Entrelac Stole #2 is Done!! Plus Mole and Handspun!

Yes- I finished the Entrelac Stole and blocked it today- YaY! Here's some pics:





I love it! It's a lot more colorful than the last one. At some point I will dig all the Noro tags out of the project bag and list all the colorways I used.

Earlier this week I made Mole for the first time. It was very yummy and a culinary adventure. I took several recipes that I found online and adapted them for the ingredients I could lay my hands on and the amount of work I was willing to do.
It was a little weird putting chocolate, tomatoes and chilies in a sauce together, but it turned out fantastic!
The mole, delicious as it is, isn't terribly photogenic, so I only have pictures of the ingredients:


I made fresh corn tortillas to go with it and I don't have to tell you what a treat that was.

I've also started swatching my alpaca, silk handspun, and it is luscious! Here's a picture (sorry it's sideways):


I feel like I've had a very creative week already, and it's only Wednesday. I wonder what else I'll do?

New projects and Old WIPS

Last week flew by in a blur of activity. I completely missed my intended blog post in the rush. That's when I realized that I can only count on having time over the weekend. So, it's been a little less than two weeks since my last post, but much is happening.
I came to the sinking realization last week that my hooded scarf was not fated to be, as evidenced by my lack of yarn, and my inability to acquire more, as I had spun it from a kettle dyed one-of-a-kind. So, I unraveled my work, and came up with these pretty pictures of curly recovered yarn in the last of the day's sunlight:

It's going to take a hot bath, then I'm going to knit it into Lee Meredith's Skoodlet.
This design uses the right amount of yarn, it's a style that I like and it's practical. YaY!I love how her designs feature innovative construction, and she's not afraid of bright colors.
I worked on my Entrlac stole, and I finally got a decent picture. Witness:

For comparison's sake, let's look at the one I took indoors:

Yuck, the color is all yellow and icky.
The stole is so pretty, and that picture is so not.
Now I'm only a few rows from done and ready to block, which is where it becomes a silky, drapey beauty.

I sewed the buttons on my Veyla mitts(Rav), which I finished knitting a few months ago:

These were knit from some of my earliest handspun, and my first merino attempt. I love them.

On top of that, I'm beginning to knit a baby onesie, for my dear, brave and beautiful friend Molly, who is about to become a mother again. I swatched some Bliss Baby Cashmerino, and it will be perfect. It's my first baby garment,
and I couldn't be more excited. I get to be an Auntie again!

Also this week I swatched some (more)lace, and I'm starting to get quite the collection of purty swatches. What should I do with all of them?

My last bit of news: I'm trying to fight off a bout of startitis. I've never had it before, so my immunity is low. So many projects are so appealing right now. Must stay focused!

Have a great week!

Handspun Beauties

Finally have pictures of that handspun that I've been bragging about.
I love, love, love this yarn. It is soft and beautiful and slightly fuzzy and it has a gorgeous sheen- and I managed to both blend the colors through plying and retain some of that "color that glows from within" quality- but much of this doesn't show in my pictures:



This is a 14wpi 2 ply. Halcyon Fibers. I got roughly 400 yds. from 4 oz. alpaca 40%, silk 40%, merino 20%

I'm still having a hard time with the light and color in my photos though. I may have to break down and take a class or read a book about it, as intuiting the necessary things to do to fix these problems hasn't worked.

In other spinning news, I've been teaching myself a semi-woolen knitting technique- with the help of Judith Mackenzie McCuin's Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning, which I checked out from the library. It took a lot of patience to keep at it after I broke the thread for the hundredth time, but now I'm getting a consistent thread with the qualities of a woolen yarn: fuzzy. I'm using the technique that she recommends for angora rabbit, where in you allow some twist into the drafting area, but it is a forward, and not especially long, draw. I thought this would be a good way to ease myself into long draw. It's working really well for the angora/merino blend I'm using. The colors of the batt are deep and murky: dark blues and purples, with some gray and green. It has surprising bits of lilac and light blue that break up the darkness. It reminds me of tide pools on the Oregon coast on a cloudy day.

I'm still knitting. Nothing has been finished for what seems like a long time. I just downloaded Laura Chau's (that links to her blog) Flora and Fauna trio as I want to knit the Honeybee Cardi (this is a rav link) really bad. But I want to finish my stole first, and my friend is having a baby that I need to start knitting for too. If only I could spend my days knitting, instead of teaching! Not! I'm smart enough to realize that I love my knitting time precisely because it is rare.

This will have to be my Craft or Bust check-in also, because I spent all last week and part of this one avoiding technology. I'm not sure why, but I didn't check my email or read any blogs or look at Ravelry- nothing. But break's over.

Craft or Bust, Week 2

This week has been a crafty one for me. In addition to making some progress on my Entrelac stole and hooded scarf, I also did a little printing of my Safety-Cut carving. I'm not so good at it as of yet, but I think it's like one of those things (like everything) that gets better with time and practice. I've also been spinning. Here's a couple of pics of the fiber I'm spinning:


This is an Alpaca, Silk and Merino blend from Halcyon fibers and it is a dream. The colors seem to glow from within, and very from a licorice, through plum and dark red to brilliant fuschia along a little bit of a silvery shade thrown in to send the whole thing over the top. I'm spinning it into a fingering weight 2 ply, and I should have some pictures tomorrow.
I will have many gorgeous pictures of my larger projects once I either figure out how to fix the color from indoor pictures or get some decent weather for outdoor photos. The pics of the fiber were taken on my front porch. The ones I took indoors looked pink and brown.
I want to add another goal to my Craft or Bust challenge, which is to learn stranding techniques for colorwork. I've been inspired by The Yarn Harlots "Wild Apples" project, as well as many other gorgeous knits I've seen. Of course I won't start with an 8 1/2 stitch per inch Bohus sweater. I'm thinking of some mitts, like these, only fingerless.
Manageable, yet amazing!

Craft or Bust, Week 1

I have actual pictures of knitting progress to show:

This is "Addicted to Entrelac, part 2" which came to existence after I gave away the first one for my beloved Aunt Patty's 69th (!!!) birthday.


This is different from the first (Rav link here) in that I have gone off the deep end in choosing colorways for this. The last one had 3 Noro silk garden colorways, this one has 5 so far. It's really fun to try and predict how the colors will arrange themselves as I knit.
The needle poked through shows my estimated progress for the last week.

Secondly, I'm working on a hooded scarf project, using some 2 ply BFL handspun that I spun up a couple months ago. It is silky and soft, and I love it, but it is not here right now, so I'll show you my second skein of the yarn I'm using:


So, that's not so bad for my first week, although I have made zero progress in my photo skills, and I don't even know for sure how to load to flickr.

I also did a little carving on some safety cut, but I haven't printed it yet, so maybe next week!
Thanks again to our CoB hostesses for launching this idea!

Craft or Bust 2010

It's a new year and time for me to get inspired and motivated for a whole new decade of crafty goodness. To that end, I have joined Quicksilver and friends in Craft or Bust 2010. The idea is that we each craft weekly, post weekly, and have a goal to reach. I'm doing this because I want to:

• use my blog weekly
• try new, challenging crafts (nuno felting and block printing, for example)
• learn to take better pictures

Also, the participants are inspiring, and there's nothing to get my hands busy like inspiration from crafty peeps.

Like the idea? Join the fun at CoB 2010.
I'll see you Sunday, at the latest!

Burda Anda Dress- Best of July 2009

First a note- I'm going to be using this space to record project inspiration from various sources. One of my problems is that I'll have a great idea, not keep track of it and then *Poof* it disappears when the brain needs to make more room.
Today I saw this great dress and it inspired me:

Best of July 2009

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I would love to paint or print a large-scale repeating image such as this on fabric- I’m thinking a lizard or waves maybe- make it into a simple garment like this and then embellish it (sparingly) with beads and embroidery. The trick would be to find inks and/or paints that are soft to preserve the drape of the fabric.