For a great many of those years I posted on a regular basis ( usually at least once a week) but lately I seem to have drifted away from here and have not posted with much frequency. Perhaps I will regain my enthusiasm soon, or perhaps it has run its course. I guess only time will tell.
It is not that I have been idle, I have simply been lax in documenting the things that have taken up my creative time. But, while I am here I may as well show you what I have been up to lately. I seem to be drawn more to spinning and knitting these days. I recently finished this sweater, it is cotton. I did not have a "sweater's worth" of the grey so I used some reclaimed yarn I had (in a post some time ago I showed how I had taken apart a sweater and dyed the resulting yarn) the blue denim-ish looking colour you see is that yarn....I kinda made it work, so the sleeves are a little different. I am actually quite happy with the way it turned out and more importantly it fits great.
I am still in the process of learning about spinning, while I have spun some fibre and am gaining confidence, my goal is to begin spinning yarns that I can actually knit with and like in the days when I began quilting, I am experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn't.
So far I have found that many of the tools associated with spinning can be rather expensive. A case in point is a Hackle. I wanted to experiment with blending fibre and creating the combed top I would spin into yarn, but soon discovered that a Hackle would run me $200 or more. What is a hackle? it is essentially a piece of wood with strong metal tines that you can use to separate and blend fibre. how hard could it be to make? I decided to give it a try.
I started with a discarded piece of wood (looks to be from a frame maybe) I went to the hardware store and bought the longest finishing nails I could get. ( 4" ) In order to get my spacing fairly even, I first marked the increments on a piece of masking tape. I laid the tape in place and began drilling smalls holes at each point.
note the block of wood, it was there to prevent me from drilling into my desk
then it was just a matter of hammering the nails through each drilled hole
I will likely try making another, this time placing the "tines" a little closer and see if I can find a thinner nail, BUT this actually works pretty good. (oh...and it cost me $1.43 to make) I tried blending some white and red merino.
I did not have a proper "Diz" to pull the fibre through, but that plastic knitting gauge worked just fine
now to give it a test spin.
7 comments:
Ten years can go by in a blink. I hope you find yourself posting now and then. Show and Tell is such a fun thing, no matter whether you are watching or sharing. Love the sweater!! Especially the softly shaped yolk and different sleeves. Beautiful!
I do so love your creative outlook! People used to say - "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without." That is what I always think of when I read your posts. How many people would have thought to just "make a hackle"? This is such a disposable society. Thank you for sharing !!
I’ve followed you for quite a few years and have learned and been inspired by you. We all tend to change focus but the creative bug will always be with us. I used to post once a week religiously for years on my blog but have been doing so less frequently lately. Partly because I post on Facebook and Instagram more now and one only has so much time in a day. Anyway I do still get your blog posts sent to my email so will see when you do post. Sometimes being less frequent can be a good thing. All the more to talk about when you do.
You are such an inventive person!!!! You are our 'Lady Macgyver'! HA Sweater is wonderful!!!
The range of your talents always impresses…..thanks so much for sharing it! I def. notice a trend that bloggers are not posting as much…..moving over to more immediate social networking instead. I appreciate the more in-depth blog posts and have so far not succumbed to the newer formats. Additionally, my goal is to reduce the amount of time on the computer and instead, like you….enjoy creating!
Congratulations on 10 years of glorious and inventive creating, and my sincere gratitude for sharing so much of your artistry with all of us. I have learned so much from you over the years, and I feel we have created a friendship that will endure even if you decide to discontinue your blog -- which I hope you won't. You should know that I have an entire notebook dedicated to your blog posts, your patterns, and your magazine articles, and I treasure that notebook -- as I do you.
Love, The Self-Proclaimed President of the Jill Buckley Fan Club
I love your intermittent posts and high quality innovative ideas, although this is the first time I've posted here; sorry! It's much nicer to find something really interesting, occasionally, than the 'pot boiler' blogs where folk feel obliged to put something on every day or week.Yours is the only one I have favourited to follow. Long may you continue your blog...you have fans out here!
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