ozweaver – Page 108

>A Productive Week

February 6, 2009 | 3 Comments

>It’s been a good week here! Wish I could say that more often. Both tapestries are showing progress, even if it is very slight!

My biggest thrill this week was dyeing without anyone holding my hand, and being pleased with
the outcome! This is quite a hurdle for me.

So, first is the green: I took two skeins of my weld-dyed handspun (a romney that I spun for tapestry) and overdyed it with my indigo. I made the indigo vat with a friend over two years ago. We dyed one day and the vat has sat ‘idle’ ever since. I re-constituted it with soda ash and thio-urea. The weld skeins were dipped twice for 10 minutes with a 30 minute rest in between.

The lovely blue silk was dipped three times for 10 minutes each, with a 30 minute rest between. I thought I would have gotten a deeper blue, but I’m pleased because this shade will be lovely for enhancing the edge of the pink shawl which has lain dormant since about Sept….because I needed to come up with something to finish the edging!

I’ve made great progess on knitting the ‘Cardi for Arwen,’ but I feel that needs its own post, so I’ll save that for now.

The days are definitely longer! I’m waking earlier and feeling more energy! The sun is higher in the sky, and in spite of another bitterly cold week, I can tell the sun is stronger.

>By dribs and drabs

January 30, 2009 | 4 Comments

>Slow progress on numerous things. I can never decide what to work on first….

You probably cannot imagine my excitement over weaving the first lens of Rob’s sunglasses! I doubt you can even tell in this photo! Even looking at the real tapestry, my husband could not quite tell what it is, but I know turned out well.

And this little project is probably my favorite right now. Quite addicting….

Something doled out in miserly amounts is provided in “dribs and drabs.” A drib is a smaller relative of a dribble. Nobody seems to be sure what a drab is in this sense, except that it’s a tiny bit larger than a drib.

>Doodling

January 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

>
Just some things I’ve been puttering with, having fun, when I don’t face the more serious tasks at hand (like tapestry!)….

This is the original ‘Carriage Driver’s glove’ from the Shetland Museum photo archives, which is worth all the words in the directions that don’t tell you why you are turning the hand inside out to cast-on along the original cast-on edge to begin knitting the other direction! Turns out they are gloves with fingerless mitts attached to give an extra layer of warmth, or to give a little extra protection from horse reins…or something. Anyway, I could not figure out why I was casting on to the wrist edge of my glove and knitting the other direction. I’ve decided I don’t want double layer gloves anyway, so I’ve just gone on to the fingers! One done!

This little pearl bracelet was the outcome of my January local guild meeting. It’s a technique called ‘right angle weave’ and very quick to do with large pearls. It used most of one strand of pearls and was done in less than two hours! I wore it the next day! Total instant gratification!

>The Long Haul

January 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

>Well, the long haul of winter starts now for me. It’s time to take down the holiday decorations, which actually should have been done already….
I finished these mitts some time ago, but never photographed them. I’ve enjoyed driving with them on since they allow me to deal with delicate operations like answering my hands-free or digging in my purse for a lipstick!

Here is little Zoe’s cap. I wanted to make a bonnet for her (she is the baby of my younger son’s long time friend), but decided on this little cap with ear flaps. The yarn is mostly angora, and the colors are fun! I’ll deliver it to Chris tomorrow, and he’ll give it to her over the weekend.

One of my birthday presents was a kit for these gloves called “Carriage Driver Gloves” from the Shetland Textile Collection. So far they are fun to knit, perhaps addictive is more accurate! I wonder if I’ll still say that when I’m doing the fingers. They are my first attempt at gloves. Thank you, Lesley!

I ordered seeds yesterday. That too, should have been done already. I’ve given up on veggies in the garden due to a family of groundhogs that has lived under my front porch for several years now. In fact, I’m starting to give up on numerous flowers as well. We used to live in harmony with the groundhogs, deer, and rabbits, but the past two summers they have taken more than I was willing to share. It’s becoming a drag… Anyway, this year, I plan to grow a few veggies in pots in the greenhouse. It has a shade cloth and evaporative cooler in the summer, so I will give lettuce, tomatoes and ancho peppers a try.