Category Archives: The Crafthopper

Nov11

Let’s Just Call It an Extra Long Hiatus…

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Cat

Let’s Just Call It an Extra Long Hiatus…

Well, hello! It has been well over a year since I last blogged, and I don’t even know where to begin! 2015 started out with a bang, but shortly into the new year, I suffered a personal loss that I feel still so profoundly, that I sometimes don’t know how I will go on. But I’m working on that, and moving forward, because that is what we do, right? Onward and upward, and it’s what would have been wanted.

I’ve been busy, busy, with a variety of things, and I am happy to share that I have opened an Artfire shop! I had been wanting to for some time, as I really liked their formatting and presentation. They were in for huge changes, including a price increase, but I took advantage of an offer at the last minute so I think it’s quite affordable still. Totally worth leaving Etsy.

Well, I will write again soon, and share some adventures I’ve been on this past year, but for now, I will wish you a good night.

=^-^=

Jul17

TDF day 13 and Mini Challenge!

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Cat

TDF day 13 and Mini Challenge!

On track for TDF-though I did have to modify my goal. Originally, I hoped to fill a bobbin a day. However, spinning very fine takes FOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEVVVEEEERRRRRRRR!! So, I decided that as long as I spin steadily daily, then I’m good. Our little Facebook group was presented with a mini-challenge by our awesome hostess-to look up the number one hit song on the day you were born, and spin a yarn to represent it. Luckily, I just missed “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye, and had “Delta Dawn” by Helen Reddy.

At first, I thought I would end up with a crazy, wacky yarn that would be one of those things that you keep and have just to say you did it. But after listening, really listening to the song over and over.. (yes, the kids all asked over the course of two days “is that your new favourite song, mama?”) I felt sad. I pictured her walking barefoot down Main Street, peering into quintessential small town store-fronts, with mannequins on display wearing high fashion from decades past, shops with sticky candy melting in the sun shining through the window, the drug store with empty seats at the soda fountain.. She wears a lacy, crochet dress that was once white, now tattered at the edges and a charming shade of ivory. Her hair is sun bleached “yellow” blonde, curling wildly around her head, silver streaks glinting in the sun her only betrayal of her true age. A faded rose pinned to the front of her dress with one of those tiny brass safety pins, drooping sideways, but petals and leaves still intact. Her suitcase is a brown cracked leather with shiny brassy clasps that she keeps clean and polished. But it’s her eyes, blue and wild, that stop you in your tracks and make you wonder: what lost love made this beautiful girl lose her mind..

I decided that I needed to dye! Shocking, I know. I think dyeing is one of my most favourite part of the fiber arts process. I selected squishy soft Cormo for the base fiber, and knew I needed a handful of Henry’s locks as an add-in.

Ooooh.. steamy. These are the locks as I kettle dyed them. I LOVE how silky and shiny Henry’s locks are!! And the colors came out *exactly as I hoped. I didn’t take pics of the Cormo as I dyed it-I worked too fast to think about it when the baby was quiet for awhile. After everything was dried, I decided to separate the cormo into color segments-the brown was pulled out and set aside, and the blue/violet was blended with hand painted silk and silvery angelina with my awesome two-pitch hand combs that the Muscle made me. The blue/violets are for her eyes, the silver her hair, the silk for her beauty.

I knew the locks would be the “faded rose”, along with a deep dark red silk thrum. The locks would be tail spun, and the silk thrum wildly added right after. I used a natural colored blend of merino/alpaca/tencel to transition from the blue/violet to the browns of her cracked leather suitcase. Throughout, I had metallic thread autowrap, except for over the blues to not take away from the silver angelina. This is my second ever core-spun yarn, and first real “art” yarn. My tiny bobbins/wheel and flyer to not allow for much and it was a labor of love as I struggled to make it happen! Stopping and starting often to uncatch the fibers on the hooks, on the orifice, on each other! In the end though, I am SO freaking happy with the results. This will be something for me that I will cherish forever.

That’s my Quality Control inspector. She is also my sneaky little fiber thief! I could not for the life of me figure out how my fibers kept ending up scattered outside my bucket when nobody was around. The kids said it was PollyAnna, but I didn’t believe it. Then I caught her.

I didn’t get a ton of yardage, but I’m ok with that. My eyes were far bigger than my bobbin. This is what my wheel could handle. 24 yards. WOOt!
I didn’t use the vintage wooden beads yet-I will though when I turn the yarn into a wearable-they just go too well with it.

I am glad for mini-challenges, for meeting like-minded people who pose challenges to strangers and friends alike to help them broaden their minds and experiences, for no reason other than to wish for all to have fun, and for how through the grace of the internet, we can share in each others’ successes, failures, joys and losses, holding each other up through it all. Til next time, hug someone you love. =^..^=

Jul6

Le Tour de Fleece 2014, Day 1

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Cat

Le Tour de Fleece 2014, Day 1

I didn’t get as much done yesterday as I would have liked, but I did spin! I am playing catch up today, and hope to have this bobbin full and plied today. I thought I was going to start TDF with the squishy Cormo goodness I dyed in a Hibiscus inspired palette, but I love the feel of this fiber so much I just couldn’t resist starting it right away!

I am just in love with the colorway of this Merino/Alpaca/Tencel blend from Stacy Shipley of Lush Fiber Arts. I bought a small load of it when it was on sale, and really really really hope she carries it again!

Jul5

Jewelry, Fiber and TDF, Oh My!

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Cat

Jewelry, Fiber and TDF, Oh My!

I promise, I haven’t been slacking around. I have actually done a few things since I’ve last posted!! I’ve been wanting to post for quite some time now, but I get sidetracked every time I sit down for five seconds!
I will keep this post short. I’m going to post pictures and brief captions, plus I really, really want to talk about my very first ever Tour De Fleece! *SO EXCITED*!!!

Who would have thought that the image on the left would end up the picture on the right? It was an experiment, and in the end, I followed where they went and though unexpected, really like them. Grade A garnets on woven copper, they are surprisingly light weight and are just a hair over two inches long from the top of the ear wires to the bottom of that lowest little curl.

Little garnet clusters, these make me think of grapes. Nice weight to them without being horribly heavy, they measure just a tad over two inches from top of the ear wires to the very bottom of the dangle.

I made this AYE-mazing yarn that I just LOVE, and called Lush Garden, and learned a hard lesson-never dye less than eight ounces. This is a small skein, so I am kicking myself for not dyeing more at the time. It’s a little hard to repeat spontaneous hand-painting! This is so soft, semi-worsted merino/alpaca/tencel, next to skin soft.

I have started knitting up my new series of Mountain Men hats. Earthy tones, thick and warm, the gents on the Muscle’s forums expressed great interest in them!

We attended the Yellow Rose Fiber Fiesta this year!! I was luck to have been joined by some of my favorite framily people and V and I snapped up some raw long locks that were being sold by a nice lady named Tracy Ross of South Texas Angora Goats. I opted for the 50% teeswater/BFL cross locks and V brought home some awesome 50% teeswater/Wenslydale locks. We had a Fiber Day here at the Ranch, and together skirted/washed a good half pound of locks. V hasn’t dyed hers yet, but I couldn’t wait! I laid them out in a pan and dyed them in the oven using Jacquard Acid dyes I painted on. Success!! These locks are an average of nine inches, with some being around 6 but most closer to 9-10.

Now these are mohair locks from my wether, Henry. I love that goat. He is two years old and has the silky soft lustrous locks of a kid. I haven’t done any tail or lock spinning yet-so I decided to practice with Henry’s locks before diving into the teeswater/BFL locks. And OH MYYYYYYYYY!!! I am just blown away at how silky these are!!

V and I both found some wonderful BFL roving! We dyed together, V’s first time! (Hers on the left) I was so proud of her! I also gave her a drop spindle demo (so glad the Muscle has handy like that-he whipped one up right quick while we did the fiber prep!) I can’t wait to see it all spun up!

So… all this dyeing-what am I leading up to? If you guessed something to do with the 2014 Tour de Fleece, you guessed right! I had heard of this last year, but I felt I didn’t know enough, didn’t have the skills or experience to join the Big Kids in this event. I still feel like I lack the skills, experience and really have no idea what I’m doing half the time, though I fake it well-I decided I would join this year! I teamed up with an awesome group-Team Nevermore- and they are an awesome bunch. Totally My Kind Of People. They all seem like a bunch of people I’d love hanging out with In Real Life. Why does the world have to be so big, scattering birds of a feather so far from each other? Anyhoo-Tour de Fleece is a spinning event that coincides with the Tour de France-basically, you spin every day that they riders ride. Makes sense, right? Different groups have their own little “challenges” or goals within them, and everyone is encouraged to have their own goals-mine is to fill a bobbin a day! With my wimpy small bobbins, hopefully that will be a goal easily achieved. At the end of the Tour, I hope to have some wonderfully squishy soft amazing skeins of yarn for sale, or to be knit up in a variety of sellables. Here’s the official logo:

image courtesy of StarAthena, http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com

I forgot to mention my escapades with silk brick. If you haven’t yet reached the conclusion-I absolutely love dyeing fibers. So I decided silk bricks werew next on my list. Silk bricks are approximately four ounce rolls of 100% A grade mulberry silk. I cannot even begin to describe how silky (heh.. silk is silky, go figure………..) this stuff is, and how incredibly soft and SHINY!!! After a false start, I was finally able to dye a brick a beautiful swirly mix of blues and purples. My first attempt was a little…. sad. I tortured the poor silk, causing it to form a texture on itself-while is is still incredibly, wonderfully soft and even shiny, it isn’t as smooth as it should be. So that has become an add-in for blending with other fibers.

See? Shiny! I took some of the abused silk and blended it with Cormo wool (yummy, next to skin soft!) blending with my hand cards first, making a little rolag. Then I blended it using my combs the Muscle made for me, and made a little mini-batt. I honestly think I prefer the mini-batt to the rolags. I plan to do some core-spinning with these! The blue/purpley brick however will not be blended. If I don’t sell it as is, I will be spinning the silk alone. Have I mentioned how hard it is to photograph bright colors without having them look crazy over saturated or just plain washed out?? No happy balance here, I’m afraid. I got the pics as close as I could to reality.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Whew!!! I know I’ve done a few more things-camping, more jewelry, more yarns spun, but these are the highlights and I really felt the need to document them! I will be posting more during TDF to share my little victories, and I have more jewelry in the works-stay tuned! Til then, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses… =^..^=

And Bearded Iris.

May10

BSBP #8, Reveal!!

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Cat

BSBP #8, Reveal!!

Whew! Looking back at my last blog post, I am literally stunned at how fast time goes by-whether you’re having fun or not! Luckily, I HAVE been having fun! But that is all for another blog post. Today, we are *virtually* gathered around to visit each other for this year’s 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by the wonderful and amazing Lori Anderson of Pretty Things Blog!! In case you missed my post about the Soup sent to me by my partner in beady crime, Heather Richter of Desert Jewelry Designs, you can find it here. So without further ado, I present to you my creations with Heather’s soup!

Here is a wind chime I made using the focal agate slice and two of the bone beads Heather sent. I Originally wanted to make a necklace, but it told me that it wasn’t meant for a necklace, and well, who am I to argue with a stone! The agate slice is large, measuring nearly four inches long, so I *guess* the stone is right…. 😉
The chiming part of the wind chime are clay pipes from over the water, sent to me in a swap with Leah Curtis of Beady Eyed Bunny! I’ve had those SO long, waiting for the right inspiration! She’s a great polymer clay artist-creating hands down the neatest looking faces I’ve seen, ever! But I digress….. nothing new there, eh?

I love making wind chimes, especially for other people, but this is the first time I made one just for me. The clay pipes add a sweet clinking sound, and the little beads give it little dashes of extra color to keep the eye interested.

Next, I made a bracelet to go with the shiny brass toggle clasp Heather sent. I defaulted to my favorite-double Viking Knit, but this time in 24 gauge brass. Yikes!! My hands were NOT happy by time I was done, but it was well worth it!! I added a few cloisonne beads I had leftover from a redesign for my wonderful cousin, Wonder Woman and my handmade end caps. A bit of chain to make sure the toggle had the slack it needed to pull through and Voila! I love how it turned out. A nice polishing with the ol’ Sunshine cloth, and the brass shined just as bright as the clasp!

I decided I would save the rest for a rainy day-I love leftovers!!
I hope you enjoyed visiting my Reveal-please stop by Heather’s blog and see what she did with the soup I sent her!
Lori has been hosting the Bead Soup Blog Party through good days and bad. A true inspiration and role model! Please take a few moments to send her a healing thought, prayer, and general warm fuzzies. If anyone can use them, I know Lori can! If they are pink warm fuzzies, that would be even better. Til next time, my friends, keep calm and BLOG HOP!! =^..^=

Lori Anderson, Hostess www.PrettyThingsBlog.com

Tina Bosh http://bookbug-somanybookssolittletime.blogspot.com/

Kristina Hahn Eleniak www.peacockandlime.wordpress.com

Kari Asbury www.hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com

Kris Binsfield www.cherishdesigns.wordpress.com

Cheryl Gangle www.RockCandyJewelryDesign.blogspot.com

Amber Dawn www.InventiveSoul.blogspot.com

Michelle Wigginton http://adornedonadelaide.weebly.com/

Kayla Potega http://teejewelry.blogspot.com/

Becky Pancake www.beckypancakebeaddesigns.blogspot.com

Debbie Rogers http://debbiestreasuresandgems.wordpress.com/

Jenny Kyrlach www.anafiassa.blogspot.com