Allison T
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aratingaz.bsky.social
Allison T
@aratingaz.bsky.social
130 followers 240 following 73 posts
Fiber artist (knitting, spinning, etc), dog and bird mom, TTRPG nerd. 🏳️‍🌈 She/her
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aratingaz.bsky.social
I helped harvest fresh indigo yesterday evening with some friends. I tried the salt rub dyeing technique, and thought I'd really succeeded, before I remembered you're supposed to mordant fibers before applying natural dyes. Most of the color rinsed out. 🤦 Lesson learned, but still a fun project!
A metal bowl with a scrunched up cloth and shredded leaves. The cloth is a deep rich teal. My hand is on the side of the bowl, showing where my thumbnail turned the same color from cutting leaves off stems. The same cotton cloth hanging dry on a bar. It is a pale aqua color, not very even but pretty in its imperfection. A patch of flowering indigo plants in the foreground, with cosmos (if I recall correctly) nodding their orange blossoms behind them. The rest of the leaves are being fermented for a traditional dye vat.
July 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
A little morning Sunshine this summer Solstice! Baby is giving a very different attitude, lol. Sunshine is overjoyed to be juicing a tangerine on my shoulder. Baby is giving me the stink eye because I woke her at 11:30 AM. I love them.
An orange and yellow parrot (a sun conure) with dark grey eyes and beak sits on my shoulder. My hand holds a segment of tangerine for her to bite, and the juice has stained my grey T-shirt. My dog, an elderly Chihuahua mix in a green collar, stands sleepily in front of a houseplant. She looks very unimpressed.
June 20, 2025 at 6:36 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Another finished piece! This wire wrapped hair pin is ready to go to a friend who carded some wool batts for me in trade. It would also work as a shawl pin. I shaped it from aluminum wire and used beads of glass, citrine, pearl, and a few others. So happy with the results!
The back of my head, showing my frizzy brown and blonde hair held up by a silver hair piece. The wire is shaped something like two overlapping infinity symbols, but with spirals at each end. Together it looks somewhat like a butterfly. Thinner wires attach glass and semiprecious beads in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
June 14, 2025 at 7:48 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
The Wingspan shawl and accompanying pin are complete. From spinning the yarn to adding the feathers, this took me months of work spread over a couple years, and I am so proud of the results. I used feathers saved from my late bird, Zephyr, who still holds my heart.

#knitting #handspun
A knitted shawl in the shape of a wing drapes over a piano. The hand spun yarn is a gradient from orange to yellow to green. At the top is a wire wrapped shawl pin decorated with beads and feathers. My hand holds a shawl pin. The thicker wires are heavy gauge aluminum, bent into three parallel arches and hammered for subtle texture. Fine gauge silver plated wire weaves them together and holds green, silver, and yellow beads in the curls at one side of the pin. A horizontal bar crosses through the main arch, and at the end of it are three colorful parrot feathers in green and yellow.
May 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
That escalated quickly! I knitted this shawl in a bit over a month, which is very fast for me. A tricky pattern but worth it. Now I need something like a black dress to wear under it for a photoshoot! Wingspan by Kyle Vey in handspun from @fossilfibers.bsky.social batts.
A knitted shawl shaped like outstretched wings pinned to a foam mat on a bed. The shawl is a gradient from orange to yellow to green at the feather tips. It's probably five feet wide!
May 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Sorry I haven't been here! I'm mostly getting my social media fix from various Discord servers these days. But I'm also spending a lot of time knitting! This Wingspan shawl is really coming along! All handspun yarn. Fun knit, once you have a system to track the short rows and staggered increases.
A knitted shawl in progress. A gradient from orange at the top to yellow to yellow-green at the bottom. (The remaining yarn, not pictured, transitions to green) The top edge of the shawl is a semicircle, and it spreads out into two half formed wings. The stitches are arranged to look like feathers, but it's still wrinkled and scrunched in texture. The bottom edge is still on a long knitting needle, with a couple dozen stitch markers separating every feather repeat. Some of the markers are shaped like birds, and there is a silver spinning wheel charm and a blue sheep as well.
April 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Here's what I'm knitting Saturday for the @knitforfood.bsky.social knitathon. Top row is a handspun gradient from @fossilfibers.bsky.social , a Wingspan shawl. Bottom left is Hedgehog Fibers sock yarn for socks. Bottom right is handspun for a hat.

Check my pinned post to donate to the charities!
Six cakes of yarn sitting on a chair. Top row is a gradient from one orange cake, to a yellow orange, to a yellow green, to a green. Bottom left is sock yarn in purple with spots of highlighter yellow orange and pink. Bottom right is chunky yarn in neon rainbow colors with grey in between each repeat.
April 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I'm successfully weaving! This vintage loom is functional but still finicky. I have ideas of how to improve it but will need to finish this 3 yd warp first. This cotton twill will either be a scarf or cut into face cloths, depending on how it wet finishes. #weaving #loom #slowcraft
A piece of weaving in stripes of light green, grey, and blue, still on the loom. The shed is open and a blue plastic shuttle is halfway through it, barely fitting between raised and lowered warp threads. 8/4 cotton for warp and weft, and a 2x2 twill for my pattern. The width of the cloth is a little under 8 inches, while the vintage loom has a weaving width of around 20 inches. Another view of the weaving on the loom, this time advanced a couple inches with green, grey, and blue weft (horizontal) stripes. The warp (vertical) stripes are more visible from this angle. You can see the four levers below the cloth beam that control the raising of the warp threads. A further drawn back view, showing the whole loom and the messy but cozy scene in my craft room. An electric drill has an attachment for winding bobbins of yarn for the shuttle. Shelves hold books, craft supplies, and (artificial) plants and candles. There is abstract art (painted by me with natural dyes) hanging from a string that is strung with a rainbow of felt balls.
March 27, 2025 at 7:59 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I must be crazy, because I just signed up for a knitathon for charity. I will knit, spin, and weave for 12 hours (with breaks). I plan to post updates to socials and also do a video chat for donors on Discord. I only have a couple weeks to fundraise, so please share!

givebutter.com/knitforfood2...
"The fifth annual KNIT FOR FOOD KNIT-A-THON 04-05-25 PROCEEDS WILL NE EQUALLY DIVIDED BETWEEN THESE FOUR ORGANIZATIONS FEEDING AMERICA World Central Kitchen TEAM NO KID HUNGRY Meals on Wheels America"
March 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Oh wow, that worked. I found this idea on Pinterest, and wasn't sure it would be sturdy enough, but with strong clamps and not too much tension on the warp, it's a worthwhile hack. Admittedly I'm not sure how much the clamps I found in Dad's garage originally cost, so ymmv. #weaving
A bookshelf with various books, a few DVDs, and some knickknacks. Carpentry clamps affix six sturdy dowels to the shelves. Four along one shelf, and two at either end of the shelf below. A layer of fine cotton yarn in muted shades of green blue and grey is wound around the pegs in a Z pattern, crossing over and under the upper middle pegs. A top down view of a vintage four shaft table loom, half dressed with a new warp. Strands of grey green and blue cotton yarn are threaded individually through the teeth of the reed, with a weaving width of around eight inches. Only eight of the eighty four strands have been threaded through the wire heddles behind the reed.
March 16, 2025 at 7:47 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
For the past few weeks, I've been refurbishing this vintage loom I got from a neighbor. Stripping rust, adjusting mechanisms, and replacing the reed (which only barely fits, note the gap on the top beater bar) Next I will make new aprons for it, with canvas from Joann (RIP) #weaving
A vintage four shaft table loom about two feet wide, with a blue plastic shuttle and a heddle hook resting on the front beam. On the table in front is a power drill with an attachment with a shuttle bobbin on it, so I can wind the bobbins quickly.
March 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Allison T
woolybirdstudio.bsky.social
Whimsical linden tree seed pods depicted in multimedia fiber art — pin loom weaving, hooking, embroidery.

#fiberart #pinloomweaving #rughooking #art
Rectangular fiber art of a hand-woven background fabric in green, red-violet, and yellow-orange variegated wool yarn with hooked and embroidered motif of two linden tree seed pods in off white colors. The border is chain-stitched in the same yarn as the weaving. The dried seed pods are laying beside the fiber art.
February 23, 2025 at 9:04 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
This yarn took over two months to spin, and it was worth it! There is a second tiny skein of yarn from the remnants of the second and third bobbins, with more solid stripes because it's partially chain ply. No, idk what I'm making with it, lol.

@fossilfibers.bsky.social dyed this Polwarth wool.
My hand holds a chunky twisted skein of very fine yarn. The individual strands are about what knitters call light fingering weight, in a three ply. The colors are deep green, blue, burgundy, and pink, all twisted together for a marled/barber pole effect. It is so very soft and squishy.
February 23, 2025 at 6:54 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I finished my third bobbin last night, so it's time to ply the singles into one fine yarn. I expect this Polwarth wool to poof up during wet finishing, so what looks like a lace weight yarn will probably be fingering weight. Very pleased with my consistency so far! Dyed by @fossilfibers.bsky.social
A wooden lazy Kate holds three plastic bobbins with single ply yarn in shades of green, pink, and red. A tag next to it says: "Home, 4oz. Materials: Fine Polwarth. Thank you and enjoy! For more find us at www.fossilfibers.com" In the background are three of my mother's oil paintings: two of her dogs, and one of the benches and trees in Central Park. A strand of yarn runs across my fingertip. It is three-ply, marled or "barber pole," with dark red, light green, and white plies. I'd estimate that it looks like a lace weight yarn under tension, but expect it will poof up to fingering weight when wet finished. A blue bobbin with a layer of three ply yarn wound on it. At one end the yarn is all red, but more pink and then green fades into it as the plied singles change color
February 16, 2025 at 3:44 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Whew. Finally finished the second of three plies for this Polwarth wool fractal spin. I started the third this morning but didn't take a picture before it was time for work. I love spinning fine singles, which is good, because it's taking forever! #spinningyarn #wool #yarn
Two plastic bobbins of freshly spun yarn singles. The one above shows a long gradient from dark teal to white to dark red. The one below shows shorter stripes in the same colors. The spinning is very fine.
January 30, 2025 at 5:31 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Sunshine was being very sweet the other day. She is a sun conure parrot and probably around ten years old. (Video intentionally mute because I was saying silly baby talk to her)
January 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I treated myself to a new game. This is A Mending by Shing Yin Khor, a solo role-playing game. I'm on a journey to visit an old friend, and I stitch my path into this map. For every square, I draw a card and answer a prompt that illuminates the journey or my relationship with my friend. I love it!
An embroidery hoop holds part of a sketched map printed on fabric. There is a meandering line of black handspun yarn stitched down on it. At the start of the path is a large green stone bead. An angular reddish stone is stitched an inch to the right. Half an inch below is a tiny golden bead. My hand holds a playing card below the stitching with the text: "A LOCK You cut a lock of hair from your own head, to give to your friend. To remember you by. But, you did not give it to them before they left. WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE THE LOCK OF HAIR TO YOUR FRIEND? If you have it and can spare it, attach a small lock of your own hair to your map, (or represent it with a few pieces of thread"
January 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Finished four out of five knitted lace bookmarks! The two on the right are already received and appreciated, the left two are in the mail. One more is off the needles but not finished, and will be a gift for my mother.

Patterns are by Utlinde.

#lace #knitting
Four white lace bookmarks, each finished with beads and a tassel. One gas a tulip motif and red silver and black beads. The next is like a large leaf, with blue beads, and the next is like snow drop flowers with pink beads. The last is another tulip, though smaller, with purple beads. They are on a background of a knitted lace shawl in shades of purple and green.
December 17, 2024 at 4:03 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Baby really wanted the treat I was holding next to my phone! (And she got it, of course)
A tan dog, Chihuahua-like but somewhat larger, with a greying muzzle and cataracts, stares intently just to the left of the camera.
December 4, 2024 at 2:19 AM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I finished the bookmark, after frogging the first fifty-ish rows, and it is now blocked, starched, and tasseled. I think it's very pretty, and will make a nice gift for someone. Might knit this designer's other bookmark pattern next.
#knitting #laceknitting #bookmark
My hand is holding a white, knitted lace bookmark against a dark green monstera leaf. The bookmark tapers to a point at the top, and comes to a more blunt point at the base where a tassel threaded with small blue beads hangs.
November 29, 2024 at 11:39 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Started a new project. This bookmark will probably only be five or six inches, not including the tassel I'll make at the end. 1.5 mm needles. Silk thread. It's fiddly as hell, but the results are delicate and pretty. Pattern is Kunststricklesezeichen Lace Bookmark by Utlinde. Ok, back to #knitting
Two of my fingers hold a tiny triangle of delicate knitted white lace taut on 1.5 millimeter needles.
November 26, 2024 at 4:38 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I didn't get to go to the Renaissance Faire this season, so this morning before work I had a silly whim and played dress-up for a little while. I have to say: why in the world are cloaks not a thing?? I wish I were cool enough not to care about being stared at; I would wear this everywhere.
A gif of me spinning and swirling in a colorful costume. My long cloak is a deep purple, my blue-green overdress has a laced up bodice and an embroidered belt, and the chemise is light grey with long flowy sleeves.
November 21, 2024 at 10:10 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I treated myself to a fancy hardcover edition of a book I've been meaning to read for ages now. I really enjoyed The Magicians TV series, and I am all about the trend of sprayed edges in books. It feels special! Now I just need to finish like five books before I get to read this one, lol.

#tbr
A hardback book: "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. Off white cover with red and blue foil motifs of the phases of the moon and a moth. The endpaper of the book depicts a black and white hand drawn map of the fantasy realm of Fillory. The edges of the pages are sprayed blue with white stars.
November 21, 2024 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Allison T
grapiedeltaco.bsky.social
“What radicalized you?” Bro I was told to treat people the way I would want to be treated in kindergarten and it made sense idk what else there is to say
November 19, 2024 at 3:56 AM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I'm not 100 percent satisfied with this yarn, but it is nice and squishy, and will make a fine hat. Baby says I should just be happy I'm finishing projects and not be so hard on myself. 😅
I hold a large skein of marled yarn - hot pink and blue marled with white. The skein is a little messy. To an experienced eye the yarn looks a bit under plied, but very fluffy. My Majacraft little gem spinning wheel is in the background. A tan dog looks at the camera from her fluffy grey bed. She looks part Chihuahua, and has a derpy expression with her tongue sticking out. Her green collar has a big pink flower on it.
November 19, 2024 at 4:10 PM