Fun and interesting links from the week.
Underworld: The Intrepid Cave Photography of Robbie Shone
Beautiful, varied lamps made from vintage and discarded glass
One wonderful balcony, please.
How to Make a Knotted Steek - Definitely want to test this for my next major color work project.
Now I want giant, silly pom-poms for my bike too.
The beginnings of a knee sock.
No worries. I’m not taking a break for the month of August. I already had enough of a blogging break during May and June. August Break is a photo-a-day prompt by Susannah Conway. The idea is that for the month of August, you skip the words and let a photo do all the talking. I liked the idea but skipping posting for a month didn’t sound like a great idea. So, I took the photos to Twitter instead. It’s been a nice change. For the last week, I’ve ignored the prompts but went on the look out for interesting details to document from my day. Things that I would ordinarily pass by with a smile, got a little more recognition.
For daily updates, follow me on Twitter.
My favorite spot for summer knitting.
Doing a different kind of spinning today.
Sometimes, this is what designing knitting patterns looks like.
Making tiny, adorable mini skeins!
So far, reading subtitles while spinning singles has not been a bad idea.
Another day, another walk on the beach.
Found a beautiful shell at low tide.
Desperate times came for desperate measures, my friends. There I was with my finally plied Tour de Fleece yarn ready and waiting for its bath. Unfortunately, my swift didn’t make into the car for the cross country trip (too big) and my niddy-noddy, which I meant to bring, didn’t either. Both might as well be in another dimension right now. With my swift I could have easily wound it up in a skein, see this tutorial. Same with the niddy-noddy. So, I went looking for alternatives.
Say hello to Allie, my new bike. The handlebars seemed like the perfect thing to wrap fresh yarn around. Alas, this was not the case though that wasn’t apparent until much later.
I put the spindle into the front basket for easy yarn dispersal and got to work. It didn’t take me too long to empty the spindle and tie off the skein.
Now that it was time to take the yarn off the handlebars, things went south. See, the handlebars don’t go straight back but angle to the side . I had hoped that if I wound loosely, getting the skein off the handles would be pretty easy. Nope. I had to slide the skein off a few too tight strands at a time. Nothing snapped, thankfully. Just for good measure, add in a few too long stands that accidentally got wrapped around the break grip too. The skein was a mess.
A more patient person would have re-skeined the yarn around something else but I was not feeling particularly patient. There was yarn to wash! and, adding insult to injury, I had to first wash dishes to free up the sink. I had no patience to spare after doing the dishes. So, the yarn got its bath and I got the pleasure of thwacking it afterward.
Now that the yarn is dry, I’m not sure I did the right thing. The accidentally too long strands are still kinked and curling on themselves. Looks like the yarn wasn’t properly finished the whole skein through. At least I know I managed to spin a nice fingering weight, which was my goal, instead of a lace weight. With today’s bolstered patience reserves, I’m going to re-skein the yarn but not around the bike’s handlebars. I’m going to do what I should have done yesterday and wrap the yarn around an upturned laundry basket. Wish me luck.
Hi! My name is April Klich. I write about knitting, spinning, and straight up making with a focus on playing and finding joy in the process.
