Monday, November 02, 2015

Do you listen to the fiber or do you have your own voice?

I have some amazing fiber that tI bought some time ago but I bought it with the thought of a soft semi-woolen yarn and now I'm seeing a two color semi-worsted yarn.



The fiber is extra fine merino from Susan Forbes AKA Fairy Yarnmother, WWW.fairyyarnmothers.com. I love the softness and the color she created. So rich and dimensional in the depth of her dye work.

The fiber is so cool because of the way it appears to be made. From what I can see, it looks like it was dyed, deconstructed, carded or combed, and run through a dis. Just enough to striate the colors but not enough to blend them together. I have played in the deconstruction arena with some hand dyed fiber but she took it somewhere I haven't thought of.


I normally spin uber thin lace weight semi-woolen soft singles but I want to break out of the box and spin worsted two ply and then use it in my first color-work project. Do you listen to the fiber or do you have your own fiber voice? 

Knitting, a little more sewing and a lot of learning.... Some ice ahead on the slippery slope....

Hello all, I'm trying to blog a little more instead of the hit and miss blogging.

First of all I'm still knitting on the Red Seater for my Dad.
If you are a knitter then follow the link to the pattern and here to my Ravelry Page, if you aren't a knitter I think you will enjoy the link but it may not mean as much. The body is finished sans the shawl collar and the button band.  Working on the sleeves right now with about 4 more inches to go. Here are pictures from a month or so ago of the sleeves. Yes, two at a time on circulars.


I've slid into the quilting pool a little by trying a simple quilt pattern. The quilt is a gift so no pics or too many details


The quilt has 7 different fabrics of my choosing and will be my choice of location as well. This is me watching as they cut out the fat quarters nearing closing time at the shop. The was on Monday last week. 

Fast forward to Sunday and where am I? At another quilt shop in Amana Iowa buying more fabric, this time for a really cool knitting project bag. 



This is where the learning comes in. My "sewing teacher" Susan,  from the last post and I are going to make the same bag but we chose different color palates. I washed the fabric last night and will try to take a picture of the 7 different fabric choices for this project bag. I love it because it has a zippered pocket on the outside and one on the inside. a hidden pocket on the outside as well. New skills for me to master while creating a new one skein project size bag.

Last week I realized that my credit card points can be applied to Amazon so I picked up a few tools to help me in the recent increase in sewing.
After a few nights worth of research I decided on these.

Kai 7250 10 inch Professional Scissors. I used to have a pair of Ginghers but they are gone, so I went looking for what I think are superior shears and found the Kai brand. 

A True Cut Rotary cutter with special cutting guide
And my own pair of thread nippers. I didn't think much of this until I realized you snip 4 threads for each seam you sew. 

Its fun to shop when you have points to use as money on Amazon. 


Life is Good