Author name: ozweaver

>Aren’t unexpected gifts the best??

Well, this was actually expected, but I didn’t know when it would arrive or what it would be! This is what I received from the gift exchange of the Traditional Knitting yahoo group. The rules were we had to knit something using yarn from our stash.This kitchen towel with the loop and button on top is a style that was quite prevalent when I was a kid! My mother had a few, and both my grandmothers had a lot of them! It brings back memories of wonderful times in the kitchen with my grandmothers, usually due to a special event like someone’s birthday, so there was the anticipation of a freshly baked treat! I love the colors in this dishtowel and dish cloth set. Thank you to Stephanie, who made these for me!

My guild study group met at my house last night to look at some weaving sample books that are in our guild library. That was quite a treat. Some of the books were from the 1950s, and it was surprising to us that most of the samples had stood the test of time and were lovely fabrics we’d all love to weave!

The completely unexpected gift was this lovely bracelet from Elisa. It’s loom woven, and she was experimenting with different ending finishes. Lucky me! It reminds me of Klimt paintings!

Today I am knuckling down on my Arwen cardi. The pieces are done so I will block them, then sew later today or tomorrow. Finally, I will work out the details of the collar I want to add: a sideways knitted version of the cable that is used on the center fronts and cuffs. I’m excited!

>At last, finished and blocked. Some projects just take a lot of fiddling, and sometimes I wonder how I stand it. First, buying only 2 oz of the handpainted silk top when I knew it would never be enough. How casual I was about that! ‘Oh, I’ll just whip up a little something to go with it!’ That led to the miserable experience of trying to dye my own silk top which matted and made spinning a very un-zen experience, which put me off spinning for several months! Being put off spinning is not a healthy place to be! Then came the rewarding experience of dyeing some commerically spun silk in my own indigo vat. I did find that exhilarating, but wanted to scream when I ran out of the lovely blue before reaching the end of the lace border. Some projects just seem like one hurdle after another. And yet….I can see myself doing this all over again, ad infinitum!

And here are highlight from this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show. The theme was Italy. At the tail end of a very cold winter, at the end of a week that started with a blizzard, I wanted to skip town and head straight for a warm coastline….I’m thinking Amalfi!

And shoes were big this year….

>I’ve wanted to post several times in the past two weeks, but didn’t manage to squeeze it in! Now I have too much to say all at once!

I should be posting a photo of the finished Swallowtail shawl….but I’m not. When I attempted to block it I discovered my bind off was too tight to get the appropriate scallops. Rushing to finish made me forget to do the specified bind off, so it’s rip, rip time for me. Hope to rip it today and get it blocked this evening…. I had to leave out the last pattern row in order not to run out of my handdyed indigo silk border!

Also, I’ve got a Hudson River design for my next tapestry! (Never mind that two tapestries are not finished yet, as I begin this one.) Soyoo photo shopped two images together for me so I could get what I wanted: a view of the Palisades with a Herreschoff NewYork 30 sailing by. I’ve warped up and started weaving. I will not weave the derelict pier and birds that are in the foreground.

Here are the two photos which were photo shopped together. As you can see, the Palisades image was flipped so that the light would be coming from the right direction.

That wonderful box of tapestry yarn was great to look at but quite a bear to wind into balls. The yarn is snarled and broken in many places, almost like it had been attacked by mice. It has been a horrible chore trying to wind it, and I’ve got 4 more skeins to go. I’d rather be weaving….