4 Fat Cops Lying in Wait

I spent a considerable portion of my day getting these chubby cops ready for tomorrow.

For tomorrow I'm borrowing a kind guild member's Woolee Winder so that I can try it on my Majacraft Little Gem wheel and see if I like it enough to request one for Christmas. I'll ply these cops of Sarepta Brown Cotton into a skein and if that goes well I'll also try spinning wool singles with the Woolee Winder as well.

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Conflicting Opinions

In a more colourful nod to the "Magnolia Pearl" style I took a thrifted natural cotton canvas curtain and sewed up a pair of overalls using the "GW TR005" pattern by "GetWeaving" on Etsy. I then ice-dyed the finished garment. I was not satisfied with where the colours landed with the random nature of that sort of dyeing technique so I also used fabric paints to make a trail of marks down the front and back.

I love them! ---  My husband hates them. *sigh* He says they do nothing for my figure. Well concealing my "figure" was more of what I had in mind anyway and I am very happy with them.

I haven't actually gotten rave reviews from anyone else either, but they are SO comfortable and, well, FUN to wear that I'll likely ignore all negative opinions and just wear them anyway and enjoy myself.

More Bags = Less Bags

I found an excellent tutorial for upcycling pillowcases into great shopping bags. Keeping that in mind I waited and took a trip to Value Village on 50% off sale day and came home with 2 sets of pillowcases that looked brand new.

Using the tutorial at the Creative Kismet blog I whipped these up. They don't take long and they use up the entire pillowcase, no waste.

After making the first one (the small one on the right) I modified what I was doing to make the bags a little wider. In the tutorial you are instructed to take a piece off the side of the pillowcase to use later for the handles. I found it made the body of the bag too narrow and tall (I folded the excess height down to the inside in that first bag) and yet I had plenty of length in the pillowcase to work with.

For the larger three bags I decided to take a piece from one end of the pillowcase for the handles instead. With the really long pillowcases I had (kings maybe?) the modification worked very well. The proportions, I feel, are perfect.

This pillowcase to shopping bag tutorial makes very strong, comfortable to carry bags. The side walls are double thick and the bottom section, which uses the pillowcase hem, is triple thick.

So now that I have some sturdy washable bags for getting groceries I should be able to accept less of the environmentally disastrous plastic ones. I've heard rumours that our community will be banning single use plastic shopping bags in the future.

Dreamy Cotton

I'm so pleased with the little skein of 2 ply natural brown cotton!

It spun up beautifully! I have a whole pound of it to work with and it's so delightfully soft and squishy that I think I'll spin it into a 3 ply for knitting. But for now -- back to the white cotton I was working on.

Wandering a Little

Though I remain committed to spinning up all of the pound of white Acala cotton before moving on to other cotton preps, a whole pound of beautiful natural brown cotton showed up in the mail yesterday, a gift from a very generous online friend and mentor. I couldn't resist giving it a try.

After a few minutes getting to know what the shorter staple length wanted of me, I found the brown cotton spun up beautifully. I spun two cops worth yesterday and plan to ply them together today before going back to spinning the white Acala Cotton.

Nine Ribbons

I entered 8 exhibits in the 2019 Chilliwack Exhibition and managed to win 9 ribbons! 7 firsts, a second, and a Best in Show.

Firsts for a "counted cross-stitch on aida",

an "adult hat and scarf", (my Year in Temperatures Scarf with a hat to match)

a "recycled article with a major style change", (a tunic made from duvet cover)

"Spinning - any natural fibre, plied" (a 2 ply cotton)

"Collection of 3 or more decorative items", (16 of my Stitch Meditations")

"Yardage of woven material", (my travelling inlay Saori yardage)

"Wearable article woven with recycled material" (my coat from denim strips).
The coat also won a "Best in Show" rosette.

And in the "Scarf or cowl" category I received a second place. 

Little Life

If you've ever seen the cramped quarters and unhealthy water conditions of bettas waiting for adoption in some pet stores you'll know why this beautiful poem, "Little Life", by Autumn Rhinesmith, brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could adopt them all!