Shenanigans! - Rope Bridge Challenge, and Slow-Lane Sprint

 This should be my last set of entries for the current Shenanigans, as we're running out of submission time.

First up, the Rope Bridge Challenge - make cordage from found materials where you are... well, I cheated a little, and 'found' my materials in my apartment. 

First, I was spelunking in the depths of the Stash Cave, and found a bag of really untidily stowed line flax, that I know I never purchased - I suspect it's yet another Yarn Orphanage item (IIRC, it's from someone in my Community Knitting group, from a prior volunteer placement - she gave me a biggish paper gift bag, half-full of random fibre stuff, and this was near the bottom.)

In the process of tidying the flax up into pretty stricks, so it wouldn't tangle further, there was a bit of loose waste. I hesitate to call it tow, because it was still quite long - but it wasn't going back in the bag, so I made a bit of fine cordage with it...

There's less than a yard, and I found a different medium to use, so this isn't my formal entry - but I'll post a pic here, because it's the first cordage I *ever* made.

I've already found a use for it - it's the cord on my 'Sow's Ear' bag.

Then I looked around some more, and spotted the biggish bag of horsehair, that's been languishing around waiting for me to use it as weft for tabletweaving. ...AHA!

Now, it's not grass, and a lot of it is mane, not tail - but there was a smaller bag with a sampling of tail hair - so I got started during another Office Hours, and worked until my hands cramped... and then some.

Horsehair is _tough_ to work with, because its wiry nature makes it want to spring back to its previous state... which isn't 'twisted tightly into small rope'... so it was rough going, and I didn't get very far. but there are several joins, so hopefully it counts. I was adding a few hairs in every few inches by the end, to maintain about the same thickness throughout.

*This* one is the actual entry... such as it is.

I plan to make a bit more of this, so I have a bit of horsehair line for random historic camping use. The live end is clamped between a piece of metal and a magnet, so it won't unravel while it waits.

I'm still debating a small 'trial by fire' - to see whether taking a lighter to the pokey bits helps it any.

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Up Next: a small handful of items from prior homework.

I decided I wasn't going to be *too* systematic about this one, but I did want to tidy up a loose end or two... The first two were started during the Tour de Fleece, but hadn't been finished.

I turned a mix of 2 colours of wool, white alpaca, and some Tencel, into this:

One lightly-filled board, 3 passes, third pass pulled off into boardworms.

The ratios were 50/25/25 wool, alpaca, Tencel - with bright red and purple wool (5g of each element). I debated a fourth pass, but decided I liked the depth the variation provided, so I stopped at 3, then rolled everything off on a pair of dowels.

Spindles in the foreground, and one of the top skeins, are mentioned in this post.

...and there it sat, until Shenanigans started up, and I got it completed.

Still needs wet-finishing, but that's nothing new, around here...

I also wanted to spin a 'pop quiz' art batt for multi-element practice - where drafting style has to change a bit, due to sudden changes in fibre content - and one of my SpinTogether prizes worked out perfectly. It's mostly merino, with alpaca and baby camel, with a sprinkling of glitz... and it's minimally processed, so all the diverse fibre types, and the various colours, are in chunks, rather than smooth (art batt from Purple Lamb).

Skein 1 done, plying skein 2, spinning skein 3 - it's nice to have reasonably-matched spindles! (they're the same size, and 1g weight difference)

With this particular combination being fine wool and camelids, I was still able to spin smooth laceweight yarn with no issues, so I now have over 880 yards to play with. I'll take my time figuring out which skein order, and finding a GREAT pattern.

Top-to-bottom, in spinning order, self-plied. Still deciding the order I'll use to knit them up.

I worked in strips, from one edge of the batt to the other, figuring I'd take the colours as they came, ply each on itself from the spindle ball, and sort the order later.

I also got to thinking about useful things to do with samples from earlier classes... so I broke out my rarely-used triangle loom, and started on some meditative weaving. I can piece these together into squares, or make the hypotenuse the outside edges of a scarf, or do something else entirely - but first, I need more than 2!

Just plainweave at this point, but using most pegs 2-3 times each. I don't want it too open, so I press each new end into place, then assess whether the next pass goes on the same peg, or the next one.

I've had this loom for years, and only made 1 other triangle on it - about time it saw a bit of use.


...And that concludes the stuff I actually got done THIS Shenanigans - I got too involved in other things, including a charity ride here.

I've met my fundraising goal, and have almost hit my distance goal - both are pretty modest, but I'm not getting out much ;)

I even did a bit of plying while on the stationary bike!