Autumn Zebra

Spinning done as of June 2016 Once at an A&P fair I bought a home-made top-weighted drop spindle off a lady, with a bit of wool. I then got a bottom-weighted one from Oamaru (I think), but I didn't like it as much. Here's some of the spinning I had done by mid-2016, a few years ago. I don't really know if I'm doing it right because for some reason I couldn't find any videos showing people doing the same style that I was doing - I found bottom-weighted spindles, people spinning really really think wool, people spinning with the spindle supported on a table or something, but not just top-weighted drop spindle with thin wool. I just got out of the library a whole book on drop spindle spinning though, so hopefully that will be useful! My favourite wool is the dark stuff, which is like, still in its little shorn pieces, not brushed all fluffy like the other ones.

A more recent craft, although from February 2017. I have a singlet I really like that I bought probably over 10 years ago and it is getting a bit faded and stuff now, so I decided to make a pattern off it and make my own. I have had trouble finding any in the right type of fabric anyway. I just traced round the existing one and added seam allowances where necessary. Both of these are from the same pattern. The black one is merino, and worked really well. Its a kind of rib knit. It stretches around you, then fits snugly. The camo-bug one is not very stretchy and is too small. I think its a type of non-stretchy jersey or something. The black one is bound with a strip of it's own fabric, with raw edges and a zig zag stitch. The camo-bug one is folded over to the inside and sewn down, for some reason.

Another old craft from May 2016. Our house is cold and we don't want our cat to get too cold at night, so I made her this wheat bag. The interior bag is linen, and the exterior cover is old pajama material. I chose the linen because you heat the bag in the microwave and linen has a high ignition temperature - so, in case one of the little wheat guys gets super hot somehow, it's less likely to actually catch fire. I chose the outside because it is soft and furry and cats like that sort of thing. It is also easily washable. We heat it up in the evening and put it on the couch where the cat sleeps so she can snuggle it. Sometimes she actually does.

This is another post from a craft from ages back - from May 2016 in fact. I like to fix and refurbish things. I like to see how they change over time, and I like to see what they're like when they're fixed, and how long they last, and all sorts of things like that. It's something that can only happen over a period of years, and softly. There's literally no other way to experience something aging and wearing than to use it and to wait. I think that nowadays we seldom get to experience this because a lot of stuff - although it becomes old and worn out - was not nice enough and of good enough quality originally to be worth reworking. So we end up with rubbish instead. I orginally made this back for G, and he uses it to carry a book to read when we go out to cafes and such. It was getting holes in the back and in the straps. So I took it apart and gave it a new back and new reinforcement at the bottom (out of the same original fabric). I kept the front and the flap. I...