SANTA and the Marls

 

 I have not stopped crafting or moving ahead with life, but merely wanted to keep the post with the looms at the top as long as possible. But it is unlike me to not be bragging about something, so here goes.
First of all, the holiday season has been here and gone. No snow again! Well it is Texas after all. Santa was spotted giving out gifts to deserving children.
There have been no big changes in my life recently. The winter guild is running strong this year and I spend a lot of time preparing notes and examples and patterns for that. We meet every two weeks and in between there are two social knitting clubs I attend weekly.
The kitchen is undergoing a remodel right now. I am doing it all myself and so this impacts quite a bit on how much spare time I have left over. I will post some pictures when it is done.
The other day a squirrel had got into the woodstove via the chimney. I lowered a thick rope down the chimney to affect an escape route and sure enough, I think within the hour the rodent was gone. But since I have to get back up on the roof to untie the ropes, I will be cleaning the chimney at the same time and attaching some metal mesh over the opening. Where is Santa when I need him? He's got the experience with chimneys.

This clay button is from a set I bought years ago, with no apparent purpose at the time. Now that my Roylston Jacket is spun and knit and assembled, the buttons were perfect on it. I will try to get a decent photo of me in the jacket. The merino wool is so warm and it has been the perfect thing for chilly morning walks.

This is the second crimp cloth scarf I have made and I designed all aspects of this weave myself. I am happy with the result and the linen in this project gives it some body. I have learned a lot with this project and will continue my exploration of shibori crimp cloth.

Something that is still underway is this sunny fabric. Four strips like this will come together to make a ruana eventually. Currently I am knitting on strip number three. I have to say that working with yellow is very pleasing to me and certainly a pick me up on the odd overcast day we have had here.

In one of the Guild Spinning classes we discussed ways to deal with brightly coloured roving. I chose to split my braid in half and spin one from the beginning end and the other from the back end. Then the two were plied together. The result was this marled fabric which I quite love. The fingerless mitts are a free Ravelry pattern called Camp Out Mitts. They still need to be blocked out here.

I probably already showed this but now it is complete. Unfortunately I did not hear from the lady who asked for this to be knit, so it will be going on the sale table soon!

There are two weaving projects underway as well as a baby blanket on the knitting needles. Oh and a funky cowl that I must take some snaps of.

So these are the colours of my winter. Festive, fun, bright and marled. I am loving it all.