Needles on the Move

1. Gather essential supplies:

Essential supplies which do not appear in this picture: newspaper, syringes. I spent a long time looking for newspaper - normally there are piles everywhere, right? There wasn’t even any out in the hall where the mail for the last 73 residents mounts up rapidly between periodical cleanouts. I eventually found some packing paper in the recycle bag. The syringes I replaced with teaspoons (now clearly labelled ‘not for stirring tea’).

2. Layer as follows: protective newspaper scrounged packing paper, plastic wrap, … damn, forgot to soak the hankies. Okay, I was doing this at the end of the day running on very little sleep from the night before.

2. Soak stuff you plan to dye in water and vinegar for 1 hour as long as you can bear to wait.

3. Layer as follows: protective newspaper scrounged packing paper, plastic wrap, hankies.

4. Paint on the dye using a syringe teaspoon.

5. Roll up into a neat cooking parcel.

6. Zap in microwave.

7. Admire :-D

The roving was even more fun than the hankies. Roving being prone to felt if not carefully handled, I decided to leave it to cool absolutely before I rinsed it. Having decided that no harm could be done by just gently having a poke at it in its cocoon, I unwrapped it a bit and decided it hadn’t been cooked long enough. So (very gently of course) it was rewrapped and bunged back in the microwave. Then I thought I’d better be sure so I dropped it in the sink and ran hot water through it. It came out fine ;-)

8. Shop for proper equipment (lol).

Or, plying from an Andean Bracelet

I spin a lot of samples. For articles, photo shoots, to test out an idea or to find the best twist amount or wheel ratio. Being of a fairly unenergetic persuasion, I quickly tracked down a way of getting my short samples plied up without having to resort to spinning little bits on many bobbins and constantly unscrewing the flyer on my wheel …

For the whole tutorial click here

Thank you to everyone who has sent in entries for Crinkle Cut (it’s not too late). I will be drawing the winner at 9:00am tomorrow, and the gallery will be up soon so you can see everyone’s work.

SSAL #3 will be a quickie as I want to squeeze it in before I go on holidays later this month, SSAL #4 is a while away but I was thinking maybe silk hankies :-D I’ll let you know in plenty of time what you’ll need.

Happy Spinning!