"Those Autumn Leaves" ~ An Interpretation Through Woolen Fibers!

Pictured: Artificial Autumn leaves, woolen roving to match leaf colors,  (at left) plastic leaf stems and spines after silk leaves have been removed.

Autumn is a lovely time to be up north when the woods explode with color! And, the beauty of the changing seasons can always be counted on to inspire a crazy textile addict such as myself  into handspinning action!

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So, I found these artificial Autumn leaves and thought, "Why couldn't I just spin these seasonal beauties right into a novelty yarn and then make eaf flap hats that have real-artificial Autumn leaves protruding out of them!"  (This all happens just when we thought that I was over my ear-flap-hat preoccupation and my love of saying, "ear flap hats".)

Here are the fibers all freshly drummed up and carded. I whipped in 6 ounces of hand dyed wool along with some sparkly blending glitz. As you can see it twinkles with "Autumn-ness".

 Above you see the spinning wheel bobbin FULL of a leafy yarn single ready to be plied. Yes, I do wonder if raising silkworms and constantly feeding the little nippers has me preoccupied with leaves. And yes, I am afraid  that leaves are starting to look quite delicious to me. So while my appetite is stronger than ever I've sadly not been walk-trotting in awhile or completing any of my aerobic fitness goals but...

I did treadle two bobbins full (maybe not full but these are ginormous bobbins). Both singles are spun "z" then plied together in the opposite "s" direction (spinster lingo). I purposefully spun the right bobbin using a "thick and thin" draw. When I plied both of the colorful singles together I alternated tension and angle so that the yarns wrapped around each other rather than plying equally and thus creating lively curls of colorful texture:

And here's a second picture:

And there you have it! Well, what there is of it so far.  More to come and Happy Autumn to You!

Soon They Will Own Me

I've just spent a couple of hours fussing over my silkworms. The world's only domesticated insect certainly can be high-maintenance. But, it will be worth it when I have all that lucious Bombyx Silk right? Right?!!

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Why are Bombyx silkworms considered a domesticated insect? Because, you will not find them in nature, ever. Now, there are all kinds of other worms out there from tent worms to Tussah worms but, Bombyx Mori are totally and completely domesticated. What I am raising here is where fine silk comes from. (I mention this only because as I meander about on the internet I see that there are many misconceptions out there, people who believe their trees are being "infested by silkworms".)

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If I knew there would be a plentiful supply of mulberry leaves available to me over the next several weeks my job as caretaker would be decidedly easier. You can get a silkworm to switch from the mulberry chow diet to fresh mulberry leaves but, it is quite a trick to get a silkworm to switch from the fresh leaves to the mulberry chow. So, rather than spoil the little dears and make them all finicky and then have a hard frost destroy the only food they'd be willing to eat, I've simply been feeding the mulberry chow. This makes for a bit more work with clean up and and feeding time.

Above you can see the mulberry chow as it is drying out. The silkworms do not drink and must obtain the water they need from their food supply. Today I carefully replaced the drying food with fresh mulberry chow just like I did yesterday, etc., etc. This picture is interesting because you can see the fine layer of silk that is on the drying mulberry chow. The worms are constantly throwing down a layer of silk. They entwine themselves with the old food and each other and they're very fragile so I'm finding myself really fussing over the feeding and cleaning process.

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Were I to be feeding fresh mulberry leaves I could lay a net over the worms and gently layer new leaves above the netting. The silkworms would crawl up through the holes of the netting to get to the fresh leaves then I could just lift the netting with the worms and the new leaves all together and clean out beneath them. That process is called "netting up". The mulberry chow is dense and heavier and so I fuss about with a paintbrush lifting worms from drying chow to fresh, moist chow...

Here you can see they are enjoying a breakfast of fresh chow. The silkworms are officially 8-10 days old now. You will note that they are growing fast and furiously compared to just a little over 1 week ago.

And, as Claxton has not had a single solitary paternal instinct kick in I'm definitely on my own with these little angels who will soon need to be fed fresh chow several times a day. I may have to knit a special carrying pouch and take them with me everywhere I go. And, as much as I want these little guys to thrive I don't want to risk being known as "the worm lady". I need a Mary Poppins-type to come help me. She can make a musical adventure out of feeding them their mulberry mash while I go about my other business.

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And I do have other business because I made another cotton cloth pattern. It shall be posted forthwith which likely means sometime next week as I have to squeeze my knitting time in between these fussy, fussy feedings.

Free Knitting Cotton Cloth Pattern

Happy Autumn to you!

And, with Autumn comes crisp, colder weather which can only mean it's almost WOOL season! (Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...) Almost. Actually, I believe that every season is wool season but, it isn't cold yet so let's grab up that soft, absorbent cotton and get to work on another fun little wash or dish cloth pattern.

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I love springy, sproingy wool and haven't knit much with cotton myself. I know from spinning bunches of cotton that it doesn't have that elastic wonderfulness a carefree and loose-knittin' individual can take for granted with wool. With cotton I'm quickly learning to knit tight little stitches. Tight, tight, tight! So, I use size one needles and try to pretend to be very tense but still I knit loosely. Perhaps if I were to watch a scarey movie, one where a timid person goes up into an old haunted attic to investigate a frightening noise while alone, in a night gown, armed with only a candle nub...

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But, hey let's get you started! Here's the graph:

And, here are the play-by-play instructions.

It should print up very easily for you but, if you do have a hard time you'll find my email address at the top right column of this web log. Drop me a note and I'll send you PDF attachments.

A toast to a colorful Autumn ahead! Time to start picking apples and such. I'll be at the Wrenshall first-ever Fall Festival demonstrating hand spinning and drum carding this Saturday, Sept. 26th. So, if you are in that neck of the woods over the weekend stop by and say, "Hello!" Remember, if you haven't yet discovered hand spinning and making your own fabulous yarns I urge you to try it.  You are in for a treat.

Coochie Coochie Coo

Our little silkworms are growing up:

Date of birth: Most hatched forth from Tuesday, Sept. 15th thru Thursday the 17th (the year of our Lord 2009.) Measurements at birth: Really small about the width of a pencil line. Measurements as of today, 9/21/09: About the width of a nice strand of fingering weight sock yarn to be precise-ish.

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Here's a little-known-fact: If a 6 lb at birth baby grew as fast and furiously as a silkworm, in about 28 days that child would weigh 60,000 lbs! During a normal life span a silkworm will increase in size by 10,000 times. Which brings me to a whole other can of worms, where to put these rascals three weeks from now? I mean we're prolific with them, which is fine and dandy while they're the thickness of a strand of sock yarn, but what happens when they're as wide as my finger? And, from what I understand each and every silkworm requires 3 square inches of personal space by the time it reaches the cocoon-spinning phase! In addition to that they each need their own toilet paper roll in which to crawl and spin the individual cocoon. I'm telling all my friends, "Save your toilet paper rolls. It's an emergency!" I'm calling in favors from everywhere.

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Egad! Claxton just might have to give up what little bit of territory he has been able to maintain around the old homestead / fiber factory. It's gotten bad enough I'm starting to feel a smidge sorry for him myself! (I'm not sure that either of us knew what he was signing up for when we exchanged trapped-for-life vows.)

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What's worse, I'm starting to question my silkworm parenting skills. Those are a lot of mouths to feed and I hate to admit it but the other day I failed to even remember them in a discussion Clax and I were having about pets:

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Claxton said: "Lambikin's (the fiber-bearing rabbit) is getting incredibly old."

I said: "Yes, All the pets we obtained when the kids were growing up seem to be living forever!"

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Claxton said: "Now that the kids are grown there may come a time when we won't want to be saddled down with pets any more."

I said: "Yes. It is nice to have the count down to just the two little dependents: Madge (she's the family parakeet) and Lambikins (the cute little pet rabbit), OOPS! I mean 502!"

(See?!! I'd forgotten all about the silkworms! What kind of mother is that?)

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Well, as it turns out so far we're doing all right. Here's a close-up of the fam:

Don't they make that green, mulberry chow look simply scrumptious? And, there's something mesmerizing about watching silkworms frolicking about in a plastic shoe container too. (They've outgrown the petri dish.) It is sad to know that they're due to become dormant shortly for a resting phase and shedding of the first skin. But, rest assured they'll come out hungry and ready for round two. And, rest assured again, I'll be there with my trusty camera to record and share all the precious moments. There will be a few such dormant phases ahead and each time the silkworm will shed its skin and prepare for another growth spurt. These changes promise to be dramatic filming.

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Meanwhile back in the fiber studio I've charted another free washcloth pattern that I intend to share tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the First Day of Fall and the pattern is entitled, "The Last Rose of Summer." Stop by and print up a copy of that!

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Free Goldfish Wash or Dish Cloth KNITTING PATTERN

Around my neighborhood we have a little something called "East End Day". If you live in the East end of this city then it is best you know that on one special Saturday every September there will be hundreds of people walking up and down your street looking for garage sale bargains.

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For us East End Day usually meant, "Day to  leave town and go camping."

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One dark year it turned into, "Time to buy lots of stuff my neighbors are trying to get rid of and bring it home to mix in with all the stuff I should be getting rid of."

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To Claxton this year's East End Day was a time to turn inwardly, asks the big questions then turn to me and say, "Let's admit we will never use that 50 lbs of candle wax we're sitting on in the basement." An aside: We used to make sand candles with the kids on our weekend camp outs. (Good times eh, Teal? Now, don't you roll your eyes at me.)

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And ever sinse I burned the neighbor-lady's retinas I don't need 500 canning jars for my super-spicey hot salsa recipes. She was trying to hang her laundry and her clothes line was down wind of our kitchen window where I was busily canning my own eyes out.  My triple batch of salsa steaming on the stove top caused everyone some optical difficulty for which I am eternally apologetic. (I solemnly vowed to Claxton that I was done with canning. And he was fine with that because he only likes fresh or frozen garden veggies anyway... But, I digress.) Time to sell the canning paraphanelia.

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So, Claxton's on a roll with this garage sale opportunity. At one point he even makes some big talk of getting up at first light to prepare a fresh batch of funnel cakes for the throngs of early a.m. garage salers. (Another aside: Claxton's reserve idea for the day was to open a little ice cream booth on the very outer edge of East End and call it, "Custard's Last Stand." I'm much happier that he chose to hunker down  with the garage sale idea because he successfully opened up a lot of new space for me to stash more wool, and wool-related necessities. 

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O.K. Back to the free pattern. Long story short (stop it),  I was of little-to-no-help with the garage sale unless, "Don't sell that ice cream maker because I plan to use it this Winter." counts as helpful, and I think it does because I just might really make some ice cream some day and Claxton just might welcome a cup on a frosty night. Even though I was fairly useless it would still be fair to say I was the co-host or trusty side-kick at the garage sale.

(Segue coming.) AND IT WAS DURING THAT TIME OF HELPFULNESS, when I was on garage sale standby, THAT I CREATED THIS PATTERN JUST FOR YOU:

Below you will find that I also made you a printable graph:

And here I typed up your very own play-by-play instructions:

I hope the above jpeg  graph and instructions print easily for you and are legible.  If this format is simply too difficult to read then click here and grab the PDF or email me at: thetreadler at hotmail dot com

and let me know. I'll email you back and attach a PDF version. Why? Because I'm filled with the solumn joy that is East End where a pair of used in-line skates and a lovely old bread machine are practically gifted away to one's fellow man in the spirit of the season!

P.S. A great big THANK YOU to Laura M. for pointing out a few corrections to my Row-By-Row directions. Those changes have been made.