I meant to go to the studio….I didn’t make it (again). Since most of my supplies are there I got to root around for yarn to put something together. Mostly single ply handspun combined with a sweet little velvet wool.
I’m always talking about how lofty and soft the BFL is, and I’m not taking that back today. I wore this hat around the house for a while. A scarflette, something chunky??? Back to the yarn baskets to see what I can find.
on a Friday afternoon…..Cruising….Birkeland and I once again greeted another cruise load of craftastic women. The shift was a bit different this time. As well as a carding and spinning demo, we also had a great talk on design outside the box.
Freeform crochet, or in my terms “Intuitive Design” comes from many places and inspirations. I am breaking away from “free form” as that seems to fall more into the category of piecework, intricate and detailed, scrumbled and boullioned. My work is almost entirely my own yarns (hand dyed and/or hand spun) wool to tell my textural story.
I had a half finished hat in hand yesterday, tales to tell and today I could not stop working. The fibre flew through my fingers..
I was swirling with a vintage hat design that would incorporate, my navajo plied handspun, the baby alpaca, merino sock yarn, hand dyed wool and silk. I’m so pleased with the result.
From this I jumped to my summer yellow scarf that I was working on earlier in the week and turned it upside down, sideways and anyway other than standard scarf.
Not necessarily to be worn together. Don’t call the fashion police please…..But this is how I work, beat a theme or idea to death. I’m still not quite done with this, but I feel that something magical happened while I stayed home, enjoyed a nice dark chocolate mocha and watched Dr. Who.
Still some details to work out….but I think I have an idea for a new hat. I’m sure there is at least one skein of hand spun hanging around this place.
I have never really been a fan of yellow, but this combination of yellow is so lovely. A blend of dijon mustard, butter, marzipan, daffodils —yes, primarily food references, but oh, the colour has me filled with happy.
No matter how gray the sky is today, I have this warm sunny knitting to keep me company. The yarn is a Fleece Artist sock yarn that I picked up at Beehive Yarns in Victoria. I’ve had it for over 2 years. It’s amazing how long something can stay ignored in your stash. But eventually, like all good yarns, it will find it’s project.
The market season has begun. Kitsilano was a blast yesterday with great neighbours (Joan), customers and the weather held out until tear down. There were even a few moments of sun poking through the clouds.
It was so great to have friends hanging with me the whole day and it reminded me how much I missed the markets.
I had to do the quickest tear down ever so that we could make it from the market to Birkeland where Cara, Pearl and I entertained a craft cruise group of knitters at the yarn shop. These folks love their fibre. It was a crazy time with Cara running the carder and me doing a spinning demo and talking about my own obsession with fibre.
The whole crew headed down to Monk McQueens for a great dinner with an even better view. I think I dreamt about my dessert last night, which is the first time that I dreamt of food rather than wool.
Banana bread with a chocolate gelato that had ribbons of peanut butter in it, with a fried banana and honey on the side. Yes, heaven will be filled with wool and this dessert.
Wow, an entire week since my last post. Where has my head been? I hope everyone had a great long weekend. My week was filled with knitterly pursuits and a lot of project finishing. No startitis for me.
First things first. I finished my knit mannequin cover in my own handspun. This top down pattern was a slightly modified version of Year of the Goat’s top down sleeveless tunic. It was yummy to use my own handspun for this….Now as for keeping it clean during market season, we’ll see. I’m just hoping not to spill coffee on it at some point.
Next project off the needles was just playing with some handspun. I carded silk, silk noil, alpaca, BFL, merino and a bit of angelina and spun a low twist single so I could make this.
No pattern, just a straight feather and fan stitch. It was perfect for the handspun and I will be carding a lot more of these batts. Silk noil bits are the most wonderful spinning surprise.
My friend Kim was working on a great hat pattern that just intrigued me from Wooley WormHead. This slouchy beret also comes in a larger Rasta Version. I stopped here as I already feel there is too much hat going on. The handspun is a 2ply worsted weight merino in pinks and browns that I dyed and spun. I enjoyed the sideways construction and wrap stitches which made knit up in a flash.
It’s been a rough couple of days and I haven’t been to the studio. I’m at home taking care of business and really feeling a bit overwhelmed. Incredibly grateful for the life John and I have together, I know that with him, we can get through just about anything.
I was going through some photos (as I don’t have much fibre at home anymore) and was amazed at how calming this was….
Ah, wool, glorious wool. Hopefully in a few days things will be back on track. I miss posting, but I can’t justify the luxury of blogging right now.