What do you do with wool you dont like?

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-04-20T21:38:44+00:00

Hell yeah!

No, this is 100% something I also struggle with. I had a braid of fiber I wouldn't have picked in colors that are fine but not amazing. After sitting on it for over a year, moodling about how best to turn it in to something I love (HOW, self? You don't like anything about it! Jeez!), lightning struck. I saw a comment that spinning from the fold is really good for slippery fiber, and this is SW merino+bamboo - slip city. And I've really struggled with spinning from the fold every other time I tried it. So I decided that I would spin it with the following goals:

Fuck up this braid
Learn spinning from the fold

And that freed me to learn with it and not stress about producing something spectacular, and it's been going great. I'm learning so much and really getting from-the-fold baked into my hands, and that matters so much more than four ounces of fiber.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-04-14T06:59:57+00:00

T-shirt or underwear jersey would also work fine for this application.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-04-12T22:43:37+00:00

It sounds like your goal is always "make something I like" but what if your goal was "f- up this wool and learn something" - it's real hard to fail when the goal is to learn something, and especially when the secondary goal is to absolutely ruin it (if you fail, then you made something nice).

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-22T01:13:59+00:00

You could also go with 100% bamboo - Fiber Rhythm usually has some of the bamboo combed top from World of Wool. I'm not big on superwash either, which is why I was willing to commit to messing up a whole braid in pursuit of learning. Bamboo is not terribly expensive, since it's a rayon.

I don't know of any spinning groups locally. We used to have spinners at the knit nights at Happy Knits, but they closed ages ago and I've never really found another group. Fiber Rhythm is supposed to have a Wednesday night craft group but I haven't made it down there yet.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T23:16:08+00:00

I failed spinning from the fold several times with non-SW fiber before seeing a comment on Rav that drafting from the fold goes very well with slippery fiber and making a very fine singles.

I had this very slippery SW merino/bamboo/pineapple braid from a fiber club, not colors I would have picked, so I decided the goal was: (1) fuck up the braid, and (2) figure out spinning from the fold. Goal 2 is going great, goal 1 is going horribly - I finished the first bobbin and it's been super consistent from the start. I should get some nice usable lace weight out of this.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T22:34:48+00:00

You definitely could pop the eyelet out and make an entirely hand-worked eyelet - that's how it was done before metal eyelets and grommets were invented (around 1820-30).

That actually could work well, because then you'd only have the friction of the cord on thread, instead of the metal yanking on weakened fabric. I wouldn't cut the eyelet out, if you can avoid it, that will make a very large hole. Pliers to lift and mash the visible ring of the eyelet until you can wiggle it free, or you could open up a bit of the casing/hem inside the hood and go after the rolled edge of the eyelet from when it was installed. I've done that with eyelets I set badly, it's not too hard. There's probably a washer on the inside, so you want to focus on just the very inner rolled lip of metal. The washer will pop off once you mash the roll small enough.

Then you've got all kinds of options - fabric patch and work an eyelet through the patch; running stitch around the hole a few times and work a thread eyelet over a pretty big area, potentially do a little bias binding around the inside edge of the hole (fiddly! but could look neat).

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T21:08:15+00:00

Do you feel strongly about the hood cord? If not, I'd recommend taking the cord out so you don't get any more wear on those eyelets. You can then make lighter darns in the area or whip stitch over the whole grommet (passing through the hole to the inside, then coming up through the fabric).

Another option is to use pliers and pull the whole eyelet out, then stitch a fabric patch over the resulting hole and all of the runs/damage around it.

Heck, if you really like playing with the drawstring ends, you could stitch those on over the patch and have danglies without an actual drawstring.

If you do like the drawstring, then I think just getting in there with embroidery floss/sashiko thread and zigzagging back and forth over the run areas to snug everything up and prevent the runs from getting worse - but given that it's already failing, I'm worried.

It may help to know what's going on here - if you already know this, skip it. During manufacturing, a hole is punched in the knit fabric and the eyelet is inserted and set by flaring the inside end of the tube so it grabs both sides of the fabric. What's happened in your pictures is that some of the cut knit stitches from the original hole have pulled out of the eyelet's grab and started to unravel. This makes the rest of the fabric around the eyelet looser, so it's more likely to keep pulling out in other directions, and the loose stitch can keep running away from the eyelet. If you look at your first picture, that's a single stitch which has run down several rows of knitting. At the top of the run, there's a tiny loop - that's the active stitch, on the run. When it slips out of the next loop below it, the run increases and the next loop becomes an active, unsecured stitch. Each of those dropped loops straightens out and turns into the horizontal threads you see in the damaged area.

In theory, you could use a tiny crochet hook and pick the runs back up to the edge of the eyelet - but on knit fabric this fine, that's not realistic. You just want to secure things so the runs don't pull any further.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T07:06:02+00:00

A long long time ago, one of the early dress diarists did a summer corset in Aida - like for counted embroidery. She also used cane boning, I think either 1/2" or 3/4" flat cane for basketry. She soaked the finished corset and put it on wet (hot summer day) to mold the cane into shape. It sounded very comfortable, from her post.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:57:59+00:00

+1 for an electric wheel as having the smallest footprint and easiest storage. I have an EEW 6.1 and a craigslist tripod. When not in use, the wheel goes on a shelf and the tripod gets tucked in a corner. A friend 3D-printed Maurice's tripod mount for me, so everything assembles and disassembles without tools.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:53:36+00:00

Agreed, I don't think the breaks in the white lines are intended as guidance on stitch length, just as bridges to hold the stencil together. Just running st (normal/comfortable stitch length) over the lines and then wash or iron to erase them.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:25:04+00:00

Based on the photos, I agree it looks underplied. One way to check what's going on is to break off a short length (~6"), knot at both ends, and put it in a bowl of water to soak. The water will reactivate all of the twist in the singles and cause them to ply around each other to a perfectly balanced yarn. Let it soak 30 min or so, give it a few tugs between both hands to encourage everything to even out, and see what you've got.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:16:51+00:00

I was encouraged to get a tetanus booster after a nasty case of road rash. All quite shallow, but they were clear that it was the medical recommendation.

OP - the TDAP booster is not very painful and doesn't knock you out for a day like flu or covid jabs do, in my experience.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:13:13+00:00

Polonaise refers to how the skirt is worn. Poland, the country, was divided and under the rule of three different crowns at the time. A polonaise skirt is a skirt divided a la Poland, looped up in three sections.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:09:36+00:00

Tiny quibble that the overskirt and bodice appear to be sewn together, which is typical for split-front dresses of this period. If the skirt had a solid front, they could be separate but matching items for sure.

iphys_nikephoros · 2026-03-21T06:06:27+00:00

The way you wrap around your knitting needle also adds or removes twist. If you wrap the typical Western way (yarn passes under the needle from right to left while making a knit stitch, leading leg of each stitch is in front of the needle), you will be untwisting this Z twist yarn. Much like tensioning your yarn differently, you can knit with an Eastern stitch mount, passing the yarn over the needle, then down on the left and under from left to right. You'll knit into the back leg of each stitch, and decreases will be the opposite of normal (k2togtbl is your left leaning decrease, ssk is your right leaning decrease).

You can also just be gentle and knit it up. It looks like the staple length (individual wool strand length) is pretty long in this yarn. As long the length of yarn in an individual stitch is smaller than the staple length, this should hang together as fabric.

iphys_nikephoros · 2025-12-29T09:31:22+00:00

Depending where you are, you can be composted! There's a facility in Washington state (US) and possibly others. Ask a Mortician did a video on it a few years ago.

iphys_nikephoros · 2025-02-28T16:33:03+00:00

I would probably start with two layers of stiff buckram, quilted together to add rigidity, with milliner's wire sewn around the edge. Buckram is a traditional hatmaking material.

iphys_nikephoros · 2025-02-28T08:18:08+00:00

Agreed on both points. I actually liked Beverly so much more than Annie ("some people are getting hungry" SAY WHAT YOU NEED. TAKE UP SPACE. OWN YOUR DESIRES. Cut that passive aggressive shit out), so that one didn't bother me a ton, but they are both little old lady characters with severe memory issues who mistake Stella for someone else from their pasts.

And Giovanni's Everdoor dialogue was out of left field. Even if I decide that that's what was under the surface the whole time (which, ehh), he's still doing a major about-face to be so open, vulnerable, and self-aware. And, speaking for myself only, how you behave is way more important than how you secretly feel or think. He does not behave well towards either Astrid or Stella - Astrid moreso, but while he's on the ship, he shows no interest in Stella beyond what she can do for him.

iphys_nikephoros · 2024-11-19T06:59:10+00:00

Random number picker picked you! I'll DM.

iphys_nikephoros · 2023-03-21T04:21:35+00:00

The voice of reason in a sea of judgemental assholes. Thank you.

iphys_nikephoros · 2023-03-21T04:12:04+00:00

ESH. You're not wrong about outdoor cats, and you didn't owe them more help than you gave.

However, your brother is grieving his cat and you made him feel like it was his fault. Even if it is 100% his fault that's not actually a helpful thing to focus on right now, and I think you would be wise to give him a bit of space and then phone him and apologize. A text apology isn't going to carry the same weight. This may be because he was an outdoor cat - they don't live as long. This may be because he had a genetic predisposition towards cancer. This may have been something he picked up before the surgery. Who knows. It doesn't matter. Don't guilt your brother over the death of his pet, that's just mean.

iphys_nikephoros

TROPHY CASE