resin drop spindle

For the past couple years I have been admiring the beautiful clear resin drop spindles on etsy and ravelry, and am now attempting to make my own. These are going to be my detailed notes, both in case I forget what I did between now and next time, and for anyone else who wants to replicate it.

Supplies:
amazing clear cast resin from Michaels
plastic soap molds from Michaels
petroleum jelly and paintbrush

Pour water into the soap mold to determine its volume (mine is 40-60 ml, depending on the thickness I want. I plan to do a couple layers with inclusions) then let it dry. Cover a large cutting board in newspaper and set it up on a worktable, making sure it is level. Measure 10 ml each part A and B of the epoxy, pour B into A and stir gently but thoroughly. (this does make 20 ml - I was confused when reading another tutorial to see that they used 6 drams of each to make 8 drams total. A dram is 1/16 of an ounce - I'm glad I'm not trying to measure such tiny amounts) Pour slowly into mold, and use stirring stick to nudge liquid resin out to the edges. Don't worry about bubbles, they'll rise and pop on their own.
After 1 hour, resin was thicker, but still not enough to support a silk pin.

raised bed 1

Marigolds in the middle, north side has lollo rosso lettuce and simpson lettuce. South side has rainbow carrots (2 rows), Nantes 6" carrots (2 rows), and thumbelina and bambino carrots (1 row each).

sheet shirt

Vogue 8414, printed in 1992. I made a size 14

.. forgot about wearing ease. And the shoulders need something different. But I got to try a new (old) pattern and reminded myself of how much I like the effect of understitching.

This photo shows me with the back zipper undone and gaping at least 4 inches. Much more comfortable! Still not looking right between the chest and shoulder though. Now I get to pick out the zipper to reuse it, and I can switch the thread color on my machine to add a phone pocket to my new jeans!

seedlings

Green zebra tomatoes and sweet basil. The Genovese basil is so far refusing to sprout

Blueberries!
The ones on the outside are 'top hat' and the middle two are 'sunshine blue.'

I should take off this year's flowers so that they put all their energy into getting established. I kind of want to leave a couple, to find out how they taste.

Salvation army fabric sale! With mom and aunt Laurie and cousin Corinne, show and tell afterward with grandma and grandpa and aunt Carol.

Figuring out how to upload photos from my phone. Here are the kids' patterns I bought (25 cents each)

sew velvet against the nap

at least when you're attaching piping.  It took me much ripping and at least 20 minutes to figure it out, but now I'll remember.  Especially so, because I'm writing it down.
I'm putting reflective piping into the sleeves of a velvet coat, and now that's it's worked out, I really like the look.  The left sleeve went together just fine, and then when I machine basted the piping onto the right sleeve, it kept coming out 3/4" shorter than it had been.  I tried different feet, I tried rubbing the piping with wax paper so it would slide, I was about to try tissue paper, when I realized that I had sewn the first one cuff-to-shoulder, and the second one shoulder-to-cuff.  So I flipped it around, found my little dot that marks 5/8" on the left side of my throat-plate, and it came out perfectly!

babies dancing dress

see the clever use of stripes!

She doesn't like having her picture taken, and she didn't really want to wear the dress, so I'm glad I at least got these pictures.  I hope she warms up to the dress - I think it fits her perfectly.

The fabric is a super-soft cotton, it looks like a twill weave.  We think it came from China many years ago - after I send these pictures to Grandma she may be able to confirm that.  Inspired by the bold stripes, I decided to use them to highlight a surplice top, and went to work drafting from measurements.  When that failed miserably, I took a vest pattern, stuck the shoulder seam together, and traced off what I thought would work.  Much better results!!  The skirt is a simple rectangle, gathered to fit, and there are 2-foot-long ties that wrap all the way around to the front so she can have it tied in the front. 

Next up, a skirt for me.

keeping track of the garden

like a piece of paper I can't lose

Last week I planted 3 dahlias - Onesta, Jean Marie and Ice Cube
10 dormant strawberry roots - Albion
1 strawberry plant - Ozark beauty.

In the vegetable garden we have tomatoes - Yellow Pear, Sun Gold, Golden Jubilee, Black Cherry, Brandywine Red and Rutgers select
peppers - Gypsy, Yellow Bell, Lemon Drop, Corno di Torro Rosso and one that I think is Orange bell
eggplants - Gretel and Black Beauty
one pie pumpkin from a saved seed
snow peas, stringless beans, cucumbers, beets (golden and red) and carrots.

are they mom jeans?

McCalls 5894 'perfect jeans'

They look a little high-waisted in this picture.  They feel just right though.  Bonus; the fabric is fuzzy on the inside, soft and cuddly!  At some point I'll have to take them off to finish the waistband and hems.  I also need to decide - do I avoid stretch fabrics for pants, or do I try different underwear?

le smoking

Happy Birthday Branden!

This was fun - and took only a week or so.  Mostly because every morning after Froglet was in school, I would let Miss Frog watch Mickey Mouse for as long as she wanted while I worked on this.  I still didn't quite make it in time for the birthday, I had to take it back home and hem it, and put the pockets and the belt loops on.  Turned out just as I had hoped it would.

alsmost finished - and holding

things tend to slow down at the finishing stage - almost like I'd rather have this potentially perfect project sitting there than whatever the final product really is.  As long as it's not done, I can imagine that it will be the most wonderful thing ever made.
Here's a coat that's been waiting at 'almost finished' for some time now.  It needs buttonholes, buttons, the lining attached, and the hems done - that's it.

 The buttonholes would have been easier if I'd put them in before sewing up the seams. Or if I had a bigger sewing table.

2 years?!?

I was recently reminded of the existence of this blog, and was surprised to find that my last post was from almost 2 years ago.  I haven't spun much more of the alpaca since then, but have practiced with some wool.  I've also started oodles of knitting projects, and finished a couple..
And a few sewing projects too - I'll need to go look for pictures of any of the successful ones.

pulling yarn like taffy

Part of the excitement of this lovely bundle of alpaca is how it's encouraging me to learn about spinning. Right now I'm working on longdraw drafting, still working through the hairier stuff that I pulled out for practice pieces. I dyed it green - some came out blue from the tailings in the dyepot. I spun up the blue without any particular aim, and navajo plied it into 38 yards of somewhat lumpy yarn. Then I took my time carding the really green stuff into smooth rolags - smaller is better it seems, or at least easier. I've spun a bobbin and a half of that, learning along the way. First lesson (learned from the blue stuff, actually): the smoother your fiber prep, the smoother you can make the yarn. Spinning won't magically make those lumps go away. Second lesson: don't try to spin alpaca when it's hot and humid - sticky hands make more lumps.
Londraw in particular has been challenging (maybe I should give it more than 2 days?) but still more fun than frustrating. The basic idea is to build up twist in a few inches of yarn, then let that twist into the fiber mass, getting just the right amount of twist per inch to let the fibers slip past each otherinto a nice even yarn. This is the part that feels like pulling taffy when you get it right, which I have once or twice. I think there's also something going on with thick spots taking up less twist, so they keep slipping while the thinner parts stay as they are. This doesn't always work the way I think it should - I've had a lot more breaks and thin spots in this yarn than when I was doing short-draw. When it cools off a bit I'll finish the second bobbin and ply them onto a CD spindle. Then I get to start on the really soft stuff!! or work on making wool combs - we got the welding rods for them today, much puzzling the fellows behind the counter. "good luck with your yarning" they said as we left.

more alpaca

I've washed a little bit of it, spun a little bit of it, even dyed a little bit of it. It's still a joy to work with, and I'm learning more about fiber and spinning all the time. First off, some book recommendations: Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Women's Work, the first 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.

Here's another attempt at properly embedding photos.
This one is my drying set-up for the washed fleece. I actually spread the fleece out and fold the curtain over it to make a nice drying sandwich.

Hmph. can't tell if it's my fault, Blogger's, or the slow connection, but pictures are not working well. Poop.

my new, exciting project

This is a project that as soon as I started it - even before I started - it has been occupying my mind, all of my free time, and even some of my not-so-free time. It started with a visit to an Alpaca farm, and a bag of fleece. It's from a fellow named Puck - he's a white huacuya. The fleece spilled off the edges of the twin sheet I spread it out on to sort it. I sorted it into 3 sections - grassy bits with a little less crimp that look like they're from the legs, really dirty stuff from the middle of his back, and the beautiful crimp locks that have mostly dust on them.

in one day

It's a little thing, just a fleece envelope around a stack of quilt batting, but I made a pillow! and it came out exactly the way I wanted it to! I love it when that happens.

mandarin raglan princess

One of the patterns I picked up at the fabric fair was New Look 6519 - a fitted jacket with raglan sleeves, a mandarin collar, and princess seams (and pretty simple pants, skirt, and purse) after reading about it on Pattern Review I decided to make a muslin to check the poofiness of the sleeves, and determine the proper size. My flexible tape measure is MIA so I used a 40" knitting needle to find my bust size (37.25) and decided to try the size 14. I haven't put on the collar yet, but so far, it looks like I don't need to adjust anything!
Another interesting facet of this pattern - it only had the 1st page of instructions in it - I'll be winging it for the lining and cuffs.

meanwhile, back at the ranch

Every now and then I get reminded that I have this blog .. mainly when some other site asks for my website. So I just joined facebook, and that reminded me that I have this blog. More time to spend vegging at a computer!

The jacket mentioned in the last post was pretty much a loss - the fabric stank of cigarette smoke even after baking soda and two launderings. It was also really weak, and a little too small.. but I got some good pictures out of it. But since then, I've knitted a shirt for the lad, which I'm fairly happy with, and made a dress shirt with the help of my mom and Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin. I've also made two skirts for myself, one of which requires some shortening, and I haven't decided yet how to do that. I also bought a really cool skirt at the Salvation Army so I can try to copy it (it's pink, and a bit too big.. but really cool): it has horizontal box pleats that make it rumple in a fascinating way.

Hmm .. pictures? maybe next time.

fabric fair!

Today was lots of fun with Grandma and Aunt Laurie at the annual Salvation Army fabric fair - I spent $34 and was tempted by a few more things, but am very happy with my purchases. I've already started one project entirely with things I bought there: some lightweight black cordorouy and a toddle jacket pattern. The pattern was size 1, and he's alomst 2 1/2, so I measured and added an a few inches in length. I also added a waist; the original pattern had a completely pointless underarm seam which was straight on grain on both pieces, and the instructions said to sew it up on the first step. I thought about just eliminating the seam altogether, but eventually decided to make it a slightly fitted jacket. Perfect pattern for the fabric piece - I just had a strip about 5 inches wide left over!