Spin the Bin 2023

For the past couple of years I have participated in a "Spin the Bin" over on Ravelry. It is a personal challenge to collect together a bin of fibre (of at least 24 ounces), and spin it up within the year.

This was my bin of fibre for this year.

I started with 851g/30.1oz of fibre.

Mainly fibre that had been in my stash for over 5 years, that was too coarse to make garments with.

There is linen, a wool and linen blend, and some generic wool.

This is all the finished yarn!

1651m/1806yds of yarn, all for weaving.

The first project on the loom was with the wool and linen blend (an 80/20 blend from Louet). Some is natural and some I dyed before spinning. 

It is an overshot table runner.

This is what is on the loom now. Another overshot weaving. The warp and tabby weft are a commercial yarn (Harrisville Shetland), and the pattern weft is handspun wool that I had dyed before spinning in an assortment of colours. I thought that the 'busy' yarn needed a simple pattern, so chose a pattern with squares.

Pets -

All the best!♥︎

A Couple of Cooperative Projects

I recently was involved in a couple of cooperative projects-

This is a pair of quilts for my parents.

I cut out the fabric, my Mom sewed them and I quilted them.

The pattern is Twilight Hopscotch by Kim Diehl from her book 'Simple Comforts'. We modified the size to make bed sized quilts (72"x100" - 4x6 block layout with a 6" border). The fabric is from Connecting Threads. We used wool batting. They are free motion quilted with an all over meander (on my domestic sewing machine), and a hooked feather in the outer red border. I quilted them with Connecting Threads Essential Pro polyester thread and I couldn't believe how well it worked (normally my machine has bobbin issues when free motion quilting).

My also Mom made the pillows on their beds, and my Dad made the cross stitched pictures on the wall (my parents are in their late eighties and are just amazing!).

 This next project is a piece of stained glass that our eldest son designed, cut and ground the glass, and I soldered and finished. It is 3"x11".

Photos from around and the pets-

Sunrise and blowing snow.

Lot of tomatoes under the grow lights.

Lettuce and swiss chard under different grow lights.

Gray Partridges trying to keep warm.

Miss Maggie

Miss Molly

All the best!♥︎

More Weaving, Spinning, and Stained Glass

I finished a couple of weaving projects recently-

This first one is an overshot scarf, the last of my kits from the Yarn Barn.

The pattern is "Latte or Mocha?', made with bamboo. It is the first scarf that I have woven that is nice to wear. It is silky, 'drapey' and so soft. I thought it would be my last handwoven scarf (I find weaving narrow things harder), but I'll probably make some more like this. It looks nice on each side, the sides are opposite.

The last three projects I wove were all overshot - woven with two shuttles, with complex treadling sequences, all on four shafts, so I thought  I would have a bit of a break and weave something simple.

 Turned twill tea towels, on 8 shafts, woven straight draw with 2/8 cotton.

I finished spinning a few skeins of yarn-

A wool and mohair blend, leftover from last years spinning for socks. This is a local fibre blend, and for me, it is too rough for socks, I'll probably make some mittens.

This year my plans for spinning is to spin for weaving.

This first one is some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes roving that I dyed, and spun.

This is some linen. I am looking forward to weaving with this.

My brother-in-law asked me to design and make some stained glass windows out of the old coloured glass from when they had the windows replaced in his church.

The above is a photo of how some of  the windows looked.

Here is what I came up with. I wanted to keep the simplicity of the original windows (I even repeated the  four vertical windows in a few places). Since there was a red glass that was different from the rest I made that a feature (a path going through all the windows). Each window is 11"x25". These were a real family affair - my brother-in-law, sister, husband and two children all had a hand in these. I was a bit daunted when I was first asked, but we were all super happy with how they turned out.

Here they are up in the church.

Photos from Around-

Best friends playing their favourite game.

Our youngest son grows yellow tomatoes (as well as lettuce) in the basement, they are really starting to come in.

All the best!♥︎

A Couple of Weavings

I finished a couple of woven table runners recently. Both from kits I bought when I went to the Yarn Barn of Kansas in December. The are both overshot, woven with tencel and mercerized cotton.

The first is the pattern Rings of Circles. This is the first time I have woven with tencel (and I heard it can be problematic), but apart one of the floating selvedges breaking non-stop, it was fine (I think it was because it was the outer round of thread on the cone, and maybe it was already abraded).  

An old sad iron makes a great weight when twisting fringe.

The second one is Thanksgiving Table Runner in the autumn colour way 

For this one I removed the outer couple of yards of thread from each cone before measuring out the warp and had no problems with broken threads.

Overshot is fun to weave - it uses two shuttles (one pattern and one tabby), one after the other.

And each side is opposite, so it looks good on both sides.

Both table runners are lovely, but for now I have the "thanksgiving"one on the table.

Photos from Around-

I wanted to take my machine in for a check-up, but my son told me he could do it and he did.

It amazes me to see the insides of a sewing machine.

We had days of beautiful rime ice!

And learned something new, becuase it isn't hoar frost.

Molly,

and Maggie in the tree.

All the best!♥︎

December Catch-Up

I finished making a few things recently -

This is the Night Shift by Andrea Mowry. Made from handspun targhee wool.

This was my knitting when we took a road trip down south this past month (lots more photos later in the post).

This is a Sophie Scarf by Petite Knit. Made from some of first handspun from years ago - I can't remember what it is but I know the fibre is from SweetGeorgia Yarns.

I finished weaving some more tea towels, from 8/2 cotton. The pattern is Ozark Quilter's Towels from the March/April 2018 issue of Handwoven magazine.

I cross stitched a few different pin cushions as a break from my big three year cross stitch project. These are all stuffed with crushed walnut shells (lizard litter from the pet store). The patterns are from BlackBird Designs, The Scarlet House, and With Thy Needle and Thread. Stitched on 37 and 40 count linen that I dyed, with floss that I also dyed (stitched one thread over two).

As I mentioned earlier we took a road trip down south (as a nice break from the cold) so lots of photos to share-

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Hoover Dam, Nevada/Arizona

Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

Shattuck Windmill Museum and Park, Oklahoma

Wichita, Kansas

Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska.

I believe that was a female gorilla because she just walked around picking up all the pieces of paper.

We visited with family in Arizona and they have the cutest dog!

While there I saw a road runner for the first time, and there was a coyote too!!

Came home to cold temperatures and snow. So pretty!

All the best!♥︎