Friday, August 26, 2011

Yarn Swifty Gal this Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday

Watching the paint dry on the parts
of my hand-made yarn swift
So, while I was taking my little technological break, I accomplished something I've wanted to since the beginning of the year - I made my own yarn swift.

Now this might not seem like such a grand and glorious accomplishment - until you realize I made it without screws or traditional carpenter's tools of any kind - just craft-store materials, glue, paint, and my own two hands. It looks something like this:

The design for this awesome little
low-tech yarnie machine can be
found here. I love the Internet. 










Want to see it in action? Get a load of it as I wind Andrea's handspun on it:


Isn't the handspun just gorgeous? Can you believe that's the natural color of Midnight Magic? I might need to go and steal that animal from the barn.

Now, you might be wondering why I'm winding Andrea's handspun. Well, here's what she sent me in order to craft a shawl for her:

This is a whole lotta alpaca love
 I'm making her a Critron; I've already started it, and it's going to be some kind of siren song. It might need it's own zip code.

I hope you are as in love with your fiber as I am with mine at the moment. Definitely check out everybody's fiber art from Andrea's blog - and I'd love to hear what you would name Andrea's shawl. It needs a super name, so I'm all ears.

10 comments:

  1. oooooh, the swift looks amazing with my yarn on it. Great job. Now...just to clarify, Mystery doesn't have flecks of burgundy in him. He is a beautiful black boy whose fleece got a bit of a boost due to blending.

    I can't wait to see the progress on this shawl.

    Name? hmmmm, I'll have to think about that and I can't wait to see what other people come up with.

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  2. That swift is awesome!!

    No idea on a name... will have to wait to see some progress. ;-)

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  3. I didn't know one could hand make a swift! Yours looks great!

    The name is hard ... the pattern is Citron, citrus fruit; the yarn is red; the only red citrus fruit I can think of is blood orange. Not sure what Andrea would feel like wearing a blood orange ;-)

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  4. @WWG: Sorry - can't believe I got his name wrong. I do like Midnight Magic, however ... so when I steal him, you'll know what I'll be renaming him. :) And thanks for letting me know his fleece color received a little blending enhancement. It's still wonderful, one way or another.

    @Kathryn Ray: Ok, you and WWG will get one process pic only. I am not a process pic kinda gal. :) However, once up, I'll be expecting names aplenty.

    @Vivian: Well, at least you actually provided a name - thank you! I don't know how Andrea would feel about that either, but your thoughts on the color are pretty spot-on.

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  5. The swift is awesome!!!!

    I bet the shawl is going to be divine. :)

    Jess

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  6. Congratulations! You saved a ton of money by making your own swift! And Midnight Magic fiber is gorgeous, wow!

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  7. I want one, I want one too :-D

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  8. That yarn is so pretty :) I love the fact that you made your own swift, it looks awesome!

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  9. I'm impressed by your DIY super skills. I'll have to go put stickers and sequins on my basic wood swift so it doesn't feel like the ugly duckling in comparison :-)

    For a minute I was picturing burgundy alpaca grazing in emerald green fields...

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