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
Lol, thanks for the answer!
June 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
aratingaz.bsky.social
But what was the joke? 👀
June 6, 2025 at 3:00 AM
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
Oh no! What a bummer for your birthday (fb told me so I came here to wish you well) I hope you can at least taste your birthday cake.
April 28, 2025 at 12:54 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
Wow, look at that! It must be so smooshy to step on. What a fun project!
April 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Ouch, those things are so sharp. Highly recommend little leather finger cots.
March 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I'm fascinated! I'm going to ask the question that every yarn-maker dreads answering. What will you make with it? For me, I don't always have a project in mind, I just like making the yarn. But I've never tried such a novel technique!
March 28, 2025 at 1:08 AM
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
Wow! Now that's a warp!
March 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
My next diy is probably a raddle. I'm warping front to back this time, but if I want to use a more fragile handspun, I want to avoid having that go through my wire heddles twice, so back to front is preferred, right?

Also lease sticks. I made cardboard slats this time and they were not well done. 😅
March 16, 2025 at 7:54 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
Yes, there are levers below the front beam. This loom was built by Jules Clement in Canada, probably in the seventies. It is so heavy! My neighbor kept it on an enclosed patio so a lot of bits rusted. That was not fun to clean! Just hoping I get decent function.
March 11, 2025 at 12:01 PM
aratingaz.bsky.social
I'm just hoping, after all this work, that I can get a clean shed. Fully depressed, the levers raise the harnesses pretty high, but when you release pressure they lock at a lower orientation, so there's not a huge difference in the up and down positions. But at least they're locking now!
March 10, 2025 at 6:11 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
aratingaz.bsky.social
We want to keep the spin in our yarn, not the weather!
March 5, 2025 at 3:57 AM
aratingaz.bsky.social
Stay safe! I'm in Montgomery. Not spinning at the moment, but it'll keep me sane tomorrow if power goes out. Now if I can just get this poor dog to settle...
March 5, 2025 at 3:14 AM
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
Spinning and dyeing the yarn yourself is a lot of fun! I even have a couple knitted accessories that started as unwashed fiber. And once I helped shear an alpaca! The washing and prepping is less fun than spinning but very rewarding.
February 23, 2025 at 8:31 PM