has a large table set up in the middle of her craft room to get these skirted now so she doesn't have to do it in a rush later to get the fiber to the people from the mill when they're in town. The skirting does put a halt to the organizing of the craft room because she can't get around the table, but she figures getting it skirted to get it out of the room counts as organizing.

This may be the first llama fleece that Michelle has skirted. It is so soft that she just wants to lay in it. It seems a shame to have it spun into yarn at the mill, but she realizes that she's not likely to process it any time soon, so it needs to go. The fleece is darker than it looks in the picture.

While in Joann Fabrics, Michelle found some simple metal rings that she thought could be the beginning of needle felted wreaths. She's decided to turn the one into a winter scene. The bottom is thicker than the top to allow for animals to be on it. 

So far it has a Narwhal. She's working on a polar bear, but is suffering from "I don't know  how to make a polar bear", so progress is slow.

Michelle has started a wheel throwing class. She's had a couple classes and some open studio time and can finally make a decent cylinder with even (ish) walls.

The project that she's currently most proud of though is a little cup where she did some experimenting with belling out the sides to resemble some pottery cups we have from our reenacting days. The upper edge ended up uneven, so she turned the thicker part of the rim into a spout and now it's a cream/milk pitcher.