We Have a New Tablecloth!

I love it! It is so cheerful. I framed the fabric with a checkered bias binding in red and green. I started out with the red binding, but I did not have enough, so I added the green one. Now it looks as if I had done it on purpose. Success!

 

Thick and Thin

My daughter’s teacher owns three Shetland sheep and several spinning wheels. She was very kind to lend me one ( a wheel, not a sheep). It is an old double drive, but she could not tell me who made it.

This is the first yarn I have spun on it. Prior to that I had spun on a spindle and had tried spinning wheels whenever I could get my hands on one, but never longer than for a few minutes. 

I had so much fun spinning this! The fiber is my own hand dyed Merino Top and I just loved watching the colours play. It is very relaxing.

I think I already had a nice rhythm going, but it took me quite a while to figure out, that I had to adjust the tension as the bobbin filled up. That is where the thick stuff happened.

Sadly I have only one bobbin so I have not been able to ply this yarn and of course it is over twisted. I have another 2 oz left of this colour way and I will try my best with it!

 Heather from Craftlit recommended this book for the beginning spinner and I am thinking about getting one, but then I do not own a spinning wheel, do I?

Custom Order

Recently I received a very nice request for a 4 oz skein transitional yarn. My customer told me she wanted to knit a lace scarf ( Maybe this one?).

 I had the idea to dye the yarn so that it is dark at the beginning, turning lighter towards the middle and then back to dark again at the end of the skein. When you knit this yarn you will have a scarf with matching ends.  

I think I should add this scarf to my ever growing to-do list!

Please contact me, if you like this design as well and I can dye some yarn in your favourite colours!

 

 

Outgrown

 

I made these pants in September 2006 for my youngest daughter. She loved them so much, that she wore them every week and she kept wearing them even though the were getting too short. Then some seams ripped. She asked me to fix them. I told her it was time I made her some new pants.

The pattern is my own. The embroidery design was inspired by  Joan McGowan-Michael’s Over-the-Knee-Stockings found in the Vogue Knitting Fall 2006. The leaves I painted on with fabric paint using freezer paper to make the stencils.

The embroidery took forever, so I have to come up with something simpler this year. But I hope, she will like her new pants just as much!

 

For the Love of Fabrics

A little while ago I drove to a Sewing and Craft Show  to finally buy me a new serger. While I was there, I noticed a wonderful booth of a fabric store. I know everyone has a different taste, but when I go into fabric store I maybe like 10% of their fabrics. At this booth I could have bought 90%  of their fabrics. It was all so beautiful! They had quilts, bags and an apron to look at. They had a cute little shelf full of fat quarters. There were bolts of fabrics and many, many tastefully combined fabric sets. 

What I liked most were different fabrics (by Kaffe Fassett ?) put up in wooden embroidery hoops and hung on the wall. That is a great idea for people who love fabrics, but don’t have much time to sew.   

I just could not resist and bought these fabrics, that came also in a set:

The first one is Mark Hordyszynski for michael miller Fabrics and the bottom one is from Alexander Henry. ( Sorry about the rumpled appearance. I had to wash them right away in case I get a chance to sew.)

The store is called “Quilt Essential Fabrics” and is located in Abbotsford. The store does not have a website, but the owner has a blog. I can’t wait to pay them a visit!