Tiny things

In expectation of some new additions to my family, I have been knitting baby things. Knitting for babies is awesome. Everything is tiny and adorable, and the projects work up really fast. See what I mean?

Had a good weekend at open studios. Sold a few things and got to visit with Annmarie and Amber stopped by for a yarn shopping expedition to the Classic Elite store ('cause clearly we all needed some more yarn).

I finally got my Kitty quilt pieced together. Now I just have to figure out how to add the backing and it will be done!

Yummy Sushi and other things

I like to call this the "yummy sushi purse". Yes, that is a Buffy reference. No, I don't like sushi, but I thought this fabric was too cute to resist.

In other sewing news, I also decided it was time to replace my koi fish wallet/ purse as it was practically falling apart. So I made this:


I have just a little bit of this fabric left, but was able to make one more purse/wallet, and can probably get at least 1 more scene from it.



Here's a few other new purses:

Kitty in the Patch - update

All the pieces have been arranged and heat set to the backing fabric. I started doing some of the edging this morning. I have to admit I was a little scared to start edging the individual applique pieces. It's not something I have done before and I was sure I was going to totally mess up my project. But it turns out to be not so bad. So far I have all the kitties done and have started on the pumpkins. Then I had to go to work. Stupid work.

Kitty in the Patch

Here is what my first quilting project is supposed to look like when I am done:



And this is what I have done so far:


You will, perhaps, notice that I put the kitty on backwards. 'Cause I am awesome that way. The lesson to learn here is, of course: Don't attempt new crafts at 5:00 am.

Trying something new

I started my very first quilting project this morning. I have wanted to try quilting for a while now, and I finally worked up the courage to start. The project is a pretty simple applique wall hanging, with four squares featuring a black cat and pumpkin design with a block border. I got all the border pieces cut out this morning and one black cat cut out and attached to the background.
Whee!

Thought I would share some more experiments in dyeing. Here's a bunch of roving that I have done up over the last few months:

I actually dyed these a few months ago, but never got around to posting them. I had scored a huge cone of this horrible mustard yellow mohair yarn from the classic elite factory store, and promptly set about overdyeing it to much less horrible colors. Well, in my opinion anyway.







I had 2 other colorways that I did from this yarn, which were mostly reds and oranges, but I managed to sell them before I took a picture. Whoops.

This one was from a different cone of natural white mohair yarn:



From that same cone, I made the following:





For the pink/red neckwarmer, I kettle dyed the yarn, and then knit it up, while for the second one, I knit it first, and then dyed it. Good times.

I am still on a sewing kick and have a bunch of stuff to share. Lately, I have been using my insomnia to my advantage. When I wake up at 4:30 and can't go back to sleep, instead of staying in bed and wishing I was sleeping....I've been dragging my butt up to the studio and getting some work done.

Here's what I have been up to:

More aprons:











Knitting needle cases:











And purses:






So that's pretty much what I have been up to lately.

In other news, I have changed studio mates. Amber left our space this month, which makes me a little sad, but I totally understand why she needed to do that. My friend Jaime is going to be moving in with me, so I am looking forward to playing around with our space. I am finally putting up curtains! (or at least, I will be as soon as I can get someone who is not afraid of heights to come over and help).

So, I thought I would post some handspun yarns today. I was just realizing that I have quite a few that I have not shared.

So, here we go:





These 3 yarns are Ghoul, Banshee, and Zombie. They started with the same blend of natural white alpaca, black alpaca, and neon green wool. Zombie is the single, Ghoul is plied with black metallic thread, and Banshee is plied with glow in the dark thread (although as it turns out, the glowing powers are not as strong as I would like - probably should have used several strands to get the effect I was looking for).

Next up we have two yarns that are eerily similar, though not intentionally.




The first is called Wavecrest, and is an alpaca/silk blend. I bought this fiber during my first trip to Rhinebeck. The second is called Cloudy Skies, and is alpaca blended with some sparkly stuff. Apparently I am very drawn to the color combination of teal and white.