fiber arts

A couple years ago I learned how to spin wool into yarn. Since then, I’ve had all this bulky weight yarn I didn’t know what to do with.

I couldn’t use it for anything that sat against my bare skin because of my Autistic sensory sensitivities.

I bought some new yarn in fun colours recently. I started playing around with them and my hand spun to make granny squares. Once I figured it, out I started to crochet… and didn’t stop for 5 days straight.

I got into a hyperfocus flow where all I wanted to do was crochet.

I lost some skin on my tension holding finger, got a blister on my thumb, forgot to eat multiple times, and probably had several more important tasks to do. But I loved doing it and it felt good.

Below is 1 and 1/2 days of work.

After another day and 1/2 of work, I finished adding all the colourful borders and joined the squares all together.

I spent the next 2 days weaving in all the ends. So. many. ends.

I love it and it makes me happy.

(P.S. Sorry for any weirdly focused photos, I’m learning how to use a better camera than my crappy phone one. I don’t always realise until later the photos weren’t focused right!)

I found out recently you can use spent dandelion flower stems to make cordage. I’ve made baskets with pine needles using the coiling method before, so why not dandelions! It’s difficult to forage for natural materials where I live, but dandelions grow everywhere. At least until the city sprayed all the ones in the parks. . . but I still got a backyard full to work with.

I have this cordage I made last week. I’m wetting it with a spray bottle and damp towel to make it less brittle.

I trying some cotton embroidery floss from the dollar store. Which I later regretted. It was only 2 ply and it snapped multiple times. Because of this I couldn’t pull my thread as tightly as I like.

I tie a knot onto start of the cordage (where the twist starts making a loop). Then start wrapping the thread.