cozy shawl

Friday was not a good computer day.  I could not get anything started here.  The rest of the weekend was a lot of pain.  I just took care of myself and worked on things were I could sit.  I did not wish to talk, let alone write!  I keep feeling like more and more of a hermit.  Which I do not have a problem with.

I finished this shawl in Tahoe.  I had picked the fiber up at NW Yarns in April.  When I would get a chance, I would sit and spin.  Then the shawl started.

It is really soft and warm.  I finished it while it was raining and cold in Tahoe so it fit.  Now, I have to wonder.  I like the soft.  I like the warm.  I wish it was solid.  I have been drawn to more solids recently.  It is all I wish to wear.  But it could be a good thing under a waterproof. 

I will give it some time before I decide.  I may eventually gift it to someone because the colours are making me uncomfortable. Every colour in the shawl, I like.  It is just the multi-colour.  I am strange and know it.

Oh well. 

trapezoids

When we were at the mountain, I found a quilt store in Bellingham that I liked.  I really liked it.  What I was seeing just felt very creative and I liked their stock.  Now, most of what I bought there is still in Utah but I brought back some scrappy bits.

The store cuts 5 inch squares in multiple different prints.  They package 21 prints together for 42 squares.  It means I could get one of my normal nine squares from it or two not normal.  It would add a difference to my quilts since I really did not pick my fabrics.  But I decided to do something totally different.

I cut trapezoids.

Small trapezoids that I am stitching together.  This may be a center of a quilt.  Or it may be a bit on the back.  Or I may be asked to make it into a quilt for Spikey or Bruce Banner, Koda Bear's soft friends.  But I know I am having fun.  I have messed it up a bit but that is not surprising.  This is the first time I have tried anything like this.

Quilts at my sewing machine.  Lovely times at my wheel.  More time in a tent with tea over a fire this weekend.  Life is good.

by the fire

We have been having some odd weather here this week.  It is very damp still but more fog then humidity.  It is also neither warm or cold.  Which means that my body is hurting and anything that is aggravated by the damp is not happy with me.  My right ear was hurting today at work today so I wore my new hat in the office.  The proof of the pudding was that I needed to make it a little tighter to keep my ear warm.  Warmth makes my ear feel better.

The boyos had built a fire in our pitiful fire pit this morning.  They kept it burning all day.  When I got home from work, I pulled out my crochet hook, took my hat with me, and sat at the fire to rip it out and rework it.  I actually simplified the shell stitch to which made for a nicer band.  It was just a very nice bit of quiet after a week of having people needing me all the time.  I have people waiting for me at my office door when I get to work.  This quiet was very nice.

My hat fits better too!  I was thinking that I need to make some rug yarn but I am not sure I have the right tools.  A rug made by a fire.  That would be nice.  Now how to make the yarn . . . ponder.

experiments in dyeing

I got asked about how the dyeing went by a friend today.  I meant to post about it last week but we went to look at holiday lights unexpectedly.  And I had my sinuses make me dizzy.  Making dozens of cookies slightly dizzy is odd.

So here is the dyeing post.  

The avocado pits were cut and boiled and wool was added.

Then I used some magenta dye from the art store for a different batch of wool.

I was thinking the magenta might work for some of the females in my life.  Maybe some of the males too.  I have a few who like bright intense colors.  Actually, most of the males in my life like bright colors.

The avocado pits did not seem to work very well.  They create a salmon or pink color.  I think I needed more and maybe a different fiber.  They seem to work best on silk.

The magenta turned out so well I want to card and spin it.  I actually have some of the original fleece as yarn.  I was thinking more magenta after I crochet it into a garment or maybe chestnut.  I would over dye the avocado pit dyed fleece with the chestnut.

There are just not enough minutes and hours in the day currently for all that I wish to do!