Completed pants. This is such a lovely wool check, warm yet breathable.
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I spent several days prepping these 2 masks by MissMonster. The moffman I plan to paint with shimmer blacks/blues, install glowing amber eyes, and make a hood with embedded rooster feathers. The half snarl I will be painting for my partner (once he decides on a theme).
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The sleeping bag zip miwaks bodysuit maker found for me unfortunately proved unreliable when I stress tested it with the actual tail. I spent time last year hunting down YKK continuous zip tape & fittings to custom a length, which involved carefully removing teeth from the tape. Then I removed the tail sheath, whip stitched down the end caps seam allowance, and centred the new zip to the inside. Next steps are to machine sew down & resheath the tail.
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My daedalus, aka birdie, arrived! Sadly, it somehow managed to ship missing the main tensioner so now I have to wait for that part to be shipped out to me…although, someone in my fibre community suggested a possible temporary solution I could try…
Regardless, this machine is super quiet & I can’t wait to start filling up the bobbins!
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Completed sunflower diamond painting.
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Hello! I recently got a support spindle after only using drop spindles. I’m enamored with your method of spinning and drafting with your support spindles. Are there any resources you’d recommend for learning more about that style of support spindling? Some videos I’ve watched on getting started say not to use combed top because it’s challenging to do long draw from it. But your technique in your advent calendar videos looks really smooth and it looks like drafting is happening without having to pull hard on the fiber. Would love to ready any thoughts you have as currently support spindle feels so so clumsy compared to my drop spindle lol.
Wow, thanks for the compliments however I can’t take all the credit for this style of spinning. On my supported spindles I do a semi-continuous style of spinning known as Fleegle; named after a spinner who goes by the name and has several videos that all just drafting & spinning on support spindles semi-continuously. I too started using drop spindles & I actually stumbled across fleegle spinning because I was having a hard time teaching myself long or short draw on a support spindle. I enjoy the semi-continuous method because it allows you to keep up a good rhythm for a long time without having to stop as frequently to wind on the cop from the temporary cop. Here’s a link for one of the videos; https://youtu.be/8VypPdls_ds?si=NFGF9SUtvBVHqShv
As for what fibre to use, I honestly don’t know why combed top has such a bad rep. I have only ever used combed top in various fibres/blends and had no problem. The two main things that prevents a fibre from drafting smoothly are holding your fibre too tightly in your non-drafting hand & trying to draft too soon for the staple (ie the end of the staple is still held in your fibre source in your drafting hand but you are also trying to pull the other end out of your drafting triangle). My tips for this are to familiarise yourself with the fibre you are trying to use, work out its staple – a long staple might need to be drafted at longer intervals compared to a shorter staple. Also, pre-drafting can help A LOT; I always pre-draft the hank I’m about to work which helps the fibre draft out like butter, very important for sticky fibres like mulberry silks or clumpy ones like sari silk.
One last thing to remember is that the support spindle will feel super clunky until you get used to it, but don’t be discouraged because the more you use it the faster your body will adapt & you’ll find how spinning support works for you! I think it took me about a month before I really felt comfortable with my supports.
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I’m making up a new paw/tail set for my shop, mainly to get rid of some of the fabric stash. The set is going to be inspired by the Australian blue banded bee. Here I’ve cut all the bits needed for the plush paws.
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Since receiving my bodysuit I’ve been wracking my brains for how best to install the tail zip, since upon closer inspection & despite excellent communication with the suit maker, the tail port circumferance is 9cm too long (aka was cut oversized compared to info/replica tail base I provided).
The best & easiest solution I could come up with was repatterning a piece to close the tail port, reinforce that new seam which will overlap the zip, & recutting the port hole according to matrices zip on tail tutorial. Behold, the plug piece pattern, that took forever & stole my sanity!
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I bought myself a rotating spindle stand from Kravelli on etsy to better store my spindle collection. Only my drop spindles don’t fit in it, so those will remain in the pebble filled jar.