Stunning

My incredibly talented mother-in-law finished her needlepoint box.   Each side is a masterpiece of organization, execution, and artistry.   I had no idea you could do so much with needlework!

an ode to ikea

My latest project:  redoing my craft room, a la Ikea.  Look at my wall of yarn!  It makes me so happy just looking at it.  Before, I would sit on my couch and get stressed out by all the clutter.  Now there still is clutter, but it is contained.  And now I have all my books within easy reach.

This is the sewing corner.  Check out the fabric bolts, the same ones I discussed in an earlier post.

I uncovered some old sumi-e sketches that I did in a class back in Seattle.  Makes me want to take it again.  That big swath of pretty fabric is just pinned up there, no hemming or finishing.

mark my words

My latest addition to the craft distraction armamentarium:  a set of metal letter stamps.  

I wanted to make plant markers that would last year after year.  Last year I tried getting some silverware at a thrift store and writing on the handles with a sharpie.  However, sharpies wash off in the rain.

Then I learned that hammering stamps onto stainless steel doesn't work at all.  

My next door neighbor has been selling a lot of small antique-y things that she inherited, mostly jewelry and small things.  One thing she hasn't been able to sell well is silverware.  There's a lot of cute stuff, but it's all silver, which nobody uses anymore because who wants to spend the time polishing.

But silver is eminently stampable.

Hammering the spoons flat is a little tricky.  This spoon was a jelly spoon or something like that and was already mostly flat.  The small knives work really well because they don't even need hammering.

To make the letters dark, you color over the letter with a sharpie and then sand it off while it's still wet.  The color remains in the valleys of the stamped letter.  The "basil" is a little smudgier because that spoon is a little softer, and so the letters stamped more deeply, and thus was a little trickier to sand away.

So fun!  And now I can make markers for any and all of the plants and herbs I am planting this year.

Ruffle madness

The new fun yarn at Stitches last year.  One skein!  It's a ribbony yarn - you stretch it out, wrap it around a cardboard tube, and then knit into the edge.  So easy, fast, and gratifying.  This was a birthday present for a friend living in a sunny clime. 

Yarn:  Acacia Yarns, Flamenco

Pattern:  8 garter stitches

Needle size - doesn't really matter.  I think I used something around a 10.

The End of the Beginning

Took my Kessenich floor loom out for a test drive today. Whee! After fixing several errors, I think the threading is finally right.

I still need to adjust the tie-up to get a bigger shed, but after that I can finally get started on my first towels!

i have attained SABLE

Stash
Accumulation
Beyond
Life
Expectancy

Major revamping of my craft space going on right now;  am purging clutter and stuff I don't use.   Including yarn.  It has been an exercise in trying not to be attached to stuff.  For me, yarn is especially hard to get rid of.  Part of what I love about buying yarn is all the hope and potential it possesses.  Sometimes the dream of the potential of the yarn is better than the finished object.   So parting with yarn is a little like parting with some of my dreams.   Don't get sad though - I'm making room for more!  In the sense that with less clutter and quantity, my existing dreams have room the breathe and actually take shape and happen.  That's the idea, at any rate.

I would do well to heed the advice of this blog.  I love this cartoon from it.

yarn souffle

Back away, Dixie!  This soufflé is not for you!

Look Win, I finally made these mittens!  Remember I bought the yarn with you on the "yarn crawl" when you were here for Stitches in August? 

The weather has been unseasonably warm, providing poor incentive to knit winter accessories.  It was chilly before Christmas, don't get me wrong, but then there was Christmas knitting to do.  I've been working on a couple of other things but they've just been taking so long, so I picked this up as a "knitting quickie."  Fast and gratifying :)   I almost finished one whole mitten during a single knit night with the girls.

The yarn is called "Souffle" which suits it well - light, airy, puffy bulky yarn.  It seems to be cabled instead of plied, which I am hoping will prevent pilling.  

Yarn:  Berroco Souffle

Needles:  size 11

Pattern:  Souffle mittens, provided by Montoya Fiber Studio