Accidental Art

Things I can't show you...yet

I've been busy, but I can't prove it, yet.  I finished one project that's a birthday present for my daughter, Jen, and started on another, but can't tell ya what or show ya, til after Feb. 7.  She actually checks my blog and I won't ruin the surprise.  But there's other stuff I can show you.  Remember that skinny black scarf from the last post?  Well, it's done! Yes, those are lots of little beads on and around the beads and on the edge of the other end.  And there's more!
I've been working on a cashmere fichu from the new Victorian Lace book from XRX, as a thank you to my daughter's mother-in-law.  She and her husband invited us to go to Cozumel with them in May.  This deserves cashmere!  Now, I know this isn't the best picture, but here's a closeup:
I'll post a pix when I give it to her. 
I've also been working on a hooked chair pad for my rocker.  I've decided that I like hooking, but I like doing it with yarn better than with wool strips.  Picky , picky.  But I'll finish this with the wool strips, and look into doing the rug for in front of our wood pellet burner with yarn.  Here we are so far:
Well, that's all for tonite.  I have to go figure out where all my podcasts and music went that's supposed to be on my ipod.  Wish me luck!

distracted

So, I'm sitting there minding my own business when Frances says that she might want to do some applique, like on a quilt.  I had told her about this book I got from the library, "Applique 12 Easy Ways!" by Elly Sienkiewicz, that I thought was really good, but out of print.  She goes on Amazon, finds a couple of copies, I tell her to get me one, too, it comes and although I'm working on a full size Baltimore Album Quilt from one of Sienkiewicz's other books, I start cutting out little blocks of fabric.  I'm going for ugly.  The pattern is hearts, for cryin' out loud.  So, ugly it is.  Well, more about this in the next post, but this was just to let you know why the black scarf is just now drying on the railing.  Here are the "before" pictures.   This is how long it was spread out on Dan's worktable.  (The only way I could get the whole thing in was to go on the diagonal.)  Then there are the closeups of the stitches and the LOVELY rippled edge.  It started out as 74", and when it's dry I'll let you know what it is now.
I'm off to weave off a bit more of the purple wonder on the loom and take some pics of the "ugly" in progress. 

a day late.....

Well, actually, nothing got done Sunday nite, or Monday nite for that matter.  All this computer growth exhausted me and I went to bed REALLY early Sunday nite, and Monday I spent in the ER with the DH and his kidney stone.  Got home about 10:30, cranked but unable to focus on anything but food.  Today however, was a new day. 

I got some weaving done.  Ah yes, the warp that's been on the loom for at least 4, yes,  4, years.  It started out as a weaving guild project where a group of us said we'd weave yardage, cut it up, trade it and make friendship totes.  Well, I still have mine, and owe a few people pieces of fabric.  I am determined, now that I have witnesses, to get this thing off the loom.  I've only got about 2 yards left.  It shouldn't take that long, but again it's focus.  I also played with my close-up lens on my camera and managed to get this second shot.  Of course, since I'm not really sure what I did, the images are reversed and the close-up is on top and the overview is below.  I'll get it right at some point, I'm sure. 

Then, because I was getting cocky, I started the black scarf on the knitting machine.  Yeah, well, we'll see if I can do it again.  For some reason the black yarn is fuzzier than the red was and things are not proceeding as I had hoped.  But I do have a shot of what it looks like in process.   And yes, those are power tools under the table, and Dan's stuff on top of the table.  Yes, I'm doing this in Dan's part of the basement because although I have more space than he does, and I have another workroom upstairs, all of my tables have aprons on the front of them and I can't clamp anything onto them.  So....

Well, more weaving and knitting await for this evening.  More stuff later.

The Middle

     I finished a felted embellished scarf yesterday and my daughter (thirtysomething) really liked it, so I gave it to her.  I'd been trying for years to be friends with my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine, and had never been able to knit more than about 12" before it would just POP off the machine.  Now, I can read pretty well and follow directions pretty well, but I sure couldn't make that work.  It had been a while since I had run head first into that particular wall, so I decided it was time to try once more.  I figured out how to get it to stay on, got a gauge I liked that worked for felting--did I say I wanted to use this fabric to felt, cause if I'm gonna make a sweater I'm gonna hand knit it?--made a bunch of swatches and it worked!!! The question will be, will I ever be able to make another one, now that I know how to do it?   And do I care?  Well, there's a part of me that wants to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but I'll have to see if I can squeeze it in between replacing a zipper on a jacket for my husband, machine quilting some panels for out basement windows, and making a sweater for the spring.  And that's only the top layer of priorities.  There's a second and third layer of priorities, but they haven't shifted yet. 

I'm not really good with the process here, yet, so let me try a slightly bigger picture of the scarf--it really is killer.   Okay, that's more than slightly bigger, and supposedly you can click on it to make it full size, but I'm just covering the bases today. 

The zipper on the jacket has to get done next, or at least after I get the right color of top-stitching thread tomorrow, but after that.....

Wonder what I'll do tonite to keep me occupied and focused.  Hummmmm