Tag: yarn

My First Spinning Wheel, and a Bit About Drive Ratios

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My first spinning wheel is an old Ashford traditional. Let's discuss drive ratios and different types of wheels, and you can see my first wheel-spun yarn.

I’m so happy with my new Ashford traditional spinning wheel! New to me, that is. The beautiful wheel is older than I am. After referring to Ashford’s timeline for the traditional wheel (which is an interesting read in and of itself), I think it was made in 1975 or shortly after. Well-loved in its early life, it has… read more

Plastic Canvas Tetris Magnets

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Plastic canvas doesn't seem to be very popular for modern crafters, but it's so versatile and easy to use. This magnet set was a quick and fun project.

Nerdy confession: I love plastic canvas. It’s one of the first crafty things I learned to work with way back in the day:  I can’t tell you how many Christmas ornaments I’ve made as a child. Plastic canvas doesn’t seem to be very popular for modern crafters: many seem to think it’s only used to make… read more

Experiments in Felting Crochet

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My experiments with felting crochet items, learning the basics of felting by hand and in a washing machine. Some projects were more successful than others!

Now that I’ve experimented a bit with felting, I don’t know why I was so nervous to try it before! I found a copy of the book Felted Crochet at the library. It outlines the basics of both felting by hand and felting in a washing machine. The book includes a wide variety of projects to crochet and then felt. I decided to try both… read more

A Beginner’s Adventures in Handspinning

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Join me as I take on a new fiber hobby to complement my crochet: handspinning my own yarn. Part 4 includes my further progress as a new spinner.

Part 4 I feel like I’m making progress as a new spinner and things are going pretty well. I’m starting to move beyond the park-and-draft method of having to stop the spindle to catch up with the drafting. I’ve been trying to spin a little every day, as suggested for beginners to really get the rhythm down. I’m still… read more

A Beginner’s Adventures in Handspinning

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Join me as I take on a new fiber hobby to complement my crochet: handspinning my own yarn. Part 3 includes my first finished two-ply yarn.

Part 3 I’ve finished spinning my first 2-ply yarn. Spinning the dyed combed top with my light drop spindle, I got the singles as thin and uniform as I could. It’s still taking me some time to get the rhythm and consistency down. I spun two singles and wound them into balls. I love the way the singles turned out, and… read more

A Beginner’s Adventures in Handspinning

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Join me as I take on a new fiber hobby to complement my crochet: handspinning my own yarn. Part 2 includes my first attempt at spinning a single.

Part 2 I’ve finally embarked on my journey in handspinning yarn. Here it is: my first single! Becoming familiar with working with fibers and manipulating them into yarn has been a slow, but quite interesting, learning process. There are so many factors that affect the character of the spun yarn. Getting everything to come together as… read more