During the wire adhesion and rotational experiments, I awoke in the middle of the night wondering if the use of parallel wires would reduce wool rotation? Would parallel wires increase the likelihood of needle entrapment leading to breakage? How would the flexibility of the sample be affected by the use of parallel wire?  How would parallel wire compare to twisted wire of the same gauge? Am I not getting enough sleep since I seem to be dreaming about wire?

Since I had found the floral tape was helpful with adhesion and may reduce the entrapment of the needles I applied it to the twisted and one of the parallel samples.

Sample 3.1 twisted wire sample with floral tape compared to the parallel sample 3.2 with floral tape. Both are 10ga/3mm Aluminum.

1-5 Parallel vs Twisted, both with Floral tape

Sample 3.3 parallel, without floral tape also in 10ga/3mm Aluminum.

The second investigation on parallel wire, this time without the floral tape. Found that there was rotation in both the wire and wool. I used elastic on one end just to keep the wires together while the wool was wrapped.

6-7 Parallel without floral tape

The lack of adhesion to the wire allowed the wool to be compressed which was not seen in the other samples.

8-9 Wool compression along the length of wire.

I tried bending both with the wire stacked and adjacent. I found the Stacked was stiffer than adjacent.

10 Double bend with wire to investigate if the alignment of wire will make a difference in flexibility

11 Stacked (one wire on top of the other)

12 adjacent (one wire beside the other)

Would parallel wires reduce wool rotation?

• parallel bare wire, greatest rotation of the three samples
• twisted wire with floral tape, less than bare wire
• parallel wire with floral tape, least rotation of these samples

How would the flexibility of the sample be affected by the use of parallel wire?  

• parallel wire with floral tape, when stacked seemed the stiffest but still flexible.
• adjacent alignment of both parallel samples seem similar to the stiffness of the twisted sample

Would parallel wires increase the likelihood of needle entrapment leading to breakage?

I did not find the needle catching between the wires but I wrapped the wires when they were straight, not shaped so this may have reduced the likelihood of catching. I also suspect the wires with the floral tape would be less likely to catch than the bare mettle. If the wires are twisted loosely there is more opportunity for the needle to get caught in the looping sections. Only two samples may be too small a sample size to be definitive.

Being conscious of the working depth of your needle and not speed stabbing will also reduce your rate of breakage.

How would parallel wire compare to twisted wire of the same gauge? For these samples at this gauge, I found:

•  if taped the parallel gives less rotation of wool
• depending on the wire alignment at the bend, it can give either a similar or stiffer flexibility to the twisted wire
• if no tape is used and the sample section is straight, the wool can be compressed after wrapping.

The use of parallel wire may have an application depending on what you are creating. The ability to compress the wool along the length of the wire was interesting. I will keep it in mind but don’t have an application for it at present.

Dealing with the Pointy bits:

I found that the ends of the parallel samples were very pointy and sharp. To reduce this, I tried my rasp file to take off the point and then softened the edges with a metal nail file. This worked very well and maybe worth considering at least for the larger size wire.

13 Hardware Rasp and metal Nail file

Am I not getting enough sleep since I seem to be dreaming about wire?

• possibly not, so I am now thinking about a studio in the garage…… ah, renovations!

Thinking of the garage:

In case I have been over investigating the wire options for armatures I have turned my thoughts to another topic. Glenn is on holiday and we are still in lock down so have to stay home. Instead of heading off on a vacation, we went to the garage at the end of our driveway, the detached and sinking one. We have been wanting to sort through the stuff that is in there and then try to fix the sinking walls and aesthetically dipping and twisting roof (someone did not put in an adequate number of roof trusses…you should not skimp on roof trusses!).  We had been pulling gardening pots and other essential stuff out of the garage when we, (OK, Glenn is doing the lifting) started hearing odd noises from the back corner of the garage. It grew louder when I adjusted the sonic mouse deterrent. (It’s a plug-in high-frequency sound generator that is said to be offensive to mice and drive them out of an area. It only works in straight lines so if your area is well cluttered it does not work as well.)

14 Squatters trying to make a run for it!!!

On further investigation we found we had squatters living in the garage, three of them had taken over the ruff-tote bin with air mattresses in it!! Well, they need to be evicted!!! NOW! Not only are they not paying rent they have shredded a foam sleeping pad, cardboard and chewed at the roof decking (there is a tarp on the roof so the hole isn’t leaking).

15-16 Odd, I was sure we saw three of them in the bin originally.

Glenn went back in to start to clean up the mess but heard more noise from the corner and emerged with raccoon number three.

17 Oh no here is number three

OK, now he can clean up… and is that another one?

18 Number four is added to the bin.

While Glenn returned to clean up I gave them a thorough lecture about their eviction and that they were not welcome in the garden either. I am not sure if I was successful since they fell asleep as I was telling them they had been evicted and were not allowed back in the garage.

19 Well they don’t seem too stressed about being evicted if they are sleeping through my eviction lecture!

Back in the garage a fifth squatter was found unsuccessfully hiding behind the leg of the shelf they had been living on. (Hiding is not successful if we can see your butt on one side of the shelf leg and a paw on the other side!) After more moving of the stuff number five was evicted too.

20 eviction number five.

Glenn has not had the extensive hunting by hand experience that I had growing up (snakes, a soft-shelled mud turtle, frogs, crayfish, mice, moles, voles and a squirrel). Unfortunately, the mind remembers how, but the back is very insistent that I am not bending and reaching to catch a teen raccoon, at least not at the moment. Glenn’s more limited snake and feral cat experiences have been greatly augmented by the eviction of five raccoons. Neither Glenn nor the Evicttees seemed stressed by the experience.

21 There are now five teen raccoons in my air mattress bin!

By the time he had all of them out of the garage and done a check for alternate entry points and blocked them it was getting late in the day and the temperature was getting a bit chilly. I retrieved one of the lids and put it askew over the racoon-lets to keep them warm. (I may be Evil and have evicted them but I’m not totally heartless)

22-23 Glenn secured the perimeter and I added a lid for warmth until their Mom comes to collect them.

The next morning I went to check on the evicted and found the lid off and the bin only holding chewed-on air mattresses. My plastic owl was also knocked over. So we can report the eviction was a success, so far no one has tried to move back into the garage!

24 Successful extraction… now I think I should have kept one for the soft possibly feltable fur.

We have another week to keep sorting through and clearing the garage before Glenn is finished his vacation. Then it’s back to having fun with felt. I may yet find some raccoon fur to add to my felting since we still have more stuff to move and sort through.