Take a stitch

Here is my sad little sampler for the Take a Stitch Challenge

I have been a very lazy embroiderer recently. I joined this challenge back in January, but I had never given myself the time to sit down and actually play with the stitches. I finaly decided today that I had to put everything else aside and catch up on this. I have a stash of even weave linnen tea towels that I decided to use. I got one out for me and one for my son. They were great for freehand work, but terrible for counted work. The weave wasn't even enough. I had just about decided to finish this week's stitch and then pick up next week on some adia that I had in my craft closet, when the fly stich caught my imagination.

I rushed to the closet and busted out with the adia and started experamenting. I came up with two different versions of a flower that I think are stunning.

I had been atempting to make a fractal snowflake pattern thinking it would be a great way to cover the fabric completely, but I came up with these instead. They work great all by themselves or as a border.

My son decided he didn't want to follow the stitches in the challenge, so he drew his own pattern and went to town embroidering it. He says he wants to make a pillow out of it when he is done.

Green Moss

Here is my son's first attempt at spinning his own yarn! It is a green wool blend that he picked out of my collection himself. It is a collaborative work, sometimes I treadled while he drafted and sometimes he tried doing both himself. This fiber was a challenge to draft, I think we will try something a little more slippery next time. He was very patient with the whole process and I think he made great improvements as he went along. We are going to take on the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge next, because I have been terribly lax at keeping up on that.

Fiber Friday 2/23

I have been super busy this week with fiber-y things. First, I finaly finished frogging and re-knitting my Lady Eleanor on the #9 needles. I am glad I did too. On the #7's, with 4 balls used, it was about 20 inches long if I stretched it. Now it is 36" long and has tons of extra drape!

I think I might be able to finish it in 7-8 balls instead of the 10 I had originaly estimated.

I also did some experamentation this week with spinning self striping singles. Ever since I started making the Lady E, I have been obsessed with self striping yarn.

Shag Carpet - just 1oz to practice spinning singles. I love the way it came out!

Plum - 4 oz of wool blend. The color changes are so beautiful and subtle on this one and its mate, Arakis

The last one I am working on is a combination of a bunch of different colors from SmokyMountainFibers . I also got Plum and Arakis from her shop. I cleaned out her shop earlier this fall and I have had all this wonderful fiber sitting around waiting for me to figure out what it wanted to be. The self striping experament seemed perfect for this fiber. I am calling it Shade Garden!

I have over 20 oz of different shades of green, blue and purple in random amounts. So I layed them out in order and I am spinning it all up into this yarn!

new hat

Here is a hat that I made this week using the pattern from The Girl from Auntie and some yarn I spun back in October. I have been nervous about the cables for months but I decided that I needed to just sit down and do it! The yarn is actually a little greener than in the photo and was begging to be used. I still have quite a bit of it left over and I am trying to decide what else to make with it. On my short list right now are wrist warmers, socks, leg warmers or another variation of this hat. I just can't make up my mind.

I was also working on my Lady E this week. I had been using #7 needles and I was beginning to worry that I was not going to have enough yarn. I had seen other Lady E's made with the same yarn and less balls, but they were very long! I did some reading and found that one person had used #8's and the other had used #10's, so I decided to split the difference and use #9's. I am frogging what I had made already and the new Lady E is much bigger already! What I realy want to do is make one in every color of Rowan Tapestry ;)

Which Harry Potter person would you get along with best?

Turns out, according to this quiz that I found over on Lucy's blog, that I would get along with Dumbledore the best!

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. You are very wise, observant, and analyctical. You have a very "well-organized" mind, which makes you function in a calm and fair manner. Though you get angered easily, its rare of you to ever act our of temper. You are constantly seeing the good in people and are naturally forgiving because of it. You're easy to please and a great person to learn from. Albus Dumbledore 91% Sirius Black 72% Harry Potter 72% Luna Lovegood 69% Hermione Granger 63% Oliver Wood 59% Bellatrix Lestrange 59% Neville Longbottom 56% Remus Lupin 53% Lord Voldemort 47% Severus Snape 47% Percy Weasley 41% Ron Weasley 41% Draco Malfoy 25% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

Fiber Friday

Today is Fiber Friday!!!!! I love this day. I have been awful about updating my blog, but I am going to try much harder. I know, I know, I said that last time. But I have a realy great excuse! We are in the process of building this house and moving out of the apartment we have been in for 8 years! Lots of packing and organizing going on. Well, on to the fiber!!I spun this yarn this week. It is Vineyard from Spunky Eclectic in Merino. I have a pound of it and a little over half of it is spun up. It seems to be spinning in a self striping way, so I am trying to get enough yardage to make myself another Lady Eleanor shawl.

I splurged on some Rowan Tapestry in the Pot Pourri colorway and started on a Lady Eleanor. I am three balls into it so far and I am loving it!

I have a feeling that this pattern is going to become my favorite. Here in the desert it isn't often sweater season, but sometimes you just get a chill and need something around your shoulders. I imagine I will have stacks of these to choose from.

Well, back to spinning for me