Finishing a homegrown cloak

 Winter has been a bit meh this year.  A bit of a health setback before the Holidays and the only game we get to play on the farm is catch-up.

I've also been working away on several projects and finishing almost none of them.  

But finally, I got one done!  Just in time for (what I hope is) the last snowfall of the year. 

If you like the video, please pop over to youtube and leave a like or even a comment as it helps me out tremendously.  

And here is the full playlist that takes us from sheep to finished cloak!

I enjoyed this project.  It's the first time I've made something from sheep to clothing that feels like a quality garment.  What's more, it's a sheep from my farm!  One that I feed every day and who loves cuddles.  

In a lot of ways I've gained confidence.  I understand better how the yarn behaves in the woven cloth and that I can actually make something from scratch.  I also understand why a more historically accurate cloth would involve a lot more people: a shepherd, weaver, spinner, seamstress, etc. It seems almost that I lose as much as I gain doing each step myself.  

One of the things I worry about is this sets the bar too high.  Both for me and for viewers.  

There's no need to do every step ourselves.  I did it because I was curious if I could and I'm a cheap little chicken who can't always afford to buy the cloth I want to work with.  Even in this project, I combined modern cloth with traditional methods.  Add growing, spinning, and weaving the lining to the mix and I would need another year or three to get it done.  But even then, I don't think it would have been as good for the cloak as the lining I choose.  

It's about learning from history instead of trying to reproduce it.  What can I learn from the past and how can I incorporate it in my life today.  There's no shame in it.  There's no shame if a future project has bought yarn or I go to the shop and buy fabric.  And yet, it's a nagging worry that I now need to progress to better and better things, especially on my youtube journey.  That's not the path I want to take.  I want to make projects that fill me with joy, and sometimes that means buying yarn.  Sometimes it means spinning it.  

Sometimes there won't be any yarn involved at all.  

Most of all, I'm happy with the improvement in my video-making skills.  I'm getting better at what to film and what to leave out.  My voiceover confidence is improving.  I'm still seeking a balance between showing enough for the technically curious and keeping the story moving, but on the whole, I've moved up a notch and am now about 11% of the filmmaker I want to become.  

Sewing a homegrown cloak - Mood winterberry cloak pattern

Wow, I may have just jumped the shark here, but I did it.  I made a cloak, entirely by hand, using traditional methods, from sheep to finished clothing!

For those of you new to the adventure, you can catch the full playlist here.

Basically, I gave in to peer pressure and put my life on hold to make this cloak.  It turned out amazing, but I still have a lot of work to do to finish it up.  Something to keep me busy this winter.

I want to talk about the pattern because the video was long and I edited that bit out.  Also I don't really feel qualified to assess a sewing pattern as a complete N00b!

Weaving a homegrown cape - #CAPEtember2022

Woot!  I made cloth!

It's yardage now and it is more beautiful than I could have expected.  The weaving took longer than I had hoped.  I think that's because I rushed through the spinning so quickly that I didn't get as consistent a yarn as I prefer.  

I'm a fairly good weaver but I do have my comfort zone and this wasn't in it.  

Because... does one have to have a reason?

 

Actually, there is a pretty good reason.  I wanted to understand how circle cloaks work so I made some tiny mockups.  And since the only thing I have that resembles a doll are these chickens... 

So what did I learn?  

Spinning a homegrown cape - #CAPEtember2022

 

Well, it has begun.

I'm actually doing this.  I'm going to attempt to make a cloak, from raw wool, in one month.  That's spinning, weaving, and sewing.

And on top of that, I'm making videos about each step - which more than doubles the time everything takes.

This might not be the smartest decision I ever made, but it's going to be a fun adventure.

So, without more preamble (because my spellcheck won't let me put 'preramble' as in the rambling on of words before the thing), I bring you SPINNING!

Cancel Everything - I'm doing CAPETember!

#CAPEtember #CAPEtember2022

Don't ask me why... Okay, you can ask me why but I'll probably mumble "I don-no" and change the subject to "isn't that pretty yarn?"

For some reason, I am filled with the belief that my life will be infinitely better if I own a cloak.

(or possibly cape, I haven't figured this part out yet - I figure cloaks are longer but this might just be something I made up in my head)

So I'm going to drop all my other projects and make a cloak.  By "make" I mean I'm going to go outside and ask my sheep for some wool then spin, weave, and sew a cloak.

But to make things even more challenging, I'm going to do it in a month.  This month.  The month of September, in this year, 2022.  

Um... this sleep thing they keep talking about.  That's optional, right?

I have no idea if I can do this.  It's a lot more than I've ever attempted before.  On top of that, I'm still on the mend from my surgery.  This might not go well.  

Full disclosure, I have some of the yarn spun already.  Probably not enough to make much difference.

So it's going to be a challenge.  Especially because I hope to also make some videos about this journey which makes everything take twice as long.  

Wish me luck!