creativeseal
Creative Seal
Food, fiber crafts, books, politics, gardening, dog, fandoms, and life.Figuring things out
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A case study in what may or may not be hyperfixation.
So, every once in a while, like many of us I'm sure, I get seized by an idea, and it will not let me go until I see it through. Today, that was a short series of jumps from problem to solution:
Bought a new tote bag I want to use often -> straps too short to put over my arm -> could make a new long shoulder strap out of fabric -> no matching fabric in mom's stash -> knitting and crochet are too stretchy to make good straps -> ...could I weave something?
So I started googling for stuff like "improvised loom" and discovered cardboard looms are totally a thing! But, I need something on which I can weave a single piece maybe 1.5 meters (~5 feet) long, and cardboard looms seem best set up for like, maybe 15-30 cm (6-12 inches) at most lest the loom bend and the warp threads be too loose and messy. But, in a scrap woodwork loom, there was a really funky heddle piece, and I saw it and said... wait, why couldn't I just have a piece that functions as both heddle and bobbin, to hold the extra length?
So I built myself a one-use cardboard loom. (Pictures taken before gluing, some adjustments were made in assembly like lining up the base pieces.)
Lots of slits in the base piece so I can adjust the warp threads if they're too close together initially or to move to one side or the other if the starting spot becomes unstable. The base will sit in a slot in my lap desk for stability. The bobbin piece will float in my lap or on the floor while I work a weft. It's almost more like a knotwork friendship bracelet setup than a traditional loom.
Will it be perfect? Heck no! But it will be recycling scraps of yarns I already have from old projects instead of throwing them out, and it will be handmade custom work as I learn an entirely new to me craft. Plus, the cardboard just has a little glue to hold the layers together, and can still be recycled if I don't want to hold onto it as proof I Learned A Thing.
It's not even the first time I've made a normally fancy craft tool out of cardboard. Well, last time it also involved a chopstick and a screw hook for picture wire, because I wanted to try spinning some roving I'd acquired too much of for thrummed mittens. And honestly? It might not have much weight, but a chopstick and round of cardboard made a drop spindle that worked just fine to spin up like 200 grams of wool roving. The more it spun, the more weight it had all on its own. I still have that spindle, though roving is pretty expensive to get my hands on these days and I don't have any intention of keeping up the spinning habit.
Make bad art, do it with whatever you have on hand, and wear and display it proudly because you learned something new and made the world a little bit weirder.
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hi :D do you have any tips for someone starting to learn fibre crafts?
Yes! Start with a project you really like, but make sure it’s small and can be done fairly quickly. Hopefully you have someone you can go to when you have problems or questions (in person is best, zoom is doable). Buy the best tools and materials (yarn/fiber) you can - cheap is fine as long as it brings you joy. And finally, beginner brain is real and you will feel awkward and silly as you teach yourself new skills and movements - keep going!
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inspired by boop day, reblog this post if its ok for people to send you random asks and interact on your posts with no judgement. i want to talk to people.
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What's one thing you want to be able to make someday?
I don’t know? I assume you are talking about crafts… There no specific item or pattern that I’m planning for “someday”. I do enjoy knitting with my own hand spun and have plans to try dyeing a bit more, so maybe a few projects done entirely by me from the fleece? What about you?
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tis better to have booped and lost than never to have booped at all
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How it feels waking up when you were in bed before April 1st hit.
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fun fact: “tired” is not supposed to be your default state of existence
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I cannot stress this enought but it is absolutely okay to be wrong about your sexuality. It is perfectly fine to find a label that you think fits and then later figure out that it's not right after all. Idk the age demographic of my followers but if you're like 13 and unsure if you should identify as aro or ace because you feel like you're too young, it's literally fine if you do so now and change your mind about it when you're older. I was convinced I was bisexual for most of my teens and guess what, I was wrong about that. It's literally fine.
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Laundry day
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Some ways to honor Terry Pratchett on his death day, march 12th
Strive to understand people you perceive as different from you
Tell a truly outrageous pun
Eat a bacon sandwich
Stand up against an oppressive authority (up to and including punching them)
Sing a bawdy song including wizard’s staffs and/or hedgehogs
Consider the importance of Angels
Demand a free but responsible press
Forge a sword out of a meteorite. If you do not have one on hand, store-bought is fine
Take responsibility for your actions, be they good or bad or neither
Recognize there is injustice in the world, but refuse to accept it
Look Up
If you have the hattitude, doff a nice-looking chapeau of some kind
Make time for the things that matter
Live.
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one of the most challenging skills i've had to learn as an adult is the art of figuring out whether i'm proportionally annoyed with someone or just tired and overstimulated and looking for reasons to be pissed off
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I finished the funfetti socks!
I originally started these on January 5, but then ignored them for most of the 5 1/2 weeks I worked in the hap shawl.
The color is hard to capture, but it is fun to see right now while it’s still so drab outside in New England. The yarn is Earth and Empress fibers, classic sock, caffrey’s taffy colorway. I purchased it from a local yarn display at a shop hop this past summer.
It took me a handful of days to move on from the shawl and pick these up to finish them (reading, cleaning, teaching, etc filled the knitting time easily).
After I finished these I (for less than an hour) had no knitting projects, but I’ve already swatched and chosen a pattern now, so I can start that soon.
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The shawl is done! And blocked! …Or should I call it a blanket? I guess it depends on how you use it.
It took about 43ish ounces of fiber and about 5 1/2 weeks of knitting. It only took a couple time-outs, once when my needle broke, and then once near the end when I had to spin and figure out the edge. It was about 60” diagonal before blocking and about 90” while pinned. Once we took the pins out it shrunk in just a bit to 88.5” diagonal and 63.5” across any one side.
Two of the fibers were spun during tour de fleece last July, two were spun for this project during February, and the rest were all older (some were probably spun in 2010 or 2011). The fibers are all listed on my ravelry page (my name there is workbasket - let me know if you need a link).
My tall husband and daughter were both eyeing the finished shawl, one more strongly than the other, but it’s all mine for now!
I was going to give it a catchy name, but I’m still trying to decide! Any suggestions? Something to do with the split rainbows or the mix of natural and color?
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It's important to drink a lot of fluids when you're sick so that your body has the raw materials to generate gallons of snot.
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