Its time for another random drawing prize in our Revive-A-Vintage Contest!
This week’s winner is getting a Karbonz Interchangeable Starter Set from Knitter’s Pride. Did you know that Karbonz needles were made from carbon fiber? Its the same stuff used to make fighter jets. I guess that makes these pretty kick-ass knitting needles. 😛
We currently have 77 entries going in raverly. That’s 77 patterns being saved from the dust-bin of time. Today’s winner falls in the very special #58 slot. So says Mr. Random Number Generator.
The winner is making egg warmers. Oh yes. I told Jess that we would get some egg warmers AND WE DID!
That’s Cock-a-Doodle Egg Warmers, a pattern by Coats & Clark. Who doesn’t need these to keep their boiled eggs warm?
Its being made by BreiKonijn! Yay! She’s the winner! BreiKonijn is also making us Professor Elephant Eye Glass Case, Crocheted Button Trimmings, and Scottie Potholder. Four projects. Wow. She must really have wanted to win something and I’m so glad that she did. Drop by and leave her a note.
So where does that leave us? With one more weekly drawing to do and then the big finish! Entries to be considered for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honorable Mention need to be finished (and marked as such) by midnight CST April 15th. Don’t give me that look. You can finish. That’s 12 days. You can absolutely finish. You just have to stop doing all those unnecessary things in life, like cleaning, working, eating, and sleeping.
Pretend its Christmas.
How am I doing on my personal Vintage Challenge? Well…
Its coming along. Its been slow but then I’m a slow spinner.
I’m spinning flax for the first time. That’s my personal vintage challenge. Its a plant fiber, made from the stems of flax plants. Before the cultivation of cotton took hold, most of the world harvested and spun flax. Processing flax is much more labor intensive than processing cotton which is why ( I think) you don’t see as much of it today.
Its also tricky to spin. It has to be spun wet. Well, its more accurate to say it has to be spun damp. I’ve been experimenting with ways to make this happen and I’ve had some success with re-hydrating the fiber.
I took a kitchen sponge and soaked it with filtered water. Then I put the sponge and the flax into a heavy-duty ziplock bag. Then the bag went into the refrigerator for a few days. Its worked pretty well. The fiber is damp and its damp all the way through. I pull out fiber to spin and then re-seal the bag. At night it all goes back into the fridge.
More details on that to come. Here is a close up of my best efforts so far.
"There is no failure. Only feedback." - Robert Allen
12 Comments on "Another Vintage-phile Winner"
Beautiful yarn! Is your flax bleached or is it the light that makes it so pale and lovely?
I think its been bleached. I bought it (a zillion years ago) from Joy of Handspinning. I’ve checked their website and mine is whiter that what they seem to be selling now. So.. I think it was bleached.
You flax yarn is beautiful. I may have to try that sometime. Can’t wait to see more about the process!
Thanks! I hope to have my “The Flax and The Feline Overlord” Post up tomorrow.
I remember reading a novel as a kid where a character spun flax – and had to wear an apron to protect her clothes. I know that flax seed is very oily, so is the flax fiber greasy, too?
Mine is not greasy. But its messy all the same. Little bits of fuzz drop off as I draft and it gets everywhere! Like cat-hair everywhere.
An apron is a good idea.
What a clever solution! Good thinking 🙂
If I remember correctly – and there is little reason to think I do, to be honest – processing flax involved (or involves?) rotting the external plant materials first before harvesting the inner material that will (eventually) be used as fiber. Must have been a smelly process, Part One!
BIG congrats to BreiKonijn! That is a fabulous prize! And I love egg caps, though I’ve never made one. A blogfriend in the UK sent me a bunny in a sweater egg cap, and it is my favorite kitchen ornament 🙂
Processing flax involves water. Yep. Lots and lots of water. I don’t know abou the smell but I seem to recall old laws that were passed to control where flax was processed. I imagine that it was done stream-side and was capable of ruining a town’s water supply.
12 days!!! Oh my… Let’s try your solution (stop sleeping, eating, doing anything else but knit) and it should be just fine 🙂
Exactly. Sleep is for the weak.
(she says while yawning)