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All of the pink/purple was done this week, other colors were done previously. I did all of the stamping/embellishing last night, heat fixed by Rich. These baby clothes are going out all over the continent (literally) to his friends. There are a few more but I’ll save those for another post.
onesie:
onesie:
detail:
twinkie rompers:
baby gown:
and my favorite seaglass colors:
with frog detail:
Tags: animals, baby, embellishing, fabric dyes, tie dye
The girl requested that I make some origami animals yesterday so of course I was happy to oblige. I have quite a collection of books and beautiful papers from Japan but oddly enough I generally turn to the solid colors. One side of traditional origami is colored and the other side is left white. Many feature incredible traditional floral and graphic designs. The paper is smooth and crisp and fairly thin. Most craft stores in the States carry origami paper now but when I was a kid I hoarded the beautiful packages I received from my family in Japan.
None of these models are particularly traditional. The rabbit and the cat belong to what is sometimes referred to as modern creative. They are more realistic than traditional models but also more difficult.
I found the instructions online for the three Totoro figures. Totoro are forest spirits from the agelessly appealing animated film My Neighbor Totoro by Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki. The English version is a favorite in our house.
Tags: animals, paper crafting
The boy and the girl went up to the county for a sleepover at my parents’ house. While at their grandparents’ house they picked berries, roamed the field road in the ATV, made ice cream with grandmom, helped grandpop mow the lawn and developed a taste for playing croquet! DH and I were at home cleaning, rearranging, painting and having a little fun too.
Back home they played outside in the sprinkler while my friend Jan and I did tie dye which is still batching, pictures of that later. But here are some playsilks quickly scrunch dyed in Kool-Aid. The orange and the pinky-red are new and the blue and green are several years old. Both kids play with these a lot so I figured a few new colors would be welcome.
This morning the girl and I went down to Artist and Craftsman Supply to pick up some PINK procion dye since we discovered yesterday that we are all out of PINK. They are homebased here in Portland ME but have a number of stores in cities across the country, maybe one near you! I did look specifically at the acid dyes thinking I’d bring some home to dye fiber/yarn but I couldn’t decide on a color. Maybe next time after I do a little more research.I also picked up some extra Sculpey in colors we are running out of and a bargain pick of pretty nice paint brushes for the kids in fun colors with gel handles. I haven’t been there in at least a year and now I remember why. I go in there and I just want to buy some of everything!
Tags: color, fabric dyes, great outdoors, kids art, painting
So I’ve got to buy some new batteries before I can take any pictures but I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to anyway.
In other news, the girl is finally interested in learning to spell her name. I dropped the garden snips point down into my foot, earning myself a tetanus shot and a round of antibiotics. Next time I’ll wear different shoes.
Tags: girl clothes, knitting, mom clothes
the Yarmouth Clam Festival! This is our first year to attend as residents of the town although we’ve been quite a few times. The parade is a big event and people were putting out chairs on Main Street early in the week. Nice chairs too. It was nice to see that we live in a town with well-behaved chairs that stay where you put them.
Wednesday evening we took the kids to the carnival before the crowds showed up. We saw lots of the boy’s schoolmates and the kids had a great time enjoying the rides with friends.
Friday night we walked down the street with our little red wagon to watch the parade with friends from church. Some highlights included a giant lobster, the LL Bean boot (standard issue footwear up here), and the boy’s fave—a monster wheeled fire truck!
Saturday we walked the food circle and sampled fried clam strips (yummm), onion rings, refreshing Lime Rickeys and a decadent blueberry cobbler while listening to live music from local musicians. Then we did a speed walk through the arts and crafts booths stopping to run through the sprinkler at Hotcopper Garden Art, admire Robert Fishman‘s stunning pottery, and listen to Werner John’s unique flute music. Sorry, no pictures, I figured the kids were being patient enough!
While there are wonderful things to see and do in Maine at any time of the year, the third weekend in July is a great time to be in Yarmouth . . . just sayin’.
I like to write with gel pens that usually have clear barrels. I thought I’d try dressing one up to match my tape dispenser. I took the pen apart, wrapped the inner pen with fabric and then reinserted it into the clear case. This wasn’t too hard with fabric and would be even easier with paper. You only need a tiny scrap and you may already have one of these pens. These would make nice little gifts or stocking stuffers.
A few hints if you decide to try this yourself. Use a pen with a fatter barrel. The kind that have a bottom cap that screws off are much easier to work with. The piece of fabric or paper only needs to be about 3/4″ wide by the length that will show in your pen. Use clear tape to secure one long edge to the pen, wrap the fabric around and reinsert into the barrel. Screw on the bottom cap. Done.
Tags: remnants
These are some of the things I made for the brown paper packages pay-it-forward. I tried to make something that would fit each person or something that we had in common. For some reason I ended up making jewelry for all three of these friends. Maybe because I like to make jewelry but I don’t actually wear it much myself. I have one left that is a little more difficult so I am taking my time.
This one is a charm bracelet made for Peggie from Maine living in Texas. I put some shells gathered from Maine beaches, a real acorn, some blue beads that reminded me of blueberries and a silver dragonfly—some of my favorite things about summer in Maine.
A rosy glass pebble backed with a handcolored print of a fairy sprite and embraced by curliqued copper wire went to Jen of Dahara Dreaming. I know she makes jewelry too but she also does pretty much every other craft I do as well!
And this hematite and howlite pendant was made for Carla, a fellow member of a fabric co-op I’m in. I don’t know her as well so I thought I’d stick to something black and white. I originally made a similar necklace several years ago and was never pleased with it but I liked the combination of materials so I decided to try again. I was much happier with this version. The three sets of beads swing from a wire ring suspended in the middle of the hematite oval so the whole piece moves freely.
I’m gearing up to decorate my “studio” and I’ve chosen a palette of colors. The walls are a very pale butter yellow which I will keep. I think I’ll be using these fabrics as accents. They have similar avocado-y green tones, light blues with a hint of aqua and dark browns. I have some dark brown and blue canvas as solids and a great deal of the trees on blue print. That one may get used for curtains. Anyway, spur of the moment I decided to use a bit of one of those remnants to make something pretty.
Here’s my “new” refillable tape dispenser. I simply removed the paper label from the inside and used it as a template to cut out cardstock-backed fabric inserts. You could also use any pretty paper you might have. It’s really quite simple but here’s a tutorial if you’d like a little more direction. I’m practicing making tutorials. :)
Tags: decorating on a budget, paper crafting, remnants, tools
Here she is, a Baynes double treadle spinning wheel, basking in the morning light.
And from the side:
New to me from SpunkyEclectic. Yes, I am totally crazy, I just started spinning when? But sometimes you just know. Here’s the description that won me over. And I got a shockingly great deal from Amy on this wheel as it was a floor model (thank you Daddy). I picked it up from her booth at Fiber Frolic. I gave it a light cleaning that night and started treadling without fiber to get the feel of it. Then I did some plying with two different colored singles so that it was easy to see what was happening. Then I broke out the sample of BFL. That’s Blue-Faced Leicester, which is a kind of sheep, not to be confused with BFML which is Annie‘s Jim.
It took me about an ounce of wool to get things going fairly well. Oddly enough I felt like I was starting over from where I’d gotten to with hand spindling. Which I suppose just means that my hand spindling has improved since I started. By the second ounce I was getting a fairly consistent single pretty easily and enjoying it. I tried to figure out what my techique is by poking around on the internet. As with my hand spindling, apparently I’m not doing exactly one particular technique but I think it’s most like what is called “long draw”. Here are pictures of the first bobbin at the beginning and then the second bobbin, you can see the improvement from left to right.
At the beginning it was a little like stopping at an intersection when you are learning to drive a stick shift. Slow down too much and you might stall out! I was a little hesitant to use the BFL to start out with but I didn’t really have anything else. I don’t think I ruined much of it. We’ll see how bad the beginning is when I ply it. Hopefully I’ll get fingering weight yarn in a quantity enough to make something . . . hmmm. I don’t know?
In any case, now that I’ve gotten to try it out all by my lonesome I may be comfortable enough to go take a class. This is the reason I’m terrible at group sports—I hate learning in front of other people. Okay, it’s probably not the only reason!
pinchworm (as used by the boy)
I hadn’t seen a picture of an inchworm recently when the boy asked me to make some. We were not at home so I grabbed what I could find which happened to be chenille stems and pony beads. Notice that the real inchworm has six legs on the front segment and four legs on the rear segment, and no neck or tail as well. He pointed out to me the discrepancy in the number of legs immediately although he also graciously said that it was okay and that he liked what I had made. Fast foward a week when a real inchworm happened to catch our attention on the back of someone’s shirt. I picked it up to show the kids and you know what was the first thing the boy said, don’t you? Attention to detail, that’s my boy.
. . . but since I neglected to take any pictures, you get a picture of homemade jambalaya in the pot instead. Hope you like that, it was delicious if I did make it myself.
But about Fiber Frolic . . . it was held at the Windsor Fairgrounds, about an hour north of me. My good friend and fellow artist, Jan, went with me. We left all the kids at her house with their dads (thanks guys!) They had fun, we had fun. We figured out the most obvious difference between llamas and alpacas, alpacas are a lot smaller. We oohed and aahed over the baby goats and the bunnies, and the sheep too. For the kids, we brought home some brightly coloreed handpainted silk cocoons, complete with the dried rattling worm inside! And we sampled some of the local handmade goodies including kettle corn and slightly sweetened, dried salmon, yum.
There was an overwhelming amount of fiber and yarn in a riot of colors from natural, right-off-the-sheep-dried-grass-and-all fleeces, to gorgeously dyed braids of shiny, soft roving, and beautifully colored skeins of handspun yarn hanging in the sun. It was a great opportunity to feel all kinds of different wool and other animal fibers and put a feel and look to some of the sheep names I’ve only read about. I only wish there was a book available that held actual samples. Maybe there is and I just don’t know about it yet. Since I’ve been working through spinning the five variety sampler bag I bought from Spunky Eclectic, I am appreciating how the differences that are only somewhat perceptive to the touch and eye can cause significant differences when spinning, and I’m sure to the knitted or crocheted project.
One of the most interesting things we saw was primitive rugs being made with narrow strips of wool hooked through an even weave canvas. Lots of felting, some really beautifully done felt paintings, lots of knitted and crocheted items of course, beautiful handmade spindles and lampwork glass stitch markers and other tools of the needle arts. Amy of Spunky Eclectic was in the last building we came too. Shame on her she had no sign, but I recognized her space immediately from the racks of distinctively dyed wools. I’ll save what I bought from her for my next post since I can at least take pictures of that!
Next year I promise to take cute pictures of the animals, especially the shaved angora bunnies, surely the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.
This is 2oz. of merino wool hand spun on my new spindle. It’s much more consistent than my first attempts with wool. To wind it into the center pull ball, my dad held the spindle in a coffee cup while I turned the handle on my mother’s ball winder. Much faster than the thumb method! Although that can be quite useful and curiously enjoyable with a small amount of yarn such as the silk below which came from SpinKnit.
We went to see my parents last weekend and my mother gifted me with several odd contraptions and a book I can’t read. Ha ha!
This one is a yarn swift which is used for winding yarn into hanks or skeins. It folds up like an umbrella into that cute pink box.
This one is a ball winder which will wind yarn from skeins into center pull balls. I remember helping my mother wind yarn with this when I was a kid. You’ll see I immediately put it to good use.
And this book about how to make seams in knit and crochet pieces. Really amazing, all in Japanese but with great pictures and illustrations of each technique. There are some incredible pictures of invisible seams in what seems like pretty complicated knitted pieces.
These will come in handy for my spinning and knitting projects.
I’m working on brown paper package projects! It takes me a while to decide what I want to do in these sort of circumstances. But I have three of my five projects underway. I am taking pictures but I’ll post them after they get mailed out.
I’ve also been savoring my birthday present, a dozen DVDs of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries, starring the admirable David Suchet. Agatha Christie has been my favorite author since I first read one of her mysteries in the third grade. I don’t often care for filmed versions of books but these are really well done—lovely sets, gorgeous costumes, good casting.
I’m enjoying spinning with my new spindle now that I’ve come to terms with the fact that my left hand is just going to do what it wants to do. The boy has been quite interested and “helped” a bit. He can actually give it a good steady flick. Now if I could just get him to wind the spun wool . . .
I’ve been playing around with reorganizing the sewing room. We moved some furniture out so I’m hoping to get a cutting/work table in. I’ve actually set up a temporary one to test the height and such. Lots of plans, not so much skill or time to accomplish them. Although I did get a great book with lots of ideas for building storage/furniture that doesn’t require a lot of fancy tools, Quick and Easy Handmade Storage by Philip and Kate Haxell. I laughed when I got home as I realized I already have another book by the same authors. I do think that I could actually do most of the projects in this book given the materials and some child free time with power tools. BZZZZ! BZZZZ!
Another reason there are no pictures is that my computer was having some issues so I’m temporarily geared down until dear hubby can patch it up again. And it’s been raining frogs here. I like a nice rainy day inside but the kids are getting a little crazy.
Tags: spinning
This is what has been keeping me away from the sewing machine. And probably some other things I ought to be doing. I’m knitting wool socks, in May, I know, but maybe they’ll be done by fall. Of course this is Maine, I wish they were wearable right this minute.
I’m sure I mentioned in an earlier post about having a sudden desire to knit but having no yarn in the house, which lead to some knitting with crochet thread and spinning silk and making some homemade knitting needles. So last week I had taken the girl out to the playground and she wanted to go for a drive before heading home (it’s just a bit too far for her to walk.) So I headed out of town on Main Street and was just about to turn around when I saw a little sign that said yarn shop. Out here? So I followed the sign and ended up at a nice little house with a garage that had been converted into a tidy array of yarn. The proprietress was patient and helpful and the girl was fairly patient once I handed her a $2 ball of pink yarn out of the clearance bin. It took me a while to decide but I picked out a superwash merino wool with nylon blend called Happy Feet in an autumnal colorway that will go with just about anything I own. I also picked up some size 2 double pointed needles aka dpns. I already had a pattern picked out, some ultra simple socks with no heel shaping from Vintage Purlz. Yes, I’m afraid of heels. But really I just wanted to start my first knitting in more than 15 years with something simple. I guess I could have gone with a scarf but I’m always reading about http://spinknitthefiberqueen.blogspot.com/ and her socks . . .
I admit to already having modified the pattern. I know, I know, what am I thinking? I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m modifying the pattern? Well, as someone I know recently said, if you mess up with knitting you can always take it apart and still have what you started with, yarn. That’s pretty comforting when compared to cutting fabric. So I’m enjoying the fact that I can do it anywhere in the house and that it’s fairly mindless since this is a simple and easily memorized pattern. Which makes for a soothing craft, almost no mental energy needed. Which is probably why I keep picking the knitting up instead of sewing already cut out garments and several pairs of the boy’s pants in need of knee surgery. Tomorrow. ;)
