More Scarves

I’ve been busy these past couple of weeks working on some scarves to give away for charity. I’d picked up some yarn last year at the dollar store; one of those finds that you just happen upon when the store has gotten in an odd-lot shipment. This was some “eyelash” yarn in variegated colours and I thought for a couple of bucks I’d give it a try. The first ball I used I cast-on 22 stitches but somehow ended up with 24 – easy to do with eyelash yarn. I continued knitting to the end of the ball at which point I realised it wasn’t going to work out so I started over with a cast-on of 15 stitches. Its amazing the difference a few stitches will make and the scarf ended up an acceptable length at two balls of yarn. My chiropractor’s office is sponsoring a family this Christmas and when I asked what was needed scarves were on the list so I’m happy and I hope the girls in the family enjoy the scarves.
Scarves made with eyelash yarn.

I used up the last of my leftover indigo dye on a yard piece thinking to make this into some kind of tote. I have visions of cutting out the pieces and then doing some kind of Shiva paintstik pattern on the material – similar to the one I did a couple of posts ago.

I have to admit to being inspired by the beautiful purses created by Catherine over on Calidore, she has some great ideas; I just haven’t found anything I like as well as the ones she has done. Oh well, the idea is to do up a few totes to be used as recyclable shopping bags and give them to my two daughters as part of their Christmas presents.
Indigo fabric waiting to be turned into a tote.

One last thing I thought I’d post a picture of is a kitchen oven towel I finished yesterday. I’m sure most people have seen these things at bazaars everywhere but it does make a quick “I’m thinking of you” Christmas present. The idea is to take a kitchen towel and cut it in half. Sew along the cut edge with a zigzag stitch to re-enforce the edge for more strength – you could also serge it. Then take some matching yarn and crochet along the top.  To start off, use a tiny crochet hook (the kind used for dollies) to poke holes along the edge for your base row.  After the initial row is created switch to a larger hook for the second row. You work about an inch or two in your favourite stitch and then begin to decrease evenly along the rows until you have about six or seven stitches left for your tab. I make the tab long enough that when folded over it will fit around a stove handle. About two rows before the end skip a couple of stitches in the middle of the row to leave an opening for the button; don’t forget to pick up the missed stitches on the next row.  These instructions are pretty general but it’s just one of those things you pick up and do, you don’t really need to count stitches you just eyeball it. One kitchen towel will make two oven towels.

Kitchen oven towel.

Karen

Shiva paintstiks and Ted E. Bear

Damp miserable rainy day today but I don’t care seeing as how little rain we’ve had all spring and summer so I’m glad that were getting some. Most of the leaves have fallen now and if it were a little colder I’d be complaining about snow instead.

I finally finished my “Where’s Waldo” scarf for Jonathan yesterday, it only took me a year to do so. I’m not sure it will be a surprise since he may have seen the yarn sitting around the house but then again it may not have occured to him that I was using the wool to knit him up something. Waldo is Jonathan’s nickname and he and his friends are so used to using it that people have mistaken it for his last name, which he thinks is a hoot.

Ted E Bear modelling the “Where’s Waldo” scarf

Today I decided to try out the Shiva irridescent paintstiks I had ordered from Dharma.  I didn’t want to waste any of my good fabric so I decided to practise on some spare white fabric I have. First off, I tried using the rubbing plates. This is the same idea as putting a sheet of paper over a penny and rubbing a pencil on top of it to get the design. I wasn’t too happy with the results but that wasn’t the paintstiks fault rather my own lack of expertise and the fact that I had tried out the method on a light fabric. You can see the colour easily enough but the shimmer doesn’t show because it needs a darker background to set the shine off. Next time I’ll have to practise on black.

Next I practised using the paintstiks on some stencils I had purchased (being to lazy to make my own). This technique is fairly easy and the results were pretty good so I decided to use the stencil on a piece of fabric I had dyed at the same time as when I made the Indigo tank top the other day. The paintstiks that I had came in a primary set so the colour choices were yellow, red, orange, green, blue and brown. I didn’t really like any of the choices because they seemed to bright for the indigo so I decided to go muted and chose the blue. This actually turned out to be a good choice as it blended perfectly with the fabric. I also chose to use a japanese character stamp with gold Lumiere paint to fill in the spots inbetween the stenciled designs. It turned out quite pretty and has me thinking of larger things. You can’t see the shimmer because of poor photo quality but it is there.

Indigo fabric with blue irridescent Shiva paintstik and gold lumiere paint.

Karen

Little Things

It’s another lovely day here in Southern Ontario, cold but sunny, which is very nice. The leaves have been falling off the trees with a vengence and along with the frost there has been a sprinkling of snow on the ground in the morning. It’s only a matter of time before we see our first real snowfall. Christmas is just around the corner and I am NOT prepared. I’ve been reading lots of books (mostly Terry Pratchett) and haven’t gotten much done but I guess that’s normal for me. I need to crank it up a notch. Why is it every year there just doesn’t seem enough time in December?

I just wanted to post a few small things that I’ve done over the past couple of weeks. I did up another tank top the other day and decided to tone it down (at least for me) so I did the tank in a LWI (low-water immmersion) using Indigo procion mx dye from ProChem; it turned out nicely mottled and goes well with my jeans. I wore it to church today paired along with a cerelean blue tee I had kicking around.

Indigo blue tank

Yesterday saw the finishing of a necklace, braclet, earring combo that I had made for one of the girls in my fabric dyeing forum.  We normally include a little gift for the hostess of each swap we participate in. I am currently involved in a colour study, which includes six swaps all being looked after by the same hostess so I decided to make up the necklace set and send it on.

Hostess gift for colour study

While looking for the indigo dye for the tank top I realised that I hadn’t done a gradation on a discontinued ProChem dye called Pinecone so here it is. Unfortunately they no longer carry the dye as they’ve sold out but I thought I would post a picture anyway so people could see what it looks like.

Pinecone gradation

It’s not a bad colour of brown and I’ll have to get around to using it in a quilt some day.

 Karen

Tie-dye tank and socks

I’ve been lazy about posting the last couple of days, well make that lazy period as in nothing new accomplished so no posts.

Had a nocturnal visit from the local neighborhood coonies. It always seems that each year there are three of them. Usually there is a mama coon and her three babies that come to visit our cherry tree. Last year was a bumper crop for the tree after two years of non-flowering. Well the tree was loaded with fruit but I think it was the last hurrah because the tree has “kicked the bucket” except for a few branches. The racoons still tend to check us out though and see what they can find to eat, which in this case was the seed from the bird feeders I forgot to pull into the house. I flicked on the porch light to discover them munching away bold as ever. I scared them off but they only hide until I go into the house and then they come back. They spilled quite a bit of seed from the smaller feeder but then proceeded to clean it up scooping up the seeds with their little paws and into their mouths.

I love over-sized anything probably because I’m over-sized myself and I hate tight clothing so I ordered a couple of tanks from Dharma which arrived a couple of days ago. I like loose clothing to exercise in because it doesn’t trap the heat so since I plan on joining the gym in a couple of weeks when the weather gets colder I thought I’d dye up a couple of tie-dyes. I may not be a fashion statement but you won’t miss spotting me. It should be interesting, maybe I’ll be working out hard enough the tank will match the colour of my face.

Eggplant, blue-purple and boysenberry.

If you look closely you can see the “Where’s Waldo” scarf I’m “supposed” to be finishing.  I haven’t touched the thing since I last posted, ah well, there’s always next year. I have a sock swap with one of my forum groups so I used all of the left-over dye and then made up some Caymen Island green to use on the pole shibori socks. The Caymen Island green is a funny dye in that when it’s on the fabric it looks a really nice green but then the green seems to go down the drain and you’re left with more blue than green, I don’t know why because I don’t think the batching time is a factor.

Unfortunately the socks could only be had in 85% cotton so there is heathering at the bottom of the sock but since that is the part that will be inside the shoe, it’s no biggie.

Karen

It’s Done

Finally completed the Aussie word bingo quilt today. It was as difficult to quilt as I anticipated because of all the thick seams but I did get rather proficient at stab stitching and although a few went wild, most were fine and you’d be hard put to know they were stab stitches instead of regular ones. There are a few other small things but I’m not going to point them out and I’m pleased with how it turned out…my very first hand-dyed quilt.

Next in the project box is a scarf for my son that I’ve been working on for a year. Long time but in reality one of those projects you start with good intentions and then drop through sheer boredom.

Wintry overcast looking skies but the temperature is in the fifties and I rather doubt it’ll rain. The guy two doors over has been banging away putting up a shed and I’m “green with envy” or maybe I should be black with envy seeing as that’s the colour of the wood. I’ve been wanting a shed for the past couple of years but a lack of interest on the hubby’s part has resulted in nothing. We seem to be that type of couple that has lots of ideas but no real oomph to put behind them…oh well, such is life.

Karen

Aussie word bingo quilt