Squirrel!

Squirrel! This project takes its name from the calendar picture I used as colour inspiration. 

The photo was a birthday gift given to me by my nine year old granddaughter.

I'm very pleased with the way this Nobius Cowl turned out. "Nobius" is a name given by a Saori Weaving forum member to a mobius cowl that has no twist and therefor doesn't have the classic mobius shape. I prefer mine without the twist since they look about the same when worn but are easier to fold and store flat. 

My home is decorated in the colours present in the cowl, but they aren't colours I wear, so once the year end guild luncheon with it's "photo inspiration challenge" is over I'll be selling it. I sell them for $75 - $80 Canadian, usually at the Chilliwack Christmas Craft Market in November. 

Minis

I've slid down another crafting rabbit hole. Are you surprised? It seems every textile art I ever experiment with grabs me and consumes me at least for a time. 

These are 4 inch "Stitch Meditations" I've been working on the past few days. 

The idea is to simply spend some time relaxing and stitching, without planning, without perfection, and without an end purpose. It's about the process, not the end product.

According to the description statement of a related Facebook group "this process was developed by Liz Kettle to help develop a creative mindfulness practice that is simple and easy to implement."

I have definitely found that this sort of small daily practice spurs creativity, not just for that which is related to embroidery but in every creative arena.

Stitch Meditations with Liz Kettle from Liz Kettle on Vimeo.

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.

15 Feet of Crazy

 When combined with black fingering weight yarn 

in the clasped weft technique

that single ball of Zauberball Crazy went a long way.

I'm very pleased with the result.

I only hope that I'll come up with a sewing project that

does the handwoven fabric justice. 

There is 15 feet of it prior to wet finishing (4.57m)

In the reed it measured 11.5" (29.21cm)

but I know I will lose some width and length in the initial washing.

Now to gather my relevant books looking for inspiration.

Temporarily Loomless

I’m currently loomless. I sold my SAORI WX60 and with the funds I’ve purchased a SAORI CH60 to replace it. There are some much desired ergonomic features to the new loom that will become even more important to me as I age. Hopefully I’ll have the new loom by next week and then be able to find the time to build a loom and get it dressed with this very mixed warp before the end of August.

I pulled a thick and thin handspun skein from my stash as the colour inspiration for this one. I didn’t actually use the handspun in the warp, that will be saved for inclusion as weft as it is too loosely spun, and too thick in places, to stand up to the tension and abrasion of use as warp. I felt the skein had a nice mix of colours though so I pulled 10 threads from my stash and wound them as one with the intent to sley them randomly in the reed.

The skein I used as inspiration is the one at about ‘3-o-clock’ in this picture. As I chained the warp off the warping board I could see that I had my mix emphasizing blue a little heavily and neglecting brown, but m’eh, I can adjust that with weft choices if I feel like it come weaving time. Some of the yarns seen in the picture will only be included as weft. I’ve bagged them all together with the chained warp and now they await the arrival of the new loom. I may decide to wind as many as 5 more varied  warp chains while I’m loomless and therefor have a bit more room to move around in my tiny bedroom of a ‘studio’.