NWRSA report

I've been gone for close to a week. I went to the NWRSA spinning conference up in Tacoma, WA. with some of my fiber buddies. We shopped and ate our way up and back which was very fun. Conference was great although a bit of a challenge due to construction at the University of Puget Sound where it was held and where we stayed in the dorms. I loved it but was very glad to be pulling back into my own drive yesterday afternoon. Sorry, no pix - I had plans of taking pictures along the way to post here but once I forgot to take a picture at our first stop at Bronx Bagel for breakfast it went downhill from there....some people love to take photos, I'm not one of them, I rather experience it than worry about a camera.

I made some fun crocheted owls to give to some fellow spinners while at conference. I still have some left so they may become package toppers. The pattern for these can be found on Ravelry, they're called Owl Keychain Pattern. They're very fun and addictive to crochet.

This is what I started spinning at conference while sitting in the spinning circle. It's from the rolags I made on my blending board a couple weeks ago. I'm curious to see how it will eventually looked plied. I have no idea what the handspun will grow up to be when finished.

Time to get back to weaving - hoping to warp the loom tomorrow........

Magic yarn ball

I got this fun gift from a dear friend. She made a magic yarn ball. Start using the ball of yarn from the outside in and find treasures.

Here's the first treasure to fall out - a cute bee button

 

There's a little flower button peeking out from the ball

 

Another flower peeking through but this one is pink

 

Here's everything found in the ball - lots of fun buttons and a bee hive in the center.  What I was crocheting wasn't going to use the entire ball so I took liberties leaving a few colors out - I'll use them in a future project. The crocheted project - The Artfully Simple Infinity Scarf which can be found fro free on Ravelry. Mine still needs blocking (maybe) it will be a great neck warmer, it can be worn around the neck as is or doubled up as a cowl. Now to find a fun project to use the buttons for.......

What a fun gift - I'm going to use this idea for a gift in the future.

Progress......

I'm making some progress on my very long to-do list in spite of being out of the house too much lately.......of course this is the list that only covers things that need to be done within the next few weeks, the other list has been set aside and continues to grow in length.

Today I worked on our holiday cards, they're all put together, the weaving is a name draft using the words 'happy holidays'. I still need to print the insert and return address labels which will both have a picture of the weaving on them. Unfortunately the blue cardstock didn't photograph well, it's really not that blue, it matches the blue in the weaving fairly well.

And some crocheting yesterday evening, more this evening.........a project I've been wanting to try but can't reveal at the moment since the first ones will be for a friend......then I'll make more for myself. Will reveal it in a few weeks.........

Hoping later this week to spend some time at the embroidery machine and sewing machine - then most of the holiday gift making will be finished.  I need to plan a baby blanket soon for a gift - I haven't made any in years......used to sell a tremendous number of them but grew bored with weaving them so gave it up......will be fun to plan and work on that project - not needed until mid-January but better to get it done now, I'm not a good last minute worker.  Oh yes, almost forgot I've got a huge Ashland Bay roving order to deal with........been good with ignoring those gigantic boxes so far........need to deal with it before I place the next order.....

Nani slippers

These are Nani slippers - my Italian grandmother used to make these for everyone in the family - they're crocheted using Red Heart yarn. Everyone had them and treasured them. Nani has been gone for around 15 years now so Nani slippers have all worn out but my cousin Jim found these in his mother's things and he passed them on to me last Christmas.........no, they haven't been worn yet, haven't been able to as they're probably the last Nani slippers in existence but I will this winter. Nani lived next door to me growing up and took care of me while my folks worked - she taught me how to crochet, embroider, sew, cook, bake, make sausage, pasta and probably everything else I know how to do these days with the exception of weaving, spinning and knitting.

We spent the past 5 days on the coast escaping the heat and doing a little work in the kitchen at the beach cottage.....well, actually Sam did a little a lot of work in the kitchen. Friday was spent getting the old dishwasher and stove out - what a production since they weren't installed/wired/plumbed correctly. I was so happy to get rid of them - the dishwasher sounded like a jet engine, the sound couldn't be escaped anywhere in the house or even out in the yard - this new one is so quiet we can sit in the living room (8 ft away) and hear the tv without even turning the sound up. And that old Jenn-air downdraft range couldn't be de-scummed even with sandblasting. Love this new simple smooth top range.....installing this was a challenge too because of previous wiring issues. There's still lots of work to do in the kitchen - I have to paint all the cabinets but that has to wait until we figure out countertop color - yesterday I found that to be overwhelming after bringing home samples. New flooring will eventually come but that will be last.

And this is the crowning glory of the kitchen right now. I saw sliding spice racks online and decided it was the perfect use for this skinny cabinet only most of them were too tall including the drawer space above or way too expensive as in close to $200 just for the sliding device and shelves. So, Sam bought the drawer slides and made this for me..........all for around $15.  I love it. I showed him the other skinny cabinet and a big deep cabinet on the dining room side of this peninsula so he can make sliding drawers for those too.

odds & ends......

....that's how today is being spent....on odds & ends.....got the blocking done earlier, crocheted mesh scarf is now dry and looks great, shawl is still drying.....

I planned the next warp to go on the loom, black tencel for twill scarves but I never made it to the warping board. Instead I pulled out the Weave It which I've never used but bought several years back after reading an article in Piecework on the caretaker of the Cape May Point Lighthouse making an afghan using these little squares. I loved the look of it, especially since she felted it after sewing them all together. I have a history with Cape May Point - I spent summers there while growing up at the family beach house. So I had to weave up a sample square so I'd know how much yardage I would need for each so I can pick up wool or spin it for a future afghan. I thought it would be a fun project to leave over at the beach cottage to work on here and there. The Weave It on the right is an original - it belonged to my aunt, it came complete with a number of finished squares in acrylic yarn. A real funny thing about this is that this is about as simple as it gets for weaving.....and yet I'm waiting for my AVL 40 harness loom to be built.....what extremes I enjoy.

Next was crocheting up a granny square which I then ripped out to figure out how much yardage is needed for each one.....want to make an old fashioned granny square afghan too. Now I'm armed with all that information. My sample used Cascade 220 which is what I'll use for the afghan too....will watch for a sale and pick out beach glass colors.

Then I wound the skeins in my earlier post this morning into balls and found a project to start using that handspun, the Clementine Shawlette from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. Not sure how it will look with my multi-colored handspun, if I don't like it I'll rip it out and find another pattern to use.

Hmm, what should I work on now.........

Crocheted scarf in progress....

I don't crochet very often but it's really the first playing with yarn I had ever done, my grandmother taught me when I was very young, she left-handed, started the project, handed it to me and somehow I learned right-handed. This scarf is called the Crocheted Mesh Scarf by Heidi Hirtle. I saw a scarf like this but then couldn't find where that was so I went looking on Ravelry for something similar, this is a free pattern. I'm using her basic instructions but have changed the width of mine and will continue crocheting for a much longer scarf than hers. Unfortunately the picture doesn't do my handspun justice, it's got lots of deep purple and orange in it, spun from a corriedale cross hand-dyed roving. When blocked these will be nice orderly little rectangular windows, not skewed like it looks in progress.

A beautiful spring day.......finally......

I tried to get pictures of the hummingbirds as they landed on the feeder today, pictures are just so-so but I thought I'd share them anyhow. The picture of the one sitting on the oak tree branch is not very clear at all, it was very far away but it caught the beautiful color of his throat - Sam took that picture. For the pix at the feeder I was sitting just 4 feet away, both Bailey and I can be very still and quiet as to not bother the birds - they dive bomb us if we're too noisy.

So, today I got a bit done that I'd be waiting for the weather to warm up to do. I washed the two chenille throws and let them dry over towels hanging over the deck railing (no pix). I washed and blocked the crocheted shawl made from my garden party handspun. I also washed the handwoven recycled bag fabric (no pix) - still need to work on the inkle band though so not ready to sew it together yet. And I did do a tiny bit of weaving - a few more samples on the warp from the summer and winter workshop. The red/black/white is two color dukagang. And the asian symbol for happiness was done in dukagang pickup. Am hoping to find some time tomorrow to play with more sampling on that warp.

Crocheted Shawl

Late yesterday afternoon while watching men's curling (congrats Canada!!!) I started a crocheted shawl using my garden party handspun. This is how it looks folded in half - I'm actually crocheting in a circle at the moment but folded it over for the picture since that's how it will eventually look. Once I reach 12" folded (at around 8" now) I start on the lacy shell bottom section of the shawl. I've crocheted this pattern once before out of my handspun using a beautiful variegated pastel colorway, it was a gift for my mother but I had never gotten around to making one for myself. This yarn will be perfect for wearing with denim. The nice thing about this shawl is that it actually hugs the shoulders so no readjusting to keep it there. If anyone is interested the pattern is in the Spring 2007 issue of Spin-Off Magazine with an article on it's history - it's called the Four Generation Shawl.