Craft of the day

Творческая часть моего дня сегодня опять была посвящена шерсти. Впервые я попробовала красить не пряжу, а ровницу. А еще в этот раз я все делала в микроволновке. С уветами напутала, но когда уже все размешала, решила все же попробовать. Даже прясть попробовала =))

Теперь хочу попробовать окрас в осенней палитре




My crafty part of the day was dedicated  to wool (again). It was the first time I tried to dye not yarn, but roving. Everything turned out absolutely wrong, or I should say not the way I wanted. When I prepared my dyes they turned to be different colors than I expected. Red was supposed to be teal and green was supposed to be darker. After I saw my mistake, I still decided to go ahead and try. I chose the microwave method this time, not the slowcooker, and loved it. Well, it's much faster and with 2 kids it's much easier. Then rinsed, dried, and could not wait to start spinning. So I can even show you the sample - single ply on a spindle and 2-ply tiny skein.


Plan to do more in the next couple of days - fall colors, what do you think?

Button stash buster

Давно давно уже хотела оживить эту лампу для детской комнаты, и все руки не доходили. А сегодня у меня случилось настроение покрафтить вместе с Полей, тут то я про нее и вспомнила.
Пуговки клеили на горячий клей, все делали аккуратно и Поля не обожглась. На две задние панельки пуговок нам не хватило, но это ничего, мне еще есть где их поискать и доделать.

I've been thinking of making this for about a year now, but it was never high up on my list of projects, so I never got to it. Today I wanted to make something together with Polina, so finally I got to it.


It was a nursery lamp with plain fabric shade that was given to us by my mother-in-law. And although I usually prefer plain and simple objects, I thought it did lack some embellishements. So we went through my button drawer and found lots of pearly looking buttons in pastel colors and glued them with hot glue gun. Although the pile of buttons seemed huge, we did not have enough to complete the shade, we still got 2 sides left. But, I should check some other hiding places for more buttons, I may find more. It's was a bit slow and painful to make this with Polina, but I guess, I should have organized it better in the first place. Honestly I haven't been doing a lot of crafts with her yet, so it was our first project together. Not bad for a start, what do you think?

Together and Apart

Мама приезжала к нам на месяц! Просто замечательное, золотое время! Сегодня она уехала и мне очень, очень грустно. Меня просто рвет на части и я даже сказать ничего не могу. Я очень люблю свою семью, я только ненавижу расстояние, которое нас разделяет.

My mother was visiting with us for a month. What a wonderful time it has been! She has left today and I just can't pull myself together. I have no idea when I'll be able to see her again. In one of the movies I watched last week someone said something like -you have to watch your loved once go, how else would you know how much you love them-. It's unbelievably painful to say good bye, even if it's not forever. The only thing I really truly hate in my life - is to be so far away from my family.

Baby Announcement

Well, I'm very slow as I'm still recovering, but here it is:

Our new baby, Danil, was born on July 29 at 1.32 am 

Weight: 4490g
Height: 57.5cm

While I am truly enjoying bonding with our new baby, I hope to recover and return back to blogging soon.

First handspun

В прошлую субботу я ходила на 2 часовое занятие по прядению шерсти. Прясть я училась на веретене, не русском (по стилю) а с крючком сверху - очень удобно. До этого я где то неделю мучила ютюб по поводу прядения и не могла понять почему у меня пряжа распадается. Оказывается на ютюбе не рассказали что надо делать с пряжей после прядения - и в этом все дело. А ее надо просто помыть и высушить =))) А еще мне понравился класс из за того что у меня была возможность попрясть разные волокна - я спряла мериносика, корридейл, яка, шетланд и даже шелковый платочек. Просто супер. Моя наставница дала мне домой шерсти попробовать и среди нее был кусок нестиранной шерсти прям с овцы, весь такой жирный в ланолине, так его кот украл у меня и так я его и не нашла. А еще я купила 2 веретена =)

Last Saturday I've been to a spinning class where I've learned to spin on a drop spindle. It was quite fun and I learned some little tricks that I was not able to learn from YouTube video tutorials. At the end of the session my instructor gave me a little bag with miscellaneous fiber samples so I could try them out and I 've spun them. Here they are:

That left hank is yak plied with merino - very soft with quite a natural look about it color wise. Love it.
Beside it is a sample of Aurelia Topknot which is a mix of three tops - Merino, Corriedale and Halfbred. It spins up quite nicely and great for a beginner to feel the difference between those three tops. I am pretty much able to tell now which is which, although they are not marked colorwise. Next little beauty used to be a single hand painted silk hankie. Lovely! So vibrant, so strong and has a such a gorgeous sheen - I think I am gonna use it to crochet some piece of jewelry.
Next is a little yak skein - the same one I plied with merino to make the first hank.
And on your right is 2-ply Shetland, which is the what I've been spinning in class. It's a bit rough for my taste, but it is one of the easiest spins and great training fibre.
There was another little piece of rainbow colored pencil roving which I have already spun and turned into freeform lariat. (will show it sometime after) and yet another piece of unwashed fleece, which....hm...my cat liked a lot and stole it from me (still can't find it)

I also got two top whorl drop spindles made by Louet. They are priced very nicely for beginners.I do realize they are not pieces of art you can see in spindle isle of the yarn shops, but are quite good for beginners and are very simple. I did not find them polished enough however, so I polished them a bit more with a 4-step nail file block (I thought it is quite a cheap but effective way).

Now the are perfectly fine for my taste!