Staying Home, Staying Safe

I lost interest in hand spinning after we moved here.  The first meeting I attended was a spinning meeting but somewhere along the line weaving took up all my time and I put my folding wheel into it's bag and stashed it in a closet.  The guild's spinning study group is doing such interesting things that I've put my wheel back up and given myself a spinning station. 

I used to have close to a dozen bobbins but now can only find four.  I had to clean off a couple so I chose two that I don't remember what the fiber was and I'm back at it.  I know what's all on three of these and in order to keep it that way, I've slipped a piece of paper in each with the name of the fiber.  We're going to be doing some natural dyeing and I'm making yarn in preparation.

The wheel is upstairs and I'd left the area to get something, don't remember what.  When I came back I found my cat snuggled in the plastic bag of roving - scared me to death.  I left the roving attached to the wheel, feeling the area was safe from Delaney but never stopping to think that it's not safe for Maddie.  It's in a Maddie-safe place now.

A couple of years ago someone in the Linocut Friends Facebook group posted a template for a hand printed Christmas ornament.  I'm sure I have the photocopy somewhere and I know it's in a file somewhere here on my laptop, but it's a good thing I carved the block way back when.  I forgot all about it until yesterday and decided it was time to finally make some prints.

What got me started was finding a some scraps of Hosho paper from an earlier project.  I only bought inks in primary colors so it was easy for me to decide on red.

I printed eight yesterday and let them dry overnight.  I ruined two trying to figure out how to assemble them.  Good thing I have PVA glue because it dries really fast and is made for paper.

I hung the ornaments on the Thanksgiving cactus using sewing thread.  That's how light they are.  I think it looks like the plant is still blooming.

I think they're absolutely charming and wish I had printed more.

I mixed up what I hope looks like Delft blue and printed all the leftover paper.  Tomorrow I'll cut and glue them and hang them on our tree.

Maddie brought a ball of yarn downstairs and when she got bored with it I gave it to Delaney.  She has been entertaining herself with it for the past week, even pretends that she's knitting with it.  And so it begins :-)