Straw Weaving

Yup, read about this a while back and had to give it a shot. It's so simple it's kind of addicting. Lots of fun!

Here's a few tutorials: [1] [2]

My favorite results come from having a double length of yarn through each straw. It gives a tighter fabric, probably due to more friction.



Another fun thing I've tried is working "circularly". *pokes picture above this* You need an odd number of straws, and since I've only got 4 right now I did this one with 3. Basically, you wrap across once, but instead of going back, you put the last straw next to the first and continue wrapping around. The odd number of straws ensures that you don't need to think too much about the wrapping pattern. Done with only three straws, it's a bit like the i-cord of the straw weaving world.


One thing to note, unless you keep things really loose (which makes for a rather sloppy product in my opinion) you won't really be able to see the strands that go through the straws. I don't know much about official weaving terms, but I believe you'd call these the "warp" yarn. You can see them poking out of each end in the pictures above, though you can thread them back inside, and sometimes when you fold your new fabric in half you can see them between the wraps.

Fort! I mean... writing cave...

I ran across a thread on the NaNoWriMo forums about writing caves. Basically, a fancy term for a fort to write in. And of course I couldn't NOT do this!

I sleep on the bottom bunk. It's already cave like and it's not a far stretch to imagine it as a fort. But it had to be something easy to put up and take down. And so I took this challenge upon myself, and a fort was born!

First off, this is my bed in all its messy glory:

Yeah, I'm a slob. Though to be fair, even when I do make the bed, it still looks messy. Why? First off, normal sheets don't fit quite right on a squashy futon mattress. Secondly, the bed is full sized, but my comforter and any of the blankets I've knit for myself are twin sized. They're from my old bed. What can I say, I like my old comforter too much to get rid of it.


Back to fort making, I knew for sure I had one thing that would be big enough to cover a side: A small blanket that I'd knitted which was pretty much only good for covering the foot of the bed. That would cover one end of the bed. I went through my drawers and gathered up old PJs that no longer fit or I just didn't like anymore. I tried lots of things to cover the sides with these, even going so far as attempting to create a "clothes line" type thing from yarn. It didn't work.

Went looking through my craft supplies I keep in the basement. I knew I had some old fabric from when I'd gone through a brief sewing interest period. It was big and orange, and I'd probably never use it. Luckily, and surprisingly, it was big enough to mostly cover the long side of the bed. You can't really tell from that photo up there, but the top bunk is only twin sized, which means that my bed sticks out from under it some.

It wasn't a perfect fit of course, there was space on either side that would need to be filled. An old nightgown and my shawl filled that.

Now for that pesky third side. I was pretty much out of things to put up. BUT I had a closet, most of which I hardly ever wear. And more importantly, these clothes were on hangers. So that third side was covered by shirts on hangers.

And so the finished fort:



And the inside:



Yeah, that's my knee. I'm laying down with my head on the pillow.

The only hard thing to put up and take down is the blue blanket since it's tied in place. Everything else is ridiculously simple. Currently everything is wrapped up in the orange cloth and is under my bed. November will be fun!

It's that time of year again!

Leaves changing, air cooling, and people starting to whine that it's too cold. I love this time of year.

Spent a good part of the day out in the yard jumping on my pogo stick, kicking a ball around, and generally just being 5 again. I am not a summer person, I am a fall person. I love the cooler weather, and I love the sound of my feet rustling through the leaves. It annoys me that most of the family is cold, and instead of putting on long sleeves or something, turn the heat on. But I do understand, I'm right there with them once winter actually hits.

Now that we're more than halfway through October, I really ought to get deciding what I'm carving this year. Pumpkin carving is one of the funnest things about Halloween. My favorite thing to do is carving characters that all the little trick-or-treaters recognize. It's especially cute when the really little ones make a fuss over them. Yeah, I'm a bit of a show off sometimes.

Last year I did Perry the Platypus, BUT I didn't manage to finish carving in time for trick-or-treat. And yet, I still don't know what I'm carving yet. So far I've put together a folder full of possible images - Mario characters, Phineas and Ferb characters, Kirby... I only carve things I love, which means I end up carving from a small pool. Currently I've finished a possible pattern for Kirby, one for Bowser, and am working on Norm the robot. And I still don't know what I want to do.

Ah well, I'll get there. Hopefully before this weekend when we pick out pumpkins though...lol