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I’ve given up on FlyLady. Not without much debate, both internal and external, and not without more than a little guilt. Over the years Flylady helped me get a grip on my messes and taught me some good habits, the email reminders were useful (when I paid attention to them) and the testimonials were rather [...]

Yummy yummy yarn guts. Doesn’t this look like fluffy shiny deer guts? The effect is far more realistic in real life than I was able to capture with the camera. I thank goodness that the smell is not that of authentic intestines. One of the things I like about dying silk is that it’s fairly [...]

I decided to take a break from flax spinning and switch to something a little gentler. Bombyx silk fit the bill. I dyed this batch quite a while ago, the technique was really simple. I waited for a warm day, soaked the silk in water and soda ash, added a little ammonia, emptied dye into [...]

First, a picture of my spinning progress. Same bobbin as before, but a bit more yarn on it. I generally have the attention span of a hamster, so this progress represents more time than I care to admit investing into it. Life in Craftopia is getting expensive again: Before the weekend I ordered an Ashford [...]

I’m usually not so cranky with my color choices. Hindsight being what it is, I think I should have chosen something a little more uplifting than heathered gray merino to put on the wheel. During our morning errands I grabbed a set of paint brush pen things and a sketch pad for Lexi. I’m undecided [...]

I brought the Traveler out and cozied myself up next to the fire to spin some BFL and Josey asked if he could use the Traddy. Does a bear live in the woods? He armed himself with some wool, I set the drive band and tension for him, put a drop of oil on the [...]

Just to refresh your memory, this is the before picture of the cotton that took forever and an hour to spin. It’s 3 ply green organic cotton. And to develop the green color it needs to be in an alkaline solution with some heat. Ready? This is the after picture of the same yarn. I [...]

I have soaked, simmered and developed the cotton, still waiting for it to dry. After all my work, all that time sitting and treadling until I thought I’d go insane, seeing the yarn skeined off was rather satisfying. For once I had enough foresight to take a before picture. It’s hard to see yarn that [...]

I finished the third bobbin of cotton singles. I now have a much smaller pile of unspun cotton, small enough to shove all of it in a sandwich bag and put it back in the stash. Three plies on three bobbins. Three glorious bobbins. And I’m plying the yarn now. Yay! Yay for me! It’s [...]

Since I am spinning the endless cotton I have had lots of time to contemplate this question. At first it was because I knew I could purchase raw and processed fiber cheaper than finished yarn, and because I knew that I could spin yarn. Having more time than money, it seemed like a good idea. [...]