Cabin Crafted

Category: Fiber Arts and Equipment

  • The Rabbit Hole has deepened – 12/25/2019

    My love added to my fiber toys this morning. Under the tree was an Ashford Samplet 16″ rigid heddle loom.

    We began our morning with Huevos Rancheros, a dish I traditionally fix on Christmas and New Year’s mornings. It is a special treat for him, one he grew up with. It was just us this morning so no rush on opening gifts, he already had most of his with his new leather chair and his refurbished “new” computer, but there were a few minor surprises under the tree for him.

    We took gifts to daughter’s house and had an exchange with them, then home and I upacked the loom box.

    When our house was being built, I made several 5 gallon buckets of home-made paste floor wax. The instructions said to wax or seal the wood before assembly, so I opened on of the remaining buckets, scooped out a tin full of the wax and spent about an hour hand waxing the pieces. Then assembly commenced.

    With my recent lesson, having warped my friend’s borrowed loom, and the very detailed instruction booklet, I successfully warped the loom with some of my hand spun dk weight yarn.

    My stocking contained a Barnes and Noble gift card, so a book or two of projects and techniques will be added to my growing collection of craft and fiber history books, several had been added by eldest son’s family for my birthday and Christmas. The booklet with the loom has a sample scarf with instructions for several different weaving techniques to try in the meantime.

    The Let it Snow box in the photo above was the gift from daughter and her family. Treats and a beautiful cribbage game in a wooden box. I used to play it with my Dad and plan to refresh my skills and teach her and her kids.

    Youngest son and his family sent us a pair o mugs with all of our grandchildren represented on them. Tonight I am enjoying my evening tea from mine.

    As a Christmas bonus, the year old hens produced 3 eggs today. We have been getting 1 or 2, and I have never had hens lay in the winter before. Such a treat to still be getting farm fresh eggs to eat and cook with this time of year.

    I think my favorite gift from hubby today is a tiny music box in my stocking.

    It plays, “You Are My Sunshine.”

    Here’s hoping you had Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah.

  • Colonial Christmas 4th grade style – 12/20/2019

    The fourth graders at the local elementary school have just finished up studying about Jamestown and today is the last day of school before winter break. There are 3 classes that rotate with 3 teachers for Science and History with one, Math with one, and Language Arts with one with a 4th teacher that is support. To end their unit and try to have some level of control on this last full day, they planned a Colonial Christmas celebration. In one room they dipped candles, in another they made pomander balls, the third room had a Christmas movie playing, making herb coated ornaments, and me in Colonial clothing with a lesson about colonial clothing, textiles, spinning, and weaving. I always take many “toys,” several different types of spindles, lucet, combs, carders, my wheel, and this time a borrowed rigid heddle loom. I love this type of event.

    The children had an hour in each room, so I had 6 groups for about 30 minutes each to talk about a brief history of spinning, history of homespun, and some weaving. Some groups watched and asked a few questions, the most common one was, “Do you wear that every day?” Some groups wanted hands on and I allowed carding of wool and playing with the various spindles that I demonstrated first. With the number and age of the kids, I didn’t let them handle the sharp combs and knew that letting any of them use the wheel I was asking for trouble. And as the rigid heddle was borrowed from a friend, I only demonstrated on it.

    There were photos taken by various adults, but none by me.

    My favorite question though, was as I was packing up to leave, a tiny little gal approached and very quietly asked if she could ask me something. Of course, I replied. She asked, “Where you around in Jamestown?” I laughed my way home with that one. The old lady with her spinning wheel.

    Another great opportunity to teach the youth and maybe interest some of them in pursuing an interest in fiber.

  • Rabbit Holes – 12/10/2019

    Various crafts have come and gone from my life, but most have been fiber crafts with limited equipment and consumable supplies. My mother switched crafts like clothing and most of her crafts required cabinets full of molds; candle making and cake decorating come to mind. She tried cross stitch after I started, bought boxes of bobbins and colors, embroidery hoops, and needles, but failed to keep her crosses all in the same direction and consistent and lost interest. Later in life, she helped on a quilt for her church’s retiring pastor and decided she wanted to become a quilter. I have what I think is the only quilt she ever completed. It was made for my husband and me as a wedding present. She pieced the top and had it quilted by someone else. It is lovely, but has never been used, just displayed because every time it is spread out, I have to sit with needle and thread and re-applique sections as she used a poly cotton blend and her stitching was too long.

    Each of her crafts required lots of equipment and when her health failed and my parents sold our childhood home to downsize prior to her death. I went to help pack goods for donation, trash, and the move. Boxes and boxes of candle and cake molds, alone with other craft goods were packed up and taken to a donation center. I don’t remember if the quilting frame had been borrowed or purchased.

    I do have an antique spinning wheel and a contemporary wheel I spin on, a 5 foot triangular loom with an easel, hand cards and combs that I use when demonstrating spinning at living history events. A set of interchangeable knitting needles and a couple of crochet hooks, but I have been doing this for quite a while now and continue playing with fiber.

    My weaving experience has played with a rigid heddle loom for a few times and learning to weave on the Tri loom to use up some of my yarn more quickly. Having borrowed a small rigid heddle for the upcoming Colonial demonstration at a local elementary school, I needed a refresher on warping it. I posted a bit about it a few days ago. I wove off the short bit that was already on the loom and will make a small bag from it. Sunday, I stripped the rest off and tackled warping it with a 7′ warp.

    To my surprise and delight, I was able to do it and it only took me about half an hour. I started weaving some of the gray and some of the teal wool yarn I had purchased to warp it and demonstrate on it and just kept going. I wove about 40 inches, carefully removed it and tied the remainder back on the front bar for the demonstration and made a cowl out of what I had woven.

    Weaving the cowl, tying and twisting the fringe took just a couple of hours. Knitting a cowl takes much, much longer. This could become another rabbit hole, but it is easier on my arthritic wrist and hand.

  • Fun With Friends – 12/5/2019

    I belong to a spinning group that meets once a week during the day and has an offshoot (maybe the original group) that meets once a month at night. The group is called the Spunsters, nice play on a term. We are mostly gals, but not entirely. The daytime group are mostly retired women, but a few that still work outside the home that come when their job allows. This group is very generous with their knowledge and often their equipment as well. I had recently taken up spinning with a drop spindle when I discovered them, then using the Community Room at the local library. Eventually, the library started preempting us, often at the last minute, so we relocated, finally landing at the Recreation Center. A couple of times each year, one member who has a lovely, large home that is centrally located holds a social event where we bring snacks, she furnishes beverages, and we have sale and free tables and at the holidays, we have a Dirty Santa exchange. The gift must be of fiber or fiber related theme. Last year the event was just after mid December and we had just had a snow and ice event a few days prior, so her driveway was a bit treacherous for some of the gals. She decided to try to beat the bad weather this year and we held the party today.

    There are a lot of food allergies in my group of friends, and I often try to make something that is gluten free, dairy free, and nut free. This year I didn’t. I love shortbread, but didn’t want to make plain shortbread. I made the recipe, added Almond extract, topped it with a thin layer of melted Giradelli dark chocolate, and sprinkled crushed Heath Bars on top. I did put an allergy list on it, but still half of it was consumed.

    Half the fun of the Dirty Santa game is to have folks that don’t just pick a wrapped gift from under the tree, but peruse the already opened gifts and select from one of them. Most of this group are reticent to do that, but a few of us will. One gal couldn’t stay for the entire Santa part so she didn’t participate in it, and as she was leaving, the hostess told everyone to wish her goodbye and quickly grabbed an opened gift. Lots of laughs and exaggerated perturbation over having their gift taken. Sometimes they go get a different wrapped item, sometimes they will take another open gift. There were lots of very nice gifts today, fiber, yarn, notions, and books. I took an opened gift and it was taken from me. I took another opened gift and came home with this.

    I also came home with a fringe twister and a Mayan spinner that will be added to my spinning equipment that goes to teaching events. The fringe twister was the result of my asking for knowledge assistance as I spent hours untying knotted fringe on a shawl and hand twisting the fringe into a more finished twisted fringe. The Mayan spinner a gift to add to my demonstration tools.

    On December 20, I will be a Colonial spinner for the 4th graders at a local elementary school as they conclude their unit on Colonial history. One of my Spunster friends is going to loan me a small loom and help me get it warped so that I can have it set up and demonstrate it that day too. It will be a fun day of demonstrating how labor intensive having clothing and household linens was in Colonial times.

    I don’t get to this group weekly, but enjoy when I have the opportunity and appreciate the generosity of these spinners of their time, expertise, and loan of equipment.

  • Weekend Things – Nov. 16, 2019

    November is birthday month in our family (we sneak into early December too). In a month’s time, we celebrate 2 grandchildren, 1 nephew, 1 daughter, 1 daughter-in-law, my stepmom’s and my birthdays. It is mostly card exchange as except for the two grandchildren, all are adults. Grandkids get gifts of some sort depending on age and interest.

    If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I am a spinner, knitter, sometimes crocheter, weaver. Because of this, I am a definite yarn snob. But, sometimes it is necessary to use yarn that I don’t spin for a project. Granddaughter local is one of the birthdays. She is turning 8 and has grown many inches and many pounds since last winter, she needed a new winter coat. Her Mom found a real bargain, a very neutral gray coat that granddaughter loved. To go with her new coat, and because she seems to love her handmade gifts (last year a string backpack for her music lesson items with a colorful binder to hold the music), I decided to make her a knit hat, scarf, and mittens to go with her new coat. Because they will get hard use and need to be washed, I bought a giant Caron Cake of acrylic yarn in shades of purple to make them.

    I had finished the mittens, hat, and most of the scarf a week or so ago, but didn’t want to add fringe to the scarf and it didn’t look finished as is, so this afternoon, I crocheted a triangle on each end and added a small tassel, maybe less appealing to their 3 cats if it is left out. A year or so ago, I found the little wooden buttons that say Handmade with love by _____, so I added her pet name for me and sewed one on one end. Her birthday is next Sunday, so after we go to the farm where our turkey has been raised to pick it up, we will have a family celebration for her birthday.

    Last night, I finished knitting a pair of fingerless mitts from some Romeldale CVM wool that I spun for the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em challenge. They were given a soak and blocking last night and are currently drying. Here they are before their bath.

    They will go in my shop and be taken to the various Holiday markets until they sell. I am toying with sewing a row of small deer antler buttons to the backs of the hands.

    Saturday mornings, when I am not at an event, are breakfast out followed by the weekly Farmers Market. Today I was seeking yams for Thanksgiving as I didn’t grow any this year. Also seeking some ground beef to make dinner for daughter and her family tomorrow night, and other than that, I just browse and make decisions on what is available. I was able to get nice turnips, fresh spinach, Daikon radishes, potatoes, breakfast sausage, and Mozarella in addition to the yams and ground beef. As I finished the last of my fermented dilly beans last night, the Daikon radishes were purchased to make kimchi. Once home, they were peeled and diced, sprinkled with salt, sugar, and crushed red pepper and set to weep while I put everything else away and finished the scarf for granddaughter. It is now packed in a jar with a fermenting lid to sit for a few days.

    Next weekend begins the holiday markets. There is still one scarf that is about half done that I would like to get finished and blocked, then I will begin a pair of fingerless mitts or glittens for me as I lost one two weekends ago when I did the Harvest Festival at Booker T. Washington National Monument. There is no real hurry on them and I can knit on them while I am vending.

  • Changes in Plans – Nov. 11, 2019

    Sometimes plans change. My audiology appointment was at 8 a.m. and the new hearing aid is definitely a learning curve. My voice is an echo in my head. When I arrived at the office, the reflection of my car in the windows showed I had a headlight out, again. After my appointment in a very quiet office, standing by my car in front of AutoZone was a major assault on my hearing, almost causing me to remove the new aid until I was in a quieter place. I have made it all day without removing it, but have avoided noisy environments.

    After lunch, we took advantage of the nice day to take an exercise walk. I could hear people behind me on the trail talking, hear the squirrels rustling in the leaves off the trail, and only bothered where the trail crosses a roadway via a footbridge with the cars below was I assaulted by too much background to continue conversation with hubby.

    When we got home and I was going to go work in the garden to finish what I started yesterday, the farmer that hays our fields showed up with his big tractor and 10.5 foot brush hog to finish mowing our fields. I didn’t want to have to deal with the noise or the dust that would be the environment, so I postponed the garden until after the approaching Arctic Blast. We should awaken to light snow in the morning and temperatures falling into the low teens by tomorrow night. It may be next week before I can get out there with a hoe, a stack of old newspaper, more cardboard, and the bale of hay, but it isn’t going to grow now, so it can wait.

    Sometimes the best of plans must change. Instead of garden, it has been a knitting, cooking, and reading day after a nice walk.

    Another pair of fingerless mitts and a few more inches on the scarf, both for the Holiday Markets.

  • Between Gigs – 10/29/2019

    Last weekend was the start of the season. As a volunteer at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, I am usually the spinner. Sometimes events stack and I have to be elsewhere. Sometimes, my role is different. The last weekend of October, they plan a Spirits Along the Wilderness Road event. It isn’t a scary event, instead a Percheron pulled wagon travels a path through local history with stops for the “Spirits” of actual historical figures from the region to share their moment in history.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    There were many spirits, Colonels, soldiers, gamblers, slaves, Seminole indians, founders, shop keepers, Politicians, a tiny Werewolf, and more. I portrayed an older Mary Draper Ingles displaying her angst at being away from the ferry and her home as dark descended.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    In all there were 9 wagon loads of visitors, one every half hour and we could have filled more if there had been space and time. Last year the event was rain delayed to a week night and was less successful, but this year was especially great. The period depicted for my part was just after the Revolutionary War, so I wore that period clothing. As folks could wander the museum before or after their ride, I also was able to share some fiber history and demonstrate spinning on one of the old Walking Wheels that I helped restore to use.

    The upcoming weekend, I will be with a friend demonstrating wool and spinning at the Booker T. Washington National Monument again in costume, but this time closer to the Civil War so a bit of change up to the clothing items. It will also be outdoors and a chilly weekend, so there may be some hidden woolen layers under the two piece dress, and my Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em huge shawl and fingerless mitts to help try to stay warm. At this event, my friend and I can also vend, so yarn, knits, soaps, and salves will accompany my spinning wheel and baskets. When demonstrating in costume, I have a canvas seated wooden folding chair (a period camp reproduction) and a Jacob sheep pelt that I sit on. If I get too cold, the pelt can be in my lap.

    After this weekend, there are a couple of weeks off, then the craft shows for the holidays begin in earnest with Catawba Valley Farmers Market Holiday event on November 23rd. The Blacksburg Farmers Market Holiday markets the first 3 Saturday’s in December. The first two Saturday’s and Sunday’s in December, I will also be back at Wilderness Road Regional Museum in period clothing, demonstrating spinning and vending at their Christmas Bazaar in the old German Barn during the Wassailing and tours of the museum in Christmas greens and candles.

    This is such a fun time of year, never knowing what the weather may bring or the crowds that may show up.

  • Preparedness- 10/22/2019

    One Fingerless Mitt was finished and the second is well underway. The decision to make them mitts not mittens was made.

    Last night, a new label was created for the soaps, generic so that I can write in the variety on the front, and the ingredients printed on the back. White Glassine bags were purchased for use when doing historical events. Clear cello bags are used at Holiday Markets.

    Today it was too wet to be outdoors, so a new yarn band was designed and printed on craft brown cardstock and the skeins were banded and priced for the first vending event.

    All of the knits and woven goods were checked and retagged if the tags were worn or folded and the prices checked to make sure they agree on my payment site. The knits and skeins then sealed in container to get them to the event.

    More knitting needs to be done, to finish the mitts and make at least a couple more pair in different sizes and colors.

    The weather is cooling into real autumn like weather and we have gotten some much needed rain. Still no frost has occurred and none is the forecast that I can see. The first historical event on my schedule is the Spirit Trail at Wilderness Road Regional Museum on Sunday, October 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. This is a fun event with a wagon ride through Newbern history. The next is the following Saturday, November 2, and I go from Revolutionary War to around Civil War era at the Harvest Time event at Booker T. Washington National Monument. This is a vending event as well as historical demonstration as a spinner and will be with a friend. It is supposed to be chilly that day and so I’m hoping to sell some of the hats, mitts, and scarves in my inventory. The weekend after that I return to Revolutionary War and will demonstrate fiber prep and spinning at the History Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke, November 9 and 10.

    After that I have a weekend off before the winter craft events begin. On November 23, I will be at the Catawba Farmers Market at their annual Holiday Craft show, and the first 3 Saturdays of December, at the Blacksburg Farmers Market Holiday Markets. A busy time ahead.

  • Stiff – 10/20/2019

    Since my return last week from helping eldest and family finish moving their household, I have done almost no knitting and no spinning. The weather finally broke and has been much cooler and we have had some rain.

    The rain revealed that the vent through the metal roof that has been resealed twice since installation a dozen years ago is again leaking. The leak ruined the drywall soffit in the finished basement within a year or two if it being finished, and several years ago at Christmas, eldest tore down all the drywall and rebuilt that soffit using paneling that allows me to unscrew a few screws and lift out a piece of the panel to put a drip pan in the ceiling whilst awaiting another repair.

    The leaky vent is one of the two toward the left side top, I sure can’t get up there.

    The cool and the rain also bring in the winter stiffness in my hands and lower back that are caused by arthritis, thus the lack of knitting and spinning. The arthritis and trigger finger in 4 of my fingers is always worse in the winter.

    With the various historical demonstration and craft events looming, some knitting must be done. One of the projects that went with me and never left my bag is a triangular scarf. This morning I picked it back up to work on. It is about 1/3 done and is a smooth fine fingering weight merino.

    Another reason knitting isn’t happening much is that prior to my leaving, hubby gouged a good bit of flesh out of his back (I will spare you the gory pictures) and as I wasn’t here to keep it bandaged and antibiotic on it, it didn’t heal whilst I was away. If we keep antibiotic ointment and a thick pad over it and he doesn’t stretch or twist too much, he stays fairly comfortable, but he can’t reach the spot to care for it. Now that I am home, it is getting treated, covered, and I am doing all the driving so he can sit still. Riding passenger is always knitting time. The wound is healing now and hopefully will cease causing him discomfort soon.

    I have some worsted handspun yarn skeins that I would like to get knit up into fingerless mitts before the craft shows. I never know how much to price my handspun handknits for so I went on an etsy adventure looking them up. It was not helpful at all. The prices are all over the place, the styles equally scattered. I saw short “wristlets” for way more than my much longer mitts. Plain bulky weight ones for double my fingering weight cabled ones. But then I saw handspun handknit lace shawls priced so low that the cost would hardly cover the fiber, much less the time to spin and knit it. I have several hats, a couple of scarves or mini shawls, a couple of large shawls, 1 pair of fingerless mitts with gusseted thumb. There may not be a lot more to sell if I don’t get busy.

    I need to figure out how to raise this rack enough to use top 3 or 4 rungs without setting it on a table top. The rack is 5 feet high and at one of the events, I am limited to an 8 foot table they provide. Still pondering how to do this safely and securely.

    Well, back to knitting, or they surely won’t get done.

  • Crafty week – 10/8/2019

    The past few days have been busy with craftiness. Eleven batches of soap have been made, Woodlands, Peppermint/Cocoa, Lavender, Tea Tree, Vanilla, Pumice, and Calendula.

    Unless that guest room is needed in the next month, the soap will sit there and cure for hardness. It only takes 24 hours for it to go from caustic solution to saponify to soap. Once it is hard, another day or so will be used to package it for the various markets. The holiday shapes, you can’t see all of them because of the picture angle, but there are snowmen heads, trees, snowflakes, flowers, and sheep, will be bagged in glassine bags with tags for the holiday markets. Plain round, square, or rectangular ones for the Harvest Market at Booker T. Washington Park will be banded with craft paper bands.

    After long afternoons of 2 or 3 batches of soap being made, I have continued to knit on my Free your Fade shawl, a pattern by Andrea Mowry using Only the Finest yarn by Louise Nuttle. I really pushed the limits with some of the yarns.

    I am on the last color and there is plenty of it. I will decide how many color repeats of it I want as I finish each section. The picot bind off can be done after any 10 row garter section. It is warm, soft, and very generous in size.

    I continue knitting on the Hitchhiker scarf and have slightly more than half of the points done in it. It is small enough to carry around in my purse to knit on when a passenger or sitting in a waiting room.