Carefully Chosen

My youngest granddaughter was over yesterday for her regular weaving time. This is the first warp she's worked on where the colour and all of the yarns in the warp were of her own choosing.

She chose the yarns last week and was a little disappointed that she wouldn't get to weave with them right away. I told her I still had to wind the warp and get it onto the loom. It was all ready to go when she arrived yesterday. 

I think she's really enjoying working with a warp full of colour and texture, rather than the plain black prewound she's been using so far, though she's finding that having pompom yarn in the warp is a little troublesome.

It just so happens that her warp is pink, just like the weaving I just finished! We even used some of the same yarns.

The yardage below is my Dogwood  Blossom weaving, now off the loom and ready for its wet finishing.

I plumped up the fringe ends by adding in extra yarn before twisting them.

Moving Along

This project is moving along at a good pace considering how busy I've been with other commitments!



The first 36 rows are complete, and with the yarn being an aran weight a few rows adds up quite quickly. I'm already finished the neckline shaping.

Off On Another Tangent

Never a dull moment around here. I have strong interest in SO many different fibre arts that even if I only occasionally touch on some of my many hobbies I am kept very, very busy. The Crafting Muse has been pushing me in the direction of knitting lately. Haven't done that in a while, especially not at "human scale" as apposed to doll scale.

I've been trying out different needle sizes and stitch patterns in preparation for knitting my youngest granddaughter a cardigan type sweater. I'll knit it big so that it will fit for back-to-school in September. I have to start early since the older granddaughter will want one too.

Where To Store Nine Snowflakes?

I managed to re-tat those snowflakes, so now I have nine nearly perfect ones ready to give away next Christmas. The original ones weren't stiff enough so I re-blocked the whole batch.

Now I have to decide where to store them safely until it's time to send them out. It's not so much the problem of finding a place, but finding one that I will remember come December!

Love That Internet

I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet. Sometimes it seems to be the biggest time thief ever, hours from one's day missing and little to show for it. Let's face it, none of us are getting any younger! Knowing that, I like to make every moment count, and time spent chasing useless Facebook side links is not what I want to see when I look back on the moments of my life!

On the other hand, the Internet can be a wonderful, handy, economical teacher, accessible at any hour of any day, and right when you need it. For instance, when I decided to use circles as design elements on the back of my denim Boro/Sashiko vest, I realized I had barely any experience with applique, and no experience at all with how to get a really nice, smooth edge on a circular applique. 

Enter the Internet wonder world of YouTube instructional videos. Pretty much anything you want to learn can be found on YouTube videos. Not just one instructor or method, but many to choose from. I watched several and finally decided that the one I've embedded here would be the one I used. It seemed to be just the right fit for me. It appealed to the perfectionist in me and yet skipped the tedious hand gathering stitches of some of the other methods.

The loose pile of circles pictured above was a photo taken several days ago. I've now selected the ones I'm going to use, have appliqued them to the centre back panel, and I'm well on my way to stitching the background in a Sashiko inspired manner. More photos of that when that section is complete.

When Shopping Fails

Sometimes when you can't find what you want in stores you just have to resort to making it yourself. I've looked and looked for tunic length tops which are long enough to cover my butt when I wear leggings. It amazes me that leggings are so popular and yet it's still hard to find long tops to wear with them!

So I took matters into my own hands, and with the help of an excellent pattern, "#3245 Raglan Tee, Racerback Tank and Tunics, by Jalie", I created the sleeveless tunic I was looking for. I made one in solid red as well. I think both turned out great! I love Jalie's method for binding the neckline and armholes. It turns out looking so professional.

The purchase of a single Jalie pattern gives you multiple sizes. In this particular case it provides sizes from 12 month baby all the way up to size 52 ladies. I couldn't resist buying fabric and make a couple up for my granddaughters as well.

Though the binding takes a while , and you are working with knit fabric, the whole shirt is very simple to do. My eight year old granddaughter's was finished the same day that I bought the fabric!

It fits her very well.

I have had a few busy days since and haven't had time to sew, but my older granddaughter will be getting one too. She has requested a shirt length, rather than tunic, and a slightly higher front neckline. Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow.

Snowflakes in June

There has been a flurry of curses!

I've been tatting intricate snowflakes for what seems like ages.

I calculated that I would need eight for Christmas gifts for next year. I thought I had all eight of the snowflakes done. I washed them and got them soaked in the stiffening solution. It wasn't until I was actually pinning them out that I discovered two of them have mistakes. ONE of them might be salvageable. It's missing a picot and likely 10 double stitches in one of the outer arches. That one I might be able to fudge through enough to use on my own Christmas tree.

The other one has a mistake that is so bad that it is destined for the trash. I'll have to remake it from scratch. It is so weird that I can't figure out how I did the deformity that I see. I couldn't even really block it since there seems to be an extra chain in there AND a picot connected to the wrong place. Cutting out the mistake and retatting only that section is not an option since the starching material will prevent reworking. 

All this resulted in a few choice curse words. You can't tell me that those Victorian ladies didn't mutter a few at times.