Ooh, it could probably go in pixel art! But I already cross-post between here and the transformers thread, so I feel guilty about clogging things up too much with duplicate posts. But later, I'll try to remember to pull together pictures of my finished projects to post over there, so things aren't too-too repetitive!
So many years ago when my in-laws got married and they were dirt poor, my mother-in-law made like ten cross stitch ornaments and then added on over the years every so often (eg there's one of my sister-in-law in her karate gear). Last Christmas, said SIL gave me three cross stitch ornament kits so when her brother had his own tree, he could feel at home too. (She knows I cross stitch because I made her mom a small piece for her birthday). This project snowballed very fast when I went to go get a replacement because I thought I had lost the kit in transit and there was a massive massive sale. And then an antibiotic resistant infection happened and subsequent dismissal from my university while I waited months during the appeal process left me with lots of time and lots of anxiety. A Perfect Time for Cross Stitch. Spoiler: the original trio Spoiler: I thought the deer might be part of a series of animals in wreaths. I was not disappointed. Spoiler: These are the ornaments I doubled up so she could have ones that matched ones her brother had Spoiler: THE REST OF THE MERRY GANG
i made a scarf for my high school fencing coach!! i also wrote him a really heartfelt letter because he helped me so much with a ton of shit. he will probably cry reading it Spoiler: big ol scarf pics IT LONG
Secret Santa is revealed and now I can post the most recent project I had fun with! It's a reversible Kintsugi-themed dice bag I made for winterykite.
So I know some of you guys spin. My parents got me a drop spindle and some wool for Christmas. Do any of you guys have any tips? I enjoy it but I'm pretty terrible at it right now lol.
Hi! Um! I'm just learning, but here's some stuff... Don't overtwist; if it starts twisting in on itself, it's too much, and it will totally snap when you try to wind it. Pre-drafting, where you pull the fibers into a nice line before you start to spin, is totally legit and helps with consistency when you're starting. You might want to put a niddy-noddy together soon. They're useful for finishing yarn, and I didn't realize I needed one until... after I'd spun a bunch. :P This is a niddy-noddy. You can do a fancy wood one, but a lot of people swear by PVC pipe for cheapness and ease of use. http://cdn.craftsy.com/upload/1102231/project/92503/full_5081_92503_PVCNiddyNoddy_1.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/NiddyNoddy2.JPG/220px-NiddyNoddy2.JPG If you can't get one yet, then when you finish spinning a spindleful, you can just soak your wool in a big mixing bowl full of hot water for like 15 minutes, and then wrap it on anything handy to dry (I've been using a clothes-drying rack), then re-wind it into a skein. The washing bit is important because it's what makes the yarn not untwist itself and die horribly when you try to use it; it sets the twist and kinda evens things out. It is also 100% gonna smell like sheep when you get it wet the first time, fair warning.
Yeah, the instructions I found talked about not overtwisting. And I figured the pre-drafting thing out by the end of the bit of wool my drop spindle came with. I've also made it all the way through all the wool I have, so a niddy-noddy is a great idea, because I actually had no idea how to finish up the twisted wool and actually make it yarn. Thanks so much! I'll probably wash and wind the current spun yarn and see how that goes, and then invest in buying some more yarn because the spinning is actually a lot of fun.
I'm. Nooot good at keeping from overspinning. I can direct you to some random grab bags of dyed roving that are a decent deal if you'd like? I've. Been slowly making a hoard of things. Current projects are bamboo in MALACHITE and... ssssome kind of dyed wool.
the blanket, it grow Spoiler: blenkie it's got cables! I just started the fourth ball of yarn; back to the blue and brown again, though you can't see in this pic.
@albedo, thanks for showing me the niddy-noddy! I went and made one myself out of PVC pipe and the first try yarn I made is drying on it now. @Zin, I'm definitely interested in those grab bags if those are still available? I also got some new wool in very pretty shades of blue and I'm spinning that right now. It's a much better consistency this time around, although it still has some pretty variable thickness in places.
Oooh, nice! @idiomie https://www.etsy.com/listing/487549651/destash-roving-grab-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1 :)
I'm...considering doing a temperature scarf? One of those things where you mark down the temperature high of every day in the year, and use the colour associated with that to work one row (I think). Except...well, 365 days is a lot of rows - that feels like it'd be taking it into Dr Who Scarf territory: very pretty to look at! But not actually functional for the purposes it was made. Would a blanket or an afghan be more feasible, as far as the size goes?
I think it depends on how big the rows are going to be, width wise? I have a scarf I made for my brother, where the rows are fairly large, and it's around a hundred rows. On the other hand, I have a partially finished blanket that I'm never going to finish that is over 180 rows and it's maybe half as wide as the finished product should be. That said, my blanket's finished specs is closer to 365 rows, so I would say blanket.
@turtleDove I actually had a friend who did a temperature blanket, and some of her BIGGEST frustrations were that it ended up enormous, and got to be kind of unwieldy, and she also had to get a crapton of yarn to finish up the colors when the temperature didn't follow the "normal patterns" So basically, the blanket might get kinda huge, and it's a fairly "unplannable" project
